Amygdala Hijack: Irrational Physical Reactions

Have you ever woken up panting, sweating and screaming in the middle of the night after having a nightmare? Have you ever jumped into an unnecessary fist fight with somebody who wasn’t hostile towards you at all? Have you ever got scared and ran away from somebody who wasn’t frightening you purposefully? From suddenly bursting into screams while sleeping with closed eyes to shouting, frowning, clenching fists and pointing fingers at each other in traffic, we the so-called rational animals behave and react irrationally at multiple occasions throughout our lives.

Although we’re only watching a terrifying dream just like we watch a picture or movie, we react as if we’re physically involved in a terrifying outcome at the very moment. On the other hand, shouting, frowning, clenching fists and pointing fingers at each other isn’t going to achieve anything but we react as if we’re preparing ourselves and challenging other riders, drivers or passengers for a close combat. In the worst case, such reactions from two sides can eventually turn a busy city street into a small battle ground for a violent physical fight between two insanely aggressive animals.

Most of such irrational and instinctive physical reactions lead to troubles, injuries, accidents and causalities only. Only upon realizing on our own or making to realize by somebody after a few moments, we feel as if we were hijacked and we reacted without any rational and conscious control on our whole body. We instantaneously react as if we’re controlled by some ghost, daemon or evil spirit which is pulling all strings of a brainless puppet. So what exactly turns an educated, thinking, rational, normal and civil looking individual into a wild and raging beast?

Road rages are on rise. Beware!

What exactly drives us wild just for a few moments is not any ghost, daemon or evil spirit but a very small part sitting deep inside our brain behind such irrational reactions. This part is called as Amygdala which is a central part of the limbic system (paleomammalian cortex) that initiates basic behavioral responses and different emotions in humans and mammals. Using the signals coming through different sensory organs, vigilant Amygdala constantly scans for the whole surrounding environment for cues, signs, hints and indications of risks, dangers and challenges to survival.

It’s almost impossible to sit inside a time-machine and travel back into the Earth’s remote past in which dangerous wild creatures were roaming freely on the face of the planet. However, just try to imagine yourself walking through a tall grass and you suddenly stumble upon a saber tooth tiger which is waiting in ambush. Only way to survive is either to start running away from it as faster as you can even without looking back at the predator until reaching at a safe distance. Your whole body needs to react without wasting time in rational thinking and detailed analysis.

Dr. Daniel Goleman

This ancient system has greatly helped us in surviving the life-threatening situations and creatures over the millions of years. However, it’s turning us into wild beasts in today’s world which is almost free from the same situations and creatures. Only after doing enough damage to us or others, we end up in regretting or apologizing about what we’ve done instantaneously. This short-lasting neural phenomenon is called as ‘Amygdala Hijack’, as mentioned by Dr. Daniel Goleman is his famous book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’.

Out of four distinct behavioral responses and seven basic emotions, both Anger (Fight) and Fear (Flight) responses can be extremely damaging in today’s world especially if they get intensified to an unnecessary proportion just within fractions of a second. These two responses can prove extremely damaging to career, health, relations, well-being and even longevity. Daily newspapers and news channels unmistakably report the news of crimes, abuses and offenses which are committed by very normal individuals which get hijacked by Amygdala.

How exactly the so-called ‘Amygdala Hijack’ takes place inside the human brain? Let’s try to understand the same briefly. Inside our large brains, signals gathered by any sensory organ go to Thalamus first. Some part of sensory signals is sent to Amygdala and the remaining part of it is sent to Neocortex and more specifically the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is the thinking part of human brain. Neocortex takes comparatively more time than Amygdala in patiently analyzing the incoming sensory signals before initiating an appropriate response.

On the other hand, Amygdala is much quicker in reacting to incoming sensory signals just like a hyperactive Chihuahua which barks at every stranger coming through main gate of a house. Amygdala rapidly searches for memories of experiences inside Hippocampus (emotional memory bank). If sensory signals are found to be associated with any negative memories then a defensive response is activated. Amygdala takes less than a second to do the same, similar to an experienced sniper who doesn’t miss to hit its target in sight.

Two different paths of sensory signals

Especially if an individual is already stressed, had a bad start of the day, underwent traumatic experiences or has enlarged Amygdala then the individual is more likely to react instantaneously in self-defense than responding constructively, thoughtfully, peacefully, rationally, patiently or logically. As we experience it routinely, even a few abnormal words coming out from mouth of a familiar and caring individual can unmistakably kick-start the Amygdala Hijack in already troubled individuals.

A considerable percentage of modern population appears stressed without any apparent challenges, threats and dangers in the sight because the brain unmistakably releases cortisol and adrenaline into bloodstream to prepare the whole body to either fight with or run away from the individuals or situations that threaten us. Even if we partially or fully succeed in suppressing limbic impulse consciously under social pressure, secreted stress hormones don’t quickly go away.

Amygdala Hijack doesn’t at all miss to give clear warning signs through sudden change in body language. Due to secretion of cortisol and adrenaline hormones, breathing rate shoots up with breathing location shifting from belly to chest. Eyes become widely open. Fists are clenched. Skeletal muscles are flexed. Nostrils are flared. Eyebrows are pulled downwards and pulled inside. Under the tight grip of rage, glaring without blinking or batting the eyelids can be observed.

Today’s modern world is vastly connected yet became more complicated than ever before. Learning about various disturbing incidents occurring in different parts of the globe contributes in building stress, terror, tension, despair anguish, insecurity, discomfort and apprehension. It increases the possibility of Amygdala Hijack in future. While living in small and geographically isolated clans, our primitive ancestors never faced this unprecedented situation.

