In a recent TED video, psychologist Alison Gopnik describes how a child’s early cognitive development is a lot like the “Research & Development” sector in an economy.
Babies and young children are constantly experimenting and playing with their environments, absorbing new information, testing new ideas and hypotheses (with scientific-like curiosity), and thereby gaining knowledge about how their world really works.
In many ways, children are better, faster, and more flexible learners than adults – they have to be – so that when they grow up they can use this knowledge to produce results and survive in our society.
One key area of their development is between the ages of 13-18 months, when infants begin to develop empathy at an accelerated pace. This is when infants begin to discover that other humans think and feel differently than how we might think and feel. Gopnik shares an example of this by illustrating young children learning that people may prefer broccoli over goldfish crackers, even though the child tends to prefer the opposite.
At later ages, children begin engaging in remarkable problem-solving skills. Gopnik shares one video of a young child (at about 4 years old) trying to solve a task (getting 2 boxes to light up) by experimenting with different possibilities. After testing about 5 different hypothesis over a 2 minute span, the child discovers the solution to the problem.
In addition, by looking at a variety of different species, Gopnik found that the length of a species’ average childhood is often correlated with greater intelligence. This is strong evidence that the main purpose of childhood is for learning and preparation.
You can check out the full TED lecture here:
How to develop your own kind of “baby mind?”
At times, it can be useful to develop a kind of “baby mind” of our own. This is especially useful for keeping our minds open, flexible, creative, and effective at problem-solving.
Here are some suggestions for things we can do to help create a “baby mind” of our own:
- Engage in novel and unfamiliar environments, such as going on vacation somewhere you’ve never been before (especially at a place where you don’t know the language). This will get your brain to kick into a “learning mode” very similar to that of a baby mind.
- Embrace new interests, hobbies, and curiosities. Babies are constantly trying new things and exploring their environment in new ways. Try to do the same whenever you have the opportunity and time. Pick up a guitar or learn how to paint.
- Drink coffee. According to Gopnik, caffeine activates some of our “baby neurotransmitters.”
- Surround yourself with children more. Volunteer at a daycare or spend more time with your children at home. This is one of the best way to learn how a child’s mind really works.
- Practice Zen meditation. There is a concept known as “beginner’s mind” which is said to be an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, very similar to that of a child. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote a great book on this mindset called Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
These are some small suggestions for increasing our “baby mind” in certain situations. Gopnik reminds us that this doesn’t mean being a baby is better than being an adult, but often there are benefits in adopting a more curious and open-minded attitude like that of a child or newborn. In many ways we should try to retain this attitude into adulthood.
Optimists are said to be those who see the glass as half full, while pessimists see the glass as half empty.
An optimist often tries to find the good in everything. This perspective can cause less stress, less anxiety, and a more empowering and motivating attitude.
Positive psychologist Martin Seligman coined the term learned optimism to explain that people can cultivate more optimism by challenging their negative self-talk. Seligman believes that learning an optimistic attitude is crucial to finding happiness and living healthier.
However, despite these benefits, some research is showing that too much optimism in certain situations can actually be harmful.
According to some psychologists, excessive optimism can cause us to ignore information that goes against our rose-tinted perspective (a kind of “confirmation bias“). This leads some optimistic people to only focus on benefits, but at the same time ignore risks and costs.
In one study, experimenters had participants estimate the risk of a negative event happening to them in the future, such as car theft or getting cancer. After the participant predicted a probability, they were told the actual statistical likelihood it would happen to them.
After a short break, participants were then asked again what the probability of a certain negative event was. What researchers found was that optimistic people only changed their estimates when the information they were given was better than expected, but tended to ignore information that went against their optimism:
- “For example if they had predicted that their likelihood of suffering from cancer was 40%, but the average likelihood was 30%, they might adjust their estimate to 32%. If the information was worse than expected – for example, if they had estimated 10% – then they tended to adjust their estimate much less, as if ignoring the data.”
These findings were consistent with some brain research that was also conducted. Researchers found that when people were presented information better than expected, there was high activity in the frontal lobes (suggesting that the participant was re-calculating their estimate). But when the information was worse than expected, there was much less activity in the frontal lobes, almost as if participants were disregarding the new information.
Dr. Sharot who led the study added:
- “Our study suggests that we pick and choose the information that we listen to. The more optimistic we are, the less likely we are to be influenced by negative information about the future. This can have benefits for our mental health, but there are obvious downsides. Many experts believe the financial crisis in 2008 was precipitated by analysts overestimating the performance of their assets even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.”
I don’t wish to deride optimism, I think it’s incredibly important to being a flourishing human being. At the same time, I think it needs to be balanced and realistic. Ignoring reality might bring us some temporary pleasure, but it can also hurt us badly in the long-run. We need to learn how to acknowledge the obstacles, risks, and costs that come with life, while still being confident and hopeful about our future.
