Interested in becoming more efficient and effective in learning and recalling information? Whether you're in elementary school, graduate school or everyday life, using these mnemonic (pronounced ni-mahn-ik) strategies—think of them as very effective <a href="https://www.verywellhealth.com/tips-to-improve-your-memory-and-recall-98553">memory tips</a>—can make it easier to remember facts, and they can be applied to almost any subject.

Improve Your Memory Using Mnemonics

Multiple research studies have demonstrated that using the keyword mnemonic method improves learning and recall, especially in the area of foreign languages.Here's how this works. First, you choose a keyword that somehow cues you to think of the foreign word. Then, you imagine that keyword connected with the meaning of the word you're trying to learn.For example, if you're trying to learn the Spanish word for cat, which is gato, first think of a gate and then imagine the cat sitting on top of the gate.

Keyword Mnemonics

Chunking information is a mnemonic strategy that works by organizing information into more easily learned groups, phrases, words or numbers. For example, memorizing the following number: 47895328463 will likely take a fair amount of effort. However, if it is chunked like this: 4789 532 8463, it becomes easier to remember.Interestingly, chunking is one of several mnemonic strategies that has been studied in people with mild Alzheimer's disease. Results from these studies concluded that chunking can be helpful in improving verbal working memory in the early stages of dementia.2

Chunking as a Mnemonic Strategy

One way to successfully encode the information into your brain is to use <a href="https://www.verywellhealth.com/using-music-in-alzheimers-disease-97624">music</a>. A well-known example is the "A-B-C" song, but there's no end to what you can learn when it's set to music. You can learn the countries of Africa, science cycles, memory verses, math equations and more.Music is also an effective tool for people with <a href="https://www.verywellhealth.com/mild-cognitive-impairment-and-alzheimers-disease-98561">mild cognitive impairment</a> and <a href="https://www.verywellhealth.com/alzheimers-4581763">Alzheimer's disease</a>. Not only can the words of songs be remembered from their childhood even when other language ability is almost gone, but they can also learn new information more effectively if it's taught through music.

Musical Mnemonics

Acronyms and acrostics are typically the most familiar type of mnemonic strategies.Acronyms use a simple formula of a letter to represent each word or phrase that needs to be remembered.An acrostic uses the same concept as the acronym except that instead of forming a new "word," it generates a sentence that helps you remember the information.An often-used acrostic in math class is: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. This acrostic mnemonic represents the order of operations in algebra and stands for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction

Letter and Word Mnemonic Strategies

"Hey diddle diddle. The cat and the fiddle..." Can you finish the rest of this nursery rhyme?The ability to memorize and remember nursery rhymes is often due in part to repetition and in part to rhyming. Rhyming words can be used as a mnemonic to help us learn and recall information.Sometimes, you can rearrange words or substitute a different word with the same meaning to make them rhyme.

Rhymes as Mnemonic Strategies

One mnemonic strategy that helps encode new information is to connect it with something else that you already are familiar with or know. This gives it meaning and makes it easier to remember. Making connections is a type of elaborative rehearsal and can be applied to almost any subject or type of information.For example, imagine that you are just introduced to someone named Jeffery. Perhaps you notice that Jeffery is very energetic, and connect Jeffrey with jumping. The next time you see him. you'll think, "There's 'Jumping Jeffery' and you can say hello by name."

Making Connections as a Mnemonic Method

The method of loci (pronounced low-sigh) is arguably the earliest identified mnemonic in history. In the method of loci, the learner visualizes a room or a familiar path through a building and mentally associates facts or information with specific locations or objects along the way. In order to recall what he's learned, he re-visualizes moving through that room or along that path and each stop along the way triggers another piece of information. This method is also called the journey method, creating a "memory palace" or the mental walk strategy.

