Sad Song For u

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Sad Love

Most people understand exactly how sad love feels

Sad love. The concept is seemingly as ineffable as love itself, although most people understand exactly how sad love feels. Separately, sadness is felt as a heavy emptiness that may be coupled with a yearning to have what is unattainable or to bring back what was lost. Love adds intensity and complexity to sadness: the desire, passion, or craving experienced with love become flavored by the anguish, dejection, and helplessness felt with sadness.

As a psychotherapist, people often describe to me their sadness as a result of love--often as the ghost that remains of the good things about a relationship that has ended or is about to end. The beautiful memories, not the ugly ones, are those that trigger what I would now describe as sad love. And sad love evokes further reminders of what once was, in stark contrast to the actuality of the present. In vivid emotional memory, sad love holds on tight to what has been lost or to what is fading away.

People who are having, or who have had, an extramarital affair seem to possess an abundance of potential sad love triggers that involve yearning to have more moments with the object of their affection or the weighty sadness of deprivation. Cheating results in feeling cheated, which is ultimately a trigger for sad love. But the difficulty with such stolen moments is that they exaggerate a craving to have in reality what one has in fantasy--and fantasy's impact on emotions can be profound as well as deceptive. Fantasy indulges you by creating what could be out of transient interactions that are idealized, rather than recognizing what actually would exist in perpetuity.

On a more academic angle, I do want to clarify that love does not technically meet the criteria of an emotion, although sadness does. Given that they are reflexive and automatic, emotions are a reaction to something specific that triggers them. Emotions instantly affect your sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system resulting in bodily changes that are experienced as feelings, which in turn create cognitions that account for them. And ultimately, as I repeatedly stress in my blogs about emotions, they command your attention in order to give you immediate but vague information about a situation that can lead you to take action. Love can be described as an emotional state, a mood, or a mixture of emotions such as excitement, joy, happiness, or sensory pleasure. However, if we are going to be picky about what constitutes an emotion, then love does not qualify.

Sadness, however, is a painful emotion of disconnection from someone or something that you value. Profound sadness, as it relates to love, can be triggered by an observation, event, a remembrance that your love is unrequited, or an acknowledgement that the object of your affection is inaccessible. Sadness helps you to remember, rather than forget. Nevertheless, when you are sad you may think that you'd rather not remember whatever it is that triggered the emotion within you.

Researchers who studied the concept of love among people in the United States, Italy, and China found that it has both similar and different meanings cross culturally, including the presence of love-related concepts among Chinese people, such as "sad love," "sorrow-love," and "tenderness-pity" (Rothbaum & Tsang, 2004). In reading that study of emotions I came across the notion of sad love which, in all my years of practice, I unfortunately had not encountered. Finding a way to articulate the experience of sadness can provide relief to those who cannot find words for what they feel. In this vein, Shakespeare wrote in his play, MacBeth, "Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break." Similarly, the concept of sad love struck me as a descriptor that profoundly and succinctly captures the emotional impact of love that has gone sadly.

The Upside of Sadness

It’s never fun, but over the course of a lifetime, sadness visits us all. What if instead of resisting, you could welcome it in and listen to what it has to say?

Chen Liu/Eyeem/Getty Images

 
 
 

Several years ago, my marriage came to an end. We had been together for 25 years, most of my adult life. On top of all the unpleasant practical matters that you have to deal with during a divorce (custody, money, property, divvying up mementos), I faced a storm of challenging emotions. Indignation and anger were the faces I wore to the outside world (the frustration, fear, and self-righteousness I kept better hidden). These feelings would arise and fall away like the weather, sometimes in great gusts, other times sticking around for days on end, and in patterns I could rarely predict. Yet there was always a steady undercurrent of sadness—over the loss of the dreams for that marriage, and simply for the fact that I had wished, deeply wished, for something else.

