When CAMRA, the UK real ale campaign group, decided to ban beers with sexist names and labels from the Great British Beer Festival this summer

Ever heard the saying "3 steps forward and two steps back"? Of course you have! Well there's more than that. All universal activity, including human endeavor, occurs in excess and must be corrected.

Many of us believe we can do two things at once. We try it every day even though our limitations are obvious.

For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs to eat and to have jobs, they need to learn how to work.

There has always been an interest in how the name of a thing affects our interpretation of it.

Multitasking has traditionally been perceived as a woman’s domain. A woman, particularly one with children, will routinely be juggling a job and running a household

At the end of the day we’re all looking for magic. This includes the ability to affect change, sometimes miraculous change, in our lives at will. Energy wants to move and flow, and once you start to listen to it and tune in, it will take you on amazing journeys.

There have been plenty of claims about what being left-handed means, and whether it changes the type of person someone is – but the truth is something of an enigma.

Hypersanity’ is not a common or accepted term. But neither did I make it up. I first came across the concept while training in psychiatry, in The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise (1967) by R D Laing.

Dishonesty diminishes a person’s ability to read others’ emotions, or “interpersonal cognition,” according to new research.

When we are in the throes of a “breaking open,” it can be hard to know where we are and what is happening. When the ground beneath our feet is shifting and everything around us seems to be changing, we may even feel like we no longer recognize the world around us. So a first step is to find some clarity about where we are now and “what wants to happen” next.

"Confidence is the necessary spark before everything that follows," says educator and activist Brittany Packnett. In an inspiring talk, she shares three ways to crack the code of confidence

Students – whether at university or school – can get help from many places.  They can go to a tutor, parent, teacher, a friend or consult a textbook.

When the film Wonder Woman was released, it joined the blockbuster ranks of other comic book-inspired film franchises, including Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and X-Men. But that’s not just because it features a sword-wielding Gal Gadot in knee-high boots and a metal bodice.

Like to work in a noisy environment while your colleague prefers silence? It could be your brain is simply less “noisy” so this extra, external noise improves your cognitive functioning.

Feeling “burnt out” is a pretty common phrase in daily parlance, but we’re starting to learn more about its longer-term destructive effects. 

A question that often arises is "How do we know what is right for us?" How do we find our 'proper' place in life, whether we are talking about employment, living location, vacation spot, etc? It seems that whatever the question, the solution is always the same...

Unlike the Paleolithic woman, the 21st-century human has a higher brain designed for transcendence. Newer areas of her brain, when awakened, can fill her with gratitude and awe and wonder at this marvelous world. However, her new brain is rarely if ever awake because the unconscious lower brain that is trying to unconsciously protect her from falsely perceived danger in her world, is eating her alive!

People faced with more options than they can effectively consider want to make a good decision, but feel unable to do so, according to a new study.

Kakenya Ntaiya turned her dream of getting an education into a movement to empower vulnerable girls and bring an end to harmful traditional practices in Kenya. Meet two students at the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a school where girls can live and study safely...

People commented on our laughs and even suggested we record them. When people were around either one of us, they just had to laugh. We researched laughter, presented talks at health shows, went to humor workshops and conferences. We were inspired by Dr. Madan Kataria, who founded the laughter clubs in India.

Peer approval is the best indicator of the tendency for new college students to drink or smoke, even if they don’t want to admit it, according to a new study.

When we stand up and lovingly assert ourselves, we feel joy. We feel virtuous and good because we are following our inner wisdom. However, if  we have unexpressed sadness this leads to us feeling small and unimportant, and consequently acting passive. When we feel reticent to speak up and act, it is a sign that we are compensating...

You'll never have good self-esteem if you have negative thoughts about yourself. Self-esteem is merely feeling good about yourself, and when you do so, you develop confidence. Confidence then builds self-esteem -- each step feeds upon the other...

One hears a lot about nurturing... nurturing one's self, nurturing loved ones, children, etc. I have been advised many times in my life to pay more attention to myself, and to nurture myself. Not feeling  too clear at one time about what that meant (since I had never learned how to nurture myself), I asked...

The physical body is a biological robot. This biological robot is under the control of the Computer Brain. There is absolutely nothing that is outside of our actions and our thoughts that is outside the relationship between the biological computer and your body. Your body does everything your brain commands it to do.

Have you had a less-than-stellar performance review lately? Do you daydream, or are you making bad decisions?