Memory Palace: The Method of Loci Mnemonic Strategy

The peg method is an especially useful mnemonic for remembering sequenced information. If first requires that you memorize the following list in help you order the facts:<ol><li>one = bun</li><li>two = shoe</li><li>three= tree</li><li>four = door</li><li>five = hive</li><li>six = sticks</li><li>seven = heaven</li><li>eight = gate</li><li>nine = vine</li><li>ten = hen</li></ol>After you have memorized this list, look over the new information that you are trying to learn. Then, connect the first word to "bun," the second word to "shoe," the third word to "tree," etc. The goal is to make a memorable connection with each new piece of information you need to memorize.

Peg Method Mnemonics

The mnemonic linking method consists of developing a story or image that connects together pieces of information you need to remember. Each item leads you to recall the next item.For example, imagine that you need to remember to bring the following things with you to school in the morning: homework papers, glasses, gym shoes, wallet, lunch money, and keys.Using the linking system, you can think of the following short story to help you: Jack's homework papers put on their glasses and gym shoes and ran over to his wallet where his hungry keys were eating his lunch money.

The Mnemonic Linking System (Stories or Images)

Using mnemonic memory strategies can give you that boost in your memory that we all need, and it can improve your efficiency in learning as well. Keep in mind that you may need to practice a few of these strategies before they come easily, but once you have them down, they should clearly benefit your learning and recall of information.

The Bottom Line

Mnemonics help us more easily learn and remember information. Here are 9 research-backed types that improve effectiveness and efficiency.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

9 Types of Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory

What to do when there is no energy, enthusiasm or motivation to get up and run?On a psychological level, this all comes down to the recognition that mood follows action. We feel better once we’ve completed the day’s training. You don’t have to feel excited or enthusiastic about the process. Give yourself permission that it’s OK for you not to have those feelings right now.Focus on discipline over emotion. Trust that when you’re lining up for the race, all that enthusiasm you weren’t feeling at this moment will be there, and you’ll be grateful for the time you put into training.

Not Feeling Like Working Out

How do you take the first step out of bed?
The first minute of the morning alarm is the “hero’s minute.” Adopt a challenge mind-set for how critically important these 60 seconds are in your decision making.
The early morning alarm pits us directly between a state of comfort and the importance of achieving longer-term goals. When we are warm, comfortable and tired, we may have a quick mental screen calculating just how much work it would take to gather all our gear, find our shoes, figure out our route, determine our training plan for the day and get out the door.

The Hero's Minute

To win the hero’s minute, try to go to bed with your running clothes already on knowing that you will need to engage in a challenge mind-set when the alarm sounds. With your running clothes already on, you’ll have a physical sensation on your skin that will help ease the transition, providing a reminder of the importance of your goals, and combating against that initiation energy. Make sure everything else you need is ready and your route is planned to help this process.

Winning The Hero's Minute

I’ve gotten into the habit of taking breaks throughout a run when I don’t need them. How do I get out of that habit?Break down the three components of every habit in this situation: the precursor, the behaviour itself and the consequence.  What are the exact thoughts, messages and narratives that enter your mind telling you to slow down or take a break?Bring awareness to those thoughts and develop a pre-run mental plan with a programmed set of thoughts ready to combat those messages.

Run Stop Run

How do you build confidence in yourself in your present state when you are far away from your goal?Setting sights on massive, long-shot goals can be equally exhilarating and daunting. The most compelling place to start is with the ideas surrounding self-efficacy(what we believe we are capable of achieving).The most important factor in developing our self-efficacy beliefs is our own personal experiences. For athletes, we are presented with the opportunity to sharpen our self-belief in relation to our day’s training every day.

The Far Away Goal

The beginner's guide to running, with some simple steps and advice for sticking to your running routine

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

sports

Sports

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

How To Start a Running Habit

How do you take that first step out the door? What’s the best way to approach a big running goal? Your training questions, answered.

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

How to Get Out of Bed and Start Running: Win the ‘Hero’s Minute’

A few things may happen by chance. But if you wait for the chance, good things will happen to you only when you are in your grave because things may take their time. When you live by chance, you also live in fear and anxiety. When you live by intent and capability, it does not matter what is happening or not happening, at least you are in control of what is happening to you. It is a more stable life.