My experience and heartache are not unique, and not unique to going through a divorce. Part of being human is to know the weight of sadness. Fleeting or persistent, sharp or dull, threatening to overwhelm or lingering in the background, sadness touches us all:

A loss of love or friendship and the disorienting experience of the landscape shifting beyond your control.

Dropping your child off at daycare for the first time, and the accompanying guilt and realization of time passing far too quickly.

The flimsy pile of greens on your plate making you wonder if you really have what it takes to lose the weight.

A stalled car that strains your finances; one more thing to worry about.

The dirty laundry at the foot of the bed punctuating the loneliness of being single.

When an awareness of the pain and suffering of other beings suddenly strikes you with full force.

At its core, we can say sadness is the emotion that arises when we realize the unfortunate truths of being alive: we lose things, people are flawed, sometimes life is hard, and, eventually, everything ends. And when sadness arrives, we must come to the inevitable conclusion that, “Right now, it’s like this.”

I should caution that here we are talking about sad mood and not the unrelenting and persisting disorder of clinical depression. If you experience these feelings consistently over a number of days, notice that you lack energy, have sleep, appetite, or cognitive problems as a result, then you may be suffering from depression and should seek appropriate mental health treatment.

Inescapable though sadness may be, our crafty human brains like to find a way to Houdini out of its bonds, to triumphantly break free. We distract, we avoid, we play the blues to share the common humanity of sadness. We stop ourselves abruptly from crying and too quickly wipe away tears. But what are we resisting, really?

The practice of mindfulness is about being present to every moment, not just the ones that are pleasant or neutral. In fact, going into the darker, more uncomfortable places—the ones we usually try to avoid—may yield powerful insights, and may sharpen our mindfulness and deepen our compassion, both toward ourselves and others.

If truth and insight lives within sadness (the same way they live within joy, satisfaction, and wonder), what would it be like to simply contemplate this truth—to consider meeting yourself in the midst of melancholy and to see what may be there to be learned or discovered? The practice of mindfulness is about being present to every moment, not just the ones that are pleasant or neutral. In fact, going into the darker, more uncomfortable places—the ones we usually try to avoid—may yield powerful insights, and may sharpen our mindfulness and deepen our compassion, both toward ourselves and others. Maybe we could let sadness be our companion long enough to hear what it really has to say.

It Just Is

Loss, disappointment, change—these things that invoke sadness are usually beyond our control. It’s just the way the world works. No matter how hard we may try to steel ourselves, they still happen. And just as certainly we feel sad. We’re sad because our desire was for things, whatever they are, to be otherwise. Because people, moments, even numbers on a scale, matter to us. Because we cared, we hoped, maybe we even dared to dream.

Sometimes the roots of sadness are found in shame, which can begin a destructive spiral. When something goes badly, it’s easy to forget the inevitability of change. But if we’re unable to put our experience into some perspective, it’s possible for sadness to run amok. “I don’t like this feeling” becomes “I don’t want this feeling” becomes “I shouldn’t have this feeling” becomes “There’s something wrong with me because I have this feeling” becomes “I’m bad.”

When we live in that distorted world of shame—“I am uniquely bad and flawed and therefore unlovable”—sadness can lead us to isolation, rumination, and depression. So, making the sadness about how uniquely bad we are is not a helpful way to go about things. We are wallowing in sadness, making an occupation out of it.

At the other end of the spectrum, we can deny sadness. “Get over it,” we’re quick to tell ourselves. “Suck it up, buttercup.” It’s no big deal. I didn’t really care that much anyway. The thing is, though, we know that what we resist, persists. Ever tried to NOT worry? How did that work out? It’s possible to bypass our painful feelings, to erect a semi-permanent roadway that goes around, or tunnels under, or rises over, the bad stuff. But this only creates a superficial calm and composure, with a volcanic ulcer developing underneath. Someday it will give way.

When it comes to sadness, as with any emotion that makes us uncomfortable, feel vulnerable, or otherwise imposes itself in our days and lives without our permission, there’s a middle way: Letting go of resistance, and without wallowing and indulging in it, simply acknowledging the truth of the situation:

I tried and it still didn’t work. It happened and it hurts. I’m disappointed. I’m scared. I’m lonely.

