Licensed Psychotherapist and Counselor located in the Alpharetta/Johns Creek area
Johns Creek, GA
Joined July 2015
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Katherine Hammons retweeted
After observing a similar habit among highly creative people (Einstein, Mozart, da Vinci, etc), the neuroscientist Dr. Nancy Andreasen designed a brain-imaging study to understand the neural basis of this habit.
Essentially, these creative people all carved out time each day for...
“Free-floating periods of thought,” Andreasen writes in her book, “The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius.”
The mechanics of the habit differed from person to person.
Leonardo da Vinci, for example, would often sit in front of a painting “and simply think, sometimes for as long as a half day.”
Whereas Einstein had a wooden boat he called the “Tinef” (Yiddish for “piece of junk”) on which he liked to aimlessly drift wherever he could find a body of water. He had to be rescued by boaters or the Coast Guard so frequently that a friend eventually bought him an outboard motor for emergency use, but Einstein refused it.
“To the average person, being becalmed for hours might be a terrible trial,” the friend said. “To Einstein, this could simply provide more time to think.”
In any case, Dr. Andreasen conducted the first study of brain activity during these “free-floating periods of thought,” when the body is in a “resting state” and the mind is free of inputs, and therefore, free to wander.
“We found activations in multiple regions of the association cortex,” Dr. Andreasen wrote. “We were not [seeing] a passive silent brain during the ‘resting state,’ but rather a brain that was actively connecting thoughts and experiences.”
Essentially, Dr. Andreasen found that the brain defaults to creativity.
When the body is still and the mind is allowed to float freely, the brain engages in what she termed REST (“random episodic silent thinking”).
And during REST, Dr. Andreasen writes, the brain “uses its most human and complex parts...areas known to gather information and link it all together—in potentially novel ways.”
So whether it's sitting in front of painting in your office or on a piece of wood out at sea, if you want to be more creative, carve out time each day for “free-floating periods of thought.”
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“Men of genius are sometimes producing most when they seem least to labor, for their minds are then occupied in the shaping of those conceptions to which they afterward give form.” — Leonardo da Vinci
Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!
Katherine Hammons retweeted
We're all masking in some way. Hiding parts of who we are. Performing for people. Trying to change ourselves to get approval. The happiest people in the world allow themselves to be misunderstood. They know authenticity feels better than false approval.
Katherine Hammons retweeted
“I asked myself.” ❤️
You’ve probably seen this amazing video of little Willa, which has been shared far and wide on social media since its original posting in 2019.
I could write 10 different posts about the reasons I love it (#HomeyDepot), but today I want to spotlight what I consider it’s most important lesson of all: the emergence of AGENCY.
In the world of child development (and psychology more broadly), “agency” refers to control over one’s own actions. It’s the ability to make choices that reflect our personal needs and desires.
Agency is key to both children’s emerging independence and long term success.
And boy does Willa have it in spades.
Asked whom she asked permission to apply lipstick (yip-ick) in the bathroom, she explains with confidence that:
1The lipstick is hers,
2She asked herself, and
3That she likes the way it looks, thank you very much.
It’s not just that she’s made these choices on her own. It’s the way they fill her with pride.
She is her own person.
As a parent, you can support your child’s healthy agency from an early age by presenting reasonable choices and allowing them to select and act on their preferences. Sometimes this will also entail dealing with the natural consequences of our actions… which can be a critical lesson for children and adults alike.
Independent little Willa was originally shared to FB and IG by her father, PeterSowell.
Katherine Hammons retweeted
You are not alone in your struggle against narcissistic abuse. Join our supportive community, and let's heal together at carlacorelli.com #HealingTogether
Katherine Hammons retweeted
I want to talk about trust and attachment in young children. And there’s no video here for good reason.
Several of you have recently tagged me to ask my thoughts on trending videos depicting parents engaging in one appalling behavior or another - in pursuit, apparently, of social media likes.
In one trend, parents pretend to be FaceTiming with their child’s new kindergarten teacher and call their child over to meet her. When they get to the phone, the child comes face to face with a photo of a scary looking adult (which in some cases appear to be mugshots of women deep in the throes of drug addiction, if, in fact, they are real at all). The children are almost always alarmed. Often they cry.
During one of the biggest transitions in their young child’s life (the start of school), these parents have chosen to stoke anxiety rather than provide comfort.
Other recent trends have involved parents in throwing slices of American cheese at their toddlers - or, more recently, unexpectedly cracking a raw egg on their child’s forehead during a joint cooking activity.
Obviously I’m not going to uplift any examples here. But I do want to address the harm these kinds of behaviors create from a developmental perspective.
The years of early childhood are a time during which trust and attachment are (ideally) formed. With love, attention, and responsive caregiving, young children learn that their world is safe. They develop self worth and self esteem. These are prerequisites to both learning and healthy development.
But the key to developing trust is consistency.
And the behaviors in these videos - even if rare and anomalous - serve only to undermine healthy attachment between parent and child. They provide children with data points that suggest their parents can be unexpectedly and arbitrary cruel. They are a violation of hard earned trust.
Some will argue that these are just jokes in good fun. They aren’t. They are the deliberate infliction of trauma, however brief, for the amusement of strangers. It should go without saying that this isn’t good for children.
Please. Don’t. Just don’t.
Katherine Hammons retweeted
Did you know that your baby is a skilled reader of your emotional cues… and uses them to help make sense of their own feelings and experiences?
Here’s an example caught on tape.
When a potential danger startles this little guy, watch as he reacts in three distinct stages.
First comes his initial reaction and facial expression. As thunder booms in the distance, baby whips his head in dad’s direction - his eyes wide and mouth agape.
But watch what happens next. He takes a beat to assess dad’s own facial expression. (Is he as scared as I am? Just how worried do I need to be here?)
Noting that dad remains cool and calm, baby’s reaction deescalates. Rather than cry or scream, he goes in for a reassuring snuggle…still a little shaken, but reassured of his immediately safety.
To be clear, the takeaway here isn’t that parents mustn’t react to startling noises. (We’ve all jumped a mile when surprised by lightning.)
Instead this video packs a concrete reminder of how caregivers’ moods and emotional reactions help shape babies’ sense of well-being… not only in moments of perceived danger, but all throughout their daily lives.
It’s one reason that, as parents, we’re wise to remain attuned to our own feelings of stress, anger, anxiety, and depression. The greater your ability to engage positively and attentively with your baby, the more optimal their healthy development.
No one is immune from stress. But being mindful and proactive about its impacts is healthy for both you and your child. What strategies do you use to relieve stress and anxiety?
🎥 via IG (original source unknown)
Katherine Hammons retweeted
“It is sobering to realize that many of the personality traits we have come to believe are us, and perhaps even take pride in, actually bear the scars of where we lost connection to ourselves, way back when.”
@DrGaborMate The Myth of Normal
Katherine Hammons retweeted
Trauma responses aren't choices. They're conditioned reflexes.
We can make ourselves less vulnerable to them & condition our responses to them-- but there's no shame in experiencing a trauma response. They happen. You didn't ask for them.
Ease up. You're working on it.
Katherine Hammons retweeted
You bet, our self-love is gonna be imperfect. Our self-care's gonna be imperfect. Our recovery's gonna be imperfect.
Keep at it.
Imperfect self-love, self-care, & recovery beats self-hate, self-mockery, & self-sabotage every day of the week.
Keep stumbling forward.
Katherine Hammons retweeted
Co-dependency is placing a person on top of your trauma assuming their presence can keep the pain away. Over time, it’s not that they're letting us down, it’s that our pain is increasing & our body recognizes that the one who bore the pain, is the only one that can heal it.