Amygdala Hijack doesn’t need to happen only while facing life-threatening situations, circumstances and challenges. A few wrong, abusive, ridiculing, unexpected and inappropriate words uttered during normal interactions and conversations are enough to trigger Amygdala Hijack in stressed, troubled, traumatized, sociopathic, endangered, intoxicated and serotonin-deprived individuals. Heated verbal exchange can quickly turn into nonverbal violence.

[#Critically Important: Empathy, laughter, meditation, spirituality, acceptance, visualization, conditioning, compassion, mindfulness, introspection, physical workout and breathing exercise (Yoga/Praanaayaam) greatly help in minimizing or avoiding Amygdala Hijack or irrational and uncontrolled reactions during many interactions, encounters, incidents and situations.

Also, good sleep, good nutrition, happy childhood, warm parenting, emotional support, stronger relations, promising environment, positive social interactions and deep knowledge about human body silently motivate people not to react to each and every sensory signals unnecessarily.]

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Power Postures

We all are fans of super-heroes and super-heroines, the divine avatars and supernatural beings. We want them around and with us to protect, shield and save ourselves from super-villains, evil-minded individuals, monsters, demons, natural calamities, catastrophes and disasters in the world which is highly susceptible to disorder, calamity, disaster, destruction and chaos. Don't we really?

From ancient mythological superheroes like Hercules, Thor and Hanuman (Indian Super-hero from epic Ramayana) to modern day Superman, Iron Man, Batman and Wonder Woman; their stories and legends have made their way into almost every household on this planet through oral traditions, (comic) books, dramas, movies, images, statues, figurines and toys. All super-heroes and super-heroines have distinct dresses and distinct signature postures.

In their stories, all super-heroes and super-heroines are depicted as very powerful, strong, skilled and risk-taking individuals who are often equipped with body armors, shields and weapons. They look and appear very different in entire crowd just by standing differently in the first place. Their faces are held upward, necks are exposed, shoulders are stretched wider, chests are puffed, two legs are put apart from each other, forearms are put on their hips and feasts are clenched or weapons are wielded in them. They appear very formidable.

If they don't adapt their signature postures and put on ordinary clothes while facing the super-villains, evil-minded individuals, demons, natural calamities, catastrophes and disasters; they would appear or look no different than the entire crowd filled with ordinary, weak and vulnerable people who seek their protection in the first place.

Their signature postures are their own ways to show that they are capable of facing dangers and saving people. By adapting such postures they physically prepare themselves, assert themselves into people's eyes and warn their opponents.

We are not super-heroes and super-heroines and they are not us but we mimic or impersonate them. Children often dress up themselves like super-heroes and super-heroines. Until they don't make signature poses, mimicry or impersonation is not complete. So is it the posture that makes super-heroes and super-heroines what they really are? Do such postures really benefit the ordinary people? Can we turn ourselves into super-heroes and super-heroines just by adapting their signature postures?

Until year 2010, nobody was quite sure about the same to be able to make scientific claims publicly through an article and later a popular TED talk in year 2012. It made Dr. Amy Cuddy (social psychologist, author and speaker) enormously famous overnight world over. According to her, if we consciously adapt high-power postures during (potentially) stressful social interactions then we feel confident, in-control, calm, powerful and dominant.

With more that 20 millions of views, it could be one of the most watched body language videos ever published on the internet.

She studied and found that both humans and animals unconsciously adapt such open, upright body and limb extending postures when they are in control, powerful and feeling accomplished in various situations e. g. winning a contest, defeating an opponent etc. She conducted an experiment on how nonverbal expressions of power and control through expansive, open, wider, broader and space-occupying body postures affect people's feelings, behaviors and hormone levels.

She claimed that adapting body postures that express dominance and power ("power posing") for as little as two minutes before facing the actual situation can increase testosterone (stress reducing hormone), decrease cortisol (stress inducting hormone) and increase appetite for taking risks. Eventually, it leads to higher possibilities of better performance during stressful interactions especially job interviews.

A) Low-Power Postures/Poses: Closed, Non-Assertive, Constricted, Twisted and Space-giving body postures



B) High-Power Postures/Poses: Open, Assertive, Wider, Broader and Space-occupying body postures



Her theory of “power posing” emphasizes the influencing power of body language during social interactions. Showing power and dominance through body postures eventually makes a person feel powerful, confident and stress-free was the central idea of her theory which faced many counter-claims, threats, rebuttal and denial too. Also, there are a lot of contradictory results presented against her promising 'self-empowerment' theory of consciously adapted power postures by different scientific studies till date.

In animal kingdom, both low power and high power postures/poses are quite prevalent. Animals use them unconsciously during the kind of confrontations in which showing power, confidence and dominance is necessary to distinguish a high-power individual from a low-power individual(s). Does it really work for humans by adapting power postures consciously (before facing somebody)? Should we purposefully adapt power postures to appear like super-heroes and super-heroines in public?

According to my own thoughts and opinions, we constantly need to audit, check and question ourselves for the postures which we adapt unconsciously in the given social situation and physical condition. If postures are really closing, shrinking, bending and twisting our bodies unnecessarily we can adapt open, aligned, upright and good body postures. By doing so, we wouldn't ruin our musculoskeletal fitness, joints and spine in the first place.

Additionally, if you're genuinely competent, strong and expert in your professional skills (and you've proved the same); open, upright and confident body postures would definitely suit on you if you adapt them reasonably, especially in front of individuals who see you as a pioneer, a leader, a motivator, an inspirer or an influencer.

