Personal Growth
Co-Regulation: How Your Partner’s Nervous System is Rewiring Your Behavior
You walk into the room tense, and your partner’s calm voice helps your shoulders drop. Or you walk in fine, a…
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My Traits Lab Blog
Helpful articles about self-awareness, relationships, work style, emotional patterns, communication, and personal growth.
Personal Growth
The "Friendship Version" of You: Why You Are a Better Person to Your Peers Than Your Spouse
Your friends think you are patient, funny, generous, emotionally intelligent. Then you come home and become s…
Personal Growth
The 'I'll Be Happy When...' Fallacy: The Psychology of Postponing Your Joy
I'll be happy when I get the promotion. I'll be happy when I lose ten pounds. I'll be happy when I find a par…
Personal Growth
The 'Inner Child' Explained: It's Not Woo-Woo, It's Your Brain's Core Programming
I rolled my eyes at the phrase "inner child" for years. It sounded like something from a self-help book with…
Personal Growth
The 'Gossip' Impulse: The Hidden Social Psychology of Why We Talk About Others
I caught myself doing it yesterday. A coworker's name came up. Someone rolled their eyes. I leaned in. Within…
Personal Growth
The 'Sunday Reset' Pressure: The Psychology of Optimizing Your Downtime
My Sunday routine used to look like this: wake up anxious. Scroll Instagram and see at least three people's a…
Personal Growth
The 'I'll Do It Later' Lie: The Difference Between Procrastination and Prioritization
I have a folder on my laptop called "To Sort." It contains 847 files. I created it in 2019. The name was aspi…
Personal Growth
The 'Energy Vampire' Hangover: A Psychologist's Guide to Protecting Your Social Battery
I had coffee with someone last month. Ninety minutes. That's all. Ninety minutes. And when I got home, I coll…
Personal Growth
The 'I Sound Stupid' Fear: The Psychology of Why You Hate the Sound of Your Own Voice
I recorded a voice memo last week. Just a quick note to myself about an idea I didn't want to forget. I playe…
Personal Growth
The 'Normal' Myth: The Psychology of Why You Feel Like an Outsider
I spent most of my adolescence waiting to feel normal. I thought it was a phase. A temporary condition. One d…
Personal Growth
The 'Memory Hoarder' Impulse: The Psychology of Why You Can't Delete Old Photos
My phone has 14,627 photos. I just checked. Fourteen thousand. Many of them are screenshots I'll never look a…
Personal Growth
The 'Texting Chemistry' Trap: Why a Great Digital Connection Doesn't Translate Offline
We texted for three weeks. Three weeks of witty banter, late-night conversations, inside jokes that developed…