Work Hard, Play Hard

"Work hard, play hard" is a phrase we hear all the time. If we do everything we're supposed to, we take all the right classes, get the right grades, perform well in our jobs, we deserve to have fun as well, right? 

Not only do we deserve this break from hard work, but this break can also benefit us in numerous ways, as Emma M. Seppala, Ph. D., describes in her article "5 Reasons to Increase Your Play in 2013". 

Taking time to play can improve our creativity. We can become locked in our own thoughts and have trouble seeing things from new perspectives after long hours of work. Mark Beeman, Ph. D., Northwestern University found that people could more easily solve a puzzle after watching a comedy clip. Having fun eases tension we may feel, and allows us to think more creatively in challenging situations. In fact, in his book Play, Stuart Brown, M.D., describes how the Jet Propulsion Lab experiences difficulty in finding young engineers of the same caliber as their predecessors. The reasoning was found to be because the retirees had engaged in analytic play and as a result the lab now questions engineering candidates about their type of play in youth. 

Google's work environment is especially conducive to creativity. 

Play can also help our health. Naturally, laughter comes with play. We have fun, we joke, we laugh. Preliminary studies have shown that along with the enjoyment that comes with laughing, laughter can also improve physical health. It can improve vascular health and decrease stress and inflammation.

Play makes us more present in our lives as well. More often than not, as we work on one task, we are thinking about a few others. According to a study done by at Harvard University, about 50% of the time we are not in the present moment. When we lose ourselves, if only for a short time, in play we can enter something research psychologist, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, calls flow. Flow is a state of being completely in the present moment and occurs when we are entirely focused on one activity.  And because we are happiest in the present moment, play can make us happier people. When we dwell on the past, we tend to think of anger, regret, and other negative emotions. When we think of the future, we tend to worry or feel anxious. It is in the present that we can find our happiest state and it is in play that we can experience the present.

In our world of never ending to-do lists and responsibilities, it is so easy to forget to take time to let loose. Play may even be seen as immature or irresponsible in the face of things that seem more important. However, play is essential to our health, happiness, and creativity.

What do you think about the importance of play? Have there been any times where taking a break has helped improve your work? Are there any other benefits to play that you have experienced? 

Give and You Shall Receive

Everyone says that giving is better than receiving, that helping out a friend— or even a stranger—will result in happiness and a sense of satisfaction within ourselves. Of course it feels great to reach out to people, but are there actual health benefits that come with the act of giving? According to Michael J. Poulin, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Buffalo, along with researchers from other areas of the country, giving is good for your body! Poulin’s five-year study, which included the self-reporting of 423 older married couples, concluded that helping people in one’s home or community “reduces the association between stress and mortality for the helpers.” The study, which took into account the participants’ original stress levels, how much time they spent helping friends and family, as well as their various ages and health conditions, concluded that those who spent more time dedicated to lending a hand to others essentially lived longer. The study is discussed in this article.

While twenty years of studies have shown that social isolation, loneliness, and stress are often causes for physical illnesses (such as headaches, body inflammation, and problems with learning and memory), no other research has proven that providing help and reaching out in society have physically positive effects. There is evidence proving that such isolation and anxiety even leads to premature death, but no one has ever attempted to study the flip side of the coin. Not until now. The effects of stress on the body are known to be extremely severe, and Poulin has discovered how much life can change if we limit the stress, appreciate what we have, and are willing to help other people.

 Perhaps more importantly than showing the health benefits of helping, Poulin’s findings exhibit how social processes in general may influence physical health. The way we act and the choices we make in terms of interacting with other people have now been shown to play a major part in our body’s functioning. What do you think about Poulin’s findings? Have you ever thought about our emotional/social decisions playing a part on our body’s physical condition? Could you relate this study to anyone in your life?

The Unconscious Choice

It's Sunday night--you're sitting with your laptop, aimlessly scrolling through Twitter, while you should be studying for that history test you have first period tomorrow.  You begin to question how you even got in this position; what happened to your plans Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, or even a few hours ago to study?  How could you have ever come to the decision that watching five hours of Friends was more important than the Great Depression?  Well, new books by Dr. Gino, a psychology professor at Harvard, and the Heath brothers, who work at Stanford and Duke, explain how we end up in these situations.

We may not consciously be making these decisions, but there are underlying unconscious reasons that fuel these choices.  According to Gino, we are constantly bombarded with "irrational" factors that change our mindsets.  The example she gives is adding extra items to your Amazon shopping cart just to get free shipping. Then, once the object gets delivered, it gets tossed in the back of a drawer to be found on a later date.  This has happened to me multiple times, before realizing what I ordered cost me more than the price of shipping.

