Mindfully Healing

“Where words leave off, music begins.” ― Heinrich Heine Beautiful but sad music can help improve mood when people are feeling blue, research finds. For the study 220 people recalled something depressing that had happened to them. They then recalled what type of music they had listened to afterwards. Choosing beautiful but sad music emerged as the only strategy that people thought had cheered them up. Dr Annemieke van den Tol, the study’s first author, explained the results: ”We found in our research that people’s music choice is linked to

As a pediatric psychologist I know that families’ journeys can be fraught with unexpected challenges. Discovering that your child has differences can be daunting. And sometimes, making sure that your child’s needs are properly met by the outside world can be even more stressful. One aspect I am especially passionate about as a psychologist is supporting the social and emotional lives of children with developmental differences, including those on the autism spectrum. The good news is that we now know more than ever why it’s essential to nurture strengths and

If you want to run more, use social comparison as motivation. Running is socially contagious, new research finds. Data from 1 million runners collected over five years suggests that the running bug spreads from person to person. Just knowing other people who run is enough to boost your motivation, it seems. Professor Sinan Aral, a study author, said: “Knowing the running behaviors of your friends as shared on social networks can cause you to run farther, faster, and longer.” The study’s authors write: “On the same day, on average, an

Only one personality trait is changed when people drink. Alcohol has much less effect on people’s personalities than they imagine, new research finds. Only extraversion — how outgoing you are — changes when you are drunk. People become more assertive, gregarious and move around more when drinking. However, people think that all their personality traits change when they are drunk compared with when they are sober. Dr Rachel Winograd, the study’s first author, said: “We were surprised to find such a discrepancy between drinkers’ perceptions of their own alcohol-induced personalities