During my divorce, I discovered that when I approached my sadness with tenderness, it actually helped keep me focused. I felt calmer as a result. Sadness was powerfully helpful and effective in fact, when I let it be there, with less fighting. Sadness was what tempered my anger when I wanted to lash out, to say the hurtful thing or take the action that I couldn’t take back. When I could take moments to truly admit that sadness was present for me, it allowed me a pathway back to myself; to the person I truly am and know myself to be: A man who simply wishes to be happy and free from suffering.

Tiayrra Bradley/Eyeem/Getty Images

Tip: Carve Out Some Time 

Every so often, when you’re really in a rut, allow yourself to take a “sad” day to feel all of your emotions. Cancel other plans, listen to music that moves you, look through old photos, curl up on the couch, go for a quiet walk in a park or the woods. At the end, acknowledge that you’ve taken the time you needed, and remember tomorrow marks a fresh start.

Honoring Sadness

The invitation, the mindful approach, is to pause long enough to consider not only the immediacy of the moment of sadness but also how much we valued the thing we lost, the thing we didn’t get, or the thing that changed against our will. If we didn’t get the job or the promotion, sadness might signal how much we value our contributions to work. Perhaps sadness is reminding us of how much we need warm, supportive friendships when we lose one. When we realize how quickly our children are growing up, sadness informs us how deeply in love we are with these little beings and reflects our own tender hearts that treasure our connections and our responsibilities.

This isn’t simply “looking on the bright side,” but instead it is reminding us why we care. If we don’t care about something, we aren’t really sad when we lose it.

We can learn to have a less painful relationship with sadness. It begins by befriending difficult feelings when they arrive.

In a similar manner, we can learn to have a less painful relationship with sadness. And it begins by—to whatever degree we’re able—befriending these difficult feelings when they arrive. One way to do this is to recognize that we are suffering in these moments and are also worthy of comfort, of soothing, of self-compassion. Most of us are great at taking care of others, but when it comes to us, we deny ourselves that same compassion. What if we were able, when the blues arrive (as they inevitably do in every life), we could comfort ourselves in the same way we would comfort a friend in their place of feeling down? What would we say to them, what might we do, what tone of voice would we use? Could we possibly say, “This is SO hard and I know it’s painful. I’m here for you.” Could we make ourselves a cup of tea and simply allow ourselves to be with the sadness that is here? Just like with a friend, we would offer this compassion not to get rid of the pain, but simply because the mood is uncomfortable.

By being kinder to ourselves in times of difficulty, we shift the relationship we have with the suffering from one of avoidance and resistance, to one of acceptance and kindness. By softening our relationship with a feeling that is already here, that then allows us to turn toward it with some degree of curiosity and willingness to see what it’s saying to us. To hear our own inner wisdom emerge from the shadows of sadness.

Treating my sadness with gentleness and respect, I could admit that I had loved my wife and had the best of intentions for our union. That in turn allowed me to look myself in the mirror and simply treat myself (and her, on many occasions) with kindness for the hardship of divorce.

When we let go of needing an uncomfortable feeling to go away, we find we can meet it more fully and listen when it says, “this matters to me.” This is far from wallowing, ruminating, or generally getting lost in our sadness, taking it personally and making it our own monumental project or cross to bear. It’s honoring our unique journey through life: the loves and losses, the hopes and disappointments equally. And really, would we want anything else? In sadness, we can learn to simply appreciate the presence of this little bout of suffering as a reflection of our wholeness and our humanness.

