PSYCHOLOGY OF US

There’s an extraordinary new type of brain scan called an fMRI that allows us to witness creative thinking while it’s happening. For the first time, we can see that creative thinking is not a mystical or divine force that shines down on us from the heavens (sorry, Elizabeth Gilbert!).

    Perhaps you’ve heard of the amygdala. It is the lightning-fast brain section responsible for detecting potential threats and prompting fear responses, such as fight-or-flight. The amygdala sends signals to the hypothalamus to release bursts of stress hormones (such as cortisol and adrenaline), which promote arousal and prompt us to enact safety strategies.   […]

We’ve been doing it all wrong!, says motivation researcher and author of Rethinking Positive Thinking, Gabrielle Oettinger.