Happy Magazine by MIAD Bridge

by MIAD Bridge

unplug & go outdoors step outside page 18

talking to your parents millennial meltdown page 12

table of contents. literary wellness 4-5 self deception 6 - 10 body & mind 11

millennial meltdown 12 - 15

relationship q&a 16 - 17 step outside 18 - 22

2 • happy

editor’s letter.

Hello Readers, Welcome to the first issue of happy, a magazine dedicated to the happiness and wellness of college students. I know college is hard. College is harder when you aren’t feeling mentally and emotionally stable. Although this magazine will be no solution to any of your emotional problems, I hope that it will push you in a direction of a better mental state. I have collected these articles, personal stories, and mental wellness tips for that specific reason. Visit our “thank you” page to check out all of the valued people who donated their writing and perspective to the magazine.

I’ve spent countless days of my college career stressed out, starving, and running on little to no sleep at all. I’ve spent plenty of nights in tears, feeling hopeless as homework and bills piled up around me. I want you to know, I’ve been there, and I know it’s painful. Getting out of bed is hard enough, not to mention pulling on clothing and making it to class on time with your work done.

You might want to drop out. You might want to quit your job. And you might have to do both of those things and try again later, but it will be okay. Your first concern should be your health, your wellness, and your happiness. You owe it to yourself to get your education and keep your sanity.

With Love and Happiness,

Devin Charlton

happy • 3

literary wellness. books for stress & anxiety relief

These aren’t your typical, boring, self-help books. Check out this month’s suggested reads that focus on making yourself a better person, but in the most fun and interesting ways possible.

How to be happy (or at least less sad) Lee Crutchley Writing and journaling is a great tool to relieve depression, anxiety, and general symptoms of stress.

Sometimes just writing down your problems can help relieve some of the stress and anxiety that accompanies them. Author and illustrator Lee Crutchley brings his lively interactive approach to a little-discussed but very common issue: the struggle with depression and anxiety.

Through a series of supportive, surprising, and engaging prompts, How To Be Happy (Or At Least Less Sad), helps readers see things in a new light, and rediscover simple pleasures and everyday joy…or at least feel a little less sad. By turns a workbook, trusted friend, creative outlet, security blanket, and secret diary, the pages of this book will offer solace, distraction, engagement, a fresh perspective, and hopeful new beginnings—for readers of all ages and walks of life. 1

in Ancient Greece, Libraries were described as “healing places for the soul.”5

Writing & Journaling Books

Emotional Health Books

Self-Help Books

f*ck feelings Michael & Sarah Bennett The only self-help book you’ll ever need, from a psychiatrist and his comedy writer daughter, who will help you put aside your unrealistic wishes, stop trying to change things you can’t change, and do the best with what you can control—the first steps to managing all of life’s impossible problems. 2

little victories Jason Gay Jason Gay was driven to write Little Victories after his father’s diagnosis of cancer. But the book isn’t just another treacly exhortation to enjoy this precious existence or else. It’s a curation of snapshots of Gay’s “many life mistakes,” demonstrating that life’s little victories are made up of “small, perfect moments,” even—or perhaps especially—when we ourselves are not perfect. 3

Color me mindful: underwater Anastasia Carris These intricate and beautifully detailed line drawings of underwater scenes are ready for you to bring to life. Relieve stress, practice your mindfulness, and discover your creative side as you unplug and slow down by filling these exquisite pages with color. No matter our age, useful mindfulness techniques can help re-center us amidst a world of noisy stimuli. 4

literary wellness • happy • 5

The

psychology of

self-deception illustration by miranda branley writing by neel burton

i

n psychoanalytic theory, ego defenses are

Repression can be thought of as ‘motivated for-

unconscious processes that we deploy

getting’: the active, albeit unconscious, ‘forget-

to diffuse the fear and anxiety that arise

ting’ of unacceptable drives, emotions, ideas,

when who we think we are or who we think we

or memories. Repression is often confused with

should be (our conscious ‘superego’) comes

denial, which is the refusal to admit to certain

into conflict with who we really are (our uncon-

unacceptable or unmanageable aspects of

scious ‘id’).

