By Morty Lefkoe Imagine that you had been doing something a certain way for a long time and you believed that you were doing it the right way. Now imagine that I come along and tell you not to do that way any more. I give you a lot of reasons and I promise a [...]
Gretchen Rubin (author of the book The Happiness Project) describes in her post How To Be Happier – in Four Easy Lessons the series of truths she came up with from a study of Buddhism. Her First Splendid Truth: “To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in [...]
Does happiness always enhance creativity? A study by June Gruber of Yale University and others (“A Dark Side of Happiness? How, When, and Why Happiness Is Not Always Good”), notes “Emotional states exert significant effects on memory, judgment, decision-making, and creativity.” Her study also reports that “moderate levels of positive emotions engender more creativity, but [...]
From Parade magazine: In his new book, Flourish, positive-psychology guru Martin Seligman looks beyond happiness and asks: How can we create a rich, fulfilling, meaningful life? We spoke with him about what it means to flourish. What’s the difference between flourishing and simply being happy? To have a good life—to flourish—it’s not enough to just [...]
A study reported in the journal Psychological Science concluded that watching funny videos on the internet at work isn’t necessarily wasting time. “People may be taking advantage of the latest psychological science — putting themselves in a good mood so they can think more creatively. “Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem [...]
One simplified definition of confabulation is, “An attempt to fill in memory gaps by fabricating information or details.” (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine.) It’s probably something our minds do regularly. Painter Robert Genn notes it can be “the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false memories.” So what does this [...]
From Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, via ScienceDaily: People who watch funny videos on the internet at work aren’t necessarily wasting time. They may be taking advantage of the latest psychological science — putting themselves in a good mood so they can think more creatively. “Generally, positive mood has been [...]
Shelley Carson, Ph.D. teaches and conducts research on creativity, psychopathology, and resilience. Topics in our audio podcast interview related to the creative mind and developing creativity include some of Dr. Carson’s seven brain activation patterns she discusses in her new book Your Creative Brain. Listen to the podcast: Shelley Carson on enhancing our creative brain.
“I believe I can fly; I believe I can touch the sky; I think about it every night and day; Spread my wings and fly away; I believe I can soar…” Dick (Jim Carrey) from a scene in Fun with Dick and Jane. Feeling exuberantly self-assured after getting a promotion, he sings the R. Kelly [...]
“I’m an only child and I’m just a real loner kind of person, and yeah, kinda dark. But I’m happy. Not sad. I’m just shy and nervous… I was a loner in high school. I keep to myself, but I love life.” Actor Clea DuVall One of the qualities of many actors, musicians and other [...]
Why do we experience troubling, disrupting, and often self-limiting, emotions? For example, probably most of us experience anxiety to some degree, at some times. But it isn’t the same as being afraid of something tangible like falling from a thrill ride. Or is it? Morty Lefkoe explains, “An emotion is the experiential, chemical, and neuro-physiological [...]
My very well-meaning parents were far from Mommie Dearest. Nevertheless, they were raised to believe, for instance, that babies shouldn’t be picked up when they cried because comforting them would ‘spoil’ them. They were very sparing in their compliments, fearing we’d get swelled heads. We kids survived, but thriving has been a challenge for me, [...]
In his post Getting Rid of Beliefs is Not Enough (on his blog), Morty Lefkoe explains how classical conditioning can work against our emotional stability. How Associations Early In Life Cause Negative Emotions Later In Life Very often we are plagued by repeated negative feelings in our life, such as fear, anger, guilt, anxiety, and [...]
Seeing The Fountainhead the first time was thrilling. The central character of architect Howard Roark is an almost aggressively individualistic, self-directed, self-contained artist, played with assured brio by Gary Copper. As usual in his films, a heroic mensch. The movie gave me a stronger sense of hope it was possible to be an outsider and [...]
Ideas can fuel our creative expression – or stifle it. Fiona Apple once talked about a notion that can affect any kind of artist: self-imposed schedules or deadlines. Of course there are often “real” deadlines: a date to submit a book proposal, or to have a collection of artwork ready for a gallery opening. But [...]
Medical News Today notes “It’s a hot-buzz topic that covers everything from improving workplace performance and successfully climbing the corporate ladder to building the happiest of marriages to ending school bullying. “But what exactly is Emotional Intelligence (EI)? If we lack it, can we learn it? And how do we know if our EI is [...]
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Site author: Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer and researcher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth, especially for high ability adults. He is publisher of the Talent Development Resources series of sites.
