The Family Institute

06/14/2025

The next time things feel just a bit too much, there are strategies you can use to feel a little more at ease.

Learn what overstimulation feels like, why sensory load happens, and what you can do to calm your nervous system down.

04/13/2025

Many children and parents have been led to think of A.D.H.D. as a permanent malfunction, when in fact it might be better thought of as a temporary misalignment, brought on by external forces as well as internal ones.

Scientists who study the condition are wrestling with some fundamental questions about the way we define and treat it.

12/22/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17v78bgW5X/?mibextid=WC7FNe

08/11/2024

The physical consequences of heat, such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion, are well-known. But heat has psychological consequences as well—consequences ranging from irritability to impulsivity to trouble concentrating.

Policy and infrastructure changes are urgently needed to protect our mental health from the impact of high temperatures.

08/11/2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/opinion/happiness-tracking-america.html

Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who helped establish happiness as a subject of legitimate academic inquiry, says some of the field’s findings have been misapplied. “I think it’s a pretty serious mistake to think that what life is about is your moment-to-moment mood,” he told me. “I think that’s a recipe for depression and anxiety.”

The American obsession with individually defining, tracking and boosting happiness may be making us miserable.

03/30/2024

Marriage predicts happiness better than education, work and money.

As evidence grows about the benefits of tying the knot, married people are poised to become a minority.

02/29/2024

Rather than try to control their partners, happy couples were more likely to focus on controlling themselves.

They don’t try to control each other. They try to control themselves.

02/22/2024

When you tell yourself that you do not need to resolve the issue, and you believe that it’s OK to refrain from trying to find a solution, that’s often when your brain can let go.

Stuck in a mental loop of worries and problems that seem to have no end? Here’s what you can do.

12/05/2023

If you haven’t sent cards this year, or planned the perfect gifts.
If you don’t have the perfect tree or the perfect family, for a perfect festive photograph.
It’s okay.

If you don’t feel like watching your favourite Christmas movies,
and you can’t source the energy to be merry and bright.
That’s perfectly okay too.

No one should be measuring your ‘festive’.
It must not become a badge of honour.
Just hang on in there, finding any joy you can, in any little way.

And remove guilt and pressure, from your already overloaded Christmas list.

Because no matter how sparkly your advent, you can feel the sentiments of the season.

Your way.

Peace, love and goodwill to all.

Donna Ashworth

Art by Joshua Seong.

11/13/2023

The quadrupling of a person’s income had an effect on well-being roughly equal to the mood boost of a weekend.

It may, but only a negligible amount.

10/13/2023

A bit of experience with life and relationships may increase the chances of success for the co-founders of a marriage start-up.

The business world turns out to have a very useful metaphor for people thinking about how to find happiness in a romantic partnership.

10/08/2023

There is no agenda other than to set one foot in front of the other and take note of the world around you.

No talking. No podcasts. No music. Just some time alone with your thoughts.