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Psychology & Motivation

@artofbehavior

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A unique mental health project by a neuropsychological fellow and creative director to provoke thought and improve human capacity and well-being.

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I am human, nothing human can be alien to me.

#futureisnow #philosophy #philosopher #psychology #behavior #selfimprovement #thoughtprovoking #happylifequotes #wisdom #mindsetmatters #positivethought #wayofthinking #wisewords #clinicalpsychology #touchdesigner #thinkdifferent #generativedesign #quotestoliveby #existentialist #suffering #stoicism #selfdevelopment #carljung #freud #neuropsychology #behaviorhack by @artofbehavior

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2 years ago

A render created by Art of Behavior documenting the complexity of a synaptic information transfer. The amount of information the brain processes at any moment is so unimaginable. The recent rise of artificial intelligence has raised the question of whether computers are smarter or work better than a human brain. While technology exists that does things humans cannot do, and in some cases technology exists that does a task better than a human can, like chess...it is important to not forget that the human brain simultaneously performs thousands of extremely important tasks at a given moment, most of which is barely conscious. Not only does it do these tasks, it reacts to an incredibly unpredictable environment that is the world, adapts to it, and improves survivability.

A computer may be able to achieve this level of productivity and intelligence one day, but it is very far away from what the human brain does at this point in time. This is something that I feel is often forgotten in the conversation of AI vs. human.

What do you think? 🧠

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#futureisnow #philosophy #philosopher #psychology #behavior #selfimprovement #thoughtprovoking #happylifequotes #wisdom #mindsetmatters #positivethought #wayofthinking #wisewords #clinicalpsychology #psychologist #thinkdifferent #optimism #quotestoliveby #existentialist #suffering #stoicism #selfdevelopment #carljung #freud #neuropsychology #behaviorhack by @artofbehavior

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2 years ago

The world will ask you who you are and if you don't answer back with certainty, it will tell you who you are.

Our capacity to know and understand ourselves, design our lives, and pursue our goals shields us from external influence. We become less susceptible to being impacted by the opinions of others about us because we are grounded in our own identity.

This is easier said than done, and there is no end to this process. Instead, it is something we have to engage in and uphold throughout our lives. Through consistent mindfulness and active introspection about who we are and who we want to be, we can achieve and maintain our own self-imposed identity over the one the world offers us through insidious changes to our thought patterns and self-image.

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#futureisnow #philosophy #philosopher #psychology #behavior #selfimprovement #thoughtprovoking #happylifequotes #wisdom #mindsetmatters #positivethought #wayofthinking #wisewords #clinicalpsychology #psychologist #thinkdifferent #optimism #quotestoliveby #existentialist #suffering #stoicism #selfdevelopment #carljung #freud #neuropsychology #behaviorhack by @artofbehavior

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2 years ago

There is a misconception that our goal in life is to be happy. This is ideal and I am not disagreeing with it. Though for humans to be happy, we need to survive. Our body and minds are designed for this purpose. From the basic components of our body up to the most complex structures, each piece is goal-oriented towards making the most intelligent decisions to maintain biological stability and drive you towards things which ensure your survival. Happiness is not necessarily a part of the list, and if it is, it surely isn't a priority.

This doesn't mean that happiness isn't possible or not in our control. This doesn't mean we don't have a drive towards feeling happy. Though, reframing what happiness looks like, understanding what your body is designed to do, and managing expectations can help to repair and improve your relationship with the idea of being happy.

Also, understanding that our feelings of happiness (and sadness) are largely based in biological underpinnings helps to be mindful of the fact that our thoughts are transient and can be changed through conscious, goal-oriented effort.

Thoughts? 👀

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#futureisnow #philosophy #philosopher #psychology #behavior #selfimprovement #thoughtprovoking #happylifequotes #wisdom #mindsetmatters #positivethought #wayofthinking #wisewords #clinicalpsychology #psychologist #thinkdifferent #optimism #quotestoliveby #existentialist #suffering #stoicism #selfdevelopment #carljung #freud #neuropsychology #behaviorhack by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

Problems, issues, and goals can all be broken down into smaller, individual components that are more easily manageable. This approach should be applied to most things in life to reduce stress and unnecessary complexity. However, it is a skill that comes in time. What I often see with people I work with is that they break down problems but often underestimate how much more it can be broken down.

