7 Famous Writers Who Were Masters at Procrastinating. The creative process is rarely standard. In her book Odd Type Writers, Celia Blue Johnson reveals the truly strange habits of some of history's great authors. Kelsey McKinney from Odd Type Writers by Celia Blue Johnson Loading Inspirational Dogs The French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette used her French bulldog, Souci, to procrastinate writing. The French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette used her French bulldog, Souci, to procrastinate writing. Lucky Numbers Graham Greene needed a sign from above to begin working on a piece. Graham Greene needed a sign from above to begin working on a piece. Magic Trinkets Wherever he traveled, Charles Dickens decorated his desk with nine objects. Wherever he traveled, Charles Dickens decorated his desk with nine objects. New Wardrobes Victor Hugo did more than buy a new bottle of ink in preparation to write The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Victor Hugo did more than buy a new bottle of ink in preparation to write <i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i>. The Urge to Make Other People Wrong. “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche Recently, a blogger I admire wrote a long note on a social media site identifying blogging practices he finds annoying—and referring to bloggers who utilize them as “fundamentally wrong.” Some of them are things I also choose not to do, but not all of them. As I read through his list of “blogging mistakes,” recognizing some of them here, I found myself getting defensive.
I was making him wrong for making me wrong. I shared this story with a friend of mine, and she told me that sometimes, it is black and white. What I realized amid all of this is that there is a difference between identifying something as right, and identifying it as right for you. When you believe something is right, you may be tempted to tell other people what they should and shouldn’t do.
When you believe something is right, you may be tempted to fight for it. Photo by jumpinjimmyjava. 2 Psychological Studies Reveal How To Practice Like An Expert. This is a guest post by Gregory Ciotti of Sparring Mind. When it comes to starting out as a beginner and pursuing the path to “expert” status, many people become disheartened because of their incorrect belief of what an expert is and is not. Luckily, scientific research has given us a true look into what it takes to become an expert, and the findings are promising.
As it turns out, becoming an expert (while still taking plenty of hard work), is generally not limited to innate talent, and the line between expert and amateur is drawn by how productive they are during practice. Before we begin, let’s define the qualities of an expert. Qualities Of An Expert When we watch the experts showcase their amazing talents, their performance often looks so effortless and natural that we become disheartened by thinking that we should attribute this skill to some innate special talent. While that may sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, it’s actually hugely important. Chase & Simon concluded that: Wrong. Wrong. Quote Monster: Nicki Minaj Explains Her Three Alter-Egos. Tyler Perry’s forthcoming movie adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf has been sparking criticism since the day it was announced earlier this year.
One of the issues raised was how can a man direct a work about women but according to Thandie Newton, one of the film’s stars, “the strength of the film caught the attention of the extraordinary collaboration of when a man and a woman can come together.” Kerry Washington, who plays Kelly/Blue, says that Perry was the only person who could have done the film. She cites his supportive nature and the legacy he has created in Black Hollywood as reasons why he was perfect for the job. “The amount of creative capital that he’s created in this industry, that he’s build in this industry has allowed him to be the person that could make this project happen? ," asks Washington. Cure ADHD with Behavioral Modification. When I was young, people around me called those who interrupted in class and never did their homework, “lazy”. To lessen the sting from that horrible word, they used to add “…but with a lot of potential” to suggest that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel for those students if they only buckled up and straightened their act.
In some severe cases, a kid would even be labeled as suffering from a terrible affliction called ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a disease that had treatment but no known cure. According to Wikipedia, there are a number of factors that may influence our tendency to demonstrate ADHD-related behaviors. Among them are genetics, diet, and our social and physical environments. In Recent years, ADHD had grown into epidemiological levels as more and more cases of ADHD are uncovered each day. You Don’t Need to Cure ADHD; It’s an Evolutionary Advantage (and please pardon my hubris) Cure ADHD? Why misunderstood and why an advantage?
