Elizabeth Anne Scott's Blog

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Because June is 'Rebuild Your Life Month', there's no better time than now to take a look at your life and the stressors in it, and make some changes!

It's true that much of our experience of stress lies in how we look at things--threat vs. challenge, external vs. internal locus of control, half-empty or half-full. However, if we have to many stressors in our lives--situations that routinely trigger the stress response--it may take constant effort to recover physically and emotionally...

One of my favorite discoveries from the field of psychology is that behaving a certain way can actually make us feel a certain way. During times of stress, I ...

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Watch CBS Videos Online

I once saw a very interesting piece from CBS News (embedded above) that tells of a project that one very optimistic and enterprising soul named Colette Hiller decided to take on: scattering 30 pianos in random public places around London. Their puropse? To inspire impromptu public sing-alongs among strangers. The goal? To foster goodwill and social bonding among the people in the city, who may need a pick-me-up because of the recession and other real-world stressors.

It...

Part of what inspired me to pursue the study of psychology and counseling is the experience of seeing people respond differently to the same situation: whether the circumstance is heavy ...

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I just read this somewhat shocking report on obesity: researchers have found that people who are overweight and obese are actually losing brain tissue and have brains that are aged prematurely!

"The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than their healthy counterparts while [those of] overweight people looked 8 years older," says UCLA neuroscientist Paul Thompson, senior author of a study published online in Human Brain Mapping. The study also found that clinically obese people...

Ever notice that when you're creating art, reading a great book, or playing music, time can seem to stand still and you can get lost in the moment, losing your ...

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I have favorite commercials that I actually look forward to seeing. One of them starts by showing someone doing a good deed for a stranger. A second stranger ...

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When I was a kid, my brother and I had a game: pretend we won the lottery, and dream about what we would do with the money. My brother would come up with practical things like expensive cars and luxury homes, while I would dream of swimming pools filled with gum balls, a rope swing made from real licorice, or a whole room filled with puppies to play with my yard full of horses. While our dreams were pretty different, our beliefs were the same: more money would equal more happiness. And...

Meditation is a powerful tool for stress relief and inner wellness. Far from being a fad, meditation has been shown to bring a host of unique benefits, which have made it not only a mainstream stress relief technique, but one that is prescribed by doctors with growing frequency.

Meditation is particularly helpful because it helps to relive stress in a few different ways. Meditation can bring short-term stress relief, reversing the body's stress response and thereby limiting the damage...

As I've mentioned before, stress management often takes a multi-pronged approach. While using one approach to stress management--such as breathing exercises, meditation, or skill development--can help to reduce overall ...

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