#early-life-adversity
#early-life-adversity

2 hours ago

3 Mistakes That Fuel an Angry Adult Child

Overexplaining escalates conflict, while emotional acknowledgment helps to calm angry adult children.

Parenting

Why Setting Limits With Your Child Feels So Hard

Parenting

Too Much Advice Is Making Us Worse at Parenting

fromScary Mommy

If Your Kids Lead Easy Lives, Do You Need To "Manufacture Hardship"?

Parents face a conflict between providing comfort and teaching resilience to their children.

Psychology says parents who can't stop helping their adult children aren't being loving - they're unconsciously protecting themselves from the terror of becoming unnecessary - Silicon Canals

Parental overinvolvement may stem from a fear of irrelevance rather than solely from love.

How to Give Your Children What They Need Emotionally

Emotional attention and responsiveness from parents are crucial for children's emotional development and future well-being.

2 hours ago

3 Mistakes That Fuel an Angry Adult Child

Overexplaining escalates conflict, while emotional acknowledgment helps to calm angry adult children.

Why Setting Limits With Your Child Feels So Hard

Setting limits based on fear rather than genuine values creates uncertainty for children, leading them to test boundaries.

Too Much Advice Is Making Us Worse at Parenting

Excessive expert advice can heighten parental anxiety and shift parenting from a relationship to a project.

fromScary Mommy

If Your Kids Lead Easy Lives, Do You Need To "Manufacture Hardship"?

Parents face a conflict between providing comfort and teaching resilience to their children.

Psychology says parents who can't stop helping their adult children aren't being loving - they're unconsciously protecting themselves from the terror of becoming unnecessary - Silicon Canals

Parental overinvolvement may stem from a fear of irrelevance rather than solely from love.

How to Give Your Children What They Need Emotionally

Emotional attention and responsiveness from parents are crucial for children's emotional development and future well-being.

more#parenting

fromenglish.elpais.com

4 hours ago

Toxic relationships (especially in the family or at work) accelerate aging

Toxic relationships can accelerate biological aging and increase health risks, emphasizing the importance of distancing from negative social connections.

4 hours ago

The Hidden Cost of Emotional Reactivity

Stress alters perception and communication, leading to misunderstandings and reactive interactions.

Why So Many Adults With ADHD Still Feel Wounded by School

Many adults with ADHD carry emotional wounds from school that affect their parenting and self-concept.

fromFast Company

3 hours ago

For women, gender disparities in ADHD diagnoses can be deadly

Recent research indicates that girls with ADHD are often underdiagnosed, leading to significant mental health challenges.

Let's Ask Brains What ADHD Looks Like

ADHD is defined by 18 symptoms, with emerging research identifying adult-specific symptoms and innovative brain mapping studies revealing ADHD biotypes.

Education

Why So Many Adults With ADHD Still Feel Wounded by School

Many adults with ADHD carry emotional wounds from school that affect their parenting and self-concept.

fromFast Company

3 hours ago

For women, gender disparities in ADHD diagnoses can be deadly

Recent research indicates that girls with ADHD are often underdiagnosed, leading to significant mental health challenges.

fromwww.independent.co.uk

Let's Ask Brains What ADHD Looks Like

ADHD is defined by 18 symptoms, with emerging research identifying adult-specific symptoms and innovative brain mapping studies revealing ADHD biotypes.

Psychology says people who were the emotional anchor for their families rarely experience loneliness as a single event. They experience it as a slow accounting where they realize the support only ever flowed in one direction and nobody designed a return current. - Silicon Canals

Family support often flows in one direction, with one person bearing the emotional load while others remain uninvolved.

UK news

The surprising effect of loneliness on the brain of older adults

Loneliness impacts memory but does not accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, according to a major European study tracking over 10,000 participants.

Social justice

Resilience and Reconstruction in Practice

A long-term approach is essential for supporting displaced individuals, emphasizing identity continuity and meaningful work for resilience.

Health

The Let-Down Effect: When De-Stressing Makes You Sick

Illness often occurs after stress relief, not during stress, due to the Let-Down Effect.

UK politics

fromwww.theguardian.com

More than a fifth of UK's austerity children' scarred by poverty, study says

Austerity policies have led to 23% of British children experiencing long-term poverty, significantly impacting their health and life chances.

3 hours ago

How Children Learn Friendship Skills

Social skills require active learning through experience, not just time spent with peers.