#1 Forget Luck, Live by Intent

For a committed man, <a href="http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/dont-buy-what-the-devil-sells/">there is no such thing as failure </a>. If you fall down 100 times in the day, it is 100 lessons learnt. If you commit yourself like this to creating what you really care for, your mind gets organized. Once your mind gets organized, your emotions will get organized because the way you think is the way you feel. Once your thought and emotion are organized, your energies and your very body will get organized. Once all these four are organized in one direction, your ability to create and manifest what you want is phenomenal. You are the creator in many ways.

#2 Stop Fixating on Failure

What a human being needs is clarity, not confidence. If you want to walk through a crowd of people, if your vision is clear and you can see where everybody is, you can just walk through the whole crowd without touching anyone. If your vision is not clear but you have confidence, you will walk over everybody. Because there is no clarity, people think that confidence is a good substitute. It just cannot be.

#3 Work with Clarity

To handle different kinds of situations in our lives, we need different kinds of identities. If you are fluid about it, if you can change from one to another gracefully, then you can play your role to the hilt and still have no problem with it. But for most people, their personality is like a rock. If you have to break that, you have to do something in reverse. This is a simple thing you can do: team up with somebody that you do not like. Spend time with that person, very lovingly, joyfully.

#4 Embrace the People and Things You Dislike

There is no need to aspire to greatness. If you make the focus and ambit of your life well beyond the concerns of who you are, you will anyway be a great human being.

#5 Drop Your Calculations

Both the neurological and energy systems branch out in a big way between the shoulder blades and above. So, keeping the neck region in a good condition is very important. Within 3-4 minutes of doing these neck practices, you will distinctly see that you are much more alert. There is a higher level of neuronal regeneration, and memory and intellectual sharpness also improve.

#6 Yoga For Success

To be successful in the world, what you fundamentally need is prowess of the mind and the body. <ul><li>Equanimity gives you access to different dimensions of the mind. If there is no equanimity, your ability to use the mind is greatly reduced.</li><li> Another important quality is on the level of your energy – you need exuberance, both physiologically and internally. </li></ul> If equanimity and exuberance are brought into your mind and body, success will come to you much more easily.

#7 Be Equanimous and Exuberant

Insight means you pay attention to life around you in such a way that you are able to see things that most people cannot see. If there is no insight, there is nothing to follow and toil for. Mediocrity can be transformed into extraordinary activity, only when there is a deep insight into something.

#8 Tune Up Your Insight

Another important dimension is to constantly be inspired. Look at the reason why you are doing what you are doing and see the larger dimension of it, the contribution you make through every little thing you do in your life. Every action that human beings perform is a contribution to some dimension of this world. Whatever you may be doing, someone could be benefitted by it. Being conscious of your contribution will keep you inspired.

#9 Find Your Inspiration

Integrity is important because when you want to function in the world, how much trust you generate with the people you interact with determines how easy or hard your daily efforts will be. If there is an atmosphere of trust, your ability to work will be greatly enhanced – simply because everyone will pave the way for you rather than setting up impediments.

#10 Set the Gold Standard in Integrity

10 Mantras for success to start your day powerfully. 

Here are 10 Mantras for Success to kickstart your day. Practical and effective tips from Sadhguru: live by intent, don't fixate on failure and work with clarity.

habits

Habits

10 Mantras for Success to Start Your Day Powerfully

Sometimes, you isolate yourself in a room for personal space, and it doesn’t make you feel lonely at all. On the other hand, you may sometimes feel lonely even after being surrounded by a group of friends. Right?

Loneliness is not same as being alone, and it doesn’t have to do anything with your social skills, the number of friends you have, or the amount of money you possess. It is a universal feeling that is subjective for each individual.

Misconception

Everyone feels lonely from time to time. It is something hardwired in us for thousands of years now.

Reality

Being social animals, humans can interact with each other like no other living species ever imagined. We are developing rapidly, and in the last one hundred years, we’ve discovered many ways to stay connected with our loved ones. With the help of technology, we can call someone hundreds of miles away and connect with them instantly. We have laptops, mobile phones, and tons of other gadgets to make us feel less lonely. And yet, various studies show loneliness is increasing over time among people across the globe. So, why is it happening?

