Boost Your Brain: Be Busy, Bilingual & Benevolent

Even when we do nothing, we can still be busy in our minds: planning, fantasising, worrying and daydreaming. This can make ‘doing nothing’ feel not very nice and we will do almost anything as a distraction, including electrocuting ourselves. In this talk I will attempt to explore the psychology of keeping busy, considering what happens in our minds when we stop ‘doing’ things, how being busy may help regulate our mood and how, despite this, sitting quietly and meditating can benefit our physical and mental health.

More than half of the world’s population is bilingual, and this richness in linguistic diversity has implications for our understanding of brain and cognitive development. Research has shown that bilingualism has many health, psychological and lifestyle advantages. Yet, potential implications of bilingualism are overshadowed by limited understanding beyond research communities regarding its impact on cognition and learning. My talk will highlight evidence related to the benefits of bilingualism and its likely application in education and health.

After a failure, it’s common to believe that self-criticism rather than self-kindness will motivate improvement. Responding with self-kindness promotes laziness and complacency, right? Yet new evidence indicates that being self-compassionate - taking a kind, accepting, and non-judgemental stance towards oneself in times of failure - promotes rather than deters success, and fosters better health. Come and learn about the psychological science behind the unexpected benefits of being self-compassionate, the pitfalls of being too self-critical, and how to cultivate self-kindness in daily life.