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Get This: Women Prioritize Health Over Clothes

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Check out the list of links that should be on your radar today:

In a recent survey, more than 80 percent of women said they’d rather have a healthy body than an awesome wardrobe.  [HealthNewsDigest.com]

Scientists have discovered a new part of the eye (hint: it’s in your cornea). [LiveScience]

Judy Blume is a fan of Girls. Old-school young adult novel authors—they’re just like you! [TheCut]

Ted Dwane of Mumford & Sons has a blood clot in his brain. [USA Today]

Pregnant women who are overweight have a higher chance of delivering prematurely. [Reuters]

People who suffer from depression face 32 times the suicide risk of those who don’t. [The Atlantic]

A new report finds that overdraft services now make up 60 percent of fees from consumer checking accounts. [MarketWatch]

News you can use: Lego figurines’ expressions are getting angrier, according to research. [U.S. News]

photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

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9 Ways to Drive Safe Over the Holidays

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You already know that drinking and driving can be deadly. Now, evidence shows that daydreaming and driving is also a danger. People who let their minds wander behind the wheel are more likely to be in car accidents than their focused peers, according to a new study published in British Medical Journal.

French researchers interviewed 955 drivers who’d recently been injured in a motor vehicle crash. More than half of the drivers reported experiencing mind wandering before the accident, and 13 percent said their thoughts were “intense,” or highly disruptive/distracting. Most significantly, 17 percent of the drivers found to be responsible for their accidents also reported intense mind wandering just before impact.

When your mind wanders, you pay less attention to things you see and hear, and focus instead on internal thoughts, says Cédric Galéra, M.D., lead study author and psychiatrist at the Charles Perrens Hospital, University of Bordeaux in France. “Since your mind is turned towards yourself, [mind wandering] makes the driver prone to overlook hazards and make more errors independent of other distractions,” he says.

While a meandering mind is totally normal, it’s more likely to happen when you rest or do repetitive tasks that require little brainpower, like brushing your teeth or—you guessed it—driving. Moreover, certain moods make your mind even more apt to drift—like when you’re too tired or mellow, or too anxious or excited, says Joseph Cardillo, Ph.D., author of Can I Have Your Attention? How to Think Fast, Find Your Focus and Sharpen Your Concentration.

And here’s the thing: Distracting thoughts aren’t the only causes of dangerous driving. In fact, researchers have found that any time you take your eyes off the road or remove your hands from the wheel, you’re upping your risk for an accident. With all that in mind, here are 9 ways to get from point A to point B safely:

Define your mood, then adjust it
Before your foot hits the gas, complete the statement “I feel [blank].” Then, determine whether you need to calm down or step it up to reach the optimal driving mindset: a balance between calm and alert.

Make a game plan
Can’t stop thinking about a fight with your boyfriend, or what to wear when meeting his parents? Take control of your emotions with a plan that includes where, when, and why you will focus on your thoughts in the future. For instance: “When I get home in 45 minutes, I’m going to call my friend Lisa to vent, because she gives good advice and perspective.” Or, “When I get to the mall in twenty minutes, I’ll go straight to the department store, because they always stock the largest selection of perfect meet-the-parents dresses.” This proactive step will help you get the issue off your mind more easily, so you can concentrate on driving, says Cardillo.

Listen to music to decompress
“Music can adjust a mood that’s counterproductive to focused driving,” says Cardillo. Before you hop in the car for your holiday travel, queue up a playlist on your iPod. The rules: Songs should have fewer than 100 beats per minute (search on iTunes or Google any song name + BPM), contain inspiring lyrics, or remind you of a positive memory. Then, press play anytime you need to calm down.

Increase alertness with an upbeat song
When you’re making that first playlist, get to work on a second. This one is for jazzing you up when you’re feeling lethargic. Listening to a song with 100 to 175 beats per minute will increase your alertness, says Cardillo.

Open the windows to wake you up
It’s easy for your thoughts to veer off course during a long car ride—especially when you’re snuggled up in a comfy coat while a seat warmer toasts your buns, and the heat blows on high. But if it sounds too cozy, it probably is. Prevent dosing off by cracking a window. Like a cold shower, a cold blast of air can zap open drooping eyelids, fast. No luck? Find a well-lit parking lot, and pull over. Then lock the doors, and set your phone alarm to wake you up in 15 minutes before you close your eyes.

Leave your phone in your bag
Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves, according to data from the Accident Research Centre at Monash University. If your phone is out of reach, you won’t be tempted to use it. And if you do have to make a call? Pull over. A 2009 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found that using a headset isn’t substantially safer than using a hand-held device.

Make your passenger your secretary
Text messaging while you drive makes you 23 times more likely to have an accident, compared to driving while not distracted, according to the 2009 VTTI study. If you simply must send a message, dictate it text to the person in the passenger seat, and he or she can text it for you.

Program your GPS before you put the car in drive
On the spectrum of driving distractions, text messaging is the worst offender. However, second to texting is fiddling with your GPS, according to a 2012 National Highway Traffic Safety study. That’s because destination entry takes longer than calling an existing phone contact, dialing a new 10-digit number, or adjusting the radio. Meaning: your eyes are off the road for way too long to drive safely.