When I ask clients who face a difficult situation, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” they usually have a well-prepared list of possible dark outcomes. When I ask, “What’s the best thing that could happen?” they usually take a while to think of an answer. They are so practiced in pessimism that optimism hasn’t crossed their mind.

Realistic hope enables us to believe that we can cope with what lies ahead and gives us the courage to step into the unknown. Without being prepared to take a risk, we don’t make new discoveries about ourselves or what it means to be a human being, nor can we find the fulfillment and happiness we long for.

My childhood perceptions were part of a narrative I call the Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology: to conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society.

The bummer about 'shoulds' is that when we are dominated by them, we are also dominated by the fear of being rejected or abandoned in some way, because that's the core emotional fear that activates many of them. These ongoing fears leave many of us drained and exhausted...

Set in a fictional firm in New York, the TV series Suits glamorises the life of lawyers working in a modern corporate firm

Companies moving to a pay-for-performance process may lead to an increase the number of employees taking anxiety and depression medication, according to a new study.

It is no accident that you are working in your present organization or that you are working with and for the people you do. All of this has been arranged by you -- by your Higher Self -- to give you as many opportunities as possible to learn and to grow spiritually.

Ask yourself, "Who do I pretend to be?" Sometimes we become so immersed in who we think we are -- or who others imagine us to be -- that we begin to identify with the mask that we wear as we weave our way through the world.If we come to believe that we are our mask, then...

Perhaps you’re feeling a little chaotic in your mind — or worrying about everything and losing sight of what is important and what isn’t. Hands up then, everyone! It is a very likely state for a lot of us as we can often feel that a lot of demands are put on us.

Herding behavior can make us “individually smarter, but collectively dumber,” according to new research on how people make forecasts in a group.

Personal Power comes from within, from a strong and healthy sense of self. Your personal power includes several components: your self-esteem, how good you feel about yourself; your independence, how well you can decide on your own what is right for you to do; and your initiative...

With this body, I’ve discovered I’m able to deliver into this world a virtually infinite spectrum of creative energy – from love, joy, creativity, beauty, sensuality, passion, intimacy; to sorrow, fear, pain, horror, despair and suffering. The choice of what to deliver is ever mine.

In my past experience as an academic adviser, it was difficult to explain to a disappointed family why their child did not make an admissions cut-off when the student’s overall high school average was over 80 per cent.

Kindness towards people means being considerate, friendly and generous. The opposite to kindness is intentionally causing harm. The Process rewards us for deeds of kindness, and corrects us for deeds of harm. There are always consequences for our actions.

Love them or hate them, traffic laws exist to keep people safe and to help vehicles flow smoothly. And while they aren’t legally enforceable, pedestrian traffic also tends to follow its own set of unwritten rules.

We’ll never have enough time. Paradoxically, understanding that concept allows us the potential to enjoy the time we have. Treat time as a resource – don’t waste it feeling sorry for yourself.

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life – money, power, jobs, university admission – should be distributed according to skill and effort.

Have any of you noticed that sometimes when you try to create something, certain obstacles will come up which question exactly what you're trying to create? I've wondered if this is some kind of test, you know, to see how bad I really want the creation.

Before smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices, people used to work hard at their jobs, but then come home to relax. Workaholism has always existed, but now in the communication age, people can now work from anywhere, night or day...

The soundtrack of our lives and the visual landscapes of our cities are multilingual. Languages, in their plurality, enrich our experience of the world and our creative potential.

Which is better for a teen who can’t get the recommended amount of rest: just 6.5 hours of sleep at night, or 5 hours at night plus a nap in the afternoon?

I always found spirituality, the disciplines of meditation and silence, very simple. My challenge was between activity and stillness. I always got off on the adrenaline trip of being active. That's why I've traveled around so much.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are loaded with pictures of people going to exotic places, looking like they are about to be on the cover of Vogue, and otherwise living a fairy-tale existence.

Whether you’re a morning person or love burning the midnight oil, we’re all controlled by so-called “body clocks”.

As a koan teaching tells us, “To touch the absolute is not yet enlightenment.” When these moments come, there is a tendency to think, “Aha, I’ve got it!” Yet, just as on one level this gratifying thought fills us with a sense of accomplishment and empowerment, on another level we can already feel it slipping away, as the moment passes...

You have probably seen the cartoon sketch that depicts stress as 'the overwhelming urge to choke the living #@*% out of someone who desperately deserves it'. While that depiction may be true, it certainly is not the only form of stress.

