Making stress your friend
Over the past ten years, Mindapples has delivered a LOT of workshops on how to deal with stress. In all those workshops, we’ve found one of the most important myths to debunk is the idea that a little bit of stress is good for you. Instead, we prefer the term “pressure”, to describe the effect […]
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An introduction to mirror neurons
Empathy is a fundamentally human trait. We’re a highly social species, connecting and learning from one other by reading and copying facial expressions and movements. Recent studies in neuroscience have shed further light on these interactions, revealing that when we watch someone doing something, cells in our brain fire in the same way as if […]
Continue reading Why it’s OK to make mistakes
When you approach a new task are you focused on getting it right, or getting better? Many of us approach new challenges with a fear of making mistakes. Rather than taking on a new task with confidence and energy we’re held back by our “be good” mindset and the need to prove how clever we […]
Continue reading Productivity tips from the pros
If you’re struggling to get things done, there are lots of tips from psychology professionals to boost your productivity. Psychology Today collected some of the best a few years ago, and we’ve been trying them out at Mindapples and with our corporate clients. Here are our favourites: Avoid multitasking. Block out time when you avoid […]
Continue reading How to be happy
Mindapples doesn’t write much about happiness (there are plenty of fine organisations around doing that); instead we focus on mental health, feeling at home in your head, and accepting whatever feelings you have. Wanting to be happier is a perfectly good goal though, and most of the things positive psychologists and happiness campaigners advocate can […]
Continue reading Can you catch happiness?
If you had a virus you would probably want to avoid passing it on to friends and colleagues, but did you know emotion travels over social networks in much the same way viruses do? That’s not to say emotions are like diseases of course: being grumpy won’t make you or the people around you sick. […]
Continue reading Should you explain your decisions?
When we make decisions, we often spend time weighing up the pros and cons and thinking through the reasons for our choices. While this can make us feel like we are deciding carefully, findings from psychology studies suggest that this doesn’t always lead to making the best decisions. Wilson and colleagues carried out an experiment […]
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Drink water! What dehydration does to your mind
We all know water is good for us, and it’s certainly easy to get hold of it, but we don’t often stop to think about how beneficial it can be, not just for our physical health, but for our minds too. Recent research shows that dehydration not only affects our physical wellbeing, but also our […]
Continue reading What can you do about a bad mood?
We all find ourselves in a bad mood from time to time. The triggers and stresses may vary, but understanding what’s going on in our mind and body can make it easier to deal with it. Some psychologists believe a bad mood can be caused by ‘ego depletion’ – a form of mental tiredness – […]
Continue reading Kindness is good for you
Being kind to other people is officially good for you – and it seems it’s all down to a nerve that links social contact with positive emotions. The vagus nerve links directly to nerves that tune our ears to human speech, coordinate eye contact and regulate emotional expressions. It influences the release of oxytocin, a […]
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