[-jimi-]

This is advice given by people and even more often by articles. But is it true?

Do you think you get less depressed by doing what happy people do?
If you copy the life of a skinny person, will you be skinny?
If you are anxious, can you look at a really calm by nature person and do what they do and be cured?
Can you get more energetic by trying to have the habits and emotions of an energetic person?

If yes... please explain how.

If no, why are we drowned in articles about traits and habits happy, skinny, productive and energetic people have, if we don't get better by trying to adopt them?

Right now I am told to look at people with normal sleep and just copy them for better sleep. Last night I lay in bed for as long as I should have slept, I didn't sleep one second, then I got up and now I am supposed to live my day energetically with no sleep to do the same thing last night. I have attempted this in the past and it landed me in hospital.

[MoxieDoxie]

Oh those stupid articles are ridiculous.

"5 things that skinny people do daily"

"10 things that happy people do daily"

I see them all the time. Authors are commissioned to write a certain amount of articles and they are grasping at things to write about.

I would not take any of these articles seriously.

[yogurtssss]

Everyone works differently. Maybe pick which works best for you.

[teacat]

Oversimplified, but not always false. An example would be that eating healthy and exercising is better for you than not doing those things, but won't necessarily fix a problem in itself. Very few things in life can be flicked on and off with a simple choice.

And yes, I agree with MoxieDoxie. There are a lot of articles out there that play to people's want for a simple, fast solution when real change tends to come slowly and people's brains/bodies are different.

[unaluna]

I once worked with a woman who had beautiful perfect teeth. She said she NEVER FLOSSED. We were a bunch of us talking about it in this very context, what does a person have to do to get a given result.

So im thinking maybe some of us twigs are just bent different to begin with.

[ArcheM]

I think part of the problem may be that a person isn't just one thing - a skinny person may also be anxious and poor, or something. There's a problem of correlation/causation and also general principles vs. individual variation. Scientific studies will mostly look at correlation and general principles. While amateur (and professional) online articles will try to present causation (while nobody except you can work out individual variation)... And in many cases nobody will tell you what is the balance of individual variation vs general principle... But I think it makes sense, if you can find that, to look at scientifically sound general principles and apply them. The Internet doesn't make this task easy, though... But literally copying an individual person's behaviour doesn't make sense to me, due to confounding factors (in scientific terms)...