Life is a challenge. Utilizing your capabilities, pushing to become all you might be, is a relentless dare. But when you are alive, that is the homework that has been assigned to you. Regardless of the variety of "wings on your heart," the issue is the same for everyone. Push to...

People consume far less information than expected before making judgments and decisions, a new study finds.

Decision-making is a complex process. As individuals, working through our daily lives, we often take a number of shortcuts that may not always serve us well.

A mark on a page, an online meme, a fleeting sound. How can these seemingly insignificant stimuli lead to acts as momentous as participation in a racist rally or the massacre of innocent worshippers?

Much of the advice about getting rid of clutter seems to start with the cheerfully abrupt command to “Just do it!” But when you can’t identify the underlying beliefs that are causing you to become buried in clut­ter, that’s almost impossible. So I’ve listed a few tough-love strategies to initiate change...

Boredom is not a condition; it is an attitude. Anything can be boring if you bring a closed mind to it. Anything can be fascinating if you bring an open mind to it. You can make anything out of anything.

We're all carrying around such incredibly heavy loads of excess baggage, stuff we don't need, stuff that's weighing us down and preventing our Good from manifesting. One of the best ways to feel better is to release. When you release, you become lighter. Releasing is a good way to raise your energy.

It is generally accepted that underlying neurological aspects, such as slight differences in brain structure, can change the way that dyslexic people process information, and this affects the behaviour they might display.

The story of Canadian speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes, the first ever Olympian to win multiple medals in both the summer and winter games, is a story of triumph over adversity.

NBA players who use Twitter or other forms of social media late at night don’t perform as well on the court the next day, a new study shows. A player’s shooting percentage was 1.7 percentage points lower following a night during which he tweeted during typical sleeping hours. Late-night tweeting was also associated with approximately 1.1 fewer points scored and 0.5 fewer rebounds in the next day’s game.

I know some of you, myself included, feel that lessons must be painful to be appreciated or remembered. Contrary to popular belief, not all lessons have to be painful. Some can even be fun. It's all in the 'moral to the story'. Life gives us wonderful examples to follow ... allow me to illustrate.

It seems that to some extent, we really are as young as we feel. But how do we know which is the chicken and the egg? Are people who feel younger simply healthier to start with or are they so keen on being young that they actually take better care of themselves and therefore live longer?

The current approach today is essentially we’ve entered into a culture of freneticism—that’s a Big Think word, and that means we’re really busy. But I believe we’ve created the business on ourselves.

At this time of year, many of us delight in the extra hour of sleep that comes with turning the clocks back. However, when spring rolls around, we invariably curse the loss of sleep that accompanies setting the clocks forward.

Everyone knows what it’s like to be knocked off center, to lose their inner sense of balance and groundedness, at least temporarily, when faced with life’s unwanted curve balls. Whether it’s a troubling health diagnosis, the death of a loved one, a serious car accident, a layoff, or a natural disaster, life can intensely challenge our resilience.

Talk to high-school students preparing for their science exams, and you’ll probably hear two things: that they’re scared of physics, and relatively comfortable with biology. Strangely, this is contrary to the view of most researchers.

Being passive developed as a pattern for a really good reason -- we were avoiding feeling our emotions (especially sadness) and had to find some place to channel the sensations we were experiencing. Maybe dad was a tyrant and we felt like we had no choice but to be quiet and duck. Maybe our classmates laughed at us when we made a mistake, and we decided being shy was safer.

Whether you were born in December, January, August or September can have a significant and long-lasting impact on your life. Our new research shows your birthday month may also contribute to shaping your personality. In particular, we found people’s self-confidence can significantly differ because of their month of birth.

Roger Fisher (1922–2012) served as a reconnaissance pilot in World War II and then graduated from Harvard Law School, becoming a professor there in 1958. Witnessing maiming and death firsthand during the war and then seeing the destructive effects of costly, pro­tracted litigation as a partner in a major law firm, Fisher was pas­sionate about finding more creative alternatives to resolve conflict.

Mention hazardous drinking and most of us imagine teenagers or students getting drunk, causing havoc and filling our emergency departments on a Friday night. But what if I told you that we should be just as worried about how much our parents and grandparents are drinking?

Most people think they know what a psychopath is: someone who has no feelings. Someone who probably tortured animals for fun when they were little. But here are five things you probably didn’t know about psychopaths.

The term give-up-itis was coined by medical officers during the Korean War (1950-1953). They described it as a condition where a person develops extreme apathy, gives up hope, relinquishes the will to live and dies, despite the lack of an obvious physical cause.