Yes, Cats. Summer Reading: 20 Mental Health Books That Can Change Your Life. The summer, a season known for slowing down, is the perfect time for catching up on the books collecting dust on your nightstand and getting a few new reads. To celebrate the official start of summer — and to give you some ideas — we asked several therapists to share the books that’ve been especially profound for their clients and themselves.
So, whether you’re flying to far-off places, taking a road trip, lounging by the water or just have a few more minutes to yourself, consider adding these potentially life-changing reads to your list. Bonds that Make Us Free and Leadership and Self-Deception by C. Terry Warner. “[These books] literally changed my life,” said Christina G. Hibbert, Psy.D, a clinical psychologist who specializes in women’s mental health, postpartum and parenting. (Hibbert also is the author of the forthcoming memoir This Is How We Grow, and she’s sharing excerpts from her book here.)
Which books resonate with you? The Feel-Good Faith of Evangelicals. Think of how evangelicals may describe the Bible: unchanging, inerrant, authoritative, truth. Well, "in the world we are entering, the concept of the Bible will be completely different," said David Parker, theology professor at the University of Birmingham. Speaking recently at the Hay Festival in England, Parker predicted that technology will prompt personalized digital versions of the Scripture, "like an individual copy" of the Bible.
If Parker is right, we evangelicals might have some major questions. How would this editorial control affect our faith? Could it lead to an eventual erosion of sound doctrine? Would the capacity for changing our sacred texts ultimately diminish their authority? Biblical has become the evangelical "brand. " However, according to T.M. Luhrmann, a psychological anthropologist at Stanford University, did years of research within the Vineyard movement and discovered a Christianity that was more therapeutic than theological. The Red Queen was right: life must continually evolve to avoid extinction. “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place,” the Red Queen told Alice (illustration by Sir John Tenniel from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, 1871, credit: Wikimedia Commons) A University of California, Berkeley study has found that a lack of new emerging species contributes to extinction over a period of millions of years.
The researchers studied 19 groups of mammals that either are extinct or in decline from a past peak in diversity, as in the case of horses, elephants, rhinos and others. The “Red Queen” hypothesis The study was conducted by Charles Marshall, director of the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology and professor of integrative biology, and former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Tiago Quental. In biology, this means that animals and plants don’t just disappear because of bad luck in a static and unchanging environment.
“Each group has either lost, or is losing, to an increasingly difficult environment,” Marshall said. Sleep mechanism identified that plays role in emotional memory. Ambien (zolpidem) Sleep researchers from University of California campuses in Riverside and San Diego have identified the sleep mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate emotional memory and found that Ambien, a popular prescription sleep aid, heightens the recollection of and response to negative memories. Their findings have implications for individuals suffering from insomnia related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders who are prescribed zolpidem (Ambien) to help them sleep. The study was funded by a National Institutes of Health career award to Sara C.
Mednick, assistant professor of psychology at UC Riverside, of $651,999 over five years. Mednick and UC San Diego psychologists Erik J. Research Mednick published earlier this year demonstrated the critical role that sleep spindles play in consolidating information from short-term to long-term memory in the hippocampus, located in the cerebral cortex of the brain. The U.S. Atomic bombs help solve mystery: does the adult human brain produce new neurons? Radioactive carbon-14 atoms released by atomic bomb tests are helping scientists determine new neurons produced in the brain (credit: Spalding et al.
/Cell) A study in the journal Cell reveals that a significant number of new neurons in the hippocampus — a brain region crucial for memory and learning — are generated in adult humans. “It was thought for a long time that we are born with a certain number of neurons, and that it is not possible to get new neurons after birth,” says senior study author Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institute. But no one could check this, because there was no way to date the birth of neurons in humans. Carbon-dating neurons To do that, Frisén and his team developed an innovative method for dating the birth of neurons that takes advantage of the elevated atmospheric levels of carbon-14, a nonradioactive form of carbon, caused by above-ground nuclear bomb testing more than 50 years ago.