Sadnes

It is normal to struggle with the painful feelings that life evokes. Feelings are normal, natural and necessary byproducts of living a life full of experience. There are five primary feelings--anger, sadness, happiness, loneliness and fear. All are other feelings fall under the umbrella of these very important ones.
Today's column is devoted to sadness. Sadness can be uncomfortable. When people experience sadness, they may emote publicly. Some people cry outwardly whereby others cry inwardly. When people show their discomfort they may feel uncomfortable wearing their feelings on their sleeves. However, when one displays their emotions it can help others to identify the hurt.
What is far more insidious is the person who hides their feelings or internalizes their sadness. When people don't accept and move through their feelings they may tend to deny them altogether. Some people refuse to feel sadness, instead feeling numbness as opposed to the pain.
How comfortable are you when sadness occurs in your life? If you don't stay true to your feelings you lose your authenticity. When you lose your authenticity you lose the true essence of yourself.
Sadness is pain, and pain is uncomfortable. Despite the pain, it is important to feel the emotion. I often teach clients that they must accept and surrender to their feelings because it is a necessary step to working through them. Once you move through them, you can use them to motivate you and make changes in yourself or in your circumstances.
Sadness is not a weakness. People who avoid the normal periods of sadness will likely internalize it and look at life through the filter of sadness. When someone experiences sadness for a long period of time it can result in a chemical imbalance and lead to depression or dysthymia. Dysthymic disorder is a condition of depression that lasts for over two years.
People with this condition have low energy, feelings of hopelessness, poor concentration, and sleeping or appetite difficulties. To avoid this chronic condition, it is imperative to recognize and honor your sadness and to have faith that the pain will resolve itself with help from you.

What can you do if you have been sad and know that you need to work through the feelings?

• Sharing your sad feelings can be helpful because it allows others to validate, console, and nurture you.
• The next time you feel sad, use it as an opportunity to write, draw or generate an expression of that sadness. You will be amazed at how your feelings can initiate great ideas. Some of the best writers and artists use periods of sadness to create their greatest masterpieces.
• Sadness can be a great motivator for change to improve the quality of your life. Sad feelings can inspire you to look for ways to help others, contribute to charity, or go on personal missions.

I know that I am always emphasizing that it is important for you to focus on the positives in life. However, it is equally important to feel the unpleasant emotions too. Although happiness is a choice, it is imperative that you feel the tough feelings to gauge what they have to teach you. Once you recognize and honor them you will be stronger because of them.
For most people, sadness is a precursor to knowing joy and true happiness. Getting comfortable with the pain allows you the greatest opportunity for growth. Therefore, it's important not to hide or deny your feelings, but feel them fully to maximize what you have to learn about life.
I Like Sadnes.Faisal Aneeb

Why you feel tired all the time

Do you often ask yourself, "Why am I so tired all the time?" If so, this article may be the perfect read for you; we have compiled a list of some of the most common reasons for tiredness and what you can do to bounce back into action.

There are many reasons for tiredness, including a lack of sleep, poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, and medical conditions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 15.3 percent of women and 10.1 percent of men regularly feel very tired or exhausted in the United States.

Tiredness can cause an array of problems. For example, around 1 in 25 adult drivers report falling asleep at the wheel each month.

About 72,000 crashes and 44,000 injuries each year are a result of drowsy driving, and that's not to mention the estimated 6,000 fatal crashes caused by drowsy drivers.

Everyone feels tired at some point in their lives — whether it's due to a late night out, staying up to watch your favorite TV show, or putting in some extra hours at work.

Often, you can put your finger on the reason you're not feeling your best, but what about those times when you can't pinpoint the cause of your tiredness? What makes you feel tired then?

Medical News Today have researched the possible explanations for why you could be feeling so drained and the steps that you can take to feel re-energized.

1. Lack of sleep

A lack of sleep may seem an obvious reason for feeling tired, yet 1 in 3 U.S. adults are consistently not getting enough of it.

Tiredness increases the risk of accidents, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, and heart disease.

People aged between 18 and 60 years need 7 or more hours of sleep every day to promote optimal health, according to The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Getting under the recommended hours of sleep each night is not only associated with fatigue, impaired performance, and a greater risk of accidents, but it also has adverse health outcomes.

These include obesity, high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, stroke, and an increased risk of death.

