It is said that a life without a purpose, is no life at all. However, life is a process of trial and error and life's purpose very often unfolds out the trials and tribulations of the way we respond to our life events. Although it is true, that some get way more to deal with than everyone else, yet, often a truly inspirational life still emerges after the dust has settled . . .
One's purpose often lays within their core values!
This research goes to the heart of the way I conduct my therapy and clients with who I have the privilege to work, share one common factor; they do not know what they want! Of course, there are several areas of our lives, e.g. family, social, career, finances, mental, physical spiritual etc. so, each of these have either an individual or shared want. However, rarely is a client able to articulate those wants. More often r not, they state what they want, as the absence of what they don't want. Aks someone with an anxiety disorder, "what do you want?" And they'll likely say, "I don't want to have this anxiety! If that was what they truly wanted, then the removal of anxiety would provide them with everything that they want; that just isn't the case though. What they want, in fact, creates the absence of anxiety, not the other way round. So, an example of what they want is peace, calm, confidence and, ultimately, a sense of purpose. One of the most important traits we can have, in fact, it's a necessity, is self-respect but how do you get that I hear you ask? The answer is quite simple, come for a free consultation and I will help you get it. . .
Or if you want a little more information about the therapy I provide, you can read about it here
Hypnotherapy stands out as one of the most effective strategic life management methods there is, especially in its ability to promote clear thinking and good states of mental wellness. The behaviours that make life challenging are often a result of too much stress, too little sleep and too little by way of clarity! So, to get or take back control of your mind and your life, it makes perfect sense to use a methodology that addresses the subconscious mind's role in perpetuating negative, vague and ambiguous states of mind. Hypnosis helps us to create calm relaxing states of mind that make life work better! If you would like to address any concerns you have in this direction, or, if you just want to make your life feel better, then why not make an appointment for a Free Consultation? Hypnosis gives you the ability to have a good life!
The objective here is to help people understand how and why we become illogically trapped into irrational emotional experiences that may actually be happening for reasons different to that which we would imagine! If you want to know more about how Hypnotherapy can help you; why not make an appointment for a Free Consultation?
For more information on the Free Consultation - Go Here - Or to book your Free Consultation today, you can do so Here
The Research:
Ever wonder how some people seem to meet their fitness goals with ease and love eating healthy foods while others constantly struggle to do either? According to a new study from the Communication Neuroscience Lab at the Annenberg School, people with stronger life purpose are more likely to accept messages promoting health behaviour change than those with a weaker sense of purpose. And this might be because they experience less decisional conflict while considering health advice.
"Purpose in life has been robustly associated with health in previous studies," says postdoctoral fellow Yoona Kang, lead author of the study, "but the mechanism through which life purpose may promote healthy living has been unclear."
For this study, published in Health Psychology, Kang and her co-authors chose to test out a theory: that making health decisions might take less effort for those with a higher sense of purpose in life. According to Kang, health decisions, even those as simple and mundane as choosing between the elevator and the stairs, involve some amount of decisional conflict. But what if some people experience less conflict than others when considering these options, perhaps because they have a stronger guiding purpose that helps resolve the conflicts?
To test this idea, the researchers recruited sedentary people who needed to exercise more. (To be selected for the study, participants had to be overweight or obese and had to have engaged in fewer than 200 minutes of physical activity in the seven days prior to the screening.) Participants completed a survey about their life purpose by indicating the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements like "I have a sense of direction and purpose in my life" or "I don't have a good sense of what it is I'm trying to accomplish in life." Next, they were shown health messages promoting physical activity. Their responses to the messages were monitored by an fMRI scanner, focusing on brain regions that tend to be active when people aren't sure what to choose or when they feel conflicted.
Those participants who reported a stronger sense of life purpose were more likely to agree with the health messages and to have less activity in brain regions associated with conflict processing. In fact, the researchers were able to predict how likely it was that a person would agree with health messages based on the degree of brain activity in these regions.
"We conduct studies both to understand how different kinds of health messaging can help transform people's behaviours and why some people might be more susceptible than others," says Emily Falk, director of the Communication Neuroscience Lab. "This study does a nice job starting to unpack reasons why people who have a higher sense of purpose in life might be more able to take advantage of this messaging when they encounter it."
Building on this study, Kang's next research project will examine the interactions between genes, brain activity, and life purpose. Funded by the Mind and Life PEACE Grant, she will test whether having certain genes may predict greater synchronization between neural regions associated with reward sensitivity and social sensitivity and whether activity in these neural regions may, in turn, predict the strength of life purpose.
Story Source:
Materials provided by the University of Pennsylvania. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Yoona Kang, Victor J. Strecher, Eric Kim, Emily B. Falk. Purpose in life and conflict-related neural responses during health decision-making. Health Psychology, 2019; DOI: 10.1037/hea0000729
Cite This Page: University of Pennsylvania. "For people with strong life purpose, making healthier choices may take less effort." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 May 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190514143248.htm>.
