Three key insights to celebrate the holidays meaningfully

___ There is plenty of evidence to convince us that social connection is key to well-being. But relationships are complicated, bringing good and bad into our lives.  Let us share a few key insights from scientific studies published in 2018 on topics relevant to leading a meaningful life. They won’t solve all of our social problems—but we hope they will help you to better understand yourself and the people around you. 1. Mindfulness can help you regulate your emotions in real-time All of us have probably lost our cool at one time or another—maybe yelling at the phone company or at a child who misbehaved. But these outbursts are rarely very effective, and they often leave us feeling ashamed and regretful. How to handle anger better? Recent studies suggest mindfulness could help. In a study published in Mindfulness, David DeSteno and his colleagues randomly assigned participants to either a three-week mindfulness course (training in breath and body awareness, open awareness of thoughts, and not judging experiences) or a control activity that involved solving cognitive puzzles, prior to bringing both groups into a lab. There they gave a talk—and then received a scathing review of their performance from an undercover research assistant in the audience. Afterwards, researchers asked them to make a condiment mixture for their critics to sample based on a few ingredients, including a very hot pepper sauce—a way to see how ag...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning anger Emotions empathy meditation mindfulness smartphones Source Type: blogs