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Online Etiquette

Since Covid 19 (Corona Virus) pandemic took the entire modern world in its tight grip, billions of people have lost control over their normal daily routines. Both social and work lives have been affected thoroughly and changed dramatically within just a moment after lock-down were declared by local governments.

Millions of working professionals all over the world have been forced to work from home, using devices like laptops, computers and cellphones. Their work-life has been confined to boundaries of their homes. Coincidentally, I'm one of them only.

Getting ready to go to the work place, interacting with many individuals on the way to office or at the work place, staying, working and eating together, attending meetings and going out on regular breaks with workmates is a daily routine of billions of people on this busy planet.

No matter how much monotonous, boring and mechanical it is, most working individuals like to spend their lives for decades like this. However, forcing most of us to Work From Home (WFH) has completely changed it, just at a moment's notice. Most of us weren't prepared for the same, both physically and mentally.

Facing and interacting with people effectively to achieve a specific common goal is already a great social and professional challenge. Additionally, online meetings, seminars, workshops, interviews and conferences have further intensified the same. Many individuals are finding it hard to interact online and thus making a lot of mistakes during online interactions.

Hence, I thought to come with a brief list of etiquette and good practices to help many working from home individual in appearing professional, attentive and interactive during online meetings.

Following is a list of the same:

1) Before interaction begins, ensure that you look enough professional. Ensure that you're wearing adequate and proper cloths. Ensure that your hair are well set.

2) Along with maintaining a professional look and composure, choose a quite and safe place to be able to seat undisturbed for a while to attend the meeting.

3) Maintain a proper, upright and steady posture so that your face and torso wouldn't appear appear leaning too much forward. Avoid playing or fidgeting.

4) Keep maintaining a proper distance between yourself and camera of the device so that other participants can see your entire face and neck.

5) Avoid making sudden, erratic and aggressive body movements until you really need to leave your place in emergency or the meeting ends.

6) Make sure that other participants can hear you and/or see you properly by setting up camera and microphone before meeting.

7) While a meeting in going on, don't touch your face and scratch your head/neck. Don't put fingers in mouth or bite nails.

8) Let it be only a voice meeting or a video meeting, avoid doing anything else simultaneously other than attending it.

9) While all others can see and hear you in the meeting room, avoid looking at your cellphone and listening music.

10) Make controlled hand gestures, nod your head and smile whenever it's necessary. Don't just seat coldly.

11) While all others can see you in the meeting room, maintain a proper and adequate eye contact.

12) Make sure that you've everything necessary with you to present, refer, recite or show.

13) Mute your microphone whenever you're not talking. Avoid whispering and talk fast.

14) Politely ask to repeat if you haven't heard somebody or something properly.

15) Don't forget to greet others at the beginning and the end of the meetings.

16) Choose a good background, blur it or replace it with a proper image.

New variants of the virus are emerging almost all over the world after a few days. Hence, there seems no relief from this ongoing pandemic that we all are facing since the beginning of 2020. Work From Home (WFH) might become a permanent routine for millions of working professionals from here onwards.

Be professionally ready for online meetings.

Many companies and professionals have switched to the long-term or even permanent Work From Home working mode already. Better prepare yourself properly to face it effectively.

Unlike rest of the subconscious body language cues, ettiqute need to learned by oneself or taughed by others consciously.

Wishing you all a very happy Working From Home!

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Are you Jealous (of me)?

Jealousy…the little green-eyed monster! He’s omnipresent yet operates invisibly, both in human world full of different emotions & feelings and that of seemingly expressionless creatures. Hardly anybody would have escaped from its clutches or trickery. To be honest, not even me!

So why we get tricked by the green monster after all? What is the root cause? Most importantly thing is that How to identify if somebody is unconsciously expressing jealously towards you by reading the person's body language and behavior?

First of all, Jealousy is not an emotion but a feeling. Unlike unconscious emotional responses or reactions, any feeling gives us an ample amount of time to think about how to react or response. Similar to contempt, Jealousy is a physically non-engaging yet self-defensive reaction or response of human mind.

It means that we don’t express ourselves overtly or physically engage with others immediately in our defense. That’s the reason why many people can’t identify if somebody is feeling jealous about them in real-time. What is Jealousy, in the first place? Let's try to understand it.

Jealousy is nothing but the feeling of insecurity which generates preliminarily out of interpersonal comparison and the resultant perception of lacking on an individual. It induces in our mind after hearing, watching or knowing that other person has something that we don’t have, can’t have or won’t have, let it be a natural or artificial entity.

Let it be an individual’s materialistic possession, inheritance, physical beauty, specialties, capabilities, social rapport, relations (with attractive persons) or attention being given to by others. Some of us just can’t grasp reality and remain contained with what they are and have. Insecurity starts eating them from inside. However, it doesn’t end with comparison and perceiving our own short-comings or short-failings.

We also turn our eyes green towards an individual as a warning message when we feel that the person would probably try to steal, own or control what we have currently. The green-eyed monster doesn’t take hold of grown-up people only but so-called ‘innocent’ children as well.

Elder children express jealousy towards their younger siblings because more attention is given towards them by parents. Some smart children compete for attention and the rest maintain jealous intentions towards their younger siblings.

Jealously runs high in children too,
even more than grown-ups.

Generally, we blame women for getting more jealous, possessive and nagging but it’s not the entire truth. Insecurity out of possessiveness and sense of ownership leads to jealously so men too become jealous especially when they think that the other man is threat to his current relationship status with his lady.

If a man learns that another attractive man is getting attention of his lady then he might feel jealous about her for making him to feel insecure or also about the man for being more attention-worthy then him. Both men and women feeling jealous about their partners or the other person approaching them is red signal for both parties. It shouldn’t be ignored at all.

