The Upside Of Your Dark Side _VERIFIED_

A "strong" definition of the word spite, an act "where you harm another person and harm yourself in the process," does not leave much room for positivity. Yet the subtitle of Simon McCarthy-Jones's fascinating new work, Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side, more than hints at how spite can be a constructive force. An associate professor of psychology and neuropsychology at Dublin's Trinity College, McCarthy-Jones has multiple degrees, papers and books to support his ideas about spite. That doesn't mean he declines the use of cinema's Terminator or Batman for occasional help explaining them.

The Upside of Your Dark Side

Last, when your anxiety levels are at their peak, tackle the projects requiring the most creativity and concentration, like creating innovative solutions to problems at work or developing proposals for new projects to work on. You may have come up with some great ideas while completing the mindless assignments! By organizing your work schedule based on the beneficial side effects of anxiety and stress, you will set yourself up for success.

The takeaway from these studies is that all of our mindsets, emotions and moods are adaptive in some contexts but not in others. The key is temperance and balance, and being resilient and flexible depending on the circumstances. Optimism doesn't mean blind optimism. As Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener point out in their delightful book "The Upside of Your Dark Side," the key is cultivating your "whole self," not just your "good" self. 041b061a72