#adult-children

Parenting

Why Some Adult Children Stay Stuck on Purpose

Staying in the 'almost ready' mindset prevents adult children from progressing and facing potential failure.

The Two Thoughts That Quietly Ruin Adult Children's Lives

Struggling adult children often face analysis paralysis due to the fear of uncertainty, hindering their progress and confidence.

Why Some Adult Children Stay Stuck on Purpose

Staying in the 'almost ready' mindset prevents adult children from progressing and facing potential failure.

The Two Thoughts That Quietly Ruin Adult Children's Lives

Struggling adult children often face analysis paralysis due to the fear of uncertainty, hindering their progress and confidence.

The Importance of Confidence in an Unpredictable World

Agencies can help clients build confidence in decision-making by providing clarity, preparedness, and adaptability in uncertain business environments.

#emotional-intelligence

Psychology says people who stay calm under pressure aren't suppressing their emotions - they've built a relationship with discomfort that most people spend their whole lives avoiding - Silicon Canals

Calm individuals process emotions differently, using reappraisal instead of suppression to manage stress and discomfort.

Psychology says the people who seem impossible to offend aren't thick-skinned. They decided long ago that showing hurt gives others a map they haven't earned, so they absorb the wound and reclassify it as information - Silicon Canals

Emotional toughness often masks deep sensitivity, leading individuals to absorb pain without showing it, as vulnerability can be weaponized by others.

Psychology says people who randomly cringe at past memories have a level of self-awareness that most people never develop - because the cringe only exists when a person is emotionally intelligent enough to look back at who they were and recognize the distance between that version of themselves and the one standing here now, and that distance is called growth even when it feels like shame - Silicon Canals

Cringing at past actions signifies emotional growth and self-reflection, indicating a recognition of personal development over time.

Children who grew up in homes where one parent was the peacekeeper and the other was the storm almost always become adults who can read a room in seconds but have no idea what they actually feel when nobody else is in it - Silicon Canals

Emotional intelligence can stem from childhood experiences in volatile family dynamics, leading to heightened perception of others but self-blindness.

Miscellaneous

Psychology says people who grew up in households where no one talked about emotions but everyone felt them intensely display these 9 traits in adult relationships-and most of them look like strength until you understand the cost - Silicon Canals

Growing up in emotionally silent households develops hypervigilance and mind-reading behaviors that damage adult relationships through misinterpretation and projection of childhood patterns.

Psychology says people who stay calm under pressure aren't suppressing their emotions - they've built a relationship with discomfort that most people spend their whole lives avoiding - Silicon Canals

Calm individuals process emotions differently, using reappraisal instead of suppression to manage stress and discomfort.

Psychology says the people who seem impossible to offend aren't thick-skinned. They decided long ago that showing hurt gives others a map they haven't earned, so they absorb the wound and reclassify it as information - Silicon Canals

Emotional toughness often masks deep sensitivity, leading individuals to absorb pain without showing it, as vulnerability can be weaponized by others.

Psychology says people who randomly cringe at past memories have a level of self-awareness that most people never develop - because the cringe only exists when a person is emotionally intelligent enough to look back at who they were and recognize the distance between that version of themselves and the one standing here now, and that distance is called growth even when it feels like shame - Silicon Canals

Cringing at past actions signifies emotional growth and self-reflection, indicating a recognition of personal development over time.

Children who grew up in homes where one parent was the peacekeeper and the other was the storm almost always become adults who can read a room in seconds but have no idea what they actually feel when nobody else is in it - Silicon Canals

Emotional intelligence can stem from childhood experiences in volatile family dynamics, leading to heightened perception of others but self-blindness.

more#emotional-intelligence

Miscellaneous

Psychology says people who grew up in households where no one talked about emotions but everyone felt them intensely display these 9 traits in adult relationships-and most of them look like strength until you understand the cost - Silicon Canals

Why We Stay in Relationships That Subtly Erode Us

Incrementally diminishing relationships persist due to human attachment to unpredictability and familiarity, despite emotional neglect and pain.

Why Is Eradicating Adverse Childhood Experiences Critical?

Nearly 90 percent of suicide attempts among high school students are attributable to ACEs, as are 80 percent of adult suicides, translating to 109 suicides per day.