So how to identify if a person feeling jealous about you or others in real-time? Keenly observe the way the person is looking at you at the given moment. The jealous person would give short lasting fake 'plastic' smile when you smile at the person. The person would give away subtle signs of anger, fear and sadness through its face, body and voice. Mostly of the time, it would be anger and/or sadness.

Along with same, if the person is looking at you without battling eyelids, narrowed eyes and closely lips; you can assume that feeling of insecurity is taking hold of the person’s mind. Most of the time, a jealous person would cross its both arms on its chest while looking at you or being around you while you’re doing something or interacting with others.

When it comes to interacting verbally, the person wouldn’t respond to you comfortably, fluently, continuously or spontaneously. If you think that the person would try to avoid or stay way from you then it's not at all true. In fact, if time permits, the person would find opportunities to be around you so that more and more clues could be collected from you on a regular basis.

Even from long distance, the person would try to listen you and keep eyes on you. On the contrary, person or a partner who doesn't feel insecure about you wouldn't track your movements, interactions and activities continuously.

Jealously: There's no smoke without fire.

A jealous or insecure person might not pose immediate harm to you but matter can get worst in near future if the person couldn’t get out of strong clutches of the green monster. Jealousy might protect us like a shield but it would be unwise to keep it getting thicker and heavier by passing time. Such shield would no longer prove useful to cover one’s insecurities. Would it? What you personally think?

We have to accept reality and overcome insecurity. Everybody isn’t truly complete or perfect and most importantly - lacks in something. Everybody lacks something and we all need each other. It's the only way of overcoming jealousy and/or letting others don’t feel uncontrollably jealous about.

Many beautiful, healthy, wealthy, strong and successful people are living an apparently low profile and simple life. They help others too. They remain quite alert and polite while talking, flaunting, exhibiting or exaggerating about what they currently have or going to have in near future.

This induces less or no jealous feelings in others. Actually, they help others to overcome feelings of lacking and shortcoming. I personally know such wonderful persons. Do you personally know anyone?

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Good posture is Healthy

You can conduct seemingly easy experiment on your own after reading this article. Fill a glass with water (on any other liquid) and hold it in one of your hands. You can choose any other (light or moderate weighted) object too for this experiment.

I'm quite sure that you might think that what this fellow is asking me to do is what you do routinely i. e. holding a glass, cup, mug or bottle in hand to drink water, tea, coffee or other beverages. You might be holding or handling these kinds of containers for less than 2 or 3 minutes on average at a single instance.

What’s so different with this so-called experiment then? Complete specifications of this seemingly ordinary and short lasting experiment are not over yet. Please stay with me for next few minutes and you'd understand what am I trying to convey through this lengthy article.

I’m asking you to hold any object by stretching you hand straight and keeping it away from your body. You have to keep your hand steady and not let it bend at elbow. Obviously, you can’t take support of anything and also take breaks. To arrive at a conclusion of the experiment, you should hold the object until you start feeling trembling, pains and tingling sensation in muscles of your hand.

Why supposedly strong muscles, which have been sophisticatedly designed to lift heavy load than that of one you’ve hold in your hand, started to ache after few minutes only? Answer to this question, which you would know after going through rest of this article, is definitely eye-opening.

Before evolving into tree dwelling apes, our remote ancestors used to roam on four limbs. As we can easily observe, vertebral column i.e. backbone or spine of all four legged animals remains horizontal. Standing and walking on four legs (i. e. quadrupedal anatomy) offers them more flexibility, good balancing ability and capacity to attain more speed while running.

That’s the very reason why the fastest animal on earth is cheetah and not us. Also, almost all quadrupedal (four-legged) creatures can achieve balance and walk on their feet within just few minutes or hours after taking birth.

"Human body is more vulnerable due to its bipedal anatomy. We can easily adapt a defensive posture in danger."

On the other hand, we have a unique ability to stand and walk on two hind limbs or legs (i. e. bipedal anatomy) that we feel very proud about. Moreover, it's only the bipedal anatomy which developed broader shoulders in men and wider hips in women.

This kind of anatomy allowed us to lift different things by forelimbs or hands, carry objects, throw stones, climb flexibly and observe much clearly over a large distance with wider visual angle and move from one location to other by spending less amount of energy.

Probably you might knew that our spine is made of interconnected bony segments which are stacked upon each other and called as vertebrae. Also, our spine has four different sections and curves which are Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar and Sacral.

While standing, taking rest, walking upright or running on four legs; quadrupedal creatures hardly have to pay conscious attention at their body postures and natural curves of their spines. Watch carefully at your dog or cat when it seats, stands or runs.

Only in the condition of not having enough energy and essential body parts unfit or in a bad shape (infested, deformed, amputated or wounded), bad body posture could negatively affect speed of roaming, ability to perform different tasks and their natural spinal curves.

We too are not exception to this but I believe that only we humans suffer from spine related pains, deformities and decay by most. Unlike four legged creatures, we need to maintain accurate balance along with keeping upper body erect to carry our different kinds of static and dynamic tasks.

Types of Posture

To be able to adjust ourselves with various operational demands, we eventually alter spinal curves, distance between two vertebrae and pressure on the whole vertebral column. We twist, jerk, pull or burden it instantaneously, momentarily or over a considerable amount of time.

"Pat your back on your own frequently because it reduces the issue of frozen shoulders. Simple idea but great effect!"

