I’ve discussed Seth Roberts’s idea of “faces therapy” – looking at human faces during the day, especially the morning, in order to normalize circadian rhythms. See Seth Roberts and Circadian Therapy, Mar 22, 2011, and Around the Web; It’s Anthropology Week!, May 21, 2011.
Then Kris gave us a great video she used for faces therapy; that appeared in a post last year (CrossFit NYC: 20 Tips for Optimal Health & Fitness, Nov 22, 2011).
Well, here’s another video so therapeutic I had to share. Enjoy!
via this link:
That made me smile. Thanks for sharing!
So does this mean that we have a legit reason to surf Youtube at school and work? Not that we needed one…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNGIzt3zAKQ
Try this for faces therapy. P.S., guess who the song is “about”.
It’s an interesting idea, but I have to scream out, N=1 + self-reported happiness = arrgghhhhh!!!!
Okay, I feel better now 😉
I think self-experimentation is cool, especially when it’s related to something tangible like sleep patterns. Obviously mood exists but it is so intangibly measured that it makes my spidey-sense tingle.
Babies yeah!!! Distorted faces not so much.
Oh, and Marlon Brando still stops the charts as the best looking guy I’ve ever seen (I saw back in the day in Central Park and he looked just as good in person as he did on the screen).
Faces therapy for erp:
Hi Sean,
I think there are good biological and evolutionary reasons to think that human circadian rhythms should be tied to social behaviors. So I’m inclined to believe on a minimum of evidence. Plus, I count the reported experiences as strong indicators even if they are N=few.
Yep.
Paul,
I’m inclined to believe this also. It makes a lot of sense. But I’m also inclined to be extremely skeptical of self-reported studies and especially of self-reported happiness measures.
I do it for the reason Paul suggests … the idea that deep in our limbic brain we’re wired for connection. It’s convenient that the brain is apparently oblivious to whether these faces are real or not!
For me, looking at faces in the AM briefly before diving into a day’s worth of work on the computer has certainly seemed helpful, if for no other reason that it’s been terrific to actually look at real faces of all ages and not just the airbrushed photoshopped faces mass media puts in front of us.
BTW, my regular go-to is this slide show on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/theportraitgroup/pool/show/
Blue light shuts down melatonin
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3027693/
Per The Promise of Sleep – a great book by the founder of the world’s first sleep lab, William Dement MD PhD – we need to build up sleep debt throughout the day, to be able to sleep at night
http://www.amazon.com/The-Promise-Sleep-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017
Of course, the same blue light – even from computers or TV – that helps wake you up in the morning inhibits sleep at night
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-light-affects-our-sleep/#axzz1rNe6JXbz
So, if looking at faces on computer, maybe it’s the blue light, not the faces, that’s waking you up/making you feel good (oh, confound those.. confounders!)
If it’s a social thing, then voices may be more important than faces.
That would explain why being woken with the sun by screaming children is so refreshing….
Heh. Record them, George, so you can have that every day. It’s for your rhythms!
Fortunately, Paul, I do not need to record them!
But as I’m waking up first now to prep them, maybe that should be my alarm tone…
Thought this was interesting about faces! http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/08/176575825/retrain-the-way-those-kids-interpreted-faces
😀 Most of the stress humans have to deal with comes via a human face, one feels much better simply by “seeing” the Soul carrying that face for this brief period on earth. Try it and be surprised how many complete strangers feel the impulse to say hullo. Bon Voyage.