positive thinking

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Trump Mulled Pranking the Public Outside Walter Reed

The president's idea involved a Superman T-shirt

(Newser) - President Trump recently considered pulling a stunt that some have likened to a scene from Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The New York Times reports that Trump called people from his bed at Walter Reed Medical Center with an idea: leave the hospital looking frail, then rip off his...

Ben Carson: 'Poverty Is a State of Mind'
Ben Carson's 
Eyebrow-Raising
Remarks on
Poverty
INTERVIEW
May 25, 2017 11:56 AM CDT

Ben Carson's Eyebrow-Raising Remarks on Poverty

It's largely a 'state of mind,' he notes

(Newser) - "If everybody had a mother like mine, nobody would be in poverty," Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson told SiriusXM on Wednesday. "She was a person who absolutely would not accept status of victim." He then went on to comment further, in remarks that...

How the Words We Use Changed Over 200 Years
How the Words We Use
Changed Over 200 Years
new study
Dec 4, 2016 12:59 PM CST

How the Words We Use Changed Over 200 Years

'This is an indicator that happiness may be on the decline'

(Newser) - It is well established that humans across languages and cultures have a tendency to use more positive words than negative ones. This is called linguistic positivity bias (LPB), but why the phenomenon exists remains unclear. Now researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their big...

Stop Trying to 'Make Work Fun'
 Stop Trying to 'Make Work Fun' 
OPINION
Dec 12, 2013 12:04 PM CST

Stop Trying to 'Make Work Fun'

Author: Attempting to impose happiness does more harm than good

(Newser) - The modern workplace is in the midst of what might be called a "Fun at Work" movement, and author Oliver Burkeman sincerely hopes it's a passing fad. If your company has a Chief Fun Officer or a Happiness Engineer, he pities you. Worse, companies might be doing more...

Dodgers Hired Russian 'Healer' to Boost Wins

Russian immigrant sent positive energy to team

(Newser) - Whenever the Dodgers stepped up to bat during their'08 National League West-winning season, a Russian emigre scientist watching the game on TV at his Massachusetts home sent mental waves of positive energy their way. Perhaps the strangest detail to emerge in the bitter divorce proceedings of Dodgers owners Frank and...

Smile More, Live Longer
 Smile More, Live Longer 
Mar 29, 2010 3:55 AM CDT

Smile More, Live Longer

A happy face prolongs your life: Scientists

(Newser) - Scientists claim there's a new reason to put on a happy face: People who smile more aren't just more stable, happier in their marriages, and better at getting along with others—they also live longer. Researchers compared photos of 230 professional baseball players who started their careers before 1950 and...

The Power of Negative Thinking
The Power
of Negative Thinking
Jul 8, 2009 2:50 PM CDT

The Power of Negative Thinking

Better to acknowledge bad feelings than recite phony good ones

(Newser) - Deliberate positive thinking—from Norman Vincent Peale to Stuart Smalley—has long been touted as a way to overcome feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt. But a new study suggests that repeating positive mantras may often backfire, making people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves. For many, it may...

Positive Thinking Can Make You Feel Worse: Study

Affirmations don't help low self-esteem

(Newser) - It turns out the Little Engine That Could had it all wrong. Repeating positive statements to yourself doesn’t appear to help people with low self-esteem, according to a new study. Researchers asked students to repeat statements like “I am a lovable person” to themselves, then measured their mood....

The Perils of Positive Thinking
 The Perils of Positive Thinking 
OPINION
Sep 24, 2008 11:39 AM CDT

The Perils of Positive Thinking

Not just greed, but optimism and can-do led to Wall Street's downfall

(Newser) - “Positive thinking,” the philosophy of self-help books and corporate retreats, has had some negative effects on Wall Street, Barbara Ehrenreich writes in the New York Times. It's popular to blame greed of executives and traders for the current meltdown in the financial markets, but the unbridled optimism and...

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