Paired meditation deepens interpersonal connection: how to go about it
6th May 2017
Yesterday I wrote the blog post "Paired meditation deepens interpersonal connection: Tania Singer's wonderful ReSource project" which introduced & overviewed the recent, very impressive ReSource Project. I also discussed the associated JAMA Psychiatry research paper "Effects of contemplative dyads on engagement and perceived social connectedness over nine months of mental …
Paired meditation deepens interpersonal connection: Tania Singer's wonderful ReSource project
5th May 2017
Yesterday I was skimming through the JAMA Psychiatry journal and I got hijacked by Kok & Singer's recent article "Effects of contemplative dyads on engagement and perceived social connectedness over nine months of mental training: a randomized controlled trial". The abstract reads - "Importance Loneliness is a risk factor for …
Complicated grief is worryingly common, poorly recognised & inadequately treated - what can we do about this?
4th May 2017
Complicated grief is ... More to follow ...
Recent research: articles from the winter journals
28th March 2017
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - Endnote - which currently contains close to 25,000 abstracts. I also regularly tweet about emerging research, so following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (click on the relevant …
Personal social networks (6th post): how can we look after our relationships better?
12th March 2017
I have recently written a series of blog posts about relationships - "Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model", "Personal social networks (2nd post): the sympathy group & the full active network", "Personal social networks (3rd post): assessing how we're doing", "Personal social networks (4th post): birds of a …
Personal social networks (5th post): the frequency of conflict
11th March 2017
Personal social networks are hugely important for our health & wellbeing, as I've underlined in the first of this six post sequence - "Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model". However our personal networks are also regularly affected by conflicts, especially with those we're close to. It's not a …
Personal social networks (4th post): birds of a feather flock together
10th March 2017
I've recently written three blog posts about relationships - "Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model", "Personal social networks (2nd post): the sympathy group & the full active network" and "Personal social networks (3rd post): assessing how we're doing". Towards the end of the second of these posts I …
Personal social networks (3rd post): assessing how we're doing
8th March 2017
If you'd like to clarify and potentially look after your personal social network better, a good place to start is to chart it. You can download a simple blank chart here either in Word doc or PDF format. Filling in the whole "Personal community map" can take a good hour …
Personal social networks (2nd post): the sympathy group & the full active network
7th March 2017
I recently wrote a blog post on "Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model". I emphasised the huge importance of our social networks for improving life expectancy, protecting against psychological disorders, and boosting our happiness & wellbeing. What's not to like?! I went on to introduce Robin Dunbar's work …
Personal social networks (1st post): Dunbar's 5-15-50-150 model
6th March 2017
Relationships are immensely important for both our health and our wellbeing ... for how long we live, our resilience to psychological stress, and for our levels of happiness & life satisfaction. This is crucially relevant for pretty much all of us. The post "Strong relationships improve survival as much as …