Relationships
The Cost of Connection Do you feel lost without your smartphone, or find yourself desperate to take a peek at Facebook during dinner? MiNDFOOD’s resident psychologist advises how you can take control of your relationship with technology. At a recent dinner for school friends, the conversation turned to how technology has influenced our lives and…
Traditionally the best way to deal with workplace bullying was to find a job elsewhere, unfair as that may seem. We find out if this is still the best advice. Most of us like to believe we live in a just world. A world where good triumphs over evil and the bad guys are punished.…
The room is packed, there is a palpable tension. Out the front is a man in a loud suit and a louder voice scanning the crowd. ‘Do I hear $700,000?’ he asks. ‘$700,000!’ comes the reply. The auctioneer acknowledges the bid with a flourish. In the world of relationship research, bids of a different type…
Hearing Voices In Your Head Hearing voices is conventially bound up with the notion of “craziness” or losing your mind. Our resident psychologist speaks to Debra Lampshire, who is a long-time hearer of voices, in an effort to understand and correct some of the prevalent myths. When we hear that someone has “gone mad”, we…
Making new friends in adulthood often isn’t as simple as it was in childhood. MiNDFOOD looks at how to cultivate new friendships, the grown-up way. “The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep…
Deepening Dependence Dependence is often seen as a dirty word, associated with the “needy” and the emotionally unstable. But looking into research on what really helps people become happy, successful and, importantly, independent, we may need to turn this idea on its head. Tom’s partner Amy, who like Tom is in her early 30s, has…
Clean Break Breaking up is never easy and social media often makes the experience worse. MiNDFOOD’s resident psychologist gives advice on how to part ways in the digital age. It’s a Saturday night and you’re staying in, alone. You know the feeling. The dull ache in your heart, the longing for someone who understands you.…
How many times this week have you heard yourself saying “I’m stressed?” Chances are when you said it, you were trying to convey something about a state you didn’t like and didn’t think was good for you: maybe a tense neck and shoulders, maybe a racing mind, maybe difficulty sleeping. But what if everything you…
Let it out or let it be: Why the cathartic approach to anger management doesn’t work. “I’ve had one hell of a day – first someone reversed into my car, my colleagues hadn’t done what they promised at work on our project and took no responsibility, and as I was racing to watch the kids…
Inequality plagues many societies. Our resident psychologist looks at how putting others down, or being put down ourselves, contributes to society’s malaise. When we think of inequality, we might tend to think of “big” examples such as the fight for civil rights in the United States, apartheid in South Africa, or the subjugation of…