Willpower, once touted as a real human asset, has received a rather bad rap of late.
From the rails of her Greek fishing boat, evolution biologist Elisabet Sahtouris realized that what was true under the microscope was also reflected in the cosmos: our planet is alive, self-organizing, endlessly abundant, and highly cooperative. Despite the ravages of environmental and human destruction, Sahtouris believes we can learn from the natural world that a shift from competition to cooperation is possible. It is part of our own maturation as a species. It is also key to our survival.
About fifteen years ago, Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at California State University Long Beach and author of the recent book "The Origin of Everyday Moods", began documenting what now appears to be one of the most significant observations in the history of psychology, maybe one of the most significant observations in the history of the world. His observation appears to be a fundamental truth, a clue leading directly to the core of human happiness.
Shifting into gratitude not only feels great; new research shows that it is powerfully healing.
Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow finds that 37 percent of us have recently had serious conflicts with a spouse or partner, 36 percent are moving past something painful in our upbringing, and 32 percent face serious conflicts at work. Most of us (60 percent) are trying to forgive someone else and nearly half of us are trying to forgive ourselves. In other words, we Americans are carrying a lot. As it turns out, those who seek help in groups do better than those who try it alone.
You don’t have to crack open a novel or sit down to a movie to get an eyeful of revenge. The desire for revenge is the most powerful cause of violence that has been identified by social psychologists.
Why is the smartest, most adaptable creature on the planet hardwired to stop talking, lose its sense of self, and feel at one with the world — in a profound state of listening?
Evolutionary science suggests that revenge is a universal trait of human nature that was crafted by natural selection because of the critical problems it solved as our species was evolving. Indeed, research from many corners of the scientific world has recently converged upon the three functions that revenge likely served during human evolution.
On any given day, 1.6 million of us are blogging, 27 million are tweeting, and 1.5 billion are posting on Facebook. We’re emailing during meetings, texting during lectures, and talking on our cell phones as we tackle rush-hour traffic. We spend much of our day making deals and dates –– and the reason we do all of this is both simple and profound: we have to socialize in order to get the jobs of life done.
Can reading more books prevent depression in young people? A University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study suggests just that.
