Grief and Bereavement Basics: Part 2
When you think about loss in the context of grief and mourning, where does your mind go? Does it go first to death? For many people it does. However, loss includes so much more.
Grief and Bereavement Basics: Part 1
Grief, mourning, and bereavement are topics that people generally do not like to talk about as they bring up all sorts of different feelings, thoughts, and memories. While we will not dive into this topic in-depth, please do take care of yourself as we cover the basic terminology so that we have a common language and an opportunity to understand some of the terms that are often used interchangeable, but that are different concepts. Hopefully, we all walk away from reading this post remembering to hold our grief and that of others with tender care.
Emotions: Mind and/or Body
Have no fear, we are not going to talk about neuroscience today regarding emotions. Instead, we are going to investigate something about emotions. Do emotions begin in the mind or the body? Before you keep reading, take a guess about the answer. Most importantly, keep track of your train of thought about how you arrived at this answer.
Inviting Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is totally different from being self-centered or self-indulgent. These terms are often conflated and a detriment to self-compassion, and to us and our mental health. While the blog on this website has brought self-compassion before, this post really makes self-compassion the focus for inclusion in everyday life.
Mindfulness and the Mind-Body Connection
The body gets lost in the mix. So, what do you think happens? The body loses trust in you that it will be heard or listened to in times of challenge and in times of peace. So the lesson becomes about building that trust back.
Summer Celebrations! The Importance of Traditions
June 20th was the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere! What is a solstice? Coming from the Latin words sol meaning Sun and sistere meaning to stand still, the solstice is when the angle between the light of the Sun and the plane of Earth’s equator looks as if it stands still (Farmers’ Almanac, n.d.). We can see this most directly at the Arctic Circle where we may have heard the term “Land of the Midnight Sun.”
Porges Polyvagal Theory: The Six States of the Autonomic Nervous System
Polyvagal Theory was introduced by Stephen Porges, PhD focuses on the role of the autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, as it relates to the physiological/psychological states related to our daily behavior. There are three defining principles (Polyvagal Institute, n.d.):
Hierarchy of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) per Polyvagal Theory (PVT)
Neuroception
Co-regulation
Intrinsic Motivation and Excessive Procrastination
Motivation is a popular topic, not just in sport psychology. Previous posts have talked about sport motivation, so today we are going to take a wider view of motivation and incorporate some neuroscience. Then we will take a quick look at procrastination.
Sleep and the Brain
Sleep is essential in our lives! I believe that science has sufficiently proved that and, frankly, many of us could speak it from our own experiences. Caregivers raising children and missing sleep have trouble focusing the next day. Students who stay up all night finishing a big paper struggling to stay awake and learn the next day. What about the athlete who stays up all night before a big game and sees a dip in their performance? Chances are we can all agree that sleep is a need that we all have. It is also suicide prevention. This week’s post will have some neuroscience in it, which you can skip, but will also talk about how the brain controls sleep, reasons people need sleep and dreams.
Perceptual Learning
Perceptual learning is a learning process that happens via experience and practice leading to long term improvements in one’s ability to perceive and interpret sensory information. Here are two examples. The first is a musician learning to distinguish between the subtle differences between musical pitches. The second is a soccer player learning to pay attention to an opponent's hip articulation in their movements, which represents experience-dependent enhancement of sensory perception.
Neurons and Synapses
Neurons and synapses. Oh my! Yes, I did go there. Hopefully, you smiled for a quick second. Over the past few weeks, we have spent some time talking about neuroscience, brain structures, etc., but we haven’t gotten to the cellular level to talk about how the brain sends information. Today we are going to rectify this and talk about the cells of the brain and cover a brief introduction about how they communicate.
What is Consciousness?
The answer to what is consciousness is beyond what can be written in this blog post. Scientists, philosophers, and many individuals have attempted to answer this question and still continue. There is so much that we could talk about and many questions that have yet to be answered. While we cannot come to a definitive answer, we can begin the conversation in hopes of inspiring you to learn more on your own time. Ask questions! Explore! Get curious!
Diving Into The Brain Part 3: Explanation of How Language and Emotion May Interact Behaviorally and Neurologically and Cultural Considerations
In daily life emotions, language, behavior, and how they interact, show up for all of us. When I think about how a bully and their words can impact a young child who may then feel sad, upset, or angry. The bullying victim then takes steps based on what they are feeling. How a person talks to themselves and the language that they pick can impact and motions and thereby behavior. The examples could continue. There is power in the language that we use!
Diving Into The Brain Part 2: Emotions
In last week’s post we explored the brain in relation to language. This week we will do something similar and look at the brain and emotions! Before we dive into this post, it is important to remember that, while we are talking about the brain in relation to emotions, emotions are also very much felt in the body as well. This will be a post for the future where we look at the role of the body in emotions because of how important it is to look at that perspective. Believe me when I say it is very important to consider the body’s role as much research has been done and many fields of psychology utilize the body’s role in healing.
Diving Into The Brain Part 1: Language Generation and Comprehension
For the next three weeks we will be diving into the brain. Exploring and talking about the brain is a passion of mine and, since it is a topic that is related to mental health and sport and performance psychology, it was time to dive in. This week we will look at the area of the brain involved in language. Next week we will look at the areas of the brain involved in emotion. In the final week the threads will come together and we will look at how language and emotion may be connected and feature a discussion about issues related to culture and diversity.
What is the Difference Between Self-Worth, Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy
The concepts of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy tend to get thrown around a lot and often interchangeably. And yet, they mean different things. Furthermore, how one works to address these different concepts is also different. Thus, it is worth taking the time to break these down.
Psychological Factors and Sport Injuries: What a Sport and Performance Professional Can Do? Part 2
In Part 1 of this post, there was a big information dump. This post picks up with an example. Hopefully, there has been enough time between the two posts to allow for different thought processes to occur to help with integrating the material. Let’s remind ourselves where we are headed. The example that we will discuss today is of a female-identifying athlete with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to help demonstrate the nuance required of a sport and performance professional (SPP) to help an injured athlete.
Eating Disorders in Male Athletes
There has been a lot of focus on female-identifying athletes and eating disorders. While necessary and important, it is essential to not forget about male athletes. They are also susceptible to eating disorders.
Sexual Orientation Stigma in Sports
There are often topics in sport and sport psychology that are challenging to discuss given that, in many ways, sport is a microcosm of the larger culture. That said, many athletes remain silent about important issues and aspects of their lives, such as sexual orientation. So what can be done by sport and performance professionals (SPPs) to support athletes who continue to hide this aspect of their lives in order to continue to play?
Psychological Factors and Sport Injuries: What Can a Sport and Performance Professional Do? Part 1
When looking at the topic of injuries and injury prevention and rehabilitation, much must be attended to to provide the best care to an athlete. Sport injury risk is multifactorial, and any prevention program must account for this nature (Gledhill et al., 2018).