Pratima Shah

   In the early 19th century, a French scientist Guillaume Duchenne de Baulogne was a neurologist who undertook the first recorded scientific study of smiles by using electrodiagnostics and electrical stimulation to distinguish between a real smile and the variety of smiles. The study was conducted by analyzing the heads of people who were executed by a guillotine and the face muscles were observed. The scientist did this observation by pulling face muscles from many different angles to catalogue and record the smiles caused by the different muscles.    According to him our smile is controlled by 2 sets of muscles: the zygomatic major muscles which run down the side of the face and connect with the corners of the mouth and the orbicularis oculi which run down the side of the face and connect with the corners of the mouth along with the orbicularis oculi which pull the eyes back. Zygomatic majors pull the mouth back and expose the teeth by enlarging the cheeks. The orbicularis oculi

   Giving a right handshake to someone can be intimidating for many persons. A handshake speaks volumes about you when you are in a professional setting. Whenever you extend your hand for a handshake plan it in a way that it becomes a part of your introduction. When one extends a hand without a voice greeting, one may give the signal of being aggressive or nervous.    The Right Method is to take the hand of the person and pump it 2-3 times shaking it from the elbow. When you shake from the shoulder by using the upper arm rather than using the fore arm you are in risk of jolting the person. The grip must be appropriate; not limp and not very strong that the handshake becomes a painful one. Remember to smile and have eye contact while giving the handshake.    Business handshakes are very formal and brief. Holding the hand of the other for more than 2-3 seconds can become uncomfortable for the opposite party. The position of the palm should be perpendicular with the thumb up. People

Charlie Chaplin was the actor who pioneered body language skills through his silent movies. An actor was labelled good or bad by the expertise with which s/he used body signals and gestures to communicate to the audience. The most influential pre- twentieth century book 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals' written by Charles Darwin gained great popularity when it came to learning body language because it produced the modern study of facial expressions and body language which have been accepted by the researchers all over the world. According to Albert Mehrabian, a researcher of body language, the total impact of a message is 7% verbal (only words), 55% non verbal and 38% vocal (tone, inflection and other sounds). " It's how you looked when you said it, not what you actually said". Ray Birdwhistelle, an anthropologist pioneered the study of Kinesics - that is non verbal communication. According to him, humans can recognise and make around 2,50,

   We must learn from our mistakes rather than dwelling upon the situation and brooding over them. Mistakes are the stepping stones to success. Yet many of us have a tendency to feel guilty forever by the burden of our mistakes. We can always rectify our mistakes and move ahead in life. Let our mistakes be the force that enables us to mend them and make improvisations in our self. There are different ways in which people connect to their past - either they ignore it by pretending that they never committed those mistakes and some of them even try to forget it. The more one tries to forget the past mistakes; they become festering wounds which will never heal. These wounds will drain your energy and never allow you to do the good deeds of which you are capable of doing.    To get rid of this guilt of our past mistakes we can identify them and be firmly determined never to commit them again. Separate yourself completely from the situation of the past that led you to committing the mist

   Listen to nature to learn and understand why day turns into night, the change in seasons, the sound of water / waterfall / waves and so many other natural things that happen around us. What is the teaching that Nature gives us through all these phenomena?    The teaching that is hidden in these is that nothing is permanent and everything that happens in our life is relative so we need to let go and free ourselves of those emotions and thoughts that make us feel stressed or nervous. Be a good listener to those who are always on the go to give us a variety of opinions / advice and what not. Learn to listen and respect all. One cannot be dogmatic if one wants to live with a happy mind without stress. Only a mind that is open and spacious can be a happy mind. It will be an accepting state of mind. A narrow mind will make you stressed and will never even allow you to accept the self. This leads to jealousy for others and the person struggles with all kinds of horrifying and pathetic

   We all get overwhelmed by our feelings at times. When overwhelmed a person either bursts into tears or just does things which will embarrass her / him later. These overwhelming emotions can be due to work load, too much pressure of anything or something that affects you. Sometimes it could also be because of being overloaded with many things to do. We are overwhelmed when we are not able to balance our life. It leads us to stress, anger, makes us touchy and depressed too. It is not necessary that all these could be because of professional reasons; a person can be in an overwhelmed state due to personal reasons too. Sometimes the uncertainties and ups and downs of life too can make a person feel overwhelmed.   We are in an overwhelmed state because we fear. We live in constant fear of what will happen if...or what will happen if not. Worry, anxiety, overthinking puts us in this state. Life is uncertain, we are always overthinking and sometimes we want quick result. But this is n

     There are so many out there in the world who feel it is their moral duty to advice and criticize others for their decisions or actions. These people are so disgusting that they never even realize what they are doing or what effect it has on the person. Some of them react violently, some remain silent and may be some of them even sever their ties with these so called "well wishers" in their life.    One can try using the 'FOGGING' technique with these well wishers in their life. It is difficult to see anything when it is foggy nor are we able to remove the fog by trying to clear it with our hands or by pushing it away. Fog never resists anything or anyone but still it is strong enough and remains where it is. Similarly be like fog when someone criticizes / advises you. First and foremost accept that with which you agree and appreciate the person's comment. By doing this the person's enthusiasm to criticize/advice you will automatically go down. Agree