Acceptance

To understand it, we will first have to understand how evolution works. The evolution of a species is a slow process that happens by natural selection. It happens over the generations in a way where upcoming generations by default possess the traits which helped their ancestors to survive. For example, walking on two legs, feeling restless when you’re hungry, or itchy when you have to go to pee.

Evolution

For thousands of years, people used to live in small groups of 50 to 150 members. Each group was one big happy family. They all hunted together and gathered food and shelter for the whole group. For someone who was not a part of any group, survival was hard. There were wild animals, lesser food, and no one to take care of their kids if they fell sick. Being a part of the group was a sign of a secured future and offered good chances of survival.

History

Due to this, everybody wanted to be liked by other members of a group. Staying away from others and having no physical contact with them was risky. This developed fear in the human brain and our body came up with an idea of social fear to avoid it. Loneliness is nothing but a by-product of that fear.

Urge

Before the industrial revolution that took place in the 18th century, people used to stay at home. They worked on farms and returned to their families at night. With the rise in factories and industries, we started traveling to cities for a better lifestyle. The focus was turned from a group to an individual. As a result, joint families turned into nuclear families, and close relatives turned into extended families.

Industrialisation

Since then, we’re becoming modern so rapidly that our bodies are not capable of coping with that speed. We are relocating for jobs, changing schools/colleges, and switching careers. Everyone is leaving a social circle behind to find a new one, which isn’t easy. We are gaining more and more social connections, but losing close connections.

Relocating

We’re always busy with careers and responsibilities, and we have no time to form close bonds. Because of huge competition and desire for recognition, we now find it hard to trust others. We keep on pushing our boundaries until one day we wake up and realize that we’ve got no one by our side.

Struggle

Slowly and gradually, this temporary loneliness turns into a chronic condition that may result in depression or some other serious mental health problem. Once you reach this stage, you start pushing people away. It becomes difficult to think with a rational mind and decide whom to trust. You start doubting the intentions of every person around you. A genuine help from someone feels like a favor done in an expectation of something in return. You start acting normal and happy just to avoid looking vulnerable.

Consequences

Suppressing your true feelings will make things worst and you may end up doing something horrible. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it is true and more frequent than one can imagine. Almost every one of us has our biggest regrets from the time when we had no one to talk to, and we did something wrong in the heat of a moment. This can be avoided simply by helping others and accepting the help you need.

Put your ego aside and communicate with others. You don’t need any expertise or special qualification to show empathy. Just pick up your phone, and call that friend you haven’t talked to since college farewell. Text your ex and give them the closure they deserve. Pay a surprise visit to your parents living in a town. Thank your spouse more often. Send a gift to your child studying abroad. Sit with a random stranger in a coffee shop, a park, or a bar and listen to their story.

Solution

Your small gesture may cheer someone up, make their day, or save a life.

Loneliness is a silent killer. It may result in depression and various other mental health issues. Let's understand it and fight it together.

Loneliness isn't the same as being alone, and it doesn't have to do anything with your social skills, the number of friends you have, or the amount of money you possess.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Why do we feel lonely?

Adults who demonstrate more playful personality traits are more motivated, creative, and spontaneous. There have even been links between people with more playful characteristics having lower blood pressure. While less playful people struggle in their leisure time to relax and often feel bored when their minds are not preoccupied, those that are more playfully inclined are aware of new opportunities and open to trying a wider variety of activities.

Playing Games is good

Playfulness should be viewed as a skill that can be developed, harnessed and used for mindfulness.

Proyer suggests listing three moments at the end of every day where something spontaneous happened. It could be a funny interaction with a stranger while getting your coffee or a joke shared with your colleague. This will help you to begin to feel confident in being playful and make you more aware of joy in your everyday life.

