Convincing Ourselves

Psychology, in general, is based on the same paradigm as medicine in general. The patient develops a problem, you diagnose it and help the patient heal. A new paradigm emerged a few decades back which is about prevention, where an attempt is made to catch a disease early on or prevent it from ever happening. Both these paradigms were well adapted to psychology in general and organizational psychology in particular. Not only were mental health professionals helping employees deal with stress and anxiety, but they were making sure the workplace is vibrant and healthy enough to help avoid depression and ensure as many needs of the employees are met as possible. The new paradigm A third paradigm has now developed in psychology about 2 decades ago, called 'Positive Psychology'. While traditional psychology is mostly concerned with mental illness, positive psychology is concerned with building on an individual's strengths and helping them lead meaningful lives. In o...

We have fitness programs all over the internet as well as a course to help you improve life. For a small fee, you can be in the best shape possible, achieve brilliant time management and even maybe get over procrastination. However, the idea, that like a pill, you can pay for a self-help book or an online program to change everything, well, is a bit misleading. This is because knowledge is great and so is a fitness course, gym membership, or a health retreat, but unless you apply it, make it a part of your life, it's not gonna do much. At least not for long. To create a change of behavior, we need to put  continuous ongoing effort  into whatever it is we want to achieve. We have to remain conscious, or mindful, of what it is we want and what we need to do to make it happen. Doing something once, or learning something on a new course, alone cannot change your life forever. This is why Self-help books, courses, etc, all give one short term results. Contrast t...

The Instagram fueled modern times of ours has lead to so many fad diets that it's hard to keep count. From Atkins and Keto to Vegan and even raw food, there is so much misleading information out there and people are so hungry for a quick fix, as well as for validation and acceptance, that most have tried at least one of these. The reality, however, is not that different from the early days of the exercise machine fad. Since the 80s late-night commercials have promised us the holy grail of fitness by selling us some cheap plastic exercise machine. Those days are well behind us as most have realized that the answer to fitness has been all around us. The bottom line was that there is no easy or painless way to health and everyone's path truly differs. The same goes for food. There truly is no holy grail where one can follow a diet and achieve glowing skin, muscular strength, excellent mood, and longevity. Even reading this sentence makes it obvious how diets have sold t...