Deep Dive: Lots more than I could put in a title
Interventions to Modify Psychological Well-Being: Progress, Promises, and an Agenda for Future Research - wherein scholars explore what it will take to scale mindfulness up from an individual practice to organizational or societal practice. “Here we summarize and build on the key insights from this convening, which were: (1) existing interventions should continue to be adapted to achieve a large-enough effect to result in downstream improvements in psychological functioning and health, (2) research should determine the durability of interventions needed to drive population-level and lasting changes, (3) a shift from individual-level care and treatment to a public-health model of population-level prevention is needed and will require new infrastructure that can deliver interventions at scale, (4) interventions should be accessible and effective in racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse samples. A discussion examining the key future research questions follows.”
Why Detransitioners Are Crucial to the Science of Gender Care - those who have had gender identity surgery and later want to detransition are met with anger. There are those in the scientific community who don’t want these regret voices heard. This is concerning all the way around.
Adam Grant on why he doesn’t like the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory - Yeah. The MBTI is non-responsive to criticism. But, that’s the least concerning problem. It’s basic assumptions about personality are flawed. Want real personality tests? Look to the Big Five (or is it now Six). Anyway, you can take them at these sites: Hexaco Personality Inventory, Hogan Personality Inventory, the International personality item pool representation of the NEO PI-R.
The US Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being - From a credible source, a plan for improving - well, heck - you can read it as well as I can type it. So, read it! Especially you Capitalists who only care about the bottom line and then scratch your head wondering why people don’t want to really work (for you).
The Exposome and Exposomics from the CDC - “Success in mapping the human genome has fostered the complementary concept of the “exposome”. The exposome can be defined as the measure of all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to health.” I’ll go ahead and add, exposomnomics, even if it hasn’t been stated yet because it’s only a matter of time. Exposomnomics would be the study of the costs related to exposures to exposome elements.
Legal and Liability Issues in Suicide Care from ZeroSuicide.edc.org - an excellent pdf with great information about suicide prevention. Some of the references are outdated in my opinion. But, still this document merits careful scrutiny. I especially like the assessment list. Lots of great thought ticklers there. [[notes/Suicide]]
Molecules of Silence: Effects of Meditation on Gene Expression and Epigenetics - On the epigenetic benefits of [[notes/Meditation]].
Waiting, Thinking, and Feeling: Variations in the Perception of Time During Silence - A quote from the abstract: Silence was judged to significantly increase relaxation, improve mood states, and alter the perception of time and the orientation toward the present moment. We controlled for influences of trait variables, such as impulsivity, mindfulness, daydreaming, and time perspective. Findings empirically demonstrate that exposure to silence can be effective in therapeutic and educational contexts to promote relaxation and well-being. #silence #noise [[notes/Silence]]
The Emotional Life of Animals—And What It Means for Us - (you should consider supporting the Greater Good Science Center, the source of many great, free articles like this one) - from the article headline: Rather than debate how smart animals are, we should care for them because of their capacity to feel—and perhaps even have spiritual lives.
Personal transformation can start with a whisper, not a bang- great quote: Two key ingredients of mental autonomy are freedom from immediacy and freedom from repetition. These are at work in large-scale personal transformations, but also in our stream of consciousness, which is how whispers can become transformative. Read the article for more insight into personal transformation.
The Narrative Fallacy: The Story of Your Life is Most Likely a Sham- yeah, well, the author is right. But, let’s not limit it to what we tell ourselves. Let’s go ahead and say that the story we tell others about ourselves is most likely a sham. When I participate in new employee interviews and we ask them to tell us a story about an event in their life, two things are likely true: 1) they want a job and 2) they will do what is necessary to get a job. Add a probable third truth into the mix - if they want the job badly enough they will say what they need to get it - and you have a combustible combination of something ranging from self-delusion to full-blown lies. No wonder a significant percentage of people leave after less than a year. If only we had a moral tricorder (just for you friends of Star Trek) that could help us ferret out the truth. #Bias #fallacies [[Ethics]]
Is Buddhism a Religion? - Buddhism as religion is a big hoopla in the mindfulness circles in which I travel. The Buddhists want you to treat it with the respect you’d give any religion. The rabid atheists insist it’s a religion. They want to put Buddhism into an atheist blender and have religion-free meditation come dribbling out. I’d like not to be required to embrace Buddhist history, practices, and religious trappings in order to practice mindful meditation. But, I don’t believe it’s possible - our even appropriate - to try to create a Buddhist-free mindfulness Coke. Why should we have to? All these fundamentalists… Pfft
And now for fundamentalism of a different kind. The [Humanist Chaplaincy Network](https://www.humanistchaplains.org] describes itself thusly: A Humanist Chaplain offers pastoral care for anyone who does not subscribe to a particular religion. They provide a friendly ear, emotional support and advice from a humanist perspective. * I’ve spent my career as a professional chaplain trying to persuade people they can access my care whether they are religious or not and that I will help them draw on whatever resources give them strength. If they believe that Christian faith will give them strength then I’ll share my Christian beliefs with them. Ultimately, though, my moral commitment is not to sell them on any faith belief: it’s to help them locate and appropriate the beliefs and practices they want and need. So, I can’t imagine limiting my services only to Christians. Why would Humanist Chaplains find it necessary to limit their care to *anyone who does not subscribe to a particular religion? Or, perhaps they just phrased it wrong?