Loretta Graziano Breuning's Blog, page 14
October 17, 2013
Are You Addicted to Empathy?
Empathy feels good because it stimulates your oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. But empathy is not always good in the long run. Automatic empathy can reinforce other people's negativity and your own negativity. It's hard to see an alternative because empathy has become synonymous with good. Here are suggestions for dealing with "the unreasonable empathy request."
September 27, 2013
Getting Past the Stress of Feeling Slighted
Social disappointment feels like a survival threat to the mammal brain. Cortisol surges and your brain zooms in on "evidence" that you've been slighted, wronged, neglected, disrespected, undervalued, and misjudged. You can escape this loop by diverting your attention if you do it long enough to build a new pathway.
September 14, 2013
Animals Compete and It's Not Always Pretty
Competition triggers strong feelings because it has life-or-death consequences in the state of nature. We've inherited a brain that cares about social rivalry. Instead of getting upset about it, I like to learn from hummingbirds. They live in a perpetual arms race with flowers, but they don't waste energy getting mad at flowers. They just keep strengthening their wings.
Animals compete and it's not always pretty
Competition triggers strong feelings because it has life-or-death consequences in the state of nature. We've inherited a brain that cares about social rivalry. Instead of getting upset about it, I like to learn from hummingbirds. They live in a perpetual arms race with flowers, but they don't waste energy getting mad at flowers. They just keep strengthening their wings.
Competition triggers a primal sense of threat
Competition triggers strong feelings because it has life-or-death consequences in the state of nature. Our brain cares about social rivalry. Instead of getting upset about it, I like to learn from hummingbirds. They live in a perpetual arms race with flowers, but they don't waste energy getting mad at flowers. They just keep strengthening their wings.
September 3, 2013
Confidence: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right
Too little confidence hurts you, but too much confidence may get you a bad reaction from others. It doesn't need to be so hard.
July 1, 2013
Every Day Is Independence Day, and Interdependence Day
The mammal brain evolved to meet individual needs while living in a group. Juggling both is not easy, but we're better at it than we realize.
May 21, 2013
Self-Harm in Animals: What We Can Learn From It
Some apes pull their own hair out and many animals have self-destructive habits. Stress doesn't explain it. The mammal brain evolved to manage stress by focusing on behaviors that get rewards. When self-destructive behaviors get rewarded, the mammal brain repeats them. We can help reshape behavior with closer attention to the behaviors we reward.
March 17, 2013
Four Common Obstacles That Interfere with Goal Setting
The first step to meeting goals is setting them carefully. Yet people often fail to do that. Here are four common obstacles that interfere with goal setting and ways to overcome them. Link your goals to your survival needs and you will achieve them.
Four common obstacles that interfere with goal setting
The first step to meeting goals is setting them carefully. Yet people often fail to do that. Here are four common obstacles that interfere with goal setting and ways to overcome them. Link your goals to your survival needs and you will achieve them.