For example, sometimes we have trouble starting a task like writing an essay. Most people will think about breaking this task down to creating an outline first, and this is fine. But if you break it down to this step and find that you are still finding the task to be overwhelming, then break it down more! Before you can make an outline, you need to schedule time in your day to do so. You need to create the document on your computer and title it. For people functioning normally, this may feel too simple. For those who feel burnt out and unmotivated, this is KEY in staying productive even in those times. Set your goal for the day to be "create the document", not "make an outline".

Achieving this goal causes a dopamine boost and may lead you to doing more of the task anyways. Even if you don't end up doing more, you have achieved your goal for the day. For those suffering from depression, anxiety, or other conditions which severely impact motivation and productivity, you can break things down EVEN further. Before you can even create a document on your laptop, you must OPEN your laptop. Before you can do that, you must get your laptop near you. Before you can do that, you must get sleep at night, eat properly, feel rested, etc. Things can continually be broken down until the tasks required to help you achieve the ultimate goal are manageable.

Additionally, we have to be able to shift our productivity expectations day by day. Some days we can complete more tasks because we feel good. But what if the following day you feel extremely tired because you only slept for 2 hours at night? Shifting what "being productive" means for that day (i.e., respond to 1 email) can help avoid feelings of guilt and reduce feelings of burn out and overwhelm. ❤️ by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

A common cycle to get caught up in. The first way to tackle this is to understand that it is normal to feel this way. Everyone feels this way, and feeling guilt or disappointment for not getting something done doesn't help in getting it done. It makes it harder as it drops your mood and motivation.

Second, reduce the goal to something more manageable. If you feel that the task is just too big for you to handle, like "clean my home", turn that goal into "clean the desk". Completing smaller tasks releases dopamine in the brain, which will increase motivation to complete more tasks. ❤️ by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

Our greatest weapon against stress is to choose one thought over another. This idea is foundational in the art of psychotherapy. Our bodies are designed to learn behaviors. The more we practice at something, the better and more often we do it. The same applies to thoughts. If we are constantly in situations which produce negative thinking, we learn to think negatively! 👎

Psychotherapy aims to retrain our minds to think positively, or, in a way that better serves us. One way you can start practicing to think more positively is to begin to take notice of the positivity or negativity of your thoughts and write them down. Once you have a good list going, you can start to write down different ways you could have interpreted the same situation to train your mind to see alternative perspectives. 🧠 by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

With the start of Fall, here is a reminder about the benefits of the SUN. The Sun does more than keep us warm, provide light, and vitamin D production. It is essential for a number of things including immunity and sleep.

Sunlight also resets our internal clock. This is why it's important to get sunlight in your eyes early in the morning to wake your brain up. ☀️ by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

The amygdala is a brain structure that processes aspects of anxiety and fear. It's useful for us because without it, we may not react to danger appropriately. But what happens when the amygdala is overactive or improperly tuned with what is dangerous or not? This video demonstrates how our brain takes in information, which is then filtered through the amygdala. Our amygdala now has an opportunity to twist a situation that may not otherwise be dangerous.

Our brains have a negativity bias such that we perceive danger more strongly than we do non-danger. This is because potential danger could mean death while a positive or neutral situation is less important for survival. In the modern day, these physically dangerous situations are less common, though our amygdala's are still active and often perceive non-dangerous situations as dangerous, causing us unnecessary stress.

Being aware of this fact is step one in training your mind to appropriately judge our environments. 🧠 by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

Don't let perfectionism get in the way of consistency. This is one of my favorite rules to live by. It is really easy for us to get caught up in perfecting every little thing, like our diets and exercise plans, when the more important task is to just do good enough. It's very common for people to obsess over every little macro in their diet when being 15g too high or too low won't really make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. It's also common for people to skip entire workouts because they were late and will only get a 30 minute work out instead of a full hour. Just take the 30 minute work out and move on! by @artofbehavior

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Be selective in what you consume and who you surround yourself with. Our minds absorb the information around us and learn to respond to our immediate environments. When you surround yourself with ideas and people who you aspire to be like then your mind will adapt in a way that benefits you. by @artofbehavior

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3 years ago

We often look at progress on a day-to-day basis and feel bad when we don't feel we had a productive day. Progress should be measured on a longer term basis. When we dedicate our time to something, we are investing that time into the future of that thing. Time spent towards these is rarely unproductive, rather it is just part of the journey to achieve our goals. It is normal to have days that feel unproductive, this doesn't mean it was a pointless day.

Challenge these thoughts by constantly looking at the big picture and assessing progress in the long-term rather than on a daily basis. by @artofbehavior

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