According to Hinduist and Buddhist philosophy, the ego is a major source of human suffering. Hence, Eastern mind-body practices like yoga and meditation are intended to quiet the ego, to deflate one's sense of self-importance, in order to improve well-being. Indeed, we know from a myriad of scientific studies that mindfulness practice factually improves well-being. But is this really due to a quieting of the ego? In a new study, Gebauer et al. (2018) conducted two experiments to investigate the … [Read more...]
New Meditation Mindset
Even after years of practice, I still find it hard sometimes to sit in silence and meditate. Especially when I have important work to do. Then I keep thinking about how many more minutes it will take for my alarm to go off so that I can go back to work. But today during meditation, a new mindset came over me—a mindset sub specie aeternitatis that quickly made my workaholic worries go away. Here it is in a nutshell: The alarm is never going to go off. I will be sitting here for all eternity, … [Read more...]
How to Relieve Emotional Tension in the Face
Let's talk about your face. What's the state of your face right now? The muscular state of your face, that is. Don't look in the mirror. Don't touch your face. Just experience it from within, proprioceptively. Is your face smooth and impressionable like a child's, ready to spontaneously express whatever emotional impulse comes up? Or is your face tense and rigid, stricken by past emotions imprinted in its musculature, perpetuating old memories like reminiscent scars? Emotional distress is … [Read more...]
Negativity Bias in Ethics
Introduction Human cognition is biased towards negativity. We feel worse about losing money than we feel good about winning money. We think and reason more about what makes us sad than about what makes us happy. We pay more attention to negative events than positive events. We remember hardship better than fortune and rivalry better than conviviality. Punishment is more effective for learning than reward. Drama sells better than harmony. Disrespect hurts more than respect feels good. And … [Read more...]
Are Pride and Humility Good or Bad? (Affective Ethics)
On the Ethics of Pride and Humility Definitions Pride is the pleasure you feel when you contemplate your strength, competence, or superiority. Humility is the pain you feel when you contemplate your weakness, incompetence, or inferiority. Affective Ethics According to a utilitarian reading of the above definitions, pride is inherently good (pleasurable) and humility inherently bad (painful). Yet if we look at all their potential consequences on well-being, the picture becomes more … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 15
- Next Page »