As much as people often love to talk about their feelings, it might be more productive to skip the conversations and write about your worries instead, according to research done at Michigan State University (MSU). The research, published in the journal Psychophysiology, provides the first neural evidence of the benefits of expressive writing, according to lead author Hans Schroder. He’s a former MSU doctoral student who is now doing research at the Laboratory for Translational and Affective Neuroscience at McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass. It turns out that writing about your stresses, anxiety and worries can free up your brain to accomplish other tasks more effectively. Researchers have long known that constant worry uses up mental resources. It’s as though anxiety is always running in the background. So when you add on, say, a stressful work project, you automatically force your brain to multitask, which is never a good thing. In the MSU study, Schroder’s team found that the participants who wrote expressively about their feelings were able to offload their worries and allow their brains to run efficiently, like a new hybrid car. On the other hand, study participants who didn’t write about their feelings — and stayed stressed — ended up guzzling more brain gas to accomplish the same tasks, like your parents’ old, inefficient clunker. The key takeaway is that offloading worry…  read on >

Millions of Americans have filled movie theaters over the holidays to watch the latest in the Star Wars saga, but a new study suggests that enjoyment of the film may be governed by prior expectations. To see how expectations affect viewing pleasure, researchers surveyed 441 people before and after they saw “Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi” in 2017. Based on the results, it’s best not to see “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” believing you’re going to love or hate it, said researcher James Alex Bonus, an assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University, in Columbus. People who had high expectations for the movie but were disappointed had the lowest enjoyment of anyone. Those who expected little from the movie but felt happy after seeing the film had lower overall enjoyment compared with people who had high expectations for the film and enjoyed watching it, researchers found. “It wasn’t really helping people to go in with those low expectations,” Bonus said in a university news release. “The negative bias going in dragged them down and even if they were pleasantly surprised by the movie, they still didn’t like it as much as other people did,” Bonus noted. It’s a lot less about what’s in the movie and a lot more about what you expected it to be, he explained. Three weeks…  read on >

Roughly 40% to 50% of married couples ultimately split up, according to theAmerican Psychological Association. But Northwestern University professorEliFinkelsaysthe best marriages are actuallybetter than ever. How do you keep your marriage from going from blissful tobust?The psychologist, who hasextensively examined the history of marriage,offers three tips in his book, The All-or-Nothing Marriage. Tip One: Become a love hacker.All relationships require time and effort to keep the fire alive. But chances are that your kids, workplace demands or other responsibilitiesslow the sizzle every now and then.Boost your bliss with love hacks — quick and simple practices that show you care.Here are some easy ones to try: Show appreciation. Say thank you more often. When your spouse tells yougood news,celebrate his or her joy andrespond with a question ortwo. Touch more often: Hold hands during a TV show, for example. This boosts trust and security. Tip Two: Take the time to really talk to each other.Love hacksare great, butopen, deepcommunication is the key — and talk about something other than the kids and the weather. Here’s an idea: Go to the movies and see a romantic comedy.One study showed thatcouples who watched and discussedrelationship movies monthlycut their divorce rate in half within three years. Tip Three: Lower your expectations. Yes, it’s true.One of the best things you can sometimes do for your marriage is to ask less…  read on >