Although music-making is associated with enhanced wellbeing in several contexts – for example, everyday, community, clinical, and educational settings – at the professional level making music is frequently considered a threat to wellbeing. Professional musicians often experience performance-related injuries, musculoskeletal pain during performance, and psychological demands (e.g. performance anxiety, general stress, mental fatigue). In a […]
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Being “nice” is not the same thing as compassion
The science of being ‘nice’: how politeness is different from compassion Kun Zhao, University of Melbourne and Luke Smillie, University of Melbourne The word “nice” has an unusual history in the English language. Originally a term for “foolish”, its meaning over the centuries has morphed from “wanton” to “reserved” to “fastidious”. These days, it has […]
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Does your ‘true self’ actually exist?
Is there such a thing as a ‘true self’? Nick Haslam, University of Melbourne “To thine own self be true”, the saying goes. It is often taken as sage advice, a remnant scrap of Elizabethan life coaching, but Shakespeare may have meant it to be heard as a stale platitude. He puts it in the […]
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