reality. Whereas repression relates to mental or

For instance, at an unconscious level a man may find himself attracted to another man, but at a conscious level he may find this attraction flatly unacceptable. To diffuse the anxiety that

internal stimuli, denial relates to external stimuli. That said, repression and denial often work together, and can be difficult to disentangle in the mind.

arises from this conflict, he may deploy one or

Repression can also be confused with distor-

several ego defenses. For example, he might

tion, which is the reshaping of reality to suit

refuse to admit to himself that he is attracted

one’s inner needs. For instance, a person who

to this man. Or he might superficially adopt

has been beaten black and blue by his father

ideas and behaviors that are diametrically

no longer recalls these traumatic events (repres-

opposed to those of a stereotypical homosex-

sion), and instead sees his father as a gentle

ual, such as going out for several pints with

and loving man (distortion). In this example,

the lads, banging his fists on the counter, and

there is a clear sense of the distortion not only

peppering his speech with loud profanities. Or

building upon but also reinforcing the act of

he might transfer his attraction onto some-

repression by the son.

one else and then berate him for being gay (young children can teach us much through playground retorts such as ‘mirror, mirror’ and ‘what you say is what you are’). In each case, the man has used a common ego defense, respectively, repression, reaction formation, and projection.

Reaction formation is the superficial adoption and, often, exaggeration—of emotions and impulses that are diametrically opposed to one’s own. A possible high-profile case of reaction formation is that of a particular US congressman, who, as chairman of the Missing

self-deception • happy • 7

and Exploited Children’s Caucus, introduced

ing and schematizing it so that it can more readi-

legislation to protect children from exploitation

ly be processed or accepted. Splitting also arises

by adults over the Internet. The congressman

in groups, with people inside the group being

resigned when it later emerged that he had been

seen in a positive light, and people outside the

exchanging sexually explicit electronic messages

group in a negative light. Another phenomenon

with a teenage boy. Other examples of reaction

that occurs in groups is group-think, which is

formation include the alcoholic who extols the

not strictly speaking an ego defense, but which

virtues of abstinence and the rich student who

is so important as to be worthy of mention.

attends and even organizes anti-capitalist rallies.

Group-think arises when members of a group

Projection is the attribution of one’s unacceptable thoughts and feelings to others. Like distortion, projection necessarily involves repression as a first step, since unacceptable thoughts and feelings need to be repudiated before they can be attributed to others. Classic examples of projection include the envious person who believes that everyone envies

unconsciously seek to minimize conflict by failing to critically test, analyze, and evaluate ideas. As a result, decisions reached by the group tend to be more irrational than those that would have been reached by any one member of the group acting

“the self is like a cracked mask that is in constant need of being pieced together”

him, the covetous person who lives in constant fear of being dispossessed, and the person with fantasies of infidelity who suspects that his partner is cheating on him.

Just as common is splitting, which can be defined as the division or polarization of beliefs, actions, objects, or people into good and bad by selectively focusing on either their positive or negative attributes. This is often seen in politics, for instance, when left-wingers caricature right-wingers as selfish and narrow-minded, and right-wingers caricature left-wingers as irresponsible and self-serving hypocrites. Other classic examples of splitting are the religious zealot who divides people into blessed and damned, and the child of divorcées who idolizes one parent

alone. Even married couples can fall into group-think, for instance, when they decide to take their holi-

days in places that neither wanted, but thought that the other wanted. Group-think arises because members of a group are afraid both of criticizing and of being criticized, and also because of the hubristic sense of confidence and invulnerability that arises from being in a group.

An ego defense similar to splitting is idealization. A paradigm of idealization is infatuation, when love is confused with the need to love, and the idealized person’s negative attributes are glossed over or even imagined as positive.

