Psychology

New moms often have to face the challenge of breastfeeding their kid in public while hoping no one will make any comments about it. Unfortunately, many people find it outrageous, and as a mom, you might feel the need to apologize for it. But this isn’t something you should apologize for, because it’s something natural and harmless, and it’s only done for the good of your baby.

Your life may turn into a prison if your parents constantly say you’re not good enough. This affects one’s adult life greatly, leaving you without self-confidence, opinions, and a critical voice inside you. Healing doesn’t come in a strike of willpower, but with the right advice, it may turn into a journey you need and can endure.

There are some phrases that people use as guidelines in their lives. But very often, our experience tells us that they are not really true. Of course, phrases like, “Looks don’t matter,” or “If you tell me the truth you won’t get into trouble,” are partially true, but there are a lot of nuances.

We’ve all had moments where we wished we could read what others were thinking, pretending we were superheroes that could read minds. But what if we told you that you can actually read people just by observing their body language?Despite the power of words, sometimes they can be translated differently with the wrong body movements or gestures. Yet, most of our body language is connected to our subconscious mind, and we find ourselves doing things that come out so naturally, we only realize it after doing it.

The difference between men and women does exist but it’s not as big as it’s believed to be. And, of course, these differences are no reason to say that one of the sexes is better than the other. In most cases, gender prejudice is related to women, but men also suffer from discrimination. Saying that “boys don’t cry” is just one example of toxic masculinity — a set of rules for men that continually prevents them from living life to the fullest.

Scientists say that smart people don’t pay much attention to other people’s advice. Moreover, people, in general, tend to rely on their own opinion more. However, we keep hearing some phrases so often that it seems they have been recorded in our brains, from “be smart,” to “don’t react,” to “follow your dreams.”

We tend to think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But, as a study suggests, this isn’t necessarily true. In fact, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Standards of attractiveness are, indeed, broadly shared, however, our personal preferences play quite a big role too.

For many years, our parents and grandparents have lived by a set of rules that were considered normal. “Get married when you’re 20 years old,” “That’s not for men,” “Boys don’t cry” — how many times have we heard something like this? But life goes on, the times are changing, and now we see many things from a different angle.

20-30 years ago, our parents had no access to books about raising kids or online seminars for psychologists and teachers. Children were raised intuitively, very often based on their parents’ experience. This is why there’s nothing surprising about the fact that many values our parents thought were immutable are actually not. And these rules really puzzle us today.

To figure out how a person feels about you, you don’t have to be straightforward and ask them right away. It’s enough to pay closer attention to the body language of this person. Their gestures can reveal a lot about them.

Recognizing a narcissistic person can be easy since they usually give us the signs for this. But what happens if we suddenly start noticing these signs in our children? Could parents be the main people responsible for raising new generations of potential narcissists? According to a study, it’s in one’s upbringing that we can find the origin of a person’s narcissism.

If you are not very sure if a person is fond of you or not, and you can’t ask them directly, we will give you some tips. Pay very close attention to the way somebody talks to you or the gestures they make. For example, if they purse their lips while talking, this may show a feeling of discomfort or anxiety.

We bet every parent has come across unsolicited advice on how to raise their kids at least once in their life. Neighbors, relatives, and friends are eager to share their “priceless” experiences and opinions on how the baby and their parents should behave and build their lives. At the same time, most of them simply don’t take into account the fact that a method that worked with one kid can be absolutely non-applicable to another one.

Almost all of us have experienced rude remarks, backhanded compliments, offensive jokes, and even overt insults. These situations leave us feeling uncomfortable and wondering which response is right. The good news is there are many ways to stand up for yourself without coming off as offensive or aggressive, and without letting their words get under your skin.

Even though we know that a lot of problems come from our childhood, we still rarely talk about the relationships between parents and children. We say things like, “Well, she’s my mom,” “They’ve done everything for me — I should be thankful.” We don’t often talk about negative feelings toward our parents. However, the things they sometimes do may make some people feel really anxious, even when they grow up.

Childhood, a time when we’re taken care of as fragile and vulnerable people is quite different than adulthood. As adults, we begin to follow a new set of rules and understand over time that we’re interesting to ourselves only. There’s no one to push us toward success, give us their shoulder to cry on, or praise us when we’ve done something good. And ultimately, there are always going to be people who are smarter, better, and more attractive than us.

In society, we may often notice that the same actions can be assessed differently. Certain behavior is acceptable for one group of people or a certain person and is frowned upon for others. In some cases, it’s men who are discriminated against, and in other instances, it’s women that are judged. The actions of people who differ in age or the way they look can also be interpreted subjectively.

The longer a relationship is, the more valuable it is. It’s difficult to stop communicating with old friends but sometimes, it’s absolutely necessary. A good friendship can become weaker over the years and may even prove useless for both parties involved.

In accordance with this study, only 50% of those people who we consider our friends think the same thing in return. These people may spend time with us because they want to get something from us or they think that having a lot of friends is good for their image. But even if your friendship began with mutual interest this might change to something completely different in time. Of course, misunderstandings and fights can happen even between the dearest of friends, but if these relationships make you feel uncomfortable on a regular basis and often upset you, maybe it’s time to think about whether or not you need to continue them.

Beauty and intelligence are unrelated. But some people can unknowingly be influenced by the “halo effect,” a bias that lends good-looking people positive traits, like being smarter or more agreeable. However, appearance does have any meaning in terms of personality — it’s all in the face, morphologically speaking.

Humankind has been trying to solve the mystery of dreams for as long as they’ve existed. Today there is even a special discipline in the study of dreams called oneirology. Those who prefer the esoteric side of things over science love to interpret their dreams according to various dream books and believe that they can predict the future. But psychologists think that dreams accurately reflect our current condition and that our subconscious tries to tell us something important via dreams from time to time.

All of us have probably experienced situations where we’ve entered a grocery store to buy bread and left with bags full of different foods. And we’re lucky if bread was among those foods, otherwise, we had to go back to the store again. Why does this happen?

Parenting norms have evolved over time. For instance, there was a time when letting kids speak up or allowing a bit of chaos at home was seen as unacceptable. So, we decided to explore some parenting practices that used to be frowned upon but have now become completely normal.

Double standards mean applying the same rule or situation differently to one group of people than to another. Perhaps the most wide-spread double standards can be seen in gender-related matters but are also there in every other sphere of our lives. The most surprising thing is that oftentimes we ourselves apply those standards to the people surrounding us and don’t even notice it.