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The 5 minute 'Health' read - Psychedelics, recent research (February)

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write an approximately 1,200 word (5 minutes to read) blog post pretty much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

Here, for example, are ... Psychedelics abstracts mostly published in the last few weeks.

McAlpine, R. G., G. Blackburne, et al. (2024). Development and psychometric validation of a novel scale for measuring ‘psychedelic preparedness’. Scientific Reports 14(1): 3280.   

The 5 minute 'Health' read - Background

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write a brief approximately 1,200 word (5 minute read) newsletter/blog post pretty much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

The 5 minute 'Health' read - Ageing: recent research (January)

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write a brief approximately 1,200 word (5 minute read) blog post pretty much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

Reviewing & planning our lives

And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done   Rainer Maria Rilke

When I get to heaven, God will not ask “Why were you not Moses?”.  He will ask “Why were you not Susya?  Why did you not become what only you could become?"   Susya, a Hasidic rabbi 

The value of cold water immersion

The potential value of different forms of deliberate cold exposure is much in the news at the moment.  For example Dr Michael Mosley has just completed a series of six short radio programmes on Cold Therapy.  These include an Introduction and then they focus on Colder Room, Cold RecoveryCold Exercise, Cold Water Swim and Sleep and the Cold.  In a somewhat parallel process, earlier this year the Andrew Huberman podcast involved an interview with t

The 5 minute 'Health' read - Relationships: recent research (December)

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write an approximately 1,200 word (5 minutes to read) blog post pretty much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

The 5 minute 'Health Read; - Positive Psychology: recent research (December)

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in brief updates on recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write an approximately 1,200 word (5 minutes to read) blog post pretty (today's is a little longer!) much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

The 5 minute 'Health' read - Lifestyle: recent research (December)

I read a fair amount of research and thought some people might be interested in recent studies that I've found helpful.  I plan to write a blog post pretty much every week, highlighting helpful material that has emerged in the previous couple of months.  I'll rotate through six topic areas ... Lifestyle, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Ageing, Psychedelics, and Meditation.  I also plan to write occasional posts where I go into more detail about particular related subject areas. 

Here, for example, are ten Lifestyle posts mostly published in the last few weeks.  I found it intriguing that in addition to expected benefits for depression & anxiety (see Singh et al below), there is growing evidence that episodes of exercise improve brain functioning within minutes ... and for wide-ranging age groups (see Kekäläinen et al, Legrand et al, Monserrat et al and Polevoy et al below). 

A wide-angle assessment of emotional states

My all-time favorite topic in positive psychology is the study of positive emotions. I'm fascinated by how pleasant experiences, which can be so subtle and fleeting, can add up over time to change who we become. I'm especially excited these days about investigating how positive emotions change the very ways that our cells form and function to keep us healthy.  Barbara Fredrickson

Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - this is not easy.   Aristotle

We transmit and catch moods from each other in what amounts to a subterranean economy of the psyche in which some encounters are toxic, some nourishing.    Daniel Goleman

Emotions give life colour & vitality.  Yet we are often relatively unaware of our emotional states.

Vitality project - measurement issues

                                   What gets measured, gets managed.   Peter Drucker

If one's going to put a good deal of effort into measuring and so better managing something, then it's important that what one is measuring is significant.  The earlier (and first) blog post in this series - Background & importance of a three month vitality projecthighlights several reasons why nourishing zest & vitality is likely to be very worthwhile.  So how can one measure one's level of zest/vitality and how track whether the things we do to try to increase this very important quality are actually helping or not?