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Giant Brain CandyFun Facts From The 12 Journeys

Kindness Beat the Ego Boost

After failing a hard test, people encouraged to be kind to themselves studied longer for a retake than people given a boost to their self-esteem.

Source: Self-compassion after failure
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Growing evidenceThe research
  1. Breines, J. G., & Chen, S. (2012). Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(9), 1133–1143.

Journey 11 · Nurture

Kindness Beat the Ego Boost

After failing a hard test, people encouraged to be kind to themselves studied longer for a retake than people given a boost to their self-esteem.

Source: Self-compassion after failure · Growing evidence

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Giant Brain CandyFun Facts From The 12 Journeys

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People who learned to juggle for three months grew measurably more grey matter in brain areas that track motion. When they stopped practising, the growth faded.

Source: Juggling and grey matter
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In one small study, people who usually restrict what they eat tended to eat fewer sweets after a doughnut if they had been told kindly that everyone eats unhealthily sometimes.

Source: Self-compassion and eating
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After two weeks of sleeping six hours a night or less, people performed as badly as after up to two nights with no sleep at all, yet felt only a little sleepy.

Source: The cumulative cost of short sleep
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