Although this can make for a rude awakening, there are few better ways of relieving our existential anxiety than by manufacturing something that is ‘perfect’ for us, be it a piece of equipment, a place, country, person, or god.

while shunning the other. Splitting diffuses the

If in love with someone inaccessible, it might

anxiety that arises from our inability to grasp a

be more convenient to intellectualize our love,

complex and nuanced state of affairs by simplify-

perhaps by thinking of it in terms of idealization!

8 • happy • self-deception

In intellectualization, uncomfortable feelings associated with a problem are repressed by thinking about the problem in cold and abstract terms. I once received a phone call from a junior doctor in psychiatry in which he described a recent in-patient admission as ‘a 47-year-old mother of two who attempted to cease her life as a result of being diagnosed with a metastatic mitotic lesion’. A formulation such as ‘…who tried to kill herself after being told that she is dying of cancer’ would have been better English, but all too effective at evoking the full horror of this poor lady’s predicament.

Intellectualization should not be confused with rationalization, which is the use of feeble but seemingly plausible arguments either to justify something that is painful to accept (‘sour grapes’) or to make it seem ‘not so bad after all’ (‘sweet lemons’). For instance, a person who has been rejected by a love interest convinces himself that she rejected him because she did not share in his ideal of happiness (sour grapes), and also that her rejection is a blessing in disguise in that it has freed the person to find a more suitable partner (sweet lemons).

While no one can altogether avoid deploying ego defenses, some ego defenses are thought to be more ‘mature’ than others, not only because they involve some degree of insight, but also because they can be adaptive or useful. If a person is angry at his boss, he may go home and kick the dog, or he may instead go out and play a good game of tennis. The first instance (kicking the dog) is an example of displacement, the redirection

of uncomfortable feelings towards someone or

are one day condemned to die, as are all men.

something less important, which is an immature

Their deaths are trivial, because the spirit in them,

ego defense. The second instance is an exam-

their human essence, does not depend on their

ple of sublimation, the channeling of uncom-

particular incarnations for its continued existence.

fortable feelings into socially condoned and

Krishna says, ‘When one sees eternity in things

often productive activities, which is considered

that pass away and infinity in finite things, then

a much more mature ego defense.

one has pure knowledge.’

Another mature ego defense is humor. By

There has never been a time when you and I have

seeing the absurd or ridiculous aspect of an

not existed, nor will there be a time when we will

emotion, event, or situation, a person is able

cease to exist … the wise are not deluded by

to put it into a less threatening context and

these changes. There are a great number of ego

thereby diffuse the anxiety that it gives rise to.

defenses, and the combinations and circumstanc-

In addition, he is able to share, and test, his

es in which we use them reflect on our personality.

insight with others in the benign and gratifying

Indeed, one could go so far as to argue that the

form of a joke. The things that people laugh

self is nothing but the sum of its ego defenses,

about most are their errors and inadequacies;

which are constantly shaping, upholding, protect-

the difficult challenges that they face around

ing, and repairing it.

personal identity, social standing, sexual relationships, and death.

The self is like a cracked mask that is in constant need of being pieced together. But behind the

Further up the maturity scale is asceticism,

mask there is nobody at home. While we cannot

which is the denial of the importance of that

entirely escape from ego defenses, we can

which most people fear or strive for, and so of

gain some insight into how we use them. This

the very grounds for anxiety and disappoint-

self-knowledge, if we have the courage for it,

ment. People in modern societies are more

can awaken us to ourselves, to others, and to the

anxious than people in traditional or historical

world around us, and free us to express our full

societies, no doubt because of the strong em-

potential as human beings.

phasis that modern societies place on the self as an independent and autonomous agent.