Start by observing

Do not be afraid to find fun in something not normally associated with adults.In order for adults to engage in playful activities guilt-free, they can come prepared with socially acceptable "excuses". Eg: The Mindfulness Coloring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons which aims to make the embarrassing act of adult colouring socially acceptable when associated with the "alibi" of it being therapy for successful people.

Socially acceptable excuses

While some adults might feel the need to hide their playfulness, the market for video games and mobile gaming among adults has boomed in recent years.The mental health benefits of playing video games down to achieving a state of "flow".The optimal experience when nothing else matters and is also experienced by athletes and sportspeople when they are in the zone. Playing to find the flow state can provide an enjoyable challenge and distraction from mental health issues, meaning the player can work on their wellbeing without feeling pressured to improve.

Video Game as Adult therapy

Rediscover the benefits of playfulness after the toys have been put away.

Playing has been shown to improve the mental health of adults, but most people stop in childhood. How can we rediscover the benefits of playfulness after the toys have been put away?

parenting

Parenting

music

Music

meditation

Meditation

Why adults should embrace their playfulness

In 2021, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/378105/new-years-resolution/">half of all New Year's resolutions</a> in the U.S. were based on fitness and nearly half were based on weight loss. We spend over <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/research/research-results/americans-spend-30-billion-a-year-outofpocket-on-complementary-health-approaches">$30 billion on diet products annually</a> and <a href="https://www.bmc.org/nutrition-and-weight-management/weight-management#:~:text=An%20estimated%2045%20million%20Americans,Americans%20are%20overweight%20or%20obese.">an estimated 45 million Americans diet every year</a>.

Weight Loss: The Primary Goal

Diet culture is that collective set of social expectations telling us that there's one way to be and one way to look and one way to eat and that we are a better person, or a more worthy person if our bodies are a certain way.Despite all of the medical and media messaging shouting otherwise, thinness and health are not the same, and fatness does not necessarily equate to being unhealthy.

Diet Culture: What It Is

The BMI(Body Mass Index) standard was never meant to measure individual health and, again, was based purely on studies of white men.Yet <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439">despite its many flaws</a>, the BMI is our go-to measure of health for all genders and body types

BMI Is All Hogwash

Access to fruits and vegetables, access to lean proteins, living in walkable neighborhoods is as important as your weight statistics. Our experts say you have the right to say no to getting weighed at the doctor's office. If your doctor gives you a weight-based recommendation, don't be afraid to advocate yourself or ask what advice they might have for someone at a different BMI.

Thinking Beyond Weight

Moving your body and eating nutrient-rich food are always a good idea, but it's important to understand how much we're motivated by our culturally accepted aesthetics. Diet culture purports that every fat person is a thin person waiting to be released and that we should fear fatness.

Beauty Standards Are Not Absolute

Fatphobia is harmful fiction.<ul><li>You have the right to exist exactly as you are. You have the right to be fat.</li><li>In a society where thinness equals beauty, this can sound like a really subversive idea. But it's not universally so.</li></ul>In addition to causing perhaps more obvious conditions like anxiety and depression, studies show that experiences of or expectations for poor treatment due to weight stigma <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/717058366/rethinking-weight-loss-boost-your-body-acceptance-for-better-health">may cause stress and avoidance of care</a> for things like sexual health, cancer screenings or other preventative care. That is diet culture at work.

Shunning Weight Stigma: The Right To Be Fat

Think about how diet culture makes you feel about yourself when you look in the mirror or when you're scrolling social media.Ask yourself:<ul><li>What is causing me to feel this way about my body right now?</li><li>Is my body that different from what it was yesterday? </li><li>What external factors are impacting my feelings?</li><li>What choice do I have in terms of how much I want to respond to them?</li></ul>

Examining Fatophobia: Level 1

The second level is interpersonal: How other people treat us. To spot diet culture in this realm,  listen for value judgments of food or bodies.That could look like judgment at the gym, being lauded for avoiding some "guilty pleasure" dessert or that storyline on TV when the hero loses weight and suddenly gains popularity and acceptance.