Stay updated on new articles on psychology and self-improvement here.
Every morning I browse my psychology feed and see if there is any interesting news to share with you guys. Today I discovered an interesting study about how washing your hands can actually minimize feelings of guilt and shame.
The study was published in the journal Current Directions of Psychological Science.
When participants were asked to think of a moral wrong-doing of their own, they felt less guilty after using an antiseptic hand wipe. They were also less likely to volunteer to do a good act to make up for their wrong-doing. This suggests that cleaning our hands may actually rid ourselves of some of the blame we feel after doing something wrong.
Even when participants were asked only to imagine themselves as “clean and fresh,” they tended to judge themselves as more moral than others.
This literal “mental cleansing” has been found to alleviate other mental discomfort as well:
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“Cleansing works for other mental discomforts, such as post-decision doubt. To resolve this doubt, people who opted for one of two similar jams felt better about their choice after making the decision, a well-known tendency called choice justification. But if people were given a hand wipe to use, they no longer justified their choice: They had wiped off their doubt. Using soap showed similar results after a bad luck streak in gambling: After washing, participants started to bet higher stakes, suggesting they had ‘washed away’ their bad luck.”
It may sound a little ridiculous, but our minds can work in really mysterious ways sometimes. These examples of “mental cleansing” eerily parallel the common notion of baptism being able to wash away “original sin.” So perhaps this metaphor of “washing away” sins, guilt, and bad luck is somehow wired into our collective unconscious? Just a thought…I’m not sure what practical value this study has, but it’s something I found too fascinating not to share.
A popular piece of advice in pop psychology is to “fake it ’till you make it.” In other words, by pretending to act happy (by faking a smile) it’s said that we can actually produce these feelings of happiness internally. I’ve written about some of this research before in my post habits matter.
On the other end of this research, there is also evidence that pretending to fake happiness can be unhealthy in some situations:
- According to a recent study in the Academy of Management Journal, it was discovered that bus drivers were more likely to experience negative emotions on days when they pretended to be in a good mood.
- Another analysis of over 3 decades of research found that faking positive feelings at work was associated with lower employee satisfaction and increased job burnout.
- A third study published in Anxiety, Stress, and Coping found that volunteers at a call center who were told to “hide negative emotions” had greater increases in blood pressure and heart rate than those told to show their true feelings.
As it turns out, the “emotional labor” it takes to pretend to be in a good mood can actually be very taxing on our physical and mental well-being.
There are a couple of lessons that both business and employees could learn from this research.
One lesson for businesses is to give employees an opportunity to express themselves genuinely and openly. Of course, this doesn’t mean you want customer service yelling at people, but maybe giving employees a way to express their frustrations among each other could provide a valuable emotional release, without necessarily disrupting the “consumer experience.”
There should also be a drive in businesses to try to make work environments as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. Often times the happier workers are, the better their work performance and productivity. Because of this, I believe it is only a matter of time until more businesses begin implementing these principles.
One lesson for employees is to not feel the need to plaster on a smile every time they walk into the office. It is okay to feel down from time to time, and we need not pretend that our jobs are perfect (they rarely are).
This also fits with a common theme of this blog which is that we must give ourselves permission to be negative every now and then.
Another lesson for employees is to raise their standards. If a job isn’t at all satisfying to you, consider searching for something else that makes you genuinely happier. We sometimes underestimate our value and skills in the marketplace. We become complacent to one job, and we stop searching for other opportunities. We begin to accept the idea that a job is supposed to be something we hate, so we settle for something less than what we might really be capable of. Jobs can be difficult and tiresome, but that doesn’t mean they have to be the plague of our existence.
(I understand there are some limitations to the above, maybe based on your prior work experience, intelligence, and other factors. I only recommend that you keep yourself open to alternatives. You may not have a whole lot of different jobs to choose from, but there is often more than just one path.)
On that note, I want to remind you one last time that it’s completely natural to not be 100% in love with your job. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that needs to be the case. Often times, by acknowledging life’s imperfections, we can handle them better than if we try to bury ourselves in delusions and false promises.
Stay updated on new articles on psychology and self-improvement here.
Introduction
Mindfulness is a state of deliberate and conscious awareness directed toward the present moment. The practice is incredibly simple on paper, but with diligent practice can reap many, many benefits.
A great entry level exercise to mindfulness is the 100 Breaths Meditation. It teaches you how to use your breathing as an object of focus, by deliberately directing your awareness toward the motions of your breath. The goal is to remain fixated on your breath, while ignoring distractions and any other outside stimuli. Often the stronger and more focused your awareness becomes, the more you enter into a state of relaxation, bliss, and insight.
(If you’re serious about practicing this stuff, I also recommend reading a post I wrote awhile back called Mindfulness of Mindlessness. This one was intended to help people overcome the common problem of getting too distracted during meditation. It emphasizes how in fact acknowledging your distractions is a key first step toward cultivating greater mindfulness. This is true for both meditation, and also practicing mindfulness throughout our daily life.)