The greatest oracle of the ancient world was the Oracle at Delphi, and inscribed on the forecourt

In the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, the god Krishna

of the temple of Apollo at Delphi was a simple

appears to Arjuna in the midst of the Battle of

two word command 6

Kurukshetra, and advises him not to succumb

“KNOW THYSELF.”

to his scruples but to do his duty and fight on.

In either case, all the men on the battlefield

10 • happy • self-deception

body & mind. yoga for stress and anxiety

the easy pose.

Step 1 Bring your legs together and cross them. Rest the back of your palms on your knees.

Step 2 Bring your palms together and press gently, raising them above your head.

the benefits.

Use yoga for depression by helping quiet a restless mind and connect with an inner source of calm and joy.7

builds muscle strength Doing yoga regularly can strengthen your muscles and core

perfects posture Yoga poses that open up your chest can help improve posture issues

Step 3 Inhale and exhale deeply, and let your hands fall gently to your sides. Repeat!

decreased anxiety Practicing yoga breathing techniques can help relieve stress and anxiety

improves circulation Certain yoga poses can reduce swelling caused by bad circulation

HELPS DIGESTIon Yoga can flatten your belly and ease pain caused by bloating

EASES joint PAIN Yoga is known for it’s muscle and joint pain relieving qualities

body & mind • happy • 11

From my perch, reporting live from the trenches of college life, and though I’d offer unvarnished accounts of college students’ experiences in their own voices, from their own perspective.

One of the many privileges I’ve experienced from teaching – and from being the kind of teacher students confide in – is that I somehow got the secret passkey into the otherwise locked internal world of a mythical, unknowable creature called the college student. What you hear when you call your kid is that she’s running to or from a class, is too sleepy or busy or stressed or cranky to talk, is fine, everything’s fine, look I’ve got to go, yes I’m eating, no I didn’t send grandma a birthday card...look Mom, I’m late and really stressed out and it’s not a good time to talk - I’ve got to go.

I hear something else. I hear a lot of details and dramas and self doubt and self exploration and issues of identity and love and sex and worry and responsibility.

Some are experimenting in classes and identities. Some are coasting. Some are sinking. Some are finding their voices, flying in the discovery of subjects and activities they love and the freedom to explore them to the fullest for the first time. Many are having sex. They want you to trust their smarts and their decisions. They are hurt when you don’t. They want your love and approval and for you to know them better, on their terms.

A distressing study released a few weeks ago reported record-high levels of stress and mental health issues faced by college freshman – levels that have reached a 25-year high; college women are particularly at risk. Here is a snippet from Tamar Lewin’s New York Times story headlined: Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen, on the disturbing findings of the study: “The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago.”

In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges, the percentage of students rating themselves as “below average” in emotional health rose. Meanwhile,

happy • 13

the percentage of students who said their emotional health was above average fell to 52 percent. It was 64 percent in 1985. So I gave out an assignment. I asked my students – past and present – to help me help them talk to their parents.

Here was the writing prompt: Write what you think your parents should know about your college experience and about your relationship with them. Help them understand what your college life is like and how they might communicate better with you. In your interactions with them, what are they doing to help you express yourself and what are they doing to hinder you? Give them practical, specific tips. This writing may take the form of a letter, a quick list, a dialogue – use whatever format gets the information out of your head (and heart) and to them, through me. And then something astonishing happened.

They wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. E-mails, Facebook messages and notebook pages filled with urgent handwritten scrawl came pouring in. And is still pouring in. The ‘assignment’ unleashed a torrent of writing these young people seem determined to get out and get heard. Remember, this was not for a grade, not for extra credit, and done on their own time. Several students said they liked the letters they crafted to their parents so much they were going to send them or call their mom and dad to read them aloud. Am I a genius or what?

Today I’ll share one of the ‘letters’ a student wrote to her mom. Not only is it real and astonishingly honest, this young woman hits all of the themes and points so many of the other students discussed. I hope it serves as a stellar introduction to our ongoing conversation here and as heartfelt entry into her own exploration of her relationship with herself and her mother. The note to me from the student said this: “It is from the heart and something that I may actually read aloud to my mother next time she calls.