Examining Fatophobia: Level 2

This level is institutional, and is the ease in which you can or cannot navigate society because of your looks.Weight discrimination is legal in 49 of 50 states and is commonplace from education to health care to the workplace.Diet culture creates barriers to access for fat people everywhere. For example, you might consider basic accommodations like chairs or doorways or seat belts as value neutral, but that only shows us how much diet culture has influenced the design of our world.

Examining Fatophobia: Level 3

Commenting on another person's body can be a dangerous game — you never know what someone is going through in their life or with their health — so avoid body talk as best you can.If you want to compliment someone, it's always nice to focus on something that a person has done intentionally.

Your Words Matter

When we turn off diet culture, food is just food and eating is no longer a soap opera. Intuitive eating is the practice that can get you there.Our bodies are wired to know how to eat and to know how to respond to our needs.Intuitive eating is learning to trust our bodies. It's prioritizing body knowledge over the external rules like calorie counting and portion sizes and all those things.

Intuitive Eating

A positive relationship with your body requires the same amount of work as any other relationship in your life: Take time to listen, pay attention to its needs and provide it with compassion.Prioritize rest and listen to your body's cues, whether that's 'I'm craving something sweet' or 'I think I've had enough food'.

Befriending Your Body

Let's say you spend just five minutes a day worrying about food or your body or your weight (and, living in the U.S., that's probably a conservative estimate) – that's 30 full hours a year dedicated to self-hatred. Why not disengage from this habit?So many people will be freer and have more time and energy and money to invest in things that maybe really give them more joy and satisfaction.

Disengage From Diet Culture

Diet Culture and weight loss; The reality

In 2021, nearly half of all New Year's resolutions in the U.S. were based on weight loss. Why do we set these goals for ourselves? Diet culture, the social expectations that value thinness and appearance above all else can impact how we view our bodies and treat others. The good news is, we can free ourselves from this mindset.

food

Food

Diet culture is everywhere. Here's how to fight it : Life Kit

The fix: You’ve got plenty of time; the trick is being intentional about how you use it.There are 168 hours in a week. Even after you subtract 56 hours to sleep and 50 for work, you’re left with 62 hours.We have the power to fill our lives with the things that deserve to be there.If you truly want to start working out, you must place it high on your mental to-do list. Then you need to put it in your physical schedule, by planning your week before you’re in it.

Excuse #1: “I don’t have the time to exercise.”

The fix: Put yourself in the future.When it comes to temptation, we humans are engaged in a righteous struggle between our present self and our future self. Our future self knows it’s in our best interest to exercise, but “it’s an unequal battle” between the two selves.The present self is present. It’s in control. It can easily put donuts into your mouth. The future self is not even around, and so the present self can trounce all over its dreams.Engage in mental time travel.   Picture yourself in 20 or 30 years if you don’t start exercising.

Excuse #2: “I’m just so comfortable at home right now; I’ll start exercising next week.”

The fix: You can do both at the same time.Make it a rule that you can consume your favourite stories (Netflix/novel/podcast/news) only while exercising. “Temptation bundling” is what this pairing of a pleasurable activity with a desired habit is.

Excuse #3: “I’d much rather listen to This American Life/watch Netflix/catch up on the news"

The fix: People will judge, but you don’t need to be one of them.We live in a culture where being fat is seen as being a bad person — lazy, greedy, unhealthy, irresponsible and morally suspect. And we tend to see thinness as being universally good.Rather than seeing exercise as a way to punish ourselves for not being “perfect,” it can be a way for us to take care of our bodies.Reclaiming yourself can be one of the most gorgeous acts of self-love and can look like a million different things, from hairstyles to tattoos to body contouring to hormones to surgery and, yes, even weight loss.

Excuse #4: “I feel like I’m out of shape, and I dread going to the gym with all those workout fanatics staring at me.”

The fix: Take a tip from top athletes, and imagine a different scenario.You’ll frequently see Olympians frown right before they compete. Most of them are not worrying about the event (even though that’s what it looks like they’re doing). They’re engaging in imagery — visualizing what’s to come. Imagery is a mental rehearsal. This exercise is very effective: If you’re going for a run, what obstacles (bikers, traffic) will emerge? Picture yourself navigating around them.   Try to see every step as if you’re watching it in fast forward. Then take one last breath, open your eyes, and go.