Maybe the reason we find ourselves wondering what was going through our minds when we decided to not study, or make any other decision that strays from our original objective, is because it was not a conscious choice, but instead a choice made behind the scenes.  As we read in Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, we make unconscious decisions all the time, affected by the priming and other "irrational factors." Additionally, having too many decisions to make seems to be a pitfall for many, especially for those who (like IHA girls) do not even have time to think a certain decision through.  Too many influences can fall prey to outside influences, and biological science backs this.  As teenagers, our frontal lobes are still developing, and we weigh the immediate benefits of a choice more than the risk that comes with it.  So maybe that's why sitting and watching just one more episode of Friends is more appealing than getting up getting our history textbook--we forget that later we'll be in the same position as every Sunday night, wondering where the weekend went.

Emotions also come into play, and we'll blame a current choice without acknowledging how we were feeling when we made that decision. When you have a bad workout, you may blame it on the fact that you went at the wrong time or you were too sore--but you fail to acknowledge that you were in a bad mood when you go there because of a fight you had with your sister before leaving.  This same kind of thinking can come into play when we make decisions, and we blame the choices on external factors instead of the true culprit: our emotions.

So if you've been extremely productive each consecutive Sunday and cannot relate to the first example, think to any other decision you've made that's had you wonder, "What was I thinking?!"  Can you trace back that choice to how you were feeling at that moment, or other factors that could have unconsciously influenced you?  Or do you think there is a conscious aspect to this seemingly irrational decision making?

The Mindlessness of Technology

With the massive outbreaks in technological advancements we’ve seen over the last decade, many are questioning if these developments can actually be considered progress for our society; specifically, what consequences this easy access to technology can have on our children. In the article The Tech-Savvy Child, one psychologist questions the "mindfulness" that technology possibly hinders. The author, Jim Taylor, defines mindfulness as being able to engage fully in a situation and receive the full benefits out of that situation; kind of like a '"carpe diem" lifestyle, one that is often associated with happier individuals. 
It isn't too difficult to see that technology promotes the opposite of mindfulness, that being mindlessness. Technology is all about staying connected, creating a constant flow of information from the outside world, especially through texting and social media. The author argues that subjecting children to a continual stream of information keeps their focus off of the current moment and promotes an external view of themselves, meaning they lack abilities of self-examination and only understand themselves in regards to how others perceive them. This kind of stream, Taylor says, creates a hyper-vigilant and stressful state for kids, and prevents them from focusing on the present.
This "mindlessness" actually isn't very mindless; combined with an over-scheduled lifestyle, Taylor says kids rarely have the chance to be calm. In extreme circumstances, some children have trouble engaging in the present, leading to trouble with school, relationships, and even developmental milestones. Having the ability to simply let your mind wander is crucial to overall happiness, a state that only comes from being "mindful." In recent research, chemicals released in the brain when experiencing continuous connectivity are akin to those found in drug users and gamblers, suggesting a possible addiction of technology.
So, what do you think? Does technology promotes "mindlessness?" Do the ideas Taylor present resonate in your own life? Or should children be encouraged to be tech savvy in order to compete with a tech savvy world? How does technology help or hinder your own happiness and sense of self?

Why We Love Our Pets

Have you ever wondered how people form such close relationships with their dogs? According to the article "Why We Love Our Pets: They're Just Like Us!", Melanie Greenberg explains that humans become close with their dogs because we tend to choose ones that are most like us, whether it be subliminally or intentionally. In order to objectively study the similarities between owners and their dogs, Greenberg looked at scientific findings and found out that some stereotypes about pet ownership turned out to be true.

One stereotype that was proven valid by the studies was that the more aggressive dogs belong to aggressive owners. Studies showed that aggressive dog breeds such as Rottweilers were most commonly owned by people who scored high on personality assessments that tested anger, aggression  and hostility. The author of this study noted that a possibility of this could be that people who live in bad neighborhoods are more aggressive and tend to choose guard dogs such as German shepherds.

Another stereotype that was proven true in a study is that dog owners and their pets look alike. In the study, researchers found that people were able to correctly match pictures of owners to their pets two-thirds of the time. The researchers believe that this may be an unconscious choice because humans have an "automatic distrust of dissimilar others." In the past, humans have had a tendency to trust other people who are similar to them and are "of their kind." Perhaps humans have a tendency to surround themselves with familiar nonhumans as well.

