5 Interesting Ideas About Psychology To Talk To Friends

Psychology is a science that brings us all together around the table He summons us, perhaps, like no other discipline. And each and every one of us has a set of knowledge about topics that fall under the umbrella of psychology. Based on his own experience, and with a greater or lesser degree of knowledge about scientific knowledge, each person develops his own conceptions about essentially ‘psi’ concepts.

Therefore, it is expected that in any meeting between friends topics such as expectations, the relationship between body and mind, anxiety, jealousy, among many others, will be addressed.

Interesting topics about psychology to talk with friends

Psychology gives us the possibility of discussing, based on certain interrelated theoretical concepts, the phenomena that occur in reality. Some of these concepts are extremely interesting and can arouse the curiosity of many people, which can lead to deep and meaningful conversations regarding life, being, and human behavior. In this article we will expose some interesting ideas from psychology to talk with friends

1. Expectations: imagine the worst so that nothing takes you by surprise?

There is often a lot of talk about “preparing for the worst” in order not to be disappointed. Generally speaking, this expression is used when someone is very excited, about to embark on a work project or go on a first date with a person, but you want to warn them to take into consideration the possibility that something may not turn out as expected. . A passionate debate may arise around this topic at a meeting with friends. However, Is it true that imagining the worst is a useful strategy to prevent disappointment?

We could argue that the answer is yes, but it is a yes that we must take with a grain of salt. Imagining the worst does not mean aiming to catastrophize the events of our lives or forcing ourselves to always think about the worst possible alternative in order to obtain absolute certainty of what will happen. It is true that human beings, in search of survival, have developed a certain tendency to pursue certainty, since the impossibility of knowing the outcome of a situation – from the confrontation with a predator to the overall balance of a first date – represents a threat. However, it is something we must deal with: there are no guarantees in life.

For predicting the worst to happen to be a useful exercise, it is necessary that we adopt an open, flexible perspective, and that we take into consideration that there are factors that are under our control and others that are not. There is the possibility that what we long for will go wrong, or in a different way than expected. Keeping this in mind, ultimately, can be healthy, as it will lead us to make predictions that are more in line with reality.

2. “I don’t want to think about it”

The “Don’t think about a pink elephant” phenomenon has become almost iconic within the field of psychology. It is usually used to denote how difficult (if not impossible) it is to eliminate or suppress a thought. We are all presented with unpleasant ideas, in some cases obsessive, that we would like to be able to eradicate. However, is it possible to do it?

The reality is that no. Our mind has a certain degree of automatism with respect to our will This, far from being a problem, is a great evolutionary advantage. Thanks to the ability to automate simple or everyday tasks, we can save cognitive resources to invest in other more challenging tasks. Thinking automatically, in a certain way, is an essential complement to operating in the world without investing too much effort. Life would be impossible if we had to make a huge cognitive effort to carry out the most trivial tasks that we face day after day: how to turn on a light, how to open a refrigerator, which way to take to go to work that we all go to. the days. In that sense, no one would want to eliminate the possibility of thinking or attending automatically.

However, When it comes to unpleasant or intrusive thoughts, many of us wish we could get rid of them The “don’t think about a pink elephant” is obvious proof of this, because just saying it will inevitably cause a thought about the pink elephant to come to our mind (“did he say elephant?” pink?”) or a representation of it. In other words, “not thinking” is a useless strategy.

The same thing happens when we are trying to fall asleep and we want not to think about having to get up early the next morning. We tell ourselves: “I have to stop thinking about falling asleep to sleep.” In these cases, before trying to suppress those thoughts, it is better to radically accept that control over our thoughts is, at least in part, outside of our control. It is necessary to let that thought exist before reorienting our attention and our behaviors towards other more useful activities in a given context. For example, after noticing that we are thinking that we should go to sleep, Instead of trying to stop thinking about it, we could accept that those thoughts will be with us that night and decide to take action to get what we want (perhaps getting out of bed and reading a book for ten minutes).

3. Stress and anxiety: necessary evils?

Human beings get stressed and feel anxious when faced with the most varied stimuli. In fact, it is surprising how our reaction does not vary exaggeratedly between real events and hypothetical events; or between non-threatening situations and life-threatening situations. Although the intensity of the emotion may differ depending on the intensity of the stimulus and the interpretation we develop about it, We feel anxious both in the face of a job interview and in the face of a fire

Anxiety and stress are also very unpleasant experiences. No one likes to feel anxious: notice sweaty hands, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing. However, anxiety allows us to predict future events and guide our behavior based on them, regardless of whether they have a high probability of becoming real or are purely hypothetical, and, therefore, it is highly adaptive. Therefore, this perspective can help us be more compassionate with ourselves when we feel this very human, normal and universal experience.

4. The power of breathing

“Take a deep breath,” we often say to a person who is going through a moment of high tension, panic or nervousness. Breathing has an incredible power to anchor us to the present moment, to return to the here and now, and, ultimately, to relax us on a physiological level, but how does it do it?

Our body has mechanisms designed to release tension in the body that, however, people have the ability to take advantage of to relax when we need it At a biological level, it is the vagus nerve that is responsible for deactivating or reducing alertness and sending messages that ultimately aim to relax the body. To do this, it is necessary to receive a signal, which we ourselves can generate through conscious diaphragmatic breathing. In this way, the vagus nerve will be activated and a distension response will be triggered in our body. Practicing this can be very useful in dealing with stressful situations. We will not be able to eliminate it (as we have developed, this would not be beneficial or possible either) but we can reduce our physiological activation to be calmer.

5. The reason for jealousy

In meetings with friends, the topic of jealousy always arises in relation to a partner, ex-partner, family member or mutual friend. But have we ever stopped to think, while in a meeting, why some people experience so much jealousy that it appears to be uncontrollable?

Jealous people tend to be associated with personalities or ways of being dependent, insecure and with low self-esteem. Now: perhaps these characteristics could be related to someone who is jealous, but they do not explain why the jealous person has certain behaviors, such as calling a partner at any time to see where they are, who they are with, or checking their cell phone. The problem of the jealous person lies in the insatiable search for control and security accompanied by the fear of being deceived. This leads him to carry out these actions by which one can identify him as jealous. It is also likely that this way of behaving in interpersonal relationships has been repeated and reinforced over time, and therefore has endured in the behavioral repertoire of the jealous person.