Is your neighborhood making you fat?

I'm writing a new blog on Psychology Today called "The Science of Willpower: Secrets for Self-Control without Suffering." It will cover research on self-control, emotion regulation, stress reduction, behavior change, and health psychology--and also include practical strategies from the classes I teach on these topics at Stanford.

My first post is up!

It's about a new study showing how where you live can strengthen or sabotage your willpower.

STUDY: Nature better than TV at reducing stress

Great post at Psychology Today about a new study that compared the stress-reducing effects of looking out a window at nature, viewing a similar nature scene on a large plasma TV, and staring at a blank wall.

Real nature outside the window outperformed the virtual nature and blank wall. The outcome in this study was physiological recovery from a stressor--exactly the kind of calming down we need to do each time we overreact to an email, hear bad news, feel overwhelmed, get into an argument, or whatever the stressor du jour is.

A great reminder to look out your window or better yet step outside. Consider it a booster shot of health and well-being.