Mindfully Healing

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,