Keep food away from the front seat
Any non-driving activity (i.e., chewing) takes your mind off your primary task: driving safely. According to Distraction.gov (yes, there is a website for distracted driving) eating while you drive can increase your risk of crashing…not to mention choking. Starving? Stop for a snack at the next restaurant, convenience store, or gas station (find the best and worst food options here), and eat it before you hit the road.

photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
More Ways to Prevent Car Accidents
The Best Ways to Stay Focused
Sharpen Your Mind

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The Worst Way to Get Over a Breakup

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Feeling heartbroken? Put down the pen and back away from the diary. Journaling can make it harder to get over a breakup, according to a new study published in Clinical Psychological Science.

In a study of 90 recently divorced or separated men and women, researchers from the University of Arizona asked participants to journal for 20 minutes a day for three consecutive days. Researchers instructed some of them to “really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts;” others to tell the story of their failed relationship as a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end; and the rest to keep an emotionless log of their daily activities.

Researchers from the University of Arizona divided 90 recently divorced or separated men and women into three groups. They instructed the first group to journal about their feelings for twenty minutes a day for three days straight—“Really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts,” the researchers said. They asked the second group to write the story of their failed relationship as a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. And the third group they asked to keep an emotionless log of their daily activities for three days straight. The researchers assessed the participants’ emotional states—including how reflective they were—before the journaling began, and then followed up with the three groups 8 months later. They found that the people who were the most reflective had made the least progress getting over their breakups when they had journaled emotionally for three days. Those who wrote daily logs, however, had made the most progress. People with less ruminative personalities made similar progress despite how they journaled for the three days.

“For people who are ‘very in their head,’ journaling about a breakup can effectively amplify their distress,” says lead author and psychological scientist David Sbarra, Ph.D.  “When journaling, they begin brooding on how bad they feel, reflecting on how bad the breakup sucks.” It becomes a bit of an echo chamber. By focusing on daily activities, however, people can better engage in life, determine how they want to spend their time, and find definition outside of the relationship, he says. It forces them to think practically, rather than in impractical what-ifs.

Not sure how to get over your guy now that journaling’s out? Here, eight healthy ways for anyone—even dwellers—to get past a breakup:

Limit Your Wallowing
Breakups suck, and it’s only natural to feel miserable (even if you don’t take your feelings to pen and paper). The key is to limit the amount of time you let yourself think about the breakup every day, Sbarra says. “Tell yourself, ‘I can think about it for 30 minutes or an hour a day, or I can only think about it when I’m at home. But when I leave home and shut the door, I have to shut the door on those feelings, too,’” he says. Drawing the line (even if you cross it from time to time) will allow you to process your feelings while still making moving on a priority.

Ditch the Reminders
See your ex everywhere you look? Get him out of your head by tossing his toothbrush, pictures, and anything else that reminds you of him, says marriage and family therapist Paul Hokemeyer, Ph.D. Research has also shown that staying connected to an ex on Facebook can stunt your breakup recovery, so drop whatever virtual connections you still have.

Break a Sweat
Fight the urge for quality time with your couch and get at least some physical activity daily, Hokemeyer says. During a breakup, your brain pumps out cortisol, epinephrine, and other stress hormones that can cause headaches, tense muscles, and tummy troubles. Exercise, however, triggers the release of mood-boosting endorphins, relaxes muscles, and eases digestion to help you feel like yourself. Try these yoga exercises to help you get over heartache.

Keep a Gratitude List
“Every day, write down five things for which you are grateful. Use the list to ground yourself when you start to get overwhelmed by anger, fear, or sadness,” Hokemeyer says. Research shows that writing down what you’re thankful for can increase gratitude and feelings of wellbeing.

Give Back
Help others to help yourself. By increasing empathy, which makes you appreciate the good stuff in your own life, volunteering can boost your happiness, he says. Try not to smile when you are getting covered in puppy kisses! Whatever your interests, you can find a way to get your warm and fuzzies on at volunteermatch.org.

Schedule Girls’ Nights
You and your boyfriend might have broken up, but you aren’t alone. Spend time with your friends and ask for support when you are feeling down, he says. Besides helping you reengage in other non-couple activities and boost your self-esteem, research shows the simple act of hanging with friends can up your levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin.

Compliment Yourself
Write yourself notes with positive affirmations like ‘I am perfect the way I am.’ “The physical act of writing them will enable you to shift your emotional state,” Hokemeyer says. Put them up in your home, office, and car as constant reminders of how great you are—beau or no beau.

Eat for Your Mood
While a pint of ice cream and buttery popcorn can seem like the perfect post-breakup friends, research shows they can actually drag down your mood through the release of stress hormones, according to a 2012 study published in the International Journal of Obesity. However foods rich in vitamin D, folate, and omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to promote mental health and cut rates of depression. (Check out these natural mood-boosting foods.)

 photo: Creatas/Dynamic Graphics/Thinkstock

More from WH:
What Happens to Your Body When You’re Heartbroken
The Best Yoga Moves for After a Breakup
Poetic Breakup Advice


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