Mindfully Healing

This positive personality trait linked to more suicidal thoughts and suicide itself. People who have a tendency towards perfectionism are at a much higher risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide itself, new research finds. Perfectionists find it harder than others to deal with a world that is fundamentally flawed. Perfectionism involves being highly self-critical, constantly striving to meet the standards of others (typically parents or mentors) and being unsure about the efficacy of one’s own actions. While a certain amount of perfectionism is adaptive and necessary, when it becomes an

Have you ever fallen foul of the grammar police? Introverts are more likely to judge a person negatively on the basis of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, a new study finds. People who are sensitive to grammatical errors are also more likely to be less agreeable by nature. Extroverted people, though, are more likely to ignore written errors. Professor Julie Boland, one of the study’s authors, said: “This is the first study to show that the personality traits of listeners/readers have an effect on the interpretation of language. In this

Slows and can even reverse age-related physical and mental decline. Dancing keeps your brain young, new research finds. Compared with exercise like cycling and Nordic walking, dancing has more profound effects. Dr Kathrin Rehfeld, lead author of the study, said: “Exercise has the beneficial effect of slowing down or even counteracting age-related decline in mental and physical capacity. In this study, we show that two different types of physical exercise (dancing and endurance training) both increase the area of the brain that declines with age. In comparison, it was only

Being sarcastic, ignoring deadlines and these five other unusual things are all linked to higher creativity. 1. You are sarcastic Sarcasm can actually promote creative thinking, a study finds. Researchers have discovered that sarcasm can actually cause creativity, rather than just being its byproduct. Sarcasm may not even be detrimental to relationships, if used between people who know each other. Despite being considered one of the lowest forms of wit, sarcasm actually requires considerable mental powers to produce. 2. Your mind wanders People tend to think of daydreaming and letting

People in the study were asked to journal about their most stressful experiences. Accepting negative emotions is the best way to deal with them in the long-run, new research finds. People who are more accepting of their darker moods have better psychological health. Dr Iris Mauss, one author of the study, said: “We found that people who habitually accept their negative emotions experience fewer negative emotions, which adds up to better psychological health.” Psychologists are still not sure exactly why acceptance is so powerful, said Dr Mauss: “Maybe if you

Why some memories last a lifetime and others are quickly forgotten. Memories that last a lifetime need to be linked to lots of other memories, plus they need to be a bit weird. Professor Per Sederberg, an expert on memory, thinks the idea of peculiarity is vital to understanding memory: “You have to build a memory on the scaffolding of what you already know, but then you have to violate the expectations somewhat. It has to be a little bit weird.” This ‘scaffolding’ means connections to other memories. For example,

Women applied for 400 real jobs to test the effect of clothing in their profile picture. Women whose resumes include a picture of themselves in low-cut or revealing tops are five times more likely to be interviewed, new research finds. The five-year study had two women send out resumes for real accountancy and sales positions. Each applied for 200 roles using almost identical resumes. The only difference was that half the resumes included a picture of themselves conservatively dressed. For the other half they were wearing more revealing clothing. Here

Sleep disturbance is common in dementia, but the reason is unclear. Getting less REM sleep — the phase in which we dream — is linked to dementia, a study finds. During sleep the brain cycles between periods of deep sleep and then up towards shallower periods of sleep in which we tend to dream, whether we remember those dreams or not. During REM sleep the eyes move rapidly from side-to-side (hence Rapid Eye Movement Sleep). Brain activity also increases and our pulses quicken. Dr Matthew P. Pase, the study’s first

Brain scans reveal that just a little of this personality trait boosts happiness. Even a small amount of generosity towards others makes people happier, psychological research finds. In fact, merely promising to be more generous is enough to trigger changes in our brain that lead to greater happiness. People in the study did not need to be extremely generous to see the benefits to happiness levels. Dr Philippe Tobler, one of the study’s authors, said: “You don’t need to become a self-sacrificing martyr to feel happier. Just being a little

Simply remembering everything that happens to us is not the point of memory. Forgetting is the key to having a useful memory, a new psychology paper argues. Simply remembering everything that happens to us is not the point of memory. Our memories should help to guide us in making intelligent decisions in the situations we find ourselves. Dr Blake Richards, one of the study’s authors, said: “It’s important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the stuff that’s going to help make decisions in the real world.”