If you struggle to fit in 7 hours of sleep, here are some tips to help you achieve a full dose of much-needed slumber:

• Maintain a consistent sleep routine. Try to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning — even on the weekends.
• Avoid naps. We need a certain amount of sleep within a 24-hour period and no more than that. Napping reduces the amount of sleep that we require the following night, which might lead to difficulty getting to sleep and fragmented sleep.
• Limit time awake in bed to 5–10 minutes. If you find that you are lying awake in bed worrying or with your mind racing, get out of bed and sit in the dark until you are feeling sleepy, then go back to bed.
• Ensure that your bedroom is quiet, dark, and a comfortable temperature. Any light that enters your room could disturb your sleep. Ensure that your room is dark and that light emitted from digital devices is out of sight. Cooler room temperatures are considered better to promote sleep than warmer temperatures.
• Limit caffeinated drinks. Try not to consume caffeinated beverages after noon. The stimulating effects of caffeine can last for many hours after intake and cause issues with initiating sleep.
• Avoid tobacco and alcohol before bed. Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol before going to bed may cause fragmented sleep.

If you practice all the sleeping habits listed above and still wake up tired, it might be a good idea to contact your healthcare provider and discuss whether you have a sleep-related medical problem such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, or restless legs syndrome.

2. Poor diet

The easiest way to banish tiredness is to make adjustments to your diet. Eating a healthful and balanced diet can make the world of difference to how you feel.

Eating a healthful and balanced diet can help to combat fatigue.

To improve your health and get all the nutrients you need — as well as eliminate fatigue — it is vital to choose a healthful mix of food from the five food groups, which are: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy.

You can switch up your eating style today by implementing some of these small changes:

• Eat the right amount of calories for your sex, age, weight, and activity level. Eating either too much or too little can make you feel sluggish.
• Fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables. Be sure to focus on eating whole fruits and a selection of vegetables.
• Ensure whole grains make up half the grains you consume. Examples of whole grains include brown rice, oatmeal, whole cornmeal, bulgur, and whole-wheat flour.
• Shift to low-fat and fat-free dairy to help limit your calories from saturated fats.
• Vary your protein routine. Try to choose lean poultry and meat, limit processed meats, choose unsalted nuts and seeds, and select some omega-3-rich seafood.
• Cut down on sugar. Sugar can give you a quick rush of energy, but it wears off fast and might make you feel more tired. Avoid foods and drinks that have lots of added sugar.
• Never skip breakfast. Regularly skipping breakfast can lead to you missing out on key nutrients and the energy that you need to kick-start your day.
• Eat at regular intervals. Sustain your energy levels by eating three meals per day and limiting unhealthful snacks.
• Drink enough water. Drinking water can help to prevent dehydration, which results in fatigue, unclear thinking, mood changes, overheating, and constipation.

3. Sedentary lifestyle

When tiredness sets in, sitting on the couch and relaxing could seem to be the only answer. But getting up and moving may be the best thing you can do to re-energize and eradicate fatigue.

Exercising can help to increase energy and reduce tiredness.

Research by the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens discovered that compared with sitting quietly, one single bout of moderate-intensity exercise lasting for at least 20 minutes helped to boost energy.

An earlier study by UGA also found that when sedentary individuals completed an exercise program regularly, their fatigue improved compared with those who did not.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest that all adults need 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week and muscle-strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups on 2 or more days per week.

This may seem to be a lot of time spent exercising, but you can spread out your activity across the week and, in total, it is just the amount of time that you might otherwise spend watching a movie.

Fatigue: Why am I so tired and what can I do about it?

Learn more about how to manage your fatigue.

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If you have not exercised for a while, start slowly. Begin with a brisk 10-minute walk each day and build up to walking fast for 30 minutes on 5 days per week.

Brisk walking, water aerobics, riding a bike, playing tennis, and even pushing a lawnmower can all count toward your time spent doing moderate-intensity exercise.

