7 Ways to Tone Your Vagus Nerve for Better Mental Health
The vagus nerve is the most complex and important nerve in the entire human body. This nerve connects the gut to the brain and serves as a crucial player in the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) branches of the autonomous nervous system. Feel full and sleepy after a big meal? Heart […]
Social Stress: What is It and How to Tackle It Head-On
When feeling worn down, stressed, and burned out starts to cloud the mind, it’s time to pinpoint the cause and tackle it head-on. Millions of articles talk about how stress affects a person’s psychological health and wellbeing. But what about the cause of stress? Does a person’s social environment play a role? It absolutely does, […]
How Adult SEL Programs Can Help Retain Teachers During Nationwide Shortage
Returning student anxiety, COVID-restrictions, budget cuts, low pay, stress, and balancing academic curriculum with social-emotional learning (SEL) are just some of the overwhelming issues educators face as they return to in-person learning. With these looming problems, it is no wonder school districts are facing massive teacher shortages. According to WJZ Baltimore News 13, “Cheryl Bost, a veteran educator […]
Time to End the SAT? How the Pandemic is Exposing Standardized Testing Bias in High Schools
“Since the inception of standardized tests almost a century ago, they have been instruments of racism and a biased system,” states the National Education Association (NEA). The NEA report goes on to reveal, “Decades of research demonstrate that Black, Latin(o/a/x), and Native students, and students from some Asian groups, experience bias from standardized tests administered from early […]
How to Overcome Workplace Stress Through The Language of Resilience
Click on any business or self-help blog, and the topic of resilience is sure to be in at least one post. Headlines such as “Test your resilience level” or “The best tips to building resilience” are often promoted to help people overcome stress, especially in the workplace. Still, even with all of this advice, only […]
Self-Awareness: The Brain Science Behind This Cognitive State & What New Research Says
Given the enormous scope of research questions concerning self-awareness, it is no surprise that a quick Google search on this topic unearths over 569 million hits. However, self-awareness is not just a buzzword. It provides the information essential for conscious self-monitoring or metacognition. It is a tool for consciously regulating behavior and adjusting our experiences […]
The Science Behind Imposter Syndrome and 7 Ways to Defeat It At Work
No matter how much proof exists that someone is successfully navigating their lives, relationships, and career, sometimes that person may still hold false beliefs that they aren’t as capable as others think they are. This feeling is known as imposter syndrome. Unfortunately, in the workplace, this phenomenon may be more complicated to detect and manage. […]
Can Work Environment Affect Gut Health? What the Latest Research Says
Our bodies are bustling with a community of around 100 trillion bacterial cells that make up our gut microbiome. It also contains at least 150 times more genes than the human genome. When scanning the internet for information on this complex organ, numerous studies show how gut health plays a role in digestion, mental health, and immune […]
How to Retain and Develop Top Talent – Key Take-Aways From Experts
According to a recent Forbes article, a growing number of employees are leaving their jobs in search of something better. As of March 2021, the quit rate was 2.4 percent, the highest for that month in twenty years. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, it rose even higher to […]
Communication & the Brain: How Understanding this Link Creates a Healthy Workplace Culture
A new study from Scientific American on the neuroscience of communication in birds suggests that when one partner speaks, the other partner’s brain is inhibited from talking over them. This turn-taking prevents the two birds from singing over each other, allowing them to work as one for successful communication. Unfortunately, humans struggle with this skill, especially in […]