Public health

The Brain Does Not Develop in Isolation

Relational and intersubjective models of mind challenge traditional individualistic views in psychiatry and psychology, emphasizing social context in understanding psychological distress.

Psychology suggests people who adopt their parents' bad traits as they get older aren't becoming their parents - they're reverting to the most deeply installed operating system they have, the one that was running before they were old enough to choose a different one, and stress, age, and the slow erosion of self-monitoring are simply the conditions under which it boots back up - Silicon Canals

Behavioral patterns from childhood can resurface under stress, revealing deep-rooted psychological templates formed from early experiences.

23 hours ago

The Brain Does Not Develop in Isolation

Relational and intersubjective models of mind challenge traditional individualistic views in psychiatry and psychology, emphasizing social context in understanding psychological distress.

Psychology suggests people who adopt their parents' bad traits as they get older aren't becoming their parents - they're reverting to the most deeply installed operating system they have, the one that was running before they were old enough to choose a different one, and stress, age, and the slow erosion of self-monitoring are simply the conditions under which it boots back up - Silicon Canals

Behavioral patterns from childhood can resurface under stress, revealing deep-rooted psychological templates formed from early experiences.

Behavioral Parents, Not Gentle Parents, Build Self-Control

Gentle parenting may improve parental self-perception but does not effectively teach children self-regulation skills compared to behavioral parenting.

In Defense of "Gentle Parenting"

Gentle parenting faces criticism for being perceived as passive, while authoritative parenting is recognized as the most effective approach.

20 hours ago

Behavioral Parents, Not Gentle Parents, Build Self-Control

Gentle parenting may improve parental self-perception but does not effectively teach children self-regulation skills compared to behavioral parenting.

In Defense of "Gentle Parenting"

Gentle parenting faces criticism for being perceived as passive, while authoritative parenting is recognized as the most effective approach.

more#gentle-parenting

Why High-Functioning Adults Often Feel Anxious

High-functioning individuals often experience anxiety despite external success and competence, struggling to relax and feel regulated.

Resentment Is Bad for Your Health

Harboring resentment negatively impacts health, while forgiveness promotes healing and emotional well-being.

fromMail Online

2 hours ago

Scientists reveal scary dreams might actually be GOOD for you

Experiencing fear in dreams may indicate better emotional regulation skills, despite being linked to worse mood the following day.

People who grew up watching their parents stay together unhappily often become adults who are simultaneously terrified of commitment and terrified of leaving. They inherited the architecture of endurance without ever being shown what it was supposed to protect - Silicon Canals

Children of unhappy marriages may develop relational paralysis, feeling unable to commit or leave due to learned endurance without understanding its purpose.

Psychology says people who describe themselves as self-sufficient aren't always describing a strength. Sometimes they're describing the scar tissue that formed where the need for other people used to be, and they've carried it so long they genuinely mistake the numbness for peace. - Silicon Canals

Self-reliance is often mistaken for strength, but true strength includes the ability to seek help and share vulnerabilities.

The Quiet War on Your Happiness, and How to Win It

A quiet war on happiness is fought through distractions that pull attention away from the present moment.

10 hours ago

The people who talk about their childhood like it was fine but can't remember most of it aren't lying. The absence of memory and the absence of trauma feel identical from the inside until something cracks the seal, and by then the person has built an entire adult identity on the version where nothing happened. - Silicon Canals

Childhood amnesia affects memory retention, leading to a lack of vivid recollections from early years despite having a normal upbringing.

Psychology says the adults most likely to end up in therapy aren't the ones who had dramatic or obviously painful childhoods - they're the ones who grew up in households where everything was technically fine, nobody was cruel, and something essential was quietly missing in a way that took decades to find the words for - Silicon Canals

Emotional neglect in seemingly fine childhoods can have profound effects, leaving individuals feeling their inner world doesn't matter.

Psychology explains people who grew up with very little affection become adults who are deeply uncomfortable being comforted - not because they don't need it but because need, expressed openly, was never safe, and the body that learned that keeps flinching from the very thing it was always asking for - Silicon Canals

Experiencing a lack of affection in childhood can lead to difficulties in accepting comfort and expressing needs in adulthood.

I grew up with a mother who was physically there but emotionally unreachable - and the confusion that produced, the child's inability to grieve a parent who is standing right in front of them, is the thing I have spent the most years in therapy trying to untangle and the thing I understood least for the longest - Silicon Canals

Emotional absence from a present parent can lead to profound feelings of unworthiness in a child.