4. Excessive stress

Many situations can cause stress. Work, financial problems, relationship issues, major life events, and upheavals such as moving house, unemployment, and bereavement — the list of potential stressors is never-ending.

Excessive stress can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion.

A little stress can be healthy and may actually make us more alert and able to perform better in tasks such as interviews, but stress is only a positive thing if it is short-lived.

Excessive, prolonged stress can cause physical and emotional exhaustion and lead to illness.

Stress makes your body generate more of the "fight-or-flight" chemicals that are designed to prepare your body for an emergency.

In situations such as an office environment where you can't run away or fight, the chemicals that your body has produced to protect you can't be used up and, over time, can damage your health.

If the pressures that you face are making you feel overtired or giving you headaches, migraines, or tense muscles, don't ignore these signals. Take some time out until you feel calmer, or try some of these tips.

• Identify the source of stress. Until you can recognize what is causing you to create and maintain stress, you will be unable to control your stress levels.
• Keep a stress journal to identify patterns and common themes.
• Learn to say no. Never take on too much — be aware of your limits and stick to them.
• Avoid those who stress you out. If there is someone in your life causing you a significant amount of stress, try to spend less time in their company.
• Communicate your concerns. Learn to express your feelings and concerns instead of keeping them bottled up if something is bothering you.
• View situations in a different way. Try to look at stressful situations in a more positive light. For example, if you're stuck in a traffic jam, see it as an opportunity to have some alone time and listen to your favorite tunes.
• Look at the bigger picture. Think about whether the stressful situation will matter in a month's time. Is it worth getting upset about?
• Accept the things you are unable to change. Some sources of stress, such as an illness or the death of a loved one, are unavoidable. Often, the best way to deal with stress is to try and accept things the way they are.
• Learn to forgive. We are all human and often make mistakes. Let go of anger, resentments, and negative energy by forgiving friends, family, and colleagues and moving on.

Physical activity is a significant stress reliever and releases feel-good endorphins. If you are feeling stress build up, go for a walk, take your dog out, or even put on some music and dance around the room.

5. Medical conditions

If you have made lifestyle changes to do with your physical activity, diet, stress levels, and sleep but still feel tired all the time, there could be an underlying medical condition.

Many medical conditions, such as anemia, can make you feel tired.

Some of the most common conditions that report fatigue as a key symptom include:

• anemia
• underactive thyroid
• diabetes
• anxiety
• depression
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• urinary tract infection
• food intolerance
• heart disease
• glandular fever
• pregnancy
• vitamin and mineral deficiencies

If you are concerned that you have a medical condition that is causing you to feel tired, arrange an appointment with your healthcare provider to discuss your worries as soon as possible.

Human Brain: Facts, Functions & Anatomy

The human brain is the command center for the human nervous system. It receives signals from the body's sensory organs and outputs information to the muscles. The human brain has the same basic structure as other mammal brains but is larger in relation to body size than any other brains.

Facts about the human brain

• The human brain is the largest brain of all vertebrates relative to body size.
• It weighs about 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kilograms).
• The average male has a brain volume of 1,274 cubic centimeters (cm3).
• The average female brain has a volume of 1,131 cm3.
• The brain makes up about 2 percent of a human's body weight.
• The cerebrum makes up 85 percent of the brain's weight.
• It contains about 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) — the "gray matter."
• It contains billions of nerve fibers (axons and dendrites) — the "white matter."
• These neurons are connected by trillions of connections, or synapses.

Anatomy of the human brain

The largest part of the human brain is the cerebrum, which is divided into two hemispheres, according to the Mayfield Clinic. Underneath lies the brainstem, and behind that sits the cerebellum. The outermost layer of the cerebrum is the cerebral cortex, which consists of four lobes: the frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. [Related: Nervous System: Facts, Functions & Diseases]

Like all vertebrate brains, the human brain develops from three sections known as the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Each of these contains fluid-filled cavities called ventricles. The forebrain develops into the cerebrum and underlying structures; the midbrain becomes part of the brainstem; and the hindbrain gives rise to regions of the brainstem and the cerebellum.

