Woman Says 'Everything I Learned In Harvard Psychology' Can Be Summed Up In 2 Simple Sentences
A positive mindset goes a very long way.
Hannah Nelson | Canva Pro A Harvard degree costs tens of thousands of dollars and takes years to achieve. Yet, one Harvard psychology grad, Olesya Luraschi, insisted on TikTok that she could sum up all that she learned into two short snippets of advice.
A woman summarized everything she learned getting a psychology degree from Harvard in 2 simple sentences:
1. ‘Scarcity is stressful for the mind; abundance is healing.’
"What I mean by this," she clarified, "is that whenever we focus on things that are scarcity-inducing to the mind — whether it's time scarcity, financial scarcity, relationship scarcity — this is stressful to the mind, and it will run processes that are associated with this stress."
When you fall into a toxic rut, hyper-focused on what you don't have and what is wrong in your life, you make it significantly harder to grow and move forward. If you only concentrate on what you don't have, you'll never get what you want.
These can be thoughts like "I have no money," "I'm going to be single forever," or "I should have gotten a promotion by now."
Luraschi explained that this type of thinking is "optimized for the short-term" and will hurt you in the long run, as there is an underlying belief that you will never achieve what you desire.
"We actually wanna shift more to abundance thinking,” she added, “’cause that's more of a long-term approach.”
Abundance thinking means you focus on all that is out there instead of what you don't yet have. According to Luraschi, these can be thoughts like “There's plenty of the things that I want out there,” “There's plenty of love,” and “There's plenty of success out there for me.”
This change shifts your mind — and with it, your outcomes — to a more positive state.
To shift to abundance thinking, Headspace suggests reflecting on the positive things in your life, practicing gratitude, showing appreciation for others, and acknowledging how far you have come.
2. ‘Focus and perception are everything.’
There’s one truth that rules both psychology discussions and spiritual practices like manifestation: our thoughts create our reality. In the same vein, what we choose to focus on crafts our experience.
“What we focus on is everything,” Luraschi explained. “We can focus on the scarcity or we can focus on the abundance. There’s always evidence for both, especially in today’s world.”
“When you focus your mind on that abundance then you get the repercussions of that and those repercussions are typically a lot better for you psychologically,” she continued. “If you're able to train your mind [to] focus on the science and clues of abundance then you're going to have a much healthier mind and you're gonna be able to accomplish more.”
Luraschi acknowledged that humans tend to skew towards the negative, so it takes a conscious effort to change your mindset.
“I want you to start switching your focus from what you don't have to what you do have,” mindset and manifestation coach @alignment_with_koko advised, “even if it's not a lot”
“I have money that I can pay my bills,” she shared as an example. “I have food on the table every single day. I have an abundance of [clean] water that I can drink … I have a roof over my head that I can feel safe in. I have a home. I have people that I love. I have friendships. I have my health.”
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.