background preloader

Self help: try positive action, not positive thinking

Self help: try positive action, not positive thinking
For years self-help gurus have preached the same simple mantra: if you want to improve your life then you need to change how you think. Force yourself to have positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your dream self and you will enjoy increased success. Think like a millionaire and you will magically grow rich. In principle, this idea sounds perfectly reasonable. Take visualisation. In one study led by Lien Pham at the University of California, students were asked to spend a few moments each day visualising themselves getting a high grade in an upcoming exam. Why should this be so? However, when it comes to change, the message is not all gloom and doom. Towards the end of the 1880s, James turned his attention to the relationship between emotion and behaviour. James hypothesised that the relationship between emotion and behaviour was a two-way street, and that behaviour can cause emotion. Take, for example, willpower. The same applies to confidence. HAPPINESS: Smile

Conditions de vie-Société - Qualité de vie et bien-être vont souvent de pair Marie-Hélène Amiel, Pascal Godefroy et Stéfan Lollivier, Insee Résumé Les adultes vivant en France métropolitaine déclarent en 2011 un niveau moyen de satisfaction dans la vie de 6,8 sur une échelle allant de 0 à 10. Ce ne sont pas seulement les restrictions monétaires, contraintes financières ou faibles revenus, qui vont de pair avec une moindre satisfaction. Sommaire Encadrés Publication En moyenne, sur une échelle de 0 à 10, les adultes situent leur bien-être à 6,8 De nombreuses initiatives ont vu le jour en France suite à la rédaction du rapport sur la mesure du progrès économique et social (rapport Stiglitz). Au sein de la population, les faiblement satisfaits sont peu nombreux : ils sont seulement 7 % à attribuer à leur satisfaction dans la vie une note inférieure à 5 (graphique). À l’opposé, les personnes satisfaites de leur vie, celles dont les notes sont supérieures à 8, sont près de deux fois plus nombreuses, soit 13 % de la population adulte. Retour au sommaire Encadrés * santé

Cool Jazz Chord Progressions for Guitar | LoveToKnow Are you looking for some cool jazz chord progressions for the guitar? Sometimes guitar players who are coming from a blues, folk or rock background think that jazz music is a cacophonous assortment of random notes. While such an argument could be made about some forms of free jazz, many jazz songs are based around standard progressions that aren't much different than the progressions found in other forms of music. Read on to learn more about some really cool jazz chord progressions for guitar. Get a Chord Chart Before you read on, you need to take a quick detour and download LoveToKnow's free chord chart if you haven't already. The chords employed in jazz music typically are more extended than they are in rock, folk and blues. Some Cool Jazz Chord Progressions for Guitar Now that you have your chord chart handy, you're ready to tackle some cool jazz progressions. This progression, known as the "one/six/two/five" is one of the most common progressions in jazz music. Find a Friend

Transport a Load of Laundry With One Hand, No Basket Required I don't want to be 'that asshole,' but towels were in the article (in addition to why you shouldn't be throwing towels into the same load). No, please - feel free to be that guy. Someone has to remind people around here - even the starred commenters - to read the articles before commenting once in a while. :) Not an a—hole thing to note a real detail. I take no offense. As to not drying towels with other clothes, I totally disagree. Here's another dubious tip—take slacks out while a little damp and hang upside down (by the cuffs)—greatly minimizes wrinkles, though you'll have to get creases, if you want 'em, some other way. Pardonner, un vrai outil psychologique Vous gardez une rancœur tenace envers un ancien collègue et vous vous réveillez certaines nuits en y pensant? Vous êtes fâché avec une partie de votre famille et n'iriez pour rien au monde leur rendre à nouveau visite? Attention à vous et à votre santé physique et psychique! De récentes études ont prouvé que les personnes qui ont du mal à lâcher leur ressentiment souffrent de tension élevée. On a aussi observé que les victimes d'inceste qui participaient pendant toute une année à des ateliers autour du pardon étaient moins vulnérables à la dépression et à l'anxiété que celles qui n'y avaient pas eu droit (Université du Wisconsin). Pas étonnant, donc, que cette question se pose lors de nombreuses psychothérapies. Connotation religieuse Pourtant, chargé de références religieuses, le fait de «pardonner» est rarement nommé comme tel par les psychothérapeutes. Vigilance, car un pardon trop facile peut cacher du déni. Accepter les failles Autre danger d'un pardon express, l'effondrement.