The cerebral cortex is greatly enlarged in human brains and is considered the seat of complex thought. Visual processing takes place in the occipital lobe, near the back of the skull. The temporal lobe processes sound and language, and includes the hippocampus and amygdala, which play roles in memory and emotion, respectively. The parietal lobe integrates input from different senses and is important for spatial orientation and navigation.

The brainstem connects to the spinal cord and consists of the medulla oblongata, pons and midbrain. The primary functions of the brainstem include relaying information between the brain and the body; supplying some of the cranial nerves to the face and head; and performing critical functions in controlling the heart, breathing and consciousness.

Between the cerebrum and brainstem lie the thalamus and hypothalamus. The thalamus relays sensory and motor signals to the cortex and is involved in regulating consciousness, sleep and alertness. The hypothalamus connects the nervous system to the endocrine system — where hormones are produced — via the pituitary gland.

The cerebellum lies beneath the cerebrum and has important functions in motor control. It plays a role in coordination and balance and may also have some cognitive functions.

Humans vs. other animals

Overall brain size doesn't correlate with level of intelligence. For instance, the brain of a sperm whale is more than five times heavier than the human brain but humans are considered to be of higher intelligence than sperm whales.  The more accurate measure of how intelligent an animal may be is the ratio between the size of the brain and the body size, according to the University of California San Diego's Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center.

Among humans, however, brain size doesn't indicate how smart someone is. Some geniuses in their field have smaller- than-average brains, while others larger than average, according to Christof Koch, a neuroscientist and president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. For example, compare the brains of two highly acclaimed writers. The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev's brain was found to be 2,021 grams, while writer Anatole France's brain weighed only 1,017 grams.

Humans have a very high brain-weight-to-body-weight ratio, but so do other animals. The reason why the human's intelligence, in part, is neurons and folds. Humans have more neurons per unit volume than other animals, and the only way to do that with the brain's layered structure is to make folds in the outer layer, or cortex, said Eric Holland, a neurosurgeon and cancer biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.

"The more complicated a brain gets, the more gyri and sulci, or wiggly hills and valleys, it has," Holland told Live Science. Other intelligent animals, such as monkeys and dolphins, also have these folds in their cortex, whereas mice have smooth brains, he said.

Humans also have the largest frontal lobes of any animal, Holland said. The frontal lobes are associated with higher-level functions such as self-control, planning, logic and abstract thought — basically, "the things that make us particularly human," he said.

Left brain vs. right brain

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right, connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. The hemispheres are strongly, though not entirely, symmetrical. The left brain controls all the muscles on the right-hand side of the body and the right brain controls the left side. One hemisphere may be slightly dominant, as with left- or right-handedness.

The popular notions about "left brain" and "right brain" qualities are generalizations that are not well supported by evidence. Still, there are some important differences between these areas. The left brain contains regions involved in speech and language (called the Broca's area and Wernicke's area, respectively) and is also associated with mathematical calculation and fact retrieval, Holland said. The right brain plays a role in visual and auditory processing, spatial skills and artistic ability — more instinctive or creative things, Holland said — though these functions involve both hemispheres. "Everyone uses both halves all the time," he said.

BRAIN Initiative

In April 2013, President Barack Obama announced a scientific grand challenge known as the BRAIN Initiative, short for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The $100-million-plus effort aimed to develop new technologies that will produce a dynamic picture of the human brain, from the level of individual cells to complex circuits.

Like other major science efforts such as the Human Genome Project, although it's expensive, it's usually worth the investment, Holland said. Scientists hope the increased understanding will lead to new ways to treat, cure and prevent brain disorders.

The project contains members from several government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as private research organizations, including the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

In March 2013, the project's backers outlined their goals in the journal Science. In September 2014, the NIH announced $46 million in BRAIN Initiative grants. Members of industry pledged another $30 million to support the effort, and major foundations and universities also agreed to apply more than $240 million of their own research toward BRAIN Initiative goals.

