Mindfully Healing

Some good can come of this emotion — not so much its close cousin, shame. People who are more prone to feeling guilt are better at reading other people’s emotions, a new study finds. The guilt-prone were able to read all types of facial emotions better, tests revealed. They were particularly good on relatively low-intensity emotions. Subtle facial expressions are (obviously) the most difficult to detect. This is not the first time guilt has been linked to empathy, as the study’s authors explain: “[there is] a large body of prior

The criminal psychopath is not just born: he is also made. ‘Extreme’ styles of parenting are linked to criminal psychopathy in later life, research finds. Interviews with criminals have found that many have a history of either total parental neglect or of rigidly controlling, authoritarian parents. All criminal psychopaths have a history of grotesque physical and/or psychological abuse during childhood. Of course, parents cannot be blamed for everything — after all, some children have awful upbringings and don’t become criminal psychopaths. However, explained Dr Aina Gullhaugen, the study’s first author,

Escape from worries about past and future and find it easier to focus on the present moment. Just ten minutes of mindfulness each day is effective against repetitive anxious thoughts, new research reveals. The practice can also help stop your mind from wandering. People in the study who meditated for only a short period found it easier to focus on their present-moment external experience rather than their internal thoughts. Mr Mengran Xu, the study’s first author, said: “Our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering

Researchers tested how the mere presence of a smartphone affected cognitive capacity. The mere presence of your smartphone makes you more dumb, even when it is on silent, new research finds. It doesn’t even matter if it is turned off! So, leaving your smartphone in another room actually makes you smarter. The study found that when people had their smartphones with them, their cognitive capacity was reduced. Cognitive capacity is the ability to hold and process information in the mind. Dr Adrian Ward, the study’s first author, said: “We see