Using Music To Evoke Positive Emotions from Medical News Today

Music can evoke positive emotions, which in turn can lower the listener's stress levels. Everyday music listening is therefore a simple and effective way to enhance well-being and health, according to a new doctoral thesis in psychology from the University of Gothenburg.

The thesis is based partly on a survey study involving 207 individuals, partly on an intervention study where an experiment group consisting of 21 persons listened to self-chosen music for 30 minutes per day for two weeks while an equally sized control group got to relax without music.

The results of the studies show that positive emotions were experienced both more often and more intensively in connection with music listening. The experiment group did also perceive less stress and had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The more the participants in the survey study liked the music, the less stress they experienced.

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8 Ways To Become An Optimist from Huffington Post

Research suggests that people with a glass-half-full outlook are healthier than their pessimistic peers: They catch fewer colds, cope better with heart disease, and may even live longer.

Yet far too many of us assume that optimism is an inborn trait bestowed on a lucky few. That's a completely wrong assumption, says James Maddux, a professor of psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Can people learn to be optimists? "The answer is an indisputable yes," says Maddux.

He and other experts recommend the following:

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9 Ways To Stop Being Negative from Huffington Post

I was always fascinated by variations among people in how they respond to emotional events in their environment. This strikes me as the most important characteristic of emotion--we are all different. The unique emotional fingerprint we all have is what I call Emotional Style.

The Emotional Life of Your Brain [Hudson Street Press, $25.95] is about how and why people differ in their response to life's slings and arrows. Some people are resilient and recover quickly from adversity; others recover much more slowly. Some are able to savor and maintain positive emotion so they have a positive, optimistic outlook on life; others, not so much. Some people have excellent access to what their body is telling them about their own emotions (racing heart = fear or excitement, for instance), while others are less sensitive to such bodily cues. These are some of the differences in Emotional Style that I describe in my book.

Each Emotional Style emerges directly from more than 30 years of research on the neuroscience of emotion and, in particular, studies that have pinpointed the patterns of brain activity underlying each. They are not obvious styles such as personality types, though they can explain personality differences such as introversion/extraversion.

The latest neuroscience shows that while these styles are consistent over time they can be changed: we can change our brains by transforming our minds and behavior. Specific mental exercises, when practiced systematically over time, can lead to enduring changes in the structure and function of our brains and, as a result, alter different facets of our Emotional Style.

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Remember the Good Times from Nurse Together

After reading the horrific comments of many people who responded to the article, “The Long, Long, Nursing Career,” I felt impelled to respond. It was surprising to me that so many nurses look back upon their nursing careers with such distain. I stopped counting the number of nurses who stated they would never (no never) go through it all again if given the choice!

Reasons given for the negative responses varied from overwork, poor staffing, lack of appreciation and/or compensation by supervisors and administrators, to abuse by doctors, co-workers and the patients themselves. The list was long but the list was legitimate.

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Rethink. Redefine. Success

This week many physicians and medical professionals across the country will be watching the documentary, "Race to Nowhere" being screened on the occasion of National Sleep Awareness Week. The film casts a spotlight on the growing dissonance in the education system where students cram for tests with the aim of higher performance and achievement, and the quality of life of our young students is in jeopardy because of an academic load that is not directed towards educating the student as a whole.

It has become critical to create and nurture school policies and practices that prioritize not only student performance and health but also look at the importance of a child's overall development in light of perceived success. This challenge is a societal one, where the intense pressure for success has put tremendous strain on the vulnerable group of teens and young adults who -- when unable to cope with pressure -- take the step of ending their life.

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Nurses on the Job: The Wonders of Positive Affirmation from Nurse Together

As I was driving home through the city today I was distracted by all of the commotion outside. Tractor trailers were banging and clanging quickly past me. On the sidewalk, construction workers were shouting to one another, finishing up the day’s work. Loud noise, such as radios and car horns, were invading my quiet space. My thoughts were scattered and I was having a hard time concentrating on one thing at a time. My mind was racing from topic to topic. Then, I was suddenly reminded of a busy day on a nursing unit!

I know we all have experiences like these: getting interrupted while calculating medication dosages, being called to the telephone while in the middle of patient teaching or hearing a bed alarm then rushing away from talking to a family member about how their loved one is doing. This is the nature of our position as a nurse. We need to be in a million different places all at one time. We care for many people at the same time. We have so much to get done each day and so much responsibility on our shoulders that it can be a distracting role with its multiple facets and tasks. It can get a bit chaotic and quite exhausting at times!

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