Tag Archives: Psychology

The World Became Much Less Abundant in 2021

From 2020 to 2021, the global resource abundance plummeted. The drop of 22.6% was double the previous most significant one year drop of 11.3% in 2010. While this highlights the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic globally, look at how our current value is still 448.5% higher than it was in 1980: Yes, it isContinue reading “The World Became Much Less Abundant in 2021”

Why Do We Not Celebrate the Positives?

Recently, an article released in The Age newspaper was titled “Dip in thefts, drugs and family violence but police say drop in crime may not last”. In 2021, the number of recorded offences in Victoria, Australia, dropped by 12.6% over the previous year. As a result, the police recorded 70,000 fewer offences. It was theContinue reading “Why Do We Not Celebrate the Positives?”

Would You Prefer to Enjoy Your Life Now, or Wait Until You Are Retired?

Recently, my girlfriend has been sharing some videos of people who follow the FIRE principle with me. FIRE is an acronym that stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. Some people describe FIRE as a financial movement involving frugality and extreme savings and investments. To do this, you work hard, save up to 70% of yourContinue reading “Would You Prefer to Enjoy Your Life Now, or Wait Until You Are Retired?”

Can You Improve Your Gratitude?

Out of the 24 possible character strengths in the VIA Character Strengths Survey, only five are strongly associated with satisfaction with life. People with hope, zest, gratitude, curiosity and the ability to love and be loved as their top strengths seem to have higher life satisfaction. Gratitude has never been a strength of mine. EveryContinue reading “Can You Improve Your Gratitude?”

Is Vanuatu the Happiest Country in the World?

The latest Happy Planet Index puts Vanuatu second in the world in terms of sustainable well-being. To determine a country’s score on the Happy Planet Index, they look at a country’s well-being, multiplied by their life expectancy and then divided by their ecological footprint. The only country with a better Happy Planet Index score isContinue reading “Is Vanuatu the Happiest Country in the World?”

The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19

Initially, the pandemic had a significant and negative impact on our mental health. Here is some data that looked at self-reported levels of distress, anxiety, and depression across the USA in 2020: As you can see, anxiety, depression and distress all spiked in March and April but remained relatively consistent from June 2020 to JanuaryContinue reading “The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19”

What Qualities Do You Try to Teach Your Children?

Deep in the World Values Survey results, there are some really interesting findings to me based on how people from each country answered questions. Some of the most fascinating ones were around values that parents consider important in trying to pass on to their children. There were 11 values that parents were asked about, andContinue reading “What Qualities Do You Try to Teach Your Children?”

How to Predict Whether or Not a Couple Will Break Up

John Gottman is a legendary relationship researcher. He began using “The Love Lab” as his research centre at the University of Washington in 1986. Here, he would have couples stay in the apartment at The Love Lab, and watch as they bring up an old topic that they would typically fight about. During this conflict,Continue reading “How to Predict Whether or Not a Couple Will Break Up”

What if Being a Therapist is Unhealthy?

The Oura ring that I use to track my health gives me three primary scores every day. When I wake up, I receive a readiness score, a sleep score and an activity level score from the day before. All of these are out of 100, with the higher daily score perceived as better.  To achieveContinue reading “What if Being a Therapist is Unhealthy?”