The emotion shame, humiliation for self-protection and social control, is an important innate emotion. There are different types of shame which correspond to activating different levels of helpful/not helpful behaviors which in turn impact our wellbeing: 1 Shame as in the primary emotion that is sound in the sense that it is adaptable making us…
This post continues on the theme of self-efficacy, our beliefs about our capability to perform specific tasks or actions, which can be influenced directly and also has an important impact on our psychological wellbeing. As noted in earlier posts, much research has been conducted on the 4 major psychological processes through which self-efficacy affects human…
What are the learnings according to research that actually makes anxiety decrease for what is feared? It is thought that during exposure people learn new associations with regard to what they fear. This new learning can overrule old learning such as a spontaneous fearful reactions. Hence, it is important to maximise the ways that new…
Today’s post is about important reflections to be made before and after an exposure. Important strategies to handle possible strong reactions during exposure are: – Regulate stress-level through mindful breathing and relaxation techniques, see earlier posts under stress on www.jennyrapp.com – Feel the feelings: which feelings, how strong, where do you feel the feeling in…
Here comes the fourth of five parts of the breathing anchor, an exercise using the breath as an anchoring point since our breath is always with us and hence can be used to anchor us in the present moment. This is a seated exercise of in total 5-10 minutes depending on pauses/pacing: …You may also…
Happiness research can according to wikiversity.org be summarized in 10 points. Here are the first 5 of those: 1. Having a proactive life which includes continuously setting positive goals and tasks. Proactive people are 15% more satisfied with their lives than more passive people. 2. Having an active life with regular physical activity keeps both…
Exposure is the main technique to constructively handle fears, i.e. with the aim to living the life you would like and not avoiding doing the things you would like to be able to do. There is research showing that the brain never erases things or situations that it has been afraid of, but instead keeps…
Here comes more details about how to make an exposure to overcome fears and avoidance behaviors. On Saturday, about the feeling fear, I will post important dimensions to consider before and after making an exposure. Remember: if you feel fragile or concerned, then these kinds of exercises are best done together with a licensed and…
There has been much research into the field of happiness since it is closely connected to perceived wellbeing. There are correlational findings about human happiness identified by psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the thought leaders within the field of positive psychology. He proposes the following 5 dimensions: 1. The importance of pleasures in daily life…
As mentioned in the last post, fear is a powerful, primitive and lifesaving emotion. Fear makes us aware of danger and entails important learning mechanisms. We avoid things we fear based on what we have been through and experienced. Phobias entails having an avoidant behaviour toward specific situations and items. Usually phobias are developed towards…