Our Top 5 Psychology Facts for Psychology Month

February is psychology month, a time to honour and appreciate the mental health field. Psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, case workers, and many more make vital contributions to the wellbeing of others. It’s a fascinating and rewarding career, so what are some facts that make the human mind so interesting?

• Smiling, even if forced, can actually boost your mood. The brain forms associations between stimuli. For example, we smile when we’re happy, so your mind associates smiling with happiness. This goes both ways. Just as a good mood induces a smile, a smile can induce a good mood. 
• Naming an emotion reduces it’s intensity. This works on a few levels. We all know that when emotions are running high, it’s difficult to approach a situation rationally. Naming the feeling can help activate the logical portion of your brain. This allows for more clarity towards the situation, and can help sort out why you’re having this reaction. It also encourages healthier communication with those around you, reducing overall conflict. 
• We’re more likely to remember things that are emotionally charged. Learning from experience is one key to survival. It makes sense that, evolutionarily, those who tended to remember emotional events (such as being scared of a certain animal) would survive. A more detailed recollection helps to watch for specific circumstances that have a big impact, both negatively and positively.  
• The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vise versa. Scientists aren’t 100% sure why we evolved this way, but it does allow for our complex nervous system to communicate with our sensory receptors, the brain, and the muscles that carry out responses. 
• There might be some merit to “manifesting.” Believing a certain outcome will happen can have real effects on behaviour and physiology. If you hold an opinion to be true, you tend to seek out circumstances to confirm this opinion, known as confirmation bias. You will act in a way that encourages these situations to arise. For example, if you firmly believe you tend to do well in math, you’ll study until you’re confident in the material, and be more relaxed during the exam, likely leading to a better grade. 

Let’s finish off with an important quote by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychotherapist who made big contributions to the psychology world. He famously said: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate.” To paraphrase, there are many processes going on that we are unaware of, which influence our behaviour, emotions, thoughts, etc. Psychology aims to analyze patterns that uncover these beliefs or associations that one holds, to improve quality of life and mental wellbeing. If you’re looking to bring the unconscious to your conscious, book a session with one of our counsellors here.