Dear Mom, I miss you. I know that I don’t call you enough and that’s not because I don’t miss you, I do. You just have to understand that college life is not compatible with parental phone calls. Please know that I am safe and happy. That being said, here are some things you should keep in mind.

School is difficult. It is an ongoing struggle that demands 100% effort from every fiber of my being and causes me a degree of fatigue I have not yet experienced in my 18 years of life. Know that in the wee hours of the morning when I am trying to read, I am thinking about you, and wishing I had had time to call that night.

Because school is difficult, I am probably not going to get A’s. Please do not expect them. I know that in my 12 years of public school education you valued my high marks like Olympic medals but those days are no longer. I’m not here to win gold stars or give you trinkets for your mantle. I am here to learn, to challenge myself, and to intellectually engage in every opportunity around me. So don’t yell at me when I don’t get A’s. I promise, you’re getting your $56,000 dollars worth. I’m learning more than I’d ever imagined I could and I know it will take me somewhere. Hopefully somewhere that will pay me half that.

Everything I have here is thanks to you. I wouldn’t be the person I am, nor would I have the self- confidence and fundamental values that I do, if not for the love and support you raised me with. You always told me I could do whatever I put my mind to, and being here is proof that I can. All I want to do is make you proud, and show you that your time and effort on my development was not in vain. I worry that you are lonely, that your life is void without the commitment of mothering, and sometimes I wish I could have stayed home with you. But there are things I need to do here, and I promise you they are of value. And every time I hit a slump or feel lost in this world that is so blurry and new, I know that I’m rooted 18 hours away, that somewhere in this world there are people who love me unconditionally. Oftentimes, that is what keeps me going.

So I know I do a terrible job of keeping touch. I know you’re worried that I spend too much time in extra curriculars and not enough time studying. But I’m still working it out. There’s a lot to do here, and without you to guide me it’s hard to sort it all out. Just know that despite the cluster of miscellaneous thoughts, goals, fears and fantasies rolling around in my mind; you’re always at the forefront. I’ll call you soon.” 8

happy • 15

relationship q&a. with Susan Heitler

College offers one of the last opportunities for life preparation that students will have before they launch out to live on their own. The famously insightful Sigmund Freud once said that mature individuals are those who can love and work. Colleges mainly prepare young people for work. Who or what prepares young people for love? Who teaches them how to fix a relationship or how to stop arguing? This week we ask Susan Heitler, clinical psychologist and author of “The Power of Two” which contains secrets for a long and lasting relationship.

How long is too long to hold on to an issue you have with your spouse/significant other?

Talking within 24 hours is often a good rule of thumb. Immediate talk when something bothers you is problematic if you will be speaking in anger. Waiting too long means you’ll be unlikely to remember to discuss it. Mistakes are for learning. When couples can talk over their mistakes in a cooperative and mutually respectful way, their relationship keeps getting better and better over time.

When confronting your spouse/significant other about a current issue in the relationship, is it appropriate to bring up past situations?

Should the focus stay on the current issue?

Yes and yes. Start with the current issue. Bring up past issues only if they shed light on the current one. Most importantly though, when you raise issues, your job is to focus on your parts in what went wrong. Let your partner explore his or her part. Otherwise you risk getting into criticism and blame, neither of which have high odds of leading to learning and change. Healing after upsets so that you learn from mistakes is a high-skills activity. Do it carefully. Learn the skills for how to talk about sensitive situations, and then proceed with caution.

16 • happy • relationship q&a

Once the trust in a relationship is broken, can

Name one characteristic that you think most

it ever be mended? Name two or three ways

relationships lack. How can it be fixed?

to mend the trust if it is possible.