How Positive Thoughts Build Skills, Boost Health, and Improve Work. How Can I Become More Comfortable When Speaking in Public? Scientific-studies-explain-the-best-ways-to-talk-to-chi-582531307. This is right in line with what I deal with at home. I have a 3 year old. He'll answer direct, closed questions, can identify when I'm asking a silly one (if I ask if a red crayon is blue he'll say: "no it's not, silly! It's red! "). If I ask an open question it sometimes gets a desired response; If I ask: what did you do today?
He knows his days of the week and knows what day recurring events happen, but I'm not sure if he can tell much more than that (we have pancakes for breakfast every saturday, for example). It's amazing what goes on in those little heads. The silly questions thing is legitimately my favorite. A lot like those AT&T commercials: I LOVE those commercials. I don't see how they could be scripted, unless a bunch of kids scripted it, in which case I'd be fine with it. Try Doing Some Creative Work When You're in a Bad Mood. AJ Jacobs: The Importance of Self-Delusion in the Creative Process. About this presentation How can we apply the idea of method acting to our business lives?
This is the question that lifehacker and bestselling author AJ Jacobs tackles in this insightful (and highly entertaining) talk on the benefits of faking it until you make it. Through a series of examples from his own life, Jacobs shows just how much our behavior shapes our thoughts and our perceptions. Thus, if we want to change our attitude about something, the best way is to “act as if.” About AJ Jacobs A.J. Jacobs is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including The Year of Living Biblically (about his quest to follow every rule of the Bible as literally as possible); The Know-It-All (which chronicles the year he spent reading all 33 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica); and Drop Dead Healthy (about his attempt to become the healthiest person alive).
Links. Can Music Tame Your Inner Beast? Music Therapy for Mental Health. Music can affect a person’s thoughts, feelings and behavior and has been shown to assist with managing stress, expressing emotion and improving communication. Music therapy — the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals — helps people with understanding and developing self-identity, promoting quality of life and maintaining well-being. So how does music therapy work to help someone with their mental health concerns? Music therapy can be used with children, adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities and mental health needs as well as seniors affected by age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
For individuals with mental health conditions, such as ADHD, mood disorders, depression, PTSD and schizophrenia, the objective of music therapy is to approach issues that may not be addressed using words alone. The ultimate goals are to effect changes in behavior and facilitate development of skills. Summer Reading: 20 Mental Health Books That Can Change Your Life.
Altered brain structure in pathological narcissism. A far-reaching disorder of the self-esteem is denoted as a narcissistic personality disorder. Persons with pathological narcissism on the one hand suffer from feelings of inferiority, while on the other hand projecting themselves to the world as arrogant, disparaging and self-absorbed. One of the key features of a narcissistic personality disorder is the lack of empathy. Although patients suffering from such a disorder are well able to recognize what other persons feel, think and intent, they display little compassion. In this study, the team of scientists led by Privatdozent Dr. Stefan Röpke from the Charité Department of Psychiatry and Director of the personality disorders working group, have for the first time demonstrated the structural correlate of this deficit. Good Talk: How to be Empathetic & Effective.
Interpersonal communication — you know, talking with others — can be a tough nut to crack sometimes. Whether it be between family, colleagues or just plain socially, there is a delicate balance to strike between empathy and effectiveness. Empathy begins with listening, of course, so it’s no wonder that many of us prefer talking! It extends to finding the right way to “connect back” with what a person said, especially if you disagree or are even offended. Reaction is so much easier than reflection and response. Effectiveness is about getting your message across such that you feel empowered (but not cocky). Some powerful empathetic and effective messages might be to say “I am just not sure about [our child’s] withdrawal behavior of late,” or “I would like the opportunity to have my ideas discussed at the next team meeting” or “I am sorry, but I am just not going to be able to loan you our garden tools, but I do have an old pair of clippers that you are welcome to have.”
Some barriers? You Don’t Have to Judge Your Younger Self. - OpenLearn - Open University.