Our mind is a mysterious thing. There are still so many things we’ve yet to figure out about this tiny organ inside us that basically controls us.
One thing scientists have learned that the brain can easily be tricked.
We’re all used to living our life a certain way and doing things on a regular.
Habit is what we like to call it. And this very habit is sometimes hard to get rid of.
But there is also a possibility of tweaking these habits and tricking the mind.
For years, scientists have performed several psychological experiments on thousands of people in order to prove it.
It can be brutal, but getting things done your way can sometimes be satisfying. As long as you’re not being hurtful.
However, psychological experiments don’t have to be huge and scientific. There are simple ways we can experiment with psychology in our daily lives.
Here are 5 psychological tricks everyone should know.
The Relation Between Nervousness and Excitement.
Nervousness is a feeling we get when we’re scared of something. While excitement is the exact opposite of that feeling.
However, strangely our body reacts the same in both the situations.
Whether we’re nervous or excited our body releases the adrenaline hormones.
Therefore, you can trick your mind when you’re nervous to believe that you’re actually excited about something.
This way you can feel better when you’re actually scared to do something. Win-win situation.
Pretending to be Naive Prompts More Information.
It’s a good thing to be well-informed about things that are important. You can have plenty of information and facts when you need to state your opinions.
You can even win arguments with people who are clearly in the wrong. This way you can brag off your achievement of staying updated and informed.
However, knowing a little more wouldn’t really hurt anyone, would it?
So, in order to extract more information, what you can do is pretend to be naive and clueless.
Faking a Yawn.
Sometimes when we’re in a class or somewhere in the public, we get a feeling that someone is watching us.
It doesn’t mean we need to feel bad but sometimes it does creeps us out. Especially when someone you don’t know is staring at you and you feel like it but you don’t really know.
The best way to find out if you’re being watched is to yawn.
Yawning is known to be contagious. So, if you yawn, the person that’s looking at you also tends to yawn.
And bam! without anything, you’ll know if they’re really staring at you.
The Trick to Win Rock-Paper-Scissor.
Rock-paper-scissor is a fun game you can play with your siblings, friends, or little children.
Rock-paper-scissor is a serious game in Japan where they have tournaments.
It is also a way, a lot of people decide on who goes first or who gets the last piece of food, or anything else.
Since it’s all up to the person that’s playing the game, you can’t really tell who is going to win.
You don’t know for sure if you’ll win or lose.
But there a simple psychological hack in eliminating players if you’re trying to win.
Before you start the game, ask your opponent “what color is your shirt?”
And when you play the game, they mostly tend to choose scissors.
The logic here is that asking them the color of the shirt makes them think of the letter “S”. And when you immediately play the game it makes them think of “scissors” because it starts with the letter “S”.
This was actually an experiment carried out at the Marshall University and it was called “The Effects of Priming on Rock, Paper, Scissors”.
3-Minute Rules to Feel Better.
Depression is a really hard mental disease to get out of. It takes a lot of time and effort for someone suffering to feel genuinely happy about something. Or to feel better about something.
One thing to know about depression is that the healing process begins with you. It’s only possible to get over it if you’re willing to put an effort.
However, reaching out for help is not a bad idea.
But, one trick can help you calm yourself down and ease up with depression.
The “3-minute rule” is where you do things that take less than three minutes and it actually makes you feel better.
You can make your bed, water the plants, do the dishes, brush your teeth or hair, etc.
Taking these tiny steps, one at a time is how you can fight back depression and make way for a happier life.