More and more companies, government agencies, educational institutions and philanthropic organisations are today in the grip of a new phenomenon. I’ve termed it ‘metric fixation’. The key components of metric fixation are the belief that it is possible – and desirable – to replace professional judgment (acquired through personal experience and talent) with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardised data (metrics); and that the best way to motivate people within these organisations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance.

On average, men pick up on visual motion significantly faster than women do, according to a new study. Humans’ ability to notice moving objects has always been a useful skill, good for avoiding an animal predator in ancient times and crossing a busy street in the modern world.

Seeing time tick down quickly on a countdown clock may give people more patience than seeing time pass slowly would. In a series of experiments, the speed of a countdown clock affected the patience and decision-making of video game players, both during and after the game, according to David Reitter, associate professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State.

New research may explain why some people—like sports stars—anticipate and react to fast-moving objects much quicker than others. When Serena Williams returns a lightning-quick tennis serve—most of us marvel at her skill and speed. Considering what the human brain overcomes to make it happen, these kinds of feats are nothing short of miraculous.

My friend Mark has been a physician for over 40 years. Recently he told me a story that helped me understand what real healing is.

Before I met my wife I was always rushing; rushing to get to the store, rushing to reach my goals, rushing through life hoping to get there faster.

We feel good when both the rational and emotional parts of our brain interact perfectly and are in balance. Things to do with our feelings and emotions are dealt with by the right side, while the left side handles analytical thinking.

Miracles happen all the time. You probably know someone who has had a miracle happen to them, or maybe a miracle has happened to you.

How will the evolution of humanity’s consciousness be reflected in leadership practice? How will the aims of leadership evolve, and what will leadership look like in the new “global” world?

While healthy eating, regular physical exercise, stress man­agement, and getting enough sleep constitute advice that our grandparents might have provided, we all need the tools to move from knowing to doing, from thought to belief to mas­sive action.

The busy habit is just like any other habit — breaking it takes practice. You may be accustomed to rushing from place to place, saying yes when you really need and want to say no, or being the go-to person all the time, and it’s exhausting! I’m sure you know far too well what that feels like...

Many of our choices have the potential to change how we think about the world. Often the choices taken are for some kind of betterment: to teach us something, to increase understanding or to improve ways of thinking. What happens, though, when a choice...

Human beings have essentially two modes or mind-sets that we operate or live in, with, of course, some shades of gray in between. We have what you might call a healthy mode, and another, which you can think of as reactive. When we are in our healthiest state of mind, we 'dance' with life. We're...

Transport experts have warned that rising inner city populations and demand for new infrastructure could lead to more collisions, serious injuries, and possibly fatalities involving heavy vehicles, such as trucks.

Writer Michael Hobbes says there are too many stereotypes about millennials. So, there are three things that every millennial should know. The first one is that there is no evidence for any of the stereotypes about us.

Least effort is expended when your actions are motivated by love, because nature is held together by the energy of love. When you seek power and control over other people, you waste energy. But when your actions are motivated by love, there is no waste of energy, your energy multiplies and accumulates.

Life is a great school, and nature is the ultimate teacher, but without awareness, or free attention, we miss life's teachings. Awareness transforms life experience into wisdom, and confusion into clarity. Awareness is the beginning of all growth.

Most of us are addicted to email. Some estimates say we spend nearly five and a half hours each weekday checking it.

It can seem like there’s never enough time – not enough for sleep and not enough for play, not enough for cooking and not enough for exercise.

A decomposed, mummified body of a man was recently found by forensic cleaners in a Sydney apartment. The apartment’s owner is thought to have suffered from hoarding disorder, and police believe the decomposed body had been there for more than ten years.

Do we have the right to believe whatever we want to believe? This supposed right is often claimed as the last resort of the wilfully ignorant, the person who is cornered by evidence and mounting opinion

Earlier this year, one of us visited a prominent U.S. medical school to give a lecture on the topic of burnout and how physicians can find more fulfillment in the practice of medicine.

The moment we can ask ourselves “Does this thought have anything to do with reality?” “Is this thought true?” we are starting to wake up. This understanding breaks the bondage, which is our total identification with thoughts, and empowers us to wake up from the dream state.

Your brain is a fascinating piece of machinery. It has remarkable capacity for development. Very subtle changes in how the brain develops, or in how it responds, can lead to us experiencing the world in vastly different ways.