Authentic Happiness,

Daniel Wegner, a psychology professor at Harvard University, has shown in several studies that the intention to control a particular thought often breaks down under stress or mental overload and actually ends up triggering the unwanted thought, undermining our best intentions.

Just as your mind influences the breath, you can influence the state of your mind through the breath as well.”

As described earlier, our brain is wired to focus on fearful or negative stimuli more than positive ones.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. —Maya Angelou

The “chase” mentality is pervasive in our culture because we are arguably facing the most difficult time in human history to resist external stimuli. Why? Technology allows work and personal demands to be on our radar all the time. Thanks to computers, smartphones, and tablets, the boss’s latest request is sitting in an in-box, to-do lists reminder

The researchers invited a different group of participants to breathe in the patterns that corresponded to the various emotions from the first study. Then they asked the participants how they felt. Lo and behold, the participants started to feel the emotions that corresponded to the breathing patterns!

One study found that, the more people engaged in media multitasking (from word processing to text messaging and e-mail), the higher their anxiety and depression levels tended to be.22

Sleeping with Your Smartphone,