Ice cream is delicious. But it’s also a direct line to daydreams and memories—of leisure, of afternoons in the sun, of the excitement you felt as a 5-year-old meeting the ice-cream truck as it rolled down your street. In 2017, the culture writer Matt Siegel noted an Austrian study that found that “only ice cream lowered the human startle response in men and women (at least when ingested by syringe), whereas chocolate and yogurt did not produce statistically significant outcomes across genders.” This suggests that the comfort of ice cream goes much deeper than “the physiological effects of sugar, fat, temperature, and perceived sweetness,” Siegel writes. “The phenomenon, it appears, is largely psychological.” The writer Margaret Visser argues that ice cream evokes two kinds of nostalgia: one for childhood memories, which recall that feeling of comfort, and the other for “Elsewhere”—summer vacations, beaches, whatever elsewhere means to the rememberer in question. The psychological benefits of ice cream were so ingrained in America’s consciousness by World War II that in 1945, the U.S. Navy spent $1 million to convert a barge into a floating ice-cream factory that was towed around the Pacific, distributing ice cream to ships so troops could enjoy it. Source: Why Is Ice Cream So Easy to Love?
One Incredibly Cool Fact about the Brain
The cool thing? Neuroplasticity. Go to the source for more: One Incredibly Cool Fact about the Brain.
Why Your Pandemic Fatigue Is At an All-Time High (Even as Cases Dwindle)
I’m a psychiatrist and I’m exhausted, too. Source: Why Your Pandemic Fatigue Is At an All-Time High (Even as Cases Dwindle)
Needless Angers: Can They Be Eliminated?
Anger poisons relationships, yet anger can easily become a too-frequent habit. Learn more here: Needless Angers: Can They Be Eliminated?
What 20 Seconds of Hugging Can Do for You
National Hugging Day is January 21. Prepare yourself by reviewing the benefits of hugging here: What 20 Seconds of Hugging Can Do for You
How to Be Resilient in an Overwhelming World
“The key to cultivating internal calm amidst ever-present stress. Hacking our brain begins with a clear knowledge of the three executive systems that run our cognitive processing. We’ll refer to them as the first executive (amygdala, fear response), second executive (frontal-parietal lobe, logic, and problem-solving), and third executive (DMN, empathy, and self-awareness). This control panel of sorts gives us a comprehensive view of the ways that our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings interact at any given moment.” Go to the source: How to Be Resilient in an Overwhelming World
Why do we have thoughts we don’t want?
Have you ever had the unexpected urge to jump from a bridge or other high place? If so, you are far from alone: Psychology Today
Exercise Habits: Build Them When It’s Good
Build exercise habits when it’s good so they stick when it’s bad: Exercise Habits: Build Them When It’s Good