Psychology Now

Understanding human behaviour and mental processes, whether our own or those belonging to others, is essential if we want to make better decisions and lead happier lives. Why do we feel certain emotions in specific situations? Why do we behave in particular ways? And what can we do to overcome the things that hold us back? Delve into the world of psychology and build a better relationship with your mind. Learn how to be kind to it, unlock its full potential and use it to your advantage. In the pages that follow, we explore 10 mysteries of the mind, the negative impact of reality TV, how to eat more mindfully, and the complexities of memory. We consider ways to improve our mental health, from learning how to say no, to…

1 CONSCIOUSNESS When you wake up in the morning, you might perceive that the Sun is just rising, hear a few birds chirping, and maybe even feel a flash of happiness as the fresh morning air hits your face. In other words, you are conscious. This complex topic has plagued the scientific community since antiquity. Only recently have neuroscientists considered consciousness a realistic research topic. The greatest brainteaser in this field has been to explain how processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences. So far, scientists have managed to develop a great list of questions. 2 DEEP FREEZE Living forever may not be a reality, but a pioneering field called cryonics could give some people two lives. Cryonics centres like Alcor Life Extension Foundation, in Arizona, USA, store…

As a nation, we’re spending far less time outdoors than we used to, and this is having a devastating impact on both our physical and mental health. What’s particularly concerning is the effect it’s having on our children’s mental wellbeing. According to the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) pilot study, visits to the natural environment by children in 2016 found more than one in nine children in England had not set foot in a park, forest, beach or any other natural environment for at least 12 months, shown in a two-year study that was funded by the government. Aside from being shocking, these statistics lead to an array of questions: why are children not enjoying outdoor activities as much as they once were and what are they…

How does it make you feel when you hear children simply aren’t being exposed to outdoor activities as much as they were even ten years ago? What’s happened over the years is we’ve become a more urbanised world. Many of us now live in cities as opposed to rural areas, so that’s had an impact on all of our behaviours. We’ve also seen cutbacks and austerity, school fields being taken away and sold off, and a general demise in our parks all across the country, and that has serious implications for all of our mental health, because for a lot of people, those spaces are our primary access to the outdoors and to the green space. It’s the same with wildlife–the concrete jungles are taking over, and obviously that’s had…

GROUNDWORK “I’m patron of a charity called Groundwork, which promotes gardens in urban areas for communities to get involved in. These little green spaces give members of the community somewhere to visit where they can plant and grow things, and learn about the plants themselves. These kinds of initiatives are really important for bringing communities together, but also in relation to the mental health aspect.” Visit www.groundwork.org.uk to see what’s in your local area. THE OUTDOOR GUIDE “We have a lot of partners and friends of The Outdoor Guide (TOG) who work with us to help get people outside and doing all sorts of things like planting trees, going on community walks and so on.” Visit www.theoutdoorguide.co.uk for an abundance of walking resources, events and more. KEEP BRITAIN TIDY “I’m…

Julia set up The Outdoor Guide with her sister, Gina, four years ago, to bring together information for walks all around the UK. Inspired by Julia’s love of walking, the idea actually came about ten years ago following the success and sheer volume of questions she received after the first series of Wainwright Walks aired on the BBC, a series that is repeated today on channels all around the world. “They had such an impact on people and became immensely popular, which was quite unexpected at the time,” Julia tells us. “I was presenting Watchdog, and I’d done Top Gear and the National Lottery–so some pretty big shows–but I did this little show on BBC4 because it was a passion project for me. The correspondence that followed was phenomenal. So…