Here are 3 brief videos about stress. They are short and straight to the point, so i highly recommend watching them to give you an idea about stress. These videos provide information on what stress is, what causes stress and how to cope with it.... Read More

Motivation is something that a lot of people, including myself, lack. It doesn’t come easy and it is something that can hold us back from achieving our true potential. I am often in awe of the few students at university who sit at the front of the lecture theatre, record all the lectures, attend all the tutorials, and have their assignments finished a week early. But how do they do it and how do I become just as motivated as them? It’s that time of semester where I should be working on assignments but I just can’t seem to motivate myself to do some work. So in the name of self interest, I asked my friends what motivates them and here I have comprised a list of their responses.... Read More

Being in a relationship is not easy. It requires effort and devotion to keep that romantic flare and interest there. Sometimes we get lazy and take it for granted. We stop making that extra effort to please our partners and the relationship becomes hollow. It turns into what is known as companionship love, where two people are together just for the company and they become more like friends. Most people see this companionship love as a natural progression in a long term relationship, but a review of existing research suggests that this depletion of romance in a relationship can make people unhappy and dissatisfied with their relationship and themselves in general.... Read More

We live in a time where the choices that are provided to us are almost infinite. The choices of where to live, what to study, where to work, what occupation to persue and what product to choose can sometimes be overwhelming and it can make deciding which option to choose very hard. There are different strategies we can undergo that help us make a decision. But because of the endless amount of options provided to us, there are some of us (maximisers) who like to make the most of that and need to invesitigate all possibilities, whereas others (satisficers) are content with the first option they stumble upon that satisfies them. But what effect can this decision making process have on our general life satisfaction? Are maximisers happier because they find the best possible option, or are satisficers happier because they spend less time agonising over the decision? Barry Schwartz and colleagues provide the answer to these questions.... Read More

Site Map I am a musician. Although i don’t study music, I spend one night a week playing in a community brass band. Along with being a musician comes a lot of fear. For example, last week the girl I sit next to (I will call her R) was about to play a solo that she has in one of the pieces. She leaned in to me and said, “Trudy, I’m scared”. I asked her why she should possibly be scared and she said, “I’m scared I won’t be good enough.” She was afraid because that night was the first of a new player in the band.  This new member plays the same instrument and consequently the same music as us but she happens to be studying music at university and is obviously very accomplished on her instrument. Basically R was afraid that she wouldn’t play the solo good enough and the conductor would give the solo to the new and more accomplished player, eventhough R had played the solo well about 20 times.  This situation made me question the purpose of fear. Why is it that we fear things that can’t do us any physical harm? Does fear really do us any good?... Read More

Put aside the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because recent reports suggest that it is in the brain of the beholder.  I’m talking about the difference between men and women and the way they interpret beauty. Have you ever noticed a difference in the way males describe and see beauty from the way that women do? Perhaps you’ve noticed that women have a tendency to talk about and describe what they see as beautiful, whereas men silently admire the beauty in what they see. A recent report suggests that this difference lies in the brain processes that occur when we look at an object.... Read More

If you are having a long conversation on the phone, do you just sit still and enjoy the sounds of the voice on the other end of the phone, or do you seek out a pen and a piece of paper and start drawing cute little pictures or shapes? This action, commonly known as doodling, is something that many of us do when we are involved in a phone conversation. Personally I am the Doodle Queen. I work in a call centre and by the end of my shift, I always have to throw 3 pieces of paper in the bin as they are always filled with my pointless pictures and scribbles.  Despite the pen scribble that I do, I always seem to be able to carry a perfectly fluent conversation with the respondant on the other line. This mindless act that we all seem to carry out when listening to another person talk actually has benefits and a purpose.... Read More

Do you ever walk down the street and wonder about all the people walking past you? Why are they all here and where have they come from? What is their life story? I often do. I try to figure people out in my head; what makes them tick? Each person is different and that’s what makes it exciting. Thinking about other people and watching them live their lives is something i do to escape from the reality of my own life. I use it as a technique to unwind and release myself from anything that troubles my mind. Occupying my mind with something totally unrelated to my own life, is surprisingly refreshing. But why?... Read More

As children we are given the impression that our intelligence is a fixed characteristic that will not change throughout our lives. I don’t know about you all, but as a child I worked extremely hard at school as I thought that if I failed at school, it meant I was dumb and that I would fail at everything else in my life. What I was not told as a child, was that there are simple steps and activities you can take that will improve your intelligence, or IQ.  That is why I have done some research and compiled a list of steps you can take to improve your IQ and intelligence more generally.  So next time you take a dreaded IQ test and don’t get a very promising score, don’t throw away your dreams. Because just like anything else you want to succeed in; it’s about practise and training.... Read More

Sex is something we all do for fun. But could it do more for us than just making us feel good physically? Could there also be an emotional component to sex that we are not aware of? It is often said that sex with your partner will strengthen your relationship, and make you feel closer to one another. I often wondered how much truth there was to this belief. Because I don’t believe everything I’m told, I ignored it. Until @jobucks referred me to a link through twitter. From this link, I found numerous studies that suggest that sex affects us in more ways than one.... Read More