Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have more of these experiences tend to be happier and healthier. They feel a stronger sense of connection to others. They find it easier to cope with adversity. And yet our culture often treats these experiences as suspect — as signs of irrationality or self-deception.

Hidden Brain

Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain: Part 1

People who have a lot of awe in their lives tend to have lower levels of inflammatory cytokines, which are markers of stress and immune activation. Awe seems to quiet the self — that internal narrative we have about ourselves, our problems, our concerns — and when the self gets quieter, people tend to feel more connected to others and to the world around them.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most people think that small talk is a waste of time, a polite but ultimately hollow ritual. But when researchers have studied what happens when strangers actually talk to each other, they've found something surprising: people consistently underestimate how much they will enjoy talking with others, and how much others will enjoy talking with them.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most people think of music as something you listen to alone or share with people you already know. But research suggests that music can also be a bridge to strangers — that the experience of moving and making sound together can create feelings of connection and trust, even among people who have never met.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of laughter as a response to something funny. But researcher Robert Provine found that laughter is less about humor than it is about social connection — we are 30 times more likely to laugh when we are with other people than when we are alone.

Hidden Brain

A Secret Source of Connection

Most of us think of emotional support as something we offer through words — by listening carefully, offering advice, or saying just the right thing. But researchers have found that simply being in the presence of someone who cares about us can reduce our experience of pain and stress, even when that person says nothing at all.

It's Been a Minute

The ugly truth of America's expensive homes | It's Been A Minute

The homes that most Americans live in are not designed to make people really have any kind of community or connection or broader place in the world. And so when we watch these homes on TV, I think we get to we get a taste of that.

TED

3 Habits to Practice Curiosity — and Escape Your Phone | Nayeema Raza | TED

When we are together physically, we are each alone on our phones. But when we're in our phones, that's when we can be together.

TED

1 Thing You Can Do Today to Be Happier | Sonja Lyubomirsky | TED

It dawned on me that almost all of the interventions that work to make us happier, they work precisely because they help us feel more connected to and loved by others.