The reason behind all these similarities is simple. People tend to choose dogs that are like themselves just like we choose friends who we have similarities with. If people surround themselves with other people that are similar every day then why wouldn't they do the same when it comes to choosing a pet? What do you think? Do you think people tend to choose pets that are similar to themselves? If you have a dog, do you think you chose your particular dog based on possible similarities? Do you think you are anything like your pet? 

24/6

 From school, work, and college applications to sports and activities, IHA students certainly have busy lives. But is the constant activity actually hurting us rather than shortening our to-do list? In an interview with CNN Health, Dr. Matthew Sleeth explains that the mindset of 24/7 most people are living in now, is the reason our days feel too short to accomplish everything we want to. How many times have you heard someone in the hall say, “I didn’t have time to finish my homework” or “I got no sleep, I was up all night finishing my essay.” This hectic lifestyle can lead to depression, exhaustion, and anxiety, some of which we are familiar with at IHA. In his book, “24/6: A Prescription for a Happier, Healthier Life,” Dr. Sleeth explains why a “stop day” can solve most of these problems.

Not too long ago, life stopped on Sundays. Stores were closed and families had quiet days together; 30 years ago, “stop days” were common.  Now, life continues regardless of the day, and Dr. Sleeth believes this is the root of our problems. In Bergen County, stores selling non-essential items are closed, but everywhere else around us stores remain open. Each year there is a debate over the blue laws, and every year people vote to keep the malls closed on Sunday, but how long will this last and, really, how effective are the blue laws? Supermarkets are still open, the internet has made working from home over the weekend very easy, and students have universally declared that Sunday is homework day. If Sunday is no longer our “stop day,” what have we replaced it with?

We have replaced it with a 24/7 mindset, and a nation that has the highest rate of depression and highest number of work hours, according to the World Health Organization. We can think about it in terms of an IHA student. Monday through Friday we go to school, do our homework, and go to practice. Saturday, we go to practice, games, or rehearsal and then squeeze in time for friends. Sunday we do homework after sleeping late. This is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken by a “stop day.” This cycle, releases short-term and long-term hormones, meant to meet the stresses of everyday life. These hormones constantly keep us in the “fight or flight” mode and the continuous release of chemicals leads to depression and anxiety.  It’s as if you were given a large amount of adrenaline, which once it wears off leaves you completely exhausted. This is what we are doing to ourselves every day and the only way to stop it is to take a break. A real break, not the hour we take to watch our favorite show or the unavoidable nap we take once a week after school.

Dr. Sleeth believes that by taking a “stop day,” or stopping work for a day, we can reduce the amount of stress in everyday life and find that we really do have enough time to finish everything we need to. Snow days will then no longer seem like a God send and we can actually enjoy our breaks rather than just sleeping them away. Do you think a “stop day” is realistic for an IHA student? How effective do you think a “stop day” would be in terms of reducing stress and anxiety? Are there other ways to reduce stress and anxiety in our life, or is the answer really as simple as a taking a break?

New Year's Resolutions

        As we celebrated the New Year, we began to think about what our New Year's Resolution will be. Everyone usually comes up with an idea, but how many people are able to achieve their resolution? In the article "Solutions to Resolution Dilution," Sadie Dingfelder explores resolutions and ways in which we can stay true to them. 

       If you had to guess, what do you think that the top three resolutions are? According to the article, the goals to "lose weight, quit smoking and exercise regularly" are the top resolutions every year. All of these goals require people to change their behavior, so behavior psychologists use New Year's Resolutions as a way to study habits that help to change peoples behavior. The success of achieving your resolution does not depend on your goal, but instead on the actions you take. 

       In the article, psychology professor John Norcross shares the ways in which to have most success with your resolution. Some ways to be successful include "stimulus control--for example, avoiding a smoky bar after resolving to quit smoking--and reinforcement, or behaviorally contingent rewards," planning ahead of time, and avoid high-risk situations.  Norcross also stated that self-efficiency, " the belief that one can effect and maintain change" and the willingness to accept change helps to predict whether or not you will be able to complete your goal. 

     These behavior changing techniques are part of the transtheoretical model (TTM) of behavior change. I thought it was interesting how the behavior changing model used in clinical programs is also very applicable to self-initiated change. As I begin to work on my New Year's resolution, I am going to try to use some of the tactics mentioned in this article in order to achieve my goal. Norcross' research has concluded that "nearly 60 percent of people will drop their resolutions by the six-month mark, perhaps due to the persistence of old habits as well as reversion to earlier stages of behavior change." 

 What was your resolution this year? How will you achieve your goal? Do you think the techniques that Norcross discusses would work in order to help you achieve your goal? What other techniques can you think of to help achieve your goal?