As many anatomists would agree, the lower section of our back is not much perfectly designed (or not ‘evolved’ correctly through millions of years). When it comes to perform activities by adapting an erect posture, this very design defect speaks (and also ‘hurts’) very loudly. Perhaps, only human babies need to learn and also practice to walk on two feet.

Ability to stand and walk with the perfectly erect or upright posture comes only after few years after a baby's birth. We insist on good posture because it’s an inevitable part of influence and impression in society but we hardly relate it with health.

Vertebral column or spine is a bridge of life force that flows between brain and rest of the body. Vertebrae or one of the bony segments of the spinal column that rests on other vertebrae with soft disk or cushion in between, is one of the vulnerable and also complex structures.

Spine connects the whole body with the brain and also provides energy and signals to different body parts through spinal cord. Both stagnant life style and exhaustive workout done by adapting wrong postures accelerate the process of spinal decay and deformation.

Like any other moving body part that is made up of blood veins, nerves, bones, tendons (band of inelastic tissue that connects muscles with bones) and muscles; entire spine or backbone is spring like a long metal spring but a little more complex than it.

One question might be raising in your mind i. e. Why we experience inflammation and pains in back, neck or arms only few minutes after applying pressure or strain? Crucial importance of good posture, workout and physical activities won’t make sense properly until we don’t get answer of this big question.

Bone, tendon and muscles: All tied up together

"Musculoskeletal pains and inflammation, if persisted over a long time, can lead to performance degradation and most importantly - deterioration of self-confidence."

Composed by elastic and fibrous tissues, muscles have their own dynamics and chemical processes. Muscles remain fit and also painless when they are moved in regular intervals because only movements ensure supply of blood and oxygen. Lactic acid gets generated as by-product of exercise but it also needs to get washed out through adequate blood circulation.

Holding any body part in a one position or configuration and putting strain on it in repetition causes contraction of muscles and ultimately disturbance in process of circulation of blood, nutrients and oxygen. You might have heard about an athlete suffering from tennis elbow.

In absence of required nutrition and accumulation of lactic acid, the muscles start to ache, tingle and inflame. If muscular pain is not relived and lactic acid is not excreted within proper time then it badly affects not only muscles but also tendons and nerves in the long run.

Spinal column is also surrounded by muscles, nerves and tissues. Muscle fibres provide support and stability to it. Muscles help us in adapting different postures by bending and twisting the spinal column at different curves. Weaker and injured muscles led to improper postures.

Which posture you think is the correct one?

"Incorrectly lifted load of only 5 kilos puts an enourmous pressure of 80 kilos on lumbar area i. e. 15 times higher than the original weight."

While sitting at one place for a long time in any particular posture, we put pressure on our whole spinal structure and thus kicking off the vicious process of musculoskeletal decay. Upper body weight also adds to the pressure on lower body, which is felt in lower back and abdominal region.

If posture isn’t changed or any body movements are not made to re-establish sufficient blood supply then not just spine but all related body parts get exhausted and start to ache and inflame. Over a considerable amount of time (in months or years), person working  stagnantly starts to feel lack of energy, enthusiasm and lightness from inside.

"Nearly more than 80% of today's youngsters in cities suffer from pains in shoulders, back, neck, arms, wrists, palms and feet. Only reason is stagnation and spending a of time with motorbikes, computers, cell phones and television."

Although we all love luxury and relaxation, it's crucial that our body is moved and not kept stagnant for a long time. In fact, stagnation deteriorates it much faster as compared to a lifestyle filled with regular movements and actions. While sitting, walking or doing different tasks; only good body posture ensures spinal health and continuity of liveliness.

Try to remain in a good and upright posture as much as possible because it’s not just healthy but impressive too. Respect your body and pay attention at your posture. Be smart and stay fit, healthy and performing for a long time!

Good and impressive sitting body posture with and without computer

"Stagnant lifestyle coupled with bad static and dynamic postures make situation worse or nightmarish."

Between year 2008 to 2013, I've gone through worst health and performance conditions. Pains, swelling, inflammation of muscles and tendons in back, neck, shoulders and wrists was about to put me out of action permanently. However, my own excruciating conditions and ordeal has taught me a great lesson in life.

I've successfully recovered from severe pain in back and neck only by adapting a proper posture, changing it frequently and doing rigorous exercise on regular basis. Good posture is a health insurance and a very impressive too. It has changed my life completely and also how people perceive me socially.

Would you still like to conduct or continue the experiment, mentioned in first two paragraphs? Certainly not I guess. If you want to test that how your muscles and tendons respond to long lasting stagnation, go ahead and try it out carefully.

It would end in ailing but I'm sure that you would become more conscious about your body and its dynamics. Also, you'd become more conscious about your overall body language and especially posture while sitting, walking and standing.

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King Shivaji: Superior in Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal Communication is not at all limited to body language, facial expressions, gestures, postures, vocal tones, para-language, cultural norms, etiquette, impressionism and attire only. It’s the unimaginably broader area that includes different entities, techniques, operations and methods to convey messages, indications, signals, hints and clues from source to destination without words.

Without any doubt, tactical rewards are assured after thoroughly studying, discovering potentials of and applying various elements of nonverbal communication in practical life. After successfully exchanging nonverbal messages and decoding them accurately in lesser amount of time, many stories of unbelievable successes and victories could be written. World's history of warfare and tactics is full of the same.

You might know that torches can be used to send messages or signals especially in darkness by waving or moving them in a pre-specified or a particular pattern. Perhaps, you’ve might seen people doing the same in movies only. What if a King utilizes smoke and cannons to convey encoded messages for achieving something incredible which his enemies cannot think about same in the first place? This is what was exactly happening during 17th century in Maratha Empire of medieval India.

