Never Be Defeated, Redux
Photo: vanGalenMarco A young violin prodigy was walking down the street one day trying to decide whether or not to pursue a life in music when he came upon the most famous violin teacher in the world....
View ArticleThe Real Reason Couples Decide They’re Incompatible
Photo: hang_in_there It may be obvious, but like most wisdom we think we know but which we understand only intellectually, it bears repeating: no two people are the same. We all have different...
View ArticleYour Neighbor Is An Alcoholic, Redux
Photo: peteSwede My patient smiled a toothless grin and told me, “I feel fine, doc.” But he was far from it. His liver enzymes had risen into the thousands, his skin was a pasty yellow I didn’t need...
View ArticleHow To Ensure You’re (Almost) Always Right
Photo: TRF_Mr_Hyde “Facts that challenge basic assumptions—and thereby threaten people’s livelihood and self-esteem—are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them.” —Daniel Kahneman There are...
View ArticleHow To Trigger Others To Trigger The Best In You
Photo: mikejmartelli In a previous post, How To Pull Good Things Out Of Others, I wrote (to paraphrase): “Who we are turns out to be largely a function of who we’re with. Have you ever noticed, for...
View ArticleWhat Compassion Is, Redux
Photo: pedrosimoes7 Several years ago, I was out walking my son in his stroller (he was somewhere around six months old) when a homeless woman approached me asking for money. I’d seen her before in the...
View ArticleHow To Become Mindful
Photo: Tim Sheerman-Chase Research shows numerous benefits to meditation: it reduces stress, increases positive emotion, and even treats acute pain. Commonly, meditation involves focusing on one’s...
View ArticleMagical Thinking, Redux
Photo: Bohman One of my patients suffers from chronic constipation due to irritable bowel syndrome. During the twenty years since she was first diagnosed, her symptom pattern has remained remarkably...
View ArticleAn Alternative to Willpower for Losing Weight
Photo: flossyflotsam A common belief, even among doctors, is that almost no one succeeds in losing weight in the long term. And for almost two decades, I’ve counted myself among the skeptics, being...
View ArticleHow To Remember Things, Redux
Photo: quapan I once came up with a metaphor I thought perfectly captured the sheer mass of material my classmates and I were expected to memorize in our first two years of medical school: it was like...
View ArticleWhy You’re Stronger Than You Think
Photo: jurvetson You are far more resilient than you think. In his book Stumbling on Happiness Daniel Gilbert argues persuasively that most of us consistently overestimate the negative impact of...
View ArticleThe Double-Edged Sword Of Attachment, Redux
Photo: Snake3yes Several years ago, my then 15-month-old son developed a fever to 103.5 F. Usually a champion sleeper, that night he woke several times with a frenetic look in his eyes and a jerkiness...
View ArticleHow To Reset Your Happiness Set Point
Photo: puuikibeach The set-point theory of happiness suggests that our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits ingrained in us early in life and as...
View ArticleHow To Be A Leader, Redux
Photo: pedrosimones7 In 2001, just as I was about to take over as Medical Director of Primary Care at the University of Chicago, I expressed reservations to a previous Director about my ability to run...
View ArticleA Clinical Psychologist For President
Photo: Sharon Mollerus Of all the different criteria people use when deciding for whom to vote in presidential elections, I’ve never heard anyone talk about the importance of a background in clinical...
View ArticleThe Three Realms Of Confidence, Redux
In 1979, as I was about to enter seventh grade, my parents moved our family from one suburb of Chicago to another where we soon discovered anti-Semitism ran rampant. Changing schools for any boy of...
View ArticleThe Importance Of Maintaining Consistent Boundaries
Photo: Daquella manera A few weeks ago my wife, my son, and I went out for dinner. My son, though usually well-behaved and pleasant, was boisterous and disruptive, alternately leaping off his seat to...
View ArticleTruth In Body Language
Photo: Drake 42 We all give ourselves away every minute of every day. That is, we broadcast our true intentions, feelings, and even thoughts without knowing it through our body language, tone, and...
View ArticleThe Secret To Achieving Anything You Want
Photo: Nickolai Kashirin Evolution may have been wise in programming us all to avoid pain (given the survival advantage it clearly provides), but one important “unintended” consequence of that...
View ArticleHow To Manage Your Partner’s Bad Moods
Photo: Brad Fults As with most things in life, romantic relationships are, for many of us, a double-edged sword: while most find it wonderful to love and be loved, developing intimate emotional ties to...
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