Positivity would get my vote. Positivity includes

To mend trust the person who broke the trust

appreciation, humor, affection, gratitude,

needs to do thorough soul-searching. If that

shared fun times…all the good things in life. If

person can identify the underlying concerns that

you want to fix your positivity level, take a day

led to straying, and then also can identify at least

to count your Sunshine Factors. How many

three points where they took a left turn and would

times during that day did you reach out to hug,

have been better off turning right, there’s hope.

smile at your partner, connect eye-to-eye, agree

When someone cheats because of issues in

with something your partner has said, offer a

the relationship, are those issues now worth

compliment, etc. 9

fixing?

Maybe yes and maybe no. Depends on how much in the relationship feels worth saving.

Some relationships were iffy to begin with and best ended with the first infidelity. A young guy who is cheating on a girlfriend, or vice versa, is

the main idea.

Maintain Positivity

likely to be an iffy bet for longterm reliability.

Still, some people do learn from their mistakes, and infidelities can offer a good opportunity to

Verbalize Your Concerns

reassess what’s worked and what’s been missing between the two of you. One relationship lesson for the future from affairs: Finish one thing before going on to another.

Learn From Your Mistakes

When is it okay to be selfish in a relationship?

Always be self-centered (centered in your self) in

Take Time To Heal

the sense of being in touch enough with yourself, with your feelings and thoughts, to verbalize your concerns and preferences. Then spend equal energy on understanding your partner’s.

Lastly, aim to create win-win solutions, plans of action responsive to the concerns of both of you.

Emotional maturity can be measured by what I call bilateral (two-sided) listening. Listening only to yourself is a huge problem. Listening only to what your partner wants is also a huge problem.

Both selfishness (narcissism) and excessive altruism (enabling) can sink potentially positive relationships. It’s important to have a good balance in the relationship.

your relationship should always reduce stress in your life, not create it.

Step

Outside

by Jeffery Davis

Chances are you’ll spend hours of your day in

physical. And that 95% of unconscious impulses,

front of a computer or other digital device and

hits, sensory input, and physiological functions

only minutes outdoors. Why would entrepreneurs

shape the paltry 5% we know as good ol’ rational

and creatives and business people wanting to

awareness. Ordinary mind.

hone their edge need to take a walk or hike or, you know, plant a tree if they didn’t have to? It turns out that spending time outdoors could be a key way to expand your creative process - and optimize your creative mind.

So when you’re working on a design project or writing your memoir or trying to resolve a business problem, just how much of your mind are you bringing to your creative work? 5%? And just how optimally is that 5% functioning? This is

As the River Flows, So Do Thoughts Last May, professor of psychology David Strayer explored that question and more. He rounded up four other neuroscientists for a rafting and camping trip in Utah’s wilderness. What business do five men fixated on the mind and brain have on the San Juan River rapids and the river’s tributary canyons? Strayer wants to start dialogue and more research into seminal questions about technology, nature, and attention: Does constant technology use adversely affect attention, emotion, and memory? How does prolonged

where the outdoors comes in.

Spending time outdoors optimizes the creative mind. Even the skeptical neuroscientists on Straver’s nature retreat admitted that after a couple of days of hiking and kayaking instead of checking e-mail and texting and reading articles on the Internet all day relaxed them and stimulated more fruitful thinking. As New York Times reporter Matt Richtel (link is external) writes of the trip, “This is the rhythm of the trip: As the river flows, so do the ideas.”

time away from technology’s grip and in nature’s

Herbert Benson, founder of the Mind/Body

embrace affect the mind?

Medical Institute at Massachusetts General

Strayer has his detractors and skeptics, but evidence and experience suggest he’s onto something. The more that mainstream culture becomes insulated in its digital interfacing, the more counter streams remind us that the great outdoors is great for the creative and spiritual indoors. Most of the mind escapes our awareness.

A good 95% of it, that is, by most cognitive scientists’ estimate. This foundational unconscious is emotional, intuitive, imaginative, sensual, and

Hospital in Boston (link is external), has studied and confirmed for years how relaxation heals the body and optimizes the creative mind. Being outdoors also deepens and broadens your imagination’s reservoir. Images are one foundation for how creative people - whether artists or CEOs or scientists - think through innovative problems.