Mental health

How Neglect Works Its Way Into Families With Means

Mental health

If you rarely received affection growing up, psychology says you likely developed these 8 personality traits - Silicon Canals

Psychology says the adults most likely to end up in therapy aren't the ones who had dramatic or obviously painful childhoods - they're the ones who grew up in households where everything was technically fine, nobody was cruel, and something essential was quietly missing in a way that took decades to find the words for - Silicon Canals

Emotional neglect in seemingly fine childhoods can have profound effects, leaving individuals feeling their inner world doesn't matter.

Psychology explains people who grew up with very little affection become adults who are deeply uncomfortable being comforted - not because they don't need it but because need, expressed openly, was never safe, and the body that learned that keeps flinching from the very thing it was always asking for - Silicon Canals

Experiencing a lack of affection in childhood can lead to difficulties in accepting comfort and expressing needs in adulthood.

I grew up with a mother who was physically there but emotionally unreachable - and the confusion that produced, the child's inability to grieve a parent who is standing right in front of them, is the thing I have spent the most years in therapy trying to untangle and the thing I understood least for the longest - Silicon Canals

Emotional absence from a present parent can lead to profound feelings of unworthiness in a child.

Mental health

How Neglect Works Its Way Into Families With Means

Mental health

If you rarely received affection growing up, psychology says you likely developed these 8 personality traits - Silicon Canals

more#emotional-neglect

Most people don't realize that children who grow up without affection don't struggle with love as adults. They struggle with trusting it, because it never felt safe to depend on - Silicon Canals

Emotional unavailability stems from a lack of early affection, leading to difficulties in accepting love despite an inherent capacity for it.

It's Time to Rethink the "Anxiety Drives PDA" Narrative

PDA is not solely anxiety-driven; it shares traits with ADHD and ODD, suggesting a more complex relationship with demand avoidance.

Parenting a Child With Pathological Demand Avoidance

Pathological demand avoidance (PDA) is a behavior pattern where children perceive demands as threats to their autonomy, leading to challenging behaviors.

#emotional-sensitivity

You're Not Too Sensitive, Even If It Feels That Way

Avoiding emotions intensifies them; feeling strong emotions can build confidence and reduce overwhelm.

Two Signs You're Raising a Hyper-Sensitive Child

Parenting requires understanding and support for emotionally sensitive children who may react more intensely to situations than their peers.

You're Not Too Sensitive, Even If It Feels That Way

Avoiding emotions intensifies them; feeling strong emotions can build confidence and reduce overwhelm.

more#emotional-sensitivity

Two Signs You're Raising a Hyper-Sensitive Child

Parenting requires understanding and support for emotionally sensitive children who may react more intensely to situations than their peers.

Psychology says people who replay conversations in their head didn't develop that habit by accident - most of them learned early that saying the wrong thing had real consequences, and now their brain replays every exchange searching for mistakes and misfires like a security system that was installed in childhood and has never once been turned off - Silicon Canals

Replaying conversations stems from early experiences where words had significant consequences, leading to a defense mechanism of constant analysis.

The people who become the calmest adults are almost never the ones who had calm childhoods. They're the ones who grew up in houses where someone else's mood was the weather, and they learned to regulate the entire room before they ever learned to regulate themselves. - Silicon Canals

Children from chaotic homes can develop heightened emotional awareness and calmness, contrary to the belief that such environments only produce turbulence.

The people who became adults without ever learning how to ask for help didn't develop independence. They developed a system where every need gets reclassified as a project they can handle alone, and the reclassification happens so fast now that they genuinely believe they never needed anything in the first place. - Silicon Canals

Resourcefulness can mask deeper emotional needs, leading to automatic self-sufficiency without recognizing the need for help.

NYC parents

When Protection Becomes Punishment

Mandated reporting trainings emphasize legal compliance over understanding how CPS functions as a policing mechanism that disproportionately harms marginalized families.

When Love Masquerades as Depression

A man named Jim struggled with severe depression after accidentally causing his stepson's death during a skiing accident.

Psychology says people who grew up in the 1960s and 70s don't handle hardship better than everyone else because they are stronger - they handle it better because they were never offered the alternative, and a person who was never offered the alternative develops a relationship with difficulty that people who were offered it spend their whole lives trying to build in a gym - Silicon Canals

Struggling is a norm for my generation because we never knew life could be comfortable.