Excuse #5: “When I think about working out, I picture myself panting, red-faced and in pain, so I find something else to do.”

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

How to exercise when it’s the last thing you want to do

When a person endures <a href="https://thehumancondition.com/mental-health-and-conditions/trauma/">trauma</a>, whether from a singular, intense event or repeated or prolonged trauma, their body experiences physiological changes. These changes can affect their reactions and responses in situations throughout their lives. For instance, some people will interpret uncertainty in their environment as danger, leading to the activation of their fight, flight, or freeze responses. Polyvagal theory exercises attempt to restructure the mind-body reactions that occur due to this trauma.

Polyvagal Theory Exercises: Benefits and Examples

Polyvagal theory exercises seek to optimize the regulation of the body’s physiological state. They employ social interactions and evoke safety to disrupt and repair the physiological state and promote resilience.

Polyvagal Theory Exercises: Benefits and Examples - The Human Condition

MDMA (Extasy) is usually associated with loud music, partying etc. But taken as a couple, Katie Anderson shows, it has some very beneficial long term effects:<ul><li>It offers a clean state for the relationship. The warmth of the experience and the honest discussions clears up all the emotional build-up and refreshes the relationship.</li><li>It makes partners (especially men) more emotionally open. Which is quote meaningful, considering male emotional opaqueness is one of the major reasons for divorce.</li></ul>

Couples & MDMA

You feel like you are floating in warm goo. You feel totally protected and you can say anything. And no matter what she says, it makes me love her even more. It's the deepest level of connection you will ever have with someone.

Most of the research on MDMA is on PTSD. But it can be a powerful emotional lubricant for couples. 

MDMA (‘ecstasy’) is well-known for its pro-social effects including heightened empathy and openness. These effects seem to facilitate closeness yet there has been limited research looking at MDMA’s impact on romantic relationships. Research question: How do shared MDMA experiences influence a romantic relationship? Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 couples using a pluralistic approach. Results: Couples’ emotional environments were transformed: communication changed from knowing something on a rational, cognitive level to a deep, felt understanding; a protective bubble was formed around the couple: free from existing fears/judgments and an emotional sense of self was brought to the fore. Conclusion: The study opens up new understandings of the role of MDMA in romantic relationships through an appreciation of how emotional experience can be transformed by MDMA. It also points to a reconsideration of the therapeutic use of MDMA for couples. Biography Katie Anderson is a PhD student researching couples who take MDMA together and how they feel these ecstasy experiences have influenced their relationship. The research is qualitative and supervised by Professor Paula Reavey and Dr Zoë Boden. She completed her MSc Psychology at the University of East London in 2013, where her dissertation explored the meaning of MDMA experiences to users, and has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

MDMA (‘ecstasy’) is well-known for its pro-social effects including heightened empathy and openness. These effects seem to facilitate closeness yet there has been limited research looking at MDMA’s impact on romantic relationships. Research question: How do shared MDMA experiences influence a romantic relationship? Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 couples using a pluralistic approach. Results: Couples’ emotional environments were transformed: communication changed from knowing something on a rational, cognitive level to a deep, felt understanding; a protective bubble was formed around the couple: free from existing fears/judgments and an emotional sense of self was brought to the fore. Conclusion: The study opens up new understandings of the role of MDMA in romantic relationships through an appreciation of how emotional experience can be transformed by MDMA. It also points to a reconsideration of the therapeutic use of MDMA for couples.

Biography

Katie Anderson is a Ph.D. student researching couples who take MDMA together and how they feel these ecstasy experiences have influenced their relationship. The research is qualitative and supervised by Professor Paula Reavey and Dr. Zoë Boden. She completed her MSc in Psychology at the University of East London in 2013, where her dissertation explored the meaning of MDMA experiences to users, and has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. ***********
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MDMA’s impact on romantic relationships - Katie Anderson

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