Exposure therapy, including VR-aided therapy, is now used to treat everything from back pain to irritable bowel syndrome. — Show don’t tell. It’s the first rule of good creative writing. If you want readers to believe that your grizzled detective is volatile, you don’t tell them “Detective Jack Loosecannon is volatile,” you show him punching the police commissioner. Exposure therapy operates on a similar principle. “You can talk with…

Research has identified some common traits of people on the political margins. — Americans of all stripes are worried about political extremism. A 2021 poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center at the University of Chicago found that respondents were more concerned about domestic political extremism than about climate change, North Korea’s nuclear program, or the spread of infectious diseases.

Escaping the ‘homogenizing effect’ of online opinion. — Recently, I had to buy a new garbage can for my kitchen. I try not to shop online. But I was busy and the internet was right there, so I figured I’d just knock it out and get back to work. An hour later, after I’d visited multiple sites and…

Strengthening the brain’s executive functions can help it avoid and clear out mental clutter. — Most mornings, rain or shine, Albert Einstein would walk the mile-and-a-half that separated his home from his office at Princeton University. In the evening, rain or shine, he’d walk home again. Einstein had a few idiosyncratic habits, but his daily walks weren’t one of them. Many of history’s preeminent thinkers…

Doubling your chews and other slow-eating strategies have shown promise, but their real-world usefulness is shaky. — By the time he was 40, Horace Fletcher’s health was a shambles. He experienced near constant fatigue and indigestion, and was frequently sick. At five-foot-six-inches tall, he weighed 217 pounds. He applied for a life insurance policy but was turned down. “This was the final straw,” Fletcher later wrote. He…

Beyond a certain point, exercise may be little more than physical abuse. — The word “marathon” comes from a Greek legend. The story goes that Philippides, a messenger, ran from the Battle of Marathon all the way to Athens, some 26 miles away, to deliver news of the Athenians’ victory over the invading Persians. “Joy,” he announced. “We have won!” And then he…

A Harvard psychiatrist argues that mitochondrial dysfunction underlies both. — At age 33, Tom had spent most of his adult life struggling with schizoaffective disorder. He experienced daily hallucinations and delusions and was plagued by anxiety and depression. Medications helped him control some of his symptoms, but they also caused him to gain weight. Heavy to begin with, he put…

Immersive nature experiences put life back in perspective. — The poet and outdoorsman Jim Harrison wrote that the danger of civilization is you will piss your life away on nonsense. Nonsense levels are at all-time highs. It’s no wonder many of us are escaping civilization for the steady sanity of nature. The National Parks Service has recorded record numbers…

Irritability is a sign that your mind and body are out of whack. — I really don’t like checking email. My inbox is a thicket of marketing pitches, and I try to hack through them as quickly and infrequently as possible. I’m down to about four inbox checks a day. Even so, it’s a chore that reliably sours my mood. Crankiness is easy to…