Children who grew up watching their parents stay together despite being visibly unhappy often develop a very specific fear as adults - they confuse sacrifice with love and can't tell the difference until someone shows them both - Silicon Canals

Emotional bonds with caregivers shape adult attachment patterns, influencing perceptions of love and suffering in relationships.

Is Your Teen Moody or Something More?

Distinguishing normal teen behavior from concerning mental health issues is crucial for caregivers during adolescence.

Yelling at Your Child Won't Work-but Something Else Does

Positive punishment effectively changes children's behavior by replacing it rather than just eliminating it.

I grew up lower middle class and the thing nobody explains is how the financial anxiety doesn't leave when the money arrives. You can have six months of savings and still feel the phantom weight of an empty account because your nervous system was calibrated in a house where the math never quite worked and it stored that frequency permanently - Silicon Canals

Chronic stress from childhood financial instability affects adult behavior and emotional responses to money.

Neuroscience reveals that the calmest person in any crisis isn't naturally fearless - their brain learned to delay panic because their childhood required them to be functional before they were allowed to be afraid - Silicon Canals

Calmness under pressure is a learned response, not merely a personality trait or temperament.

The Surprising Science Behind Childhood Defiance

Noncompliance in children evolves from defiance to simple refusal, indicating a developmental shift in asserting independence.

Psychology says adults who have no close friends aren't necessarily antisocial or unlikable. Many of them learned in childhood that being vulnerable leads to pain, and they grew up assuming that keeping people at a distance is safer - Silicon Canals

Many people appear self-sufficient but struggle with deep-seated fears of vulnerability due to early attachment experiences.

Underexposed? Social Anxiety and School Closure

The pandemic negatively impacted teens' social skills, increasing anxiety and hindering exposure therapy effectiveness.

Psychology says the reason some people become gentler as they age while others become bitter has nothing to do with personality. It depends on whether they processed their grief along the way or stored it in their body and called it toughness - Silicon Canals

Grief, especially non-finite losses, significantly influences whether individuals become gentler or more bitter as they age.

Psychology suggests people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s developed their emotional durability the way bone develops density - not through protection from impact but through repeated, low-level, unsupervised exposure to it, and the generation that resulted is not tougher because they were stronger to begin with, they are tougher because the childhood kept asking something of them and they kept answering - Silicon Canals

Generational differences in childhood experiences highlight resilience built through independence and manageable challenges without adult intervention.

Why You Are Harder on Yourself Than Anyone Else

Accountability involves recognizing mistakes without self-blame or harsh judgment.

The Quiet Pain of Growing Up With a Workaholic Parent

Growing up with a workaholic parent can lead to emotional struggles in adulthood, including intimacy issues and internalized distress.

Stop Fixing, Start Strengthening: How to Raise Resilient Kids

Teaching children to navigate difficult emotions fosters resilience, confidence, and self-worth.

Developing True Resilience: Think Like a Scientist

Resilience is a set of skills developed over time through encountering difficulties, not a static trait.

Parenting

The Case of the Broken Banana: Building Kids' Resilience

Stop Fixing, Start Strengthening: How to Raise Resilient Kids

Teaching children to navigate difficult emotions fosters resilience, confidence, and self-worth.

Developing True Resilience: Think Like a Scientist

Resilience is a set of skills developed over time through encountering difficulties, not a static trait.

Parenting

The Case of the Broken Banana: Building Kids' Resilience

There's a generation of people who were taught to apologize for their needs so effectively that as adults they experience wanting something as a form of aggression against whoever might have to provide it - Silicon Canals

Many adults associate expressing needs with guilt, viewing requests as impositions rather than natural interactions.

Handedness in Children of Traumatized Mothers

Higher maternal post-traumatic stress during pregnancy is linked to increased mixed-handedness in children.

Research suggests people who grew up with very little and later accumulated real wealth don't feel wealthy - they feel temporarily safe, and there's a difference - Silicon Canals

Scarcity significantly reduces cognitive performance, impacting decision-making and mental bandwidth, regardless of actual intelligence.

Is Anyone 'Neurotypical'? There Is No Universal Neurotype

Neurodiversity encompasses a wide range of cognitive abilities, and no individual can be strictly classified as 'neurotypical.'

