Purification and redemption are such recurrent themes in ritual because there is a clear and ubiquitous need for them: we all do regrettable things as a result of our own circumstances, and new ritual...
If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent.
There's nothing more exciting than ideas.
But when the group is literally capable of changing our perceptions, and when to stand alone is to activate primitive, powerful, and unconscious feelings of rejection, then the health of these institu...
This would not have come as news to Jason Fried, cofounder of the web application company 37signals. For ten years, beginning in 2000, Fried asked hundreds of people (mostly designers, programmers, an...
Consider that the simplest social interactions between two people requires performing an astonishing array of tasks: interpreting what the other person is saying; reading body language and facial expr...
The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings.
[P]arents need to step back from their own preferences and see what the world looks like to their quiet children.
Yet today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable.
High-reactive kids who enjoy good parenting, child care, and a stable home environment tend to have fewer emotional problems and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show.
The trick for introverts is to honor their styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.
It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world.
Many shy people turn inward, partly as a refuge from the socializing that causes them such anxiety. And many introverts are shy, partly as a result of receiving the message that there’s something wron...
I was the nicest person you'd ever want to know, Alex recalls, but the world wasn't that way. The problem was that if you were just a nice person, you'd get crushed. I refused to live a life where peo...
Conversely, high-reactive children may be more likely to develop into artists and writers and scientists and thinkers because their aversion to novelty causes them to spend time inside the familiar—an...
When your conscientiousness impels you to take on more than you can handle, you begin to lose interest, even in tasks that normally engage you. You risk your physical health. 'Emotional labor,' which...
Some animals carry their shelter wherever they go. Some humans are just the same.
Shyness is about the fear of social judgments - at a job interview or a party you might be excessively worried about what people think of you. Whereas an introvert might not feel any of those things a...
Functional, moderate guilt, writes Kochanska, may promote future altruism, personal responsibility, adaptive behavior in school, and harmonious, competent, and prosocial relationships with parents, te...
Ask your child for information in a gentle, nonjudgmental way, with specific, clear questions. Instead of How was your day? try What did you do in math class today? Instead of Do you like your teacher...