Processing emotions is crucial for both men and women, but men tend to struggle with identifying and expressing their emotions effectively. To develop a greater sense of emotional intelligence and improve their mental health, men should create a practice around introspection and give themselves time to understand and connect with their emotions.

Our minds are constantly working to simplify the world around us by creating shortcuts that help us function efficiently in our daily lives. One of the key parts of the brain responsible for filtering information and presenting us with what is relevant to our needs is the Reticular Activating System (RAS). While the RAS is useful in helping us achieve our goals, our psychological beliefs can limit our potential and create harmful shortcuts.

For many years of my life, I believed that something was fundamentally wrong with me. I had experienced a series of events that I perceived had an underlying message: I deserve to be punished for who I am. Now this sounds quite severe but I really believed it. There were pivotal moments in my youth, when I would express my genuine self to others and that I would then endure a horrible response.

Companionship and friendship are a vital part of a person’s life. We are social creatures. We need to interact with others as a way to organize our own thoughts and to feel connected with the rest of the world. Prolonged isolation has been shown to lead to impaired mental function, delayed recall of information, and a slew of physical ailments that negatively affect the health of one’s own body.

Our friends, neighbors, teachers etc. do the same by enforcing societies standards upon us. When we act poorly, we get disciplined by those around us. It is a necessary part of human development in order for us to transform from a self-centric child into a fully rounded adult.

For most of my life, I have had a very complicated history with food. There were certain foods that I had no self-control over. Oreo cookies, chocolate Pop-Tarts, Nutella and chocolate fudge brownies. One particular memory comes to mind. I was home alone and I made a batch of chocolate fudge brownies.