Miscellaneous

Kids Today: Thoughts From Research, Practice, and the Classroom

Each generation faces unique challenges; today's youth deserve recognition for their perspectives rather than dismissal, as evidenced by clinical research, therapeutic practice, and educational settings.

Psychology says people who grew up poor and became successful often can't fully enjoy it - not because they're ungrateful, but because some part of them never stopped waiting for it to disappear - Silicon Canals

Successful individuals often struggle with feelings of scarcity and anxiety about their financial stability, despite their achievements.

7 signs you were the emotional translator between your parents as a child and it permanently changed the way your brain processes your own feelings as an adult - Silicon Canals

Parentification leads children to assume adult caregiving roles, impacting their emotional processing and self-awareness into adulthood.

4 weeks ago

How Childhood Trauma Impacts Our Sense of Trust

Trust is a complex, multifaceted relational capacity that develops through interactions with others and can be distorted by early trauma, requiring therapeutic acknowledgment rather than reassurance.

When Conflict at Home Shapes a Child's World

Domestic conflict within homes significantly impacts children's psychological development, though it receives far less public attention than international warfare.

9 signs your brain is wired for pattern recognition in a way most people never develop, and it almost always traces back to how unpredictable your childhood environment was - Silicon Canals

Heightened pattern recognition often stems from childhood adversity, not genetic gifts, as the brain adapts to unstable environments for survival.

Mental health

How Stress Is Contagious in Trauma-Impacted Families

9 signs your brain is wired for pattern recognition in a way most people never develop, and it almost always traces back to how unpredictable your childhood environment was - Silicon Canals

Heightened pattern recognition often stems from childhood adversity, not genetic gifts, as the brain adapts to unstable environments for survival.

#childhood-emotional-neglect

Mental health

How Stress Is Contagious in Trauma-Impacted Families

Why Children Are Especially Vulnerable to Trauma

Trauma is a deep psychological wound from adverse experiences that prevents recovery and moving forward, distinct from painful but recoverable life events.

Psychology

Is Childhood Emotional Neglect Making You Feel Numb Inside?

Mental health

The 3 Most Tragic Effects of Childhood Emotional Neglect

Psychology

Is Childhood Emotional Neglect Making You Feel Numb Inside?

more#childhood-emotional-neglect

Mental health

The 3 Most Tragic Effects of Childhood Emotional Neglect

Giving Away Our Mental Health

Mental health resilience stems from intentional, simple habits like face-to-face relationships and basic routines, not trendy solutions or purchases, requiring deliberate choices against modern pressures.

The overlooked habit that predicts a child's long-term wellbeing - Silicon Canals

Regular family meals promote children's long-term physical and mental health by fostering communication, emotional intelligence, and reduced risky behaviors.

Psychology says children who had to parent themselves or their siblings don't just lose their childhood - they develop a permanent nervous system dysregulation that makes rest feel dangerous and relaxation feel like neglecting an invisible responsibility - Silicon Canals

Childhood responsibilities create nervous system patterns where vigilance, responsibility, and constant caretaking become equated with safety and love, while rest triggers guilt and anxiety in adulthood.

Positive Childhood Experiences for Addiction Prevention

Positive childhood experiences promote healthier adult outcomes, independently and by buffering adversity, reducing risk behaviors and supporting resilience and addiction prevention.

Psychology says strict parenting creates these 8 emotional habits that show up decades later - Silicon Canals

Every minute was scheduled, every grade scrutinized, every social interaction monitored. Her parents meant well, they really did. They wanted the best for her, believed structure and discipline would set her up for success. Fast forward twenty years, and she's successful by every traditional measure: great job, nice house, impressive resume. But she also can't make a decision without second-guessing herself fifteen times, apologizes for everything including her own existence,

Parenting

Can Adult Relationships Shape Memories of Childhood Trauma?

Supportive adult relationships are associated with reporting fewer adverse childhood experiences; parental support shows the strongest link, though ACE reports remain generally stable.

Grew up poor? Psychology says you probably display these 8 adult behaviors - Silicon Canals

Growing up, I remember watching my dad count out coins at the kitchen table every Sunday night. He'd separate them into little piles - rent, electricity, food - and there was never much left over. Years later, I still find myself doing the same thing with my bank balance, even though those days of stretching every pound are long behind me.

Psychology

fromFast Company