The great Indian king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (छत्रपती शिवाजी महाराज) intelligently studied and utilized different entities, tools and methods for spreading encoded messages or signals to the troops and allies scattered over a large geographical area and many miles away from the locations where the messages were initiated.

This was really one of the greatest technological or technical achievements at the time when a strategic or tactical exchanges taking place among the officials located at different geographical locations were not safe, rapid, secured and efficient.

Human messengers who were capable of covering larger distances on their feet or by riding horses and other animals were employed to exchange written and oral messages. Messages were also used to be sent by employing pigeons, hawks or eagles. Still, it used to take hours, days and sometimes months for successful passage and exchange of a message from one point to another.

Along with same, there were many hurdles, hazards, time constraints, climatic challenges, and physical limitations for exchanging an ordinary message by the aforementioned methods. Nevertheless, it was not assured that the message makes to its destination and the person for which it is intended due to chances of interception, loss and theft. Also, impairment, murder or death of message carrier was highly likely.

Only way was to send some encoded visual or auditory (sounds) messages or signals from one location. Torches can be used to send encoded signals from one point to another but over a certain distance due to limitation of visibility. So what King Shivaji and his men did to convey messages that let them to excel in tactical communication?

They might have used other entities, ways, methods, tools and techniques but any written evidences haven’t found yet. Let’s see how they used colored smoke and sounds generated by firing cannons for signaling.

1) Signals given by firing cannons: King Shivaji and his army fought many wars but the battle of Paawan Khind (Khind - a narrow passage way in the mountainous terrain) became legendary in the whole history of warfare for Maratha Empire. Also, it’s really interesting to know that how exactly Shivaji could send a crucial encoded message to his fighting men much quickly in that critical and demanding situation.

During the secret escape from Panhalgad (a mountainous fort situated near Kolhapur, Maharastra), he and some 600 soldiers headed towards Vishalgad (another mountainous fort, few kilometers away from Panhalgad) through the thick forest at a night with the full moon above in the sky. On their way, they eventually came of know that the enemy troops of Adil Shah has were pursuing them upon getting intelligence of Shivaji's escape and they were getting closer to Shivaji and his companions progressively.

King Shivaji had to reach on Vishalgad at any cost so Bajiprabhu Deshpande (a legendary warrior and one of his commanders) and few men decided stay at Paawan khind, fight with the approaching enemy and let Shivaji reach to the destination safely. He kindly requested Shivaji and other men to keep moving towards Vishalgad. With heavy heart, Shivaji had to keep moving on by leaving 300 committed men behind him to fight with some 3,000 enemy soldiers.

Unlike most of the other self-centered kings, Shivaji was deeply concerned about those men who had decided to create barrier between him and the approaching enemy troops. After reaching at the destination safely, Shivaji couldn’t waste time in attempt of saving lives of his gallantry warriors. Paawan Khind was located few kilometers away from Vishalgad so he could send messengers on horseback to convey the message.

A cannon: Fastest way to send sound across miles

He told them to keep on fighting until he doesn’t reach at Vishalgad and fires few rounds of cannon as signal of his successful and safe appearance at the destination. He asked his men to retreat and run away from enemy soldiers immediately after hearing the sound. Why did he choose only cannons to send them the signal?

Crisscrossing hills, thick forest and tight valleys of Western Ghats of Maharastra were the greatest barriers for sending visual signals. Hence only large and bustling noise could travel the larger distance efficiently and cross the terrain much quickly. That was a ingenuously, instantly and tactically delivered nonverbal message during highly tense time.

Even though they were fatally wounded, Shivaji's gallantry soldiers kept fighting with high spirit and great energy until they heard the roaring sound created by the cannons fired at Vishalgad upon Shivaji's order. Finally, all 300 men including Bajiprabhu Deshpande scarified themselves happily to safeguard the great Maratha Empire.

This is first example of his Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) tactics.

2) Signals given by colored smoke: King Shivaji conquered, built and repaired more than 300 forts as the guarding posts of his vast and growing empire that was constantly being spied, invaded and attacked by rivals, kings and emperors. As forts were separated from each other over miles, sending audio signals or messages quickly wasn’t possible. Hence, he came up with an excellent idea.

He ordered the men who were guarding the forts to use smoke for sending signals among different forts spread over a larger geographical are of his empire's heartland. Going further, he invented an encoded messaging system by generating colored smoke. His men discovered trees, bushes and shrubs that could generate smoke in different colors.

A colored smoke: Easily visible from a long distances

As it has been found in many historical documents, white colored smoke was used to convey positive messages e. g. victory, conquer, allying or expansion of the empire. On the other hand, black colored smoke was used to convey negative messages e.g. defeat, retreat, betrayal or death.

After watching colored smoke rising upward from a fort, guards at different forts used to generate smoke with same color to pass on the message to other forts. Just within few hours, a message initiated from one fort could reach to another which was located hundreds or thousands miles away from the first one.

This is another example of his Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) tactics.

3) Intelligence Department and Super Spy: Along with his famous gurilla tactics, his intelligence department was perhaps the best in contemporary India. Its head was Bahirji Naik (बहिर्जी नाईक). He was skilled in putting on different disguises and playing convincing roles to be able to intrude enemy camps, roam freely in enemy territories and gather key information or intelligence.

The intelligence gather by him and his team greatly helped King Shivaji for battles, invasions, escapes and covert operations. He can be called as the best 'shape shifting' super spy. For most of the times, it was only King Shivaji who could quickly identify him in the crowd.