William Butler Yeats said that poets have a storehouse of images that they draw upon when they write.

the benefits.

20 • happy

Promote Creativity

Relieve Stress

Enjoy Fresh Air

Improves Mood

happy • 21

But how do they fill that reservoir? They pay

metaphors) that might lead to break-through

attention to objects and light and wind. They

ideas for logos, brands, or a screen play’s seminal

observe nuances such as how they feel while

scene. You don’t have to take a vision quest for

gazing upon a simple stone or cast iron fence.

seven days in the Sierra Navada to reap the great

Why? That simple act - pause and gaze and

outdoors awesome benefits. Prime your mind

possibly praise- lets an image sink into that 95%

and walk around the block. That is, read up on

of the mind, and part of that unconscious is a

your problem or review your storyboard, and

creative person’s reservoir of images. Patterns of

then take a walk with your awareness focused on

a tree’s alternating branches triggered an idea

simple sensory impressions - the quality of air,

in Frank Lloyd Wright for how to stabilize tall

the patterns in the sidewalk. There’s increasing

buildings.

mounds of evidence that shows how the body’s

What’s filling your reservoir of images? What

regular and intentional movements optimize the mind as well as the body.

“Spending time outdoors optimizes “spending time optimizes the creative mind” theoutdoors creative mind.”

can you call upon in moments of creative and

Couple that movement with the outdoors’

existential problem-solving? Engaging the body

sensory input. Do something simple that puts the

outdoors also heightens focus - the cornerstone

body in regular rhythm and focused on a simple

of considerable achievement among scientists,

task outdoors. Canoe at a nearby lake. Take a

surgeons, chess players, athletes, and artists.

yoga class in a park. Clear a beach of beer cans. If

Row a boat for thirty minutes, build a fence

you want to be exceptional at what you do, step

for two hours, or hike up a mountain for three

outside. Step outside of yourself and your rote

hours, and your mind will feel calmer, more

patterns. It turns out that the great answers to

spacious. Such a state optimizes how those

your questions might not be tucked within you.

little neurons fire and how flexibly the mind can

The answers to your creative challenges might be

think about ideas. It’s in such a state that you

outside. Or, rather, in the dialogue between the

also can become more aware of seemingly stray

two. And when you step into that dialogue, you

images and image-combinations (such as random

enter the wonder of all of the wonders. 10

22 • happy

thank you.

Jeffery Davis Shawn Simmons Miranda Branley Jason Gay Michael Bennet Sarah Bennett Neel Burton Anastasia Catris Lee Crutchley Pam Cytrynbaum Susan Heitler

sources.

1

Crutchley, Lee. “How to Be Happy (Or At Least Less Sad).” Amazon. Perigee Books, 5 May 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

2

Bennett, Michael, and Sarah Bennett. “F*ck Feelings.” Amazon. Simon & Schuster, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Gay, Jason. “Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living Hardcover – November 3, 2015.” Amazon. Doubleday, 3 Nov. 2015.

Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

3

Catris, Anastasia. “Color Me Mindful: Underwater.” Color Me Mindful: Underwater. Gallery Books, 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

4

5

Quist, Allen. “Ancient Maps.” Curriculum Modules. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

6

Burton, Neel. “The Psychology of Self-Deception.” Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 28 Aug. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

7

Scharff, Constance. “Yoga as Medicine for Depression.” Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 9 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

8

Cytrynbaum, Pamela. “Millennial Meltdown.” Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 2 June 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Heitler, Susan. “12 Relationship Questions College Kids Want Answered.” Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

9

Davis, Jeffrey. “Answers to Creatives Problems Aren’t Within - They’re Outside.” Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 22 Apr. 2011.

Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

10

happy • 23

Spring 2016