Psy'hope

I know this sounds strange, but "feeling good" as a goal tends to produce very narrow and disappointing outcomes. The fuller aim, the one the research actually supports, is something more like full engagement with the life you care about living.

“Scientists capture the full ‘brain-cleaning’ process during sleep” Sleep is crucial for the brain. When a person is in deep sleep, cerebrospinal fluid flows between neurons like waves, clearing metabolic waste and “resetting the system” for thinking and learning the next day. But what happens if you don’t get enough sleep? Scientists at Boston University in the United States have captured this “cleaning” process. Red represents blood, and blue represents cerebrospinal fluid. After falling asleep, neurons become quiet, and within a few seconds, blood flows out of the head. Then a watery fluid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows in, washing the brain in rhythmic pulses. What’s remarkable is that it was previously unknown that blood periodically flows out of the brain in large amounts. Each time this happens, cerebrospinal fluid takes the opportunity to surge in. Once inside the brain, cerebrospinal fluid clears toxins, such as beta-amyloid, which is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. This cleaning process only occurs during sleep, allowing the brain to feel refreshed upon waking. When awake, cerebrospinal fluid doesn’t get enough opportunity to do this effectively. Researchers also found a connection between brainwave activity and the cleaning process, meaning brainwaves help drive the movement of these fluids. So, it’s better to go to bed earlier—don’t stay up too late! If the “cleaning” doesn’t work well, you might actually get dumber…

This might be the concept in ACT that is hardest to explain in words, and also, in my experience, one of the most transformative when it actually lands. Self-as-context, which I sometimes call the observing self, is the sense of "you" that has been continuously present throughout your entire life, watching, experiencing, and noticing everything that has happened, while not being identical to any of it. You are not your thoughts; you are the one who notices them. You are not your moods; you are the one who experiences them. That awareness has been there since you first showed up as a conscious being, and it has never changed, even though everything else has. A useful test: think of a memory from childhood, then from last year, then from this morning. Who is noticing each of those? The one noticing is the same across all of them. That consistency, that perspective you carry everywhere you go, is what we mean.

Hier, j’ai soutenu ma thèse de doctorat, et aujourd’hui je vous propose un petit résumé de mes 1036 pages ! La question au cœur de mon travail est la suivante : la perte de toute croyance religieuse rend-elle la vie humaine vaine ? 1/21