The purpose of this article, however, is to put together a list of all the ways mindfulness has been scientifically shown to improve our physical and mental health. It is a complete list of all the benefits I know that come from mindfulness. And to be honest, if this doesn’t convince you to start developing a mindfulness practice of your own, I don’t know what will.
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Research into mindfulness has really picked up over the past few decades. Here are some of the benefits we are just beginning to discover:
Improving Attention
One of the most obvious benefits from meditation is that it improves our attention. One study has shown that just 5 days of 20 minute training can show significant improvements in our ability to focus and concentrate. The fact that mindfulness meditation can improve our attention is one of the most well-documented benefits. And the practice of staying focused on our breath can build concentration that often spills over into many other activities.
Improving Cognition
Another interesting study showed that just 4 days of 20 minute training showed significant increases in cognitive functioning, especially memory and learning. Other related research indicates that meditation can help slow down Alzheimer’s and dementia. Some of this may in part be due to our increased attention, but it seems meditation also acts on other parts of the brain more directly related to learning and memory, such as increasing gray matter in the hippocampus.
Managing Stress and Anxiety
Meditation has also been shown to reduce gray matter in the amygdala, which is a part of the brain commonly associated with stress, anxiety, and emotional processing. This demonstrates why meditation does so well in relieving stress and increasing relaxation. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of The Stress Reduction Clinic and Center for Mindfulness in Medicine at the University of Massachusetts, is one of the leading teachers and researchers in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Here you can find a wonderful lecture he gave to Google summarizing a lot of the research demonstrating how effective mindfulness meditation is for reducing stress and improving medical outcomes.
Improving Heart Rate and Blood Pressure
In light of meditation’s ability to reduce stress, it has also been reported to lower your blood pressure and heart rate. This particular study followed 200 participants for 5 years who were at a “high risk” for heart attacks and strokes. They found that those who practiced meditation regularly reduced their risk for heart attacks and strokes by almost 50%.
Reducing Pain
Mindful breathing has also been discovered to reduce pain, according to a recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience. After just four 20 minute mindfulness sessions, participants did better at reducing unpleasant sensations (such as 120 degrees of heat, a temperature that most people find painful) than those who did not receive mindfulness training. Researchers theorize that mindfulness trainees have an easier time keeping their focus directed toward their breathing and thereby ignoring the discomfort caused by the heat. It’s likely that mindfulness can show similar effects on other types of pain as well.
Overcoming Depression
Surprisingly, mindfulness meditation is said to be on par with antidepressants in preventing depression relapse. According to researchers, mindfulness prevents excessive rumination (a common cause of depression) by teaching individuals how to reflect on thoughts and emotional states in a non-judgmental and non-attaching way. Instead of clinging to “negative” thoughts and feelings – and feeding into them – mindfulness teaches us to sit back and watch these emotions and thoughts without needing to overreact or feel guilty about how we feel. This makes it a lot easier to fully experience these passing thoughts and emotions, and then let them go.
Overcoming Fears of Death
Another recent study published earlier this year found that mindfulness can also ease fears and anxieties related to death. Mindful people tend to be more accepting of their limited time while alive. They also tend to be less dependent on fantasy-filled beliefs and desires for self-preservation or immortality. They understand that death is not the opposite of life, but a necessary part of it. Thus, they accept the reality of their demise, instead of being defensive.
Changing Bad Habits
There is a particular technique in mindfulness training that helps individuals overcome addictions and other bad habits. It’s called urge surfing, and it’s a popular tool in some psychotherapies to help individuals quit smoking or stop obsessive eating. The main goal of the meditation is to “ride out” your desire to do certain negative habits, but not act on them. Mindfulness teaches you that many of these desires are impermanent, and if we just sit back and watch them, it is very likely that they will subside and go away (without us necessarily needing to smoke another cigarette, or eat that slice of cake).
Changing Brain Structure
In addition to many of the benefits mentioned above, it has also been shown that 8 weeks of mindfulness training can cause long-term changes to our brain structure. While this isn’t necessarily a “benefit” in-and-of-itself, it is evidence for just how powerful mindfulness training can be. For more on this you can also check out my article Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity.
Conclusion
These are just about all of the main benefits I know of that are associated with mindfulness, but I’m sure there are countless others. Mindfulness can be such a fundamental skill to living that it truthfully affects just about all areas of our life.
If you haven’t started a mindfulness practice of your own, I highly recommend it. And if you want any help getting started, feel free to e-mail me questions at contact@theemotionmachine.com. I’d be more than happy to help you out.
You can also check out the “Mindful Awareness Training System” below if you want a great training course on how to apply mindfulness to your daily life.
Mindful Awareness Training System