When the project was announced, President Obama convened a commission to evaluate the ethical issues involved in research on the brain. In May 2014, the commission released the first half of its report, calling for ethics to be integrated early and explicitly in neuroscience research. In March 2015, the commission released the second half of the report, which focused on issues of cognitive enhancement, informed consent and using neuroscience in the legal system.

The Brain Initiative has achieved several of its goals. As of 2018, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has "invested more than $559 million in the research of more than 500 scientists," and Congress appropriated "close to $400 million in NIH funding for fiscal year 2018," according to the initiative's website. The research funding facilitated the development of new brain-imaging and brain-mapping tools, and helped create the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network — an effort to catalog the brain's "parts' list." Together, these efforts contribute to major advancements in understanding the brain.

10 Negative Effects Of Social Media On Children And Teenagers

 People to know about the effects of social media on their lives. It is apparent from the results that overall the social media has a negative effect on the social well-being of an individual.

1. Hate Speech

The kids using Facebook or other social media sites are at a greater risk of suffering from the hate speech. This problem can be more serious for the girls and the children belonging to the minorities and communities that are discriminated against. In online interactions, people with unknown identities may easily indulge in the hate speech or disrespectful behaviour. While during a face to face interaction an individual may think twice before passing any such remark.

2. Social Distrust

As mentioned that unknown online users may indulge in aggressive or offensive behavior. Kids may think if such aggression or offensive is committed in real life situation. This may result in social distrust towards the unknown others.

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3. Cyber Bullying

One of the often cited dangers of social media is cyber bullying. It occurs when a person uses sites like Facebook to adopt a threatening behavior towards someone during a discussion or sends threatening messages.

4. Identity theft

One of the big problems with social media sites is that the children often do not fully read or understand the privacy settings of their accounts. They are unaware of the risks of disclosing unnecessary personal information. According to a recent survey, 20% of the youth think it to be perfectly safe to post their personal information and photos online. Such kids may easily become victim of the identity theft.

5. Cyber-stalking:

Stalking is defined as the obsessive monitoring or attention towards the victim that may harass him or her. Cyber-stalking can be done in many different ways using social media. Sometimes, an ex-boyfriend or spouse may get angry at the breakup of a relation and use social media to pursue the victim. In another case, a relationship that was developed online gets sour and the personal information shared can be used by the stalker. Or, someone may also fall victim to a random cyber stalking attack.

6. Explicit Or Violent Imagery

Spending a lot of time on the social media sites like facebook can be dangerous, as often as a result of political events around the world, explicit and violent imagery get shown on the discussion threads. Often it is very difficult to moderate such content due to its viral nature. This may have a negative effect on the minds of the children, leading them to have a sadistic and defeatist view of the world.

7. Sharing too much

Everyone of us has its own set of beliefs and ideas that we try to live upto. In our daily life we have an interaction with limited circle of friends. However, sharing such ideas over websites like Facebook may result in dissemination of this information with people that we would not want normal life. This may even prove fatal for our relationship with those people.

8. Online grooming

One of the most distressing aspects of the social media is the growing evidence that paedophiles may use fake accounts on the social media to make friendships with young children and teenagers. They pretend to be of the same age to win children’s confidence. They can then gain vital personal information like their schools and the places where they hang out. They can then use that information to bully and make sexual contact with their victims or exposing them to explicit imagery or content.

9. Emotional Implications:

Psychological experts warn that social media sites can have emotional implications for kids who are already suffering from low self-esteem or confidence. Such children may judge their success by the number of friends they have on the facebook or if they are included in a specific group of people. This may lead to further diminshing of their confidence.

10. Lack Of Interpersonal Skills:

Children spending too much time online may consider a virtual relation substitute for a real one. By spending more time online they often ignore the importance and the appropriate behaviour related to face-to-face contact. Hence, the set of interpersonal skills that are necessary for the success in the real life may not develop properly.