4) Prescribed codes for bodily conduct: King Shivaji asked his delegates, representatives and messengers to adapt an upright seating posture in meetings. He also asked them to avoid doing uncontrolled and immature body movements, facial expressions, gestures and eye contacts.

According to him, any message to the servants should be conveyed through subtle gestures, expressions or emblems only to accomplish the intended tasks.

[Special Note: This article is dedicated to the great King Shivaji Maharaj (Maharaj - a Sanskrit word synonymous to 'King'), his gallantry soldiers, close companions, secret agents and intelligence officers. His visinory mother JijaBai sowed seed in his mind.

Shivaji was not only a brave Indian warrior to succeed in carving out a sovereign pan-Indian subcontinental empire out of the mighty and persecuting Mughal Empire but also a great visionary, engineer, entrepreneur and strategist to inspire millions of people.

His his qualities, his achievements and his managerial skills are openly appreciated, accredited and respected by many world famous leaders, statesmen, historians, tacticians, travelers, generals, politicians, researchers, academics and experts.]

Related Articles:
1) What is Nonverbal Communication?

Botox hampers emotional awareness

Botox (Botulinum toxin) is a new magical substance in shelves of today’s cosmetic therapists and beauticians who cater their "youth-maniac" clients. Given “ever-youthful face” fad in modern metropolitan society and corporate work culture, this medicine helps in vanishing facial wrinkles that are caused by natural aging process, severe illness or abnormalities.

Like its apparent advantages in an impression driven environment, the beneficiary(?) has to weigh a great setback in its social life. As Botox is administered in small patches of skin to make it look young, it ultimately hampers one’s ability to read emotions in others. Exactly How?

Regaining youth or losing emotional ability?

Actually, we all give and get facial feedback unconsciously. It’s not necessary that facial expressions are always noticeable because many a times we try to keep face expressionless. However, unnoticeable muscular activities do occur that can be detected by seasoned eyes or computer software with sophisticated imaging devices.

Remarkable purpose of involuntarily muscular movements is detection of emotions in others. Brain understands emotions in other by simulating corresponding muscular movement on face of an observer. Movements might be too tiny to remain unnoticeable by third person or even two persons who are participating in an emotional melodrama.

Machines can read human emotions. What about us?

Botox paralyzes muscles that cause wrinkles on facial skin and thus face looks reflated and swollen. However muscular movements are inhibited because Botox interferes with signals that brain sends to facial muscles. Though it gives a person so-called youthful look, lack of muscular movements hampers core abilities of expressing and detecting emotions.

A person can find itself as emotionless as if it has been forced to stay poker faced for a long time. A research done by Prof. Dr. David Neal (a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California) underlines side effects of Botox on emotional awareness stating clearly, “If muscular signals from the face to the brain are dampened, you’re less able to read emotions.”

Poker Face: Magnificently Dull

Even though many of us don’t get Botox injected, we don’t capitalize facial muscles at fullest. Staying poker for long time is also likely to hamper our ability to both express and read emotions in others.

Particularly, in the metropolitan environment, where large population is forced to use and share limited physical space, we incline to keep our faces almost emotionless while commuting and staying in or sharing common physical spaces.

It helps us to isolate ourselves from strangers on social grounds but it might hamper our emotional awareness too. Issue gets multiplied by working conditions where casually interaction with others is almost impossible or not (assumed as) required.

In overall body language, maintaining a poker face or not expressing emotions on face could lead us to social devastation.

Related Articles:
1) Face to Face 2) Facial Feedback: World smiles with you! 3) Common Facial Expressions 4) Basic Emotional Expressions 5) Social Footsteps 6) Emotional Intelligence and Success 7) Recognizing emotional expressions: Scientific viewpoints 8) Chicken and Egg Paradox

Facial Feedback: World smiles with you!

It's very well said that if you smile in then the whole world smiles with you. We all experience that smiling (irrespective of a genuine or fake smile) faces are more liked that neutral, sad or angry faces because smiling makes us feel better at the very core of our existence.

Smiling secretes a hormone called as Endorphin inside our brains that generates happy feelings and also reduces level of stress hormone Cortisol and Epinephrine (secretion from Adrenaline gland). Hence smiling at each other generates a positive feedback loop.

According to Sir Charles Darwin and psychologist William James’s Facial Feedback theory, we can generate same emotional effect through volunteer movements of facial muscles. As like unconsciously or involuntarily expressions induce feedback in minds of other people, volunteer facial expressions and gestures too can achieve same at a certain degree.

Smile enhances your face value.

Once you generate expressions on your face consciously, others are most likely to react, respond or reciprocate in the similar way unconsciously. Giving a facial feedback happens quite automatically most of the time, outside our conscious control, all the time.

This theory applies for smiling too and we widely witness it. More you smile at people in appropriate situations; more often you would get similar feedback from them. If you cannot portray a genuine smile, start smiling politely (in other words - faking a smile).

Feedback from others in form of smiles, easiness, interest, or comfort displays would lead to positive feelings in your mind. After entering into a loop of initiation and feedback, your mental state starts to change. Sooner or later, you would start to portray a genuine smile, almost unconsciously.

Chinese Air hostesses are trained
to grin with the help of a stick.

It’s an innate survival mechanism we all have that allows us to connect with each at deeper psychological levels and feel our existence (more meaningful) by seeking feedback from others. We can find trails of feedback principle in many practical and conceptual aspects of our daily lives.

Facial feedback to smile is very natural and it's widely used in commercials. It's not at all surprising that we find faces in various entities around us or also we draw faces on different types of surfaces.

Surprisingly, a smile is the most commercially capitalized aspect of the overall body language.