The phone's gone dead | Linda Grant This week I have received two dinner invitations via Twitter direct message; they bounced into my iPhone as email alerts. I was asked if I would like to write this piece via an email, which announced itself with a ping while I was walking along the Cornish coastal path, and to which I replied with a terse "OK". I can't remember the last time I actually spoke to the person who'd commissioned it, for talking to people for work-related purposes has become the communication of last resort, only necessary when you have complex problems that require direct speech to iron out. In an era when literacy and the written word are supposed to be in decline, much of what we say to each other relies on typing on various kinds of screen, in the home and outside it. Ofcom has just announced that there has been a 5% fall in calls made on landlines and mobiles. In 2011, 58% of people sent texts, while only 47% used their mobiles to speak to someone. Now both my phones have fallen silent.

Top 10 Products You Don't Need to Buy (Because You Already Have Them In Your Home) Most the stuff you mention is far from cheap. White vinegar and baking soda are food products, you can buy cleaning products that are basically the same thing for much cheaper. Rubbing alcohol is way more expensive than equivalent detergent products. I've been doing this a long time and, sorry, but your argument really doesn't hold. I guarantee you, just as one example, that I can make many times the window cleaning fluid with water and white vinegar for the same cost as prepurchased. I can make up a big spray bottle of odor neutralizer using water, a little vinegar, a little baking soda, and a little borax for pennies compared to the $3-4 for a bottle of Febreze or the like. Rubbing alcohol is not more expensive than other detergent products because you use so little of it. And citric acid? Seriously. Well, I guess I underestimated how cheaply you can apparently buy vinegar. If you don't use citric acid then I highly recommend that you do.

Comment pensent les optimistes On a longtemps cru que la capacité de voir la vie du bon côté était un talent donné au hasard. Ce n'est pas forcément vrai. Dans notre environnement morose (les Français ont récemment décroché la palme du pays le plus pessimiste, loin derrière les Irakiens ou les Nigérians), il faudrait mettre les optimistes, ces spécimens rares, sous verre. Pourtant, ceux qui diffusent enthousiasme et espoir autour d'eux sont plus souvent objets de moquerie. Depuis une vingtaine d'années, la psychologie positive s'attachant à décrypter le fonctionnement des «personnalités qui réussissent», il devient possible de comprendre avec plus de précision comment pensent et vivent les adeptes du «verre à moitié plein». Pour Philippe Gabilliet, psychosociologue professeur à l'ESCP Europe et auteur d'un Éloge de l'optimisme (Éd. «C'est vraiment le propre de ces personnalités: ils fonctionnent essentiellement en mode potentiel, explique-t-il. Faire du mieux possible malgré ce qui leur arrive

Top 10 Clever Uses for Spare Thumb Drives Heh... Whenever I see the term "thumb drive" used, I think the person using it is probably illiterate. It's a flash drive. There's no real reason to use a "cute" term for it, especially when the "cute" term has the same number of letters and syllables; consonants and vowels and they're in the same places (CCVCC). The best use I got out of my 8GB Corsair Flash Voyager was using it as an Xbox 360 memory unit. There's a far easier way to do portable apps — PortableApps.com. Ninite's a good idea, but you can run portable apps on your home computer, too. The "portable arcade" trick is cool, but you can roll it into the PortableApps thing. Then there are a ton of apps out there that are just natively portable, or have natively portable versions. Be advised however, even the best flash drives aren't so great for portable apps.

Related: