Running with Batman

I’ll be honest with you, I suck at exercising. I do the minimum: I walk, I do some yoga, occasionally I still dance. I used to compete in Latin and ballroom dancing and was in the best shape of my life until I had an accident during one of the rehearsals and was forced to wave goodbye to my dancing career.

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Lonely in the crowd: the power of connection in fighting the depression blues

Have you ever had an experience like this: you’re surrounded by many people and yet you feel very alone. In fact, you might have even attempted to voice how you felt to someone else only to be shamed for feeling this way, “you shouldn’t feel lonely, look at all the people around you,” or better yet “other people have it much worse than you, you should be grateful for what you have.”

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How to make stress your secret superpower

I’ve long been telling my patients that stress is dangerous for their health and that it can lead to a plethora of dangerous health hazards. However, some recent studies, in addition to a fantastic talk by Kelly McGonigal, a fellow compassion researcher and my mentor, made me rethink my stance on stress.

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Darwin Elevator: Psychology of Science-Fiction

SQ (Shadow Quill): It is truly my honor to interview Jason Hough, a New York Times best-selling author of the Dire Earth Cycle science fiction trilogy. The following is a transcription of an audio file of my interview with Jason.

john-hough
Picture of John Hough

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Psychology of compassion

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion” (The Dalai Lama)

Compassion is the ability to recognize the suffering of another being and the desire to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is different from empathy in that it does not only involve the ability to experience the physical or emotional pain felt by another being, but also the aspiration to alleviate that pain.

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Using game-based learning in the classroom

I am a big proponent that learning should be fun. After all, learning should be reinforcing rather than aversive, making the students want to learn more. Recently, there has been a great amount of research in using games (video games, board games, and computer games) in the classroom to facilitate learning.

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Using comic books and games to help treat PTSD

What is PTSD?

According to the DSM-IV-TR, in order to meet the criteria for PTSD, the individual has to have witnessed or experienced (directly or indirectly) a traumatic event and then developed symptoms, which cause significant impairment or distress and last over 1 month.

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