A Neuroscientist Explains 'Why We Snap'

Melissa Dahl interviews R. Douglas Fields, a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, about the reasons why we sometimes snap:

Fields argues that there are nine major triggers that invoke the rage response, which he has assembled into the acronym LIFEMORTS: life and limb, as in your physical safety; and insult, meaning a verbal threat. The next six are self-explanatory: family, environment, mate, order in society, resources, tribe — you already know each of these are things you’d fight for if you felt they were in danger. The last is stopped, the idea that any animal (humans included) will ready itself to fight if it feels restrained or trapped. So for each of these nine triggers, the rage kicks in to prepare you for a potential fight, because you feel like something essential has been threatened.

These triggers evolved in our brains for a reason, and at times they give rise to defensive action that is as necessary for modern humans as it was for our early ancestors. But they can misfire, too, sometimes to violent, irreversible effect. Fields spoke with Science of Us about what happens inside the brain when we flip our proverbial lids, and how we can begin to control this impulse.

“What do I want?” Here’s a better question

Quartz' Ask The Hard Questions: 

A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out. 

Why Work Is so Much Easier than Love

The Book of Life, from A School of Life begins an essay on work and love this way: 

We’re a culture that’s highly attuned to what’s beautiful and moving about love; we know its high points and celebrate its ecstasies in films and songs. By comparison, work is the dull, tedious bit – the thing we have to do to pay the bills. And yet what’s striking is how often work, despite its lack of glamour, in fact turns out to be the easier, more enjoyable and ultimately more humane part of life.

Know When to Stop Checking Your Phone and Go to Sleep

By now we’ve all heard the importance of getting enough sleep. Yet many of us let our technology sabotage us getting a good night’s rest. Research has found that anxiety, due to fear of missing out, plays a major role in how we (mis)use our devices. A majority of smartphone users feel uncomfortable if they aren’t in direct contact with their phones 24/7/365, even waking up to check their phones at night. To reduce your nighttime anxiety and get the sleep you need, practice not reacting to your phone’s notifications. Simply don’t check your phone every time it beeps. Try to check your phone only every 15 minutes, then every 30 minutes, then every hour. Once you build up your tolerance, try not checking your phone at all at night. Or if you’re still struggling, keep your phone outside your bedroom at night. It’s unlikely you’re missing something that important.

Source: Adapted from “Relax, Turn Off Your Phone, and Go to Sleep,” by Larry Rosen

Learning to Deal With the Impostor Syndrome

Carl Richards in The New York Times: 

Two American psychologists, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, gave it a name in 1978: the impostor syndrome. They described it as a feeling of “phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.” While these people “are highly motivated to achieve,” they also “live in fear of being ‘found out’ or exposed as frauds.” Sound familiar?

Once we know what to call this fear, the second step that I’ve found really valuable is knowing we’re not alone. Once I learned this thing had a name, I was curious to learn who else suffered from it. One of my favorite discoveries involved the amazing American author and poet Maya Angelou. She shared that, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.’”