Related Articles:
1) Why we copy each other's body language? 2) Secret behind imitation 3) Face to Face 4) Social Footsteps 5) Botox hampers emotional awareness 6) Recognizing emotional expressions: Scientific viewpoints 7) Chicken and Egg Paradox

Reading Body Language - Common Postures

Confident, Open and Bold

Postures possess a huge amount of importance in interpreting body language. Postulating (adapting and dropping postures) is very fundamental approach for getting adapted to and negotiating with various physical environments, climatic conditions, performance demands, circumstances, social situations, emotional states, events, encounters, incidents, objects and individuals.

Adapting different postures has been hard-coded in our subconscious minds and genes millions of years ago as a defending, adjusting, compromising and negotiating mechanism. We can spend moments without gazing, moving, speaking, gesticulating and expressing emotions on our faces but not a single moment without adapting a posture.

Unlike facial expressions, gestures and vocal tones; postures can be easily observed, detected or sensed from a very long distance. Thus they have unmatching power to convey or send a message to a large number of observers, spectators, onlookers and followers. Postures speak very loudly and clearly over a longer distance, even through their silhouettes.

Following are some commonly, apparently and globally observable postures (with their titles and descriptions given below images) that people adapt while standing, seating and laying in public and private. Please keep in mind that there can be a number of smaller variations in each posture.

Seating Comfortably (Female): This is normal sitting posture that most women adapt quite often. Unlike legs put parallel on ground by male, they rest their one leg on the another.

Alert/Attentive/Ready/Interested: This posture is unconsciously adapted when we are looking at or listening with interest, attention, alertness and focus.

Ready to Stand: After finding no reason to seat anymore at given place, we rest our forearms on knees or thighs to help ourselves to stand up and most probably - walk away.

I'm Nervous/Stressed: Opposite to aggressive stance, putting hands in pockets or tightly clasping them alongside torso/trunk is sign of insecurity, anxiety or nervousness.

Hold my Hands: To provide comfort to ourselves in a slightly uncomfortable situation, we entwine fingers of both hands together and hold them near abdominal area. It's an unconscious imitation of holding somebody's hand.

Fencing Arms: Both arms are crossed over chest to defend, to protect, to soothe, suppress emotions or distancing away from something or somebody. This posture is also adapted while waiting. In cold climate, crossing arms over chest is done to retain body heat that leaks from armpits and palms.

Self-Saving Stand: While lacking energy, courage, strength and confidence; we can't stand perfectly upright and tend to lean forward. This posture is also adapted while being threatened, challenged or attacked.

Hostile Hands#1: Clenching feasts tightly and clasping them alongside torso/trunk is a clear sign of aggression with high possibility to beating somebody.

Hostile Hands#2: Clenching feasts tightly and resting them on hips is a clear sign aggression with high possibility of beating somebody.

Ready for Action: Under aggression or excitement, hands are automatically rested on hips to bluff the overall body size in appearance. Resting either hand on hip is sign of insularity or even frustration.

I'm Authoritative/Armed: To exert authority and confidence, we clench palms behind our back. By doing this, chest is pushed forward as a sign of warning against any misconduct. Palms held behind pose threat with possibility of holding any weapon. Many security personals, officers or higher authorities adapt this posture.

Can't Fool Me: This is classical posture which is adapted by an accomplished individual (mostly men) who wants to convey that he/she can't be easily convinced, pursued, fooled, tricked, allured, wooed or played with.

Let's Argue: This is classical posture which most people adapt while arguing in a seating position. One leg is put on another to secure vulnerable parts of body from being hurt and torso is elevated to appear bigger/taller in front of the others.

Can't stay here: This posture can be seen adapted by the person who wants to stand up and walk away from an unpleasant, unclean, unhygienic and/or uncomfortable situation or place.

Relaxed Stance: Unlike putting entire body weight on both legs, we put entire body weight on a single leg to give relaxation the other one.

On the Move: We unconsciously start pointing by one leg in the same direction we want to go, advance or move in.

Thinking/Evaluating: This is very classical posture which we adapt while seriously thinking or evaluating something.

Laying Comfortably: We tend to rest our back and hands at near horizontal position on a flat and comforting surface. Legs are stretched to imitate falling asleep.

Seating Fearlessly: This posture is adapted (mostly by men) which unconsciously conveys that the individual is fearless, relaxing and full of confidence but doesn't mind good seating etiquette.

Keeping Warm: This posture is adapted when a person is feeling cold (in weather), embarrassment, insecurity or vulnerability.

Seating Comfortably: We tend to rest our back at near horizontal position on the back of a chair. Legs are also stretched to imitate falling asleep.

Waiting Impatiently: When we impatiently wait for somebody or something to finish, we rest palms of both hands over hips. Sometimes, palm of only one hand is rested over hip.

Hiding Aggression: Unlike authoritative stance, we grip upper arm behind our back to control ourselves from beating somebody.

Imposing Smartness: If an individual (mostly male) on wants to pose himself as smarter than others, it seats in a chair by facing its back in front of the other individual(s).

Leave me Alone: This is typical posture adapted when person is troubled, afraid, shocked, sad, crying or ruminating about something or somebody.

Can’t seat any longer: Under unconscious disinterest or impatience, we unconsciously prepare ourselves to remove ourselves from chair, stand up and walk away.

Defeated Duck: When we lack confident to confront, upper body bends towards ground. It’s a clear sign of submission, exhaustion, surrender or acceptance of defeat/failure.

Confident, Open and Friendly: When we're open, confident and friendly; we stand perfectly upright, keep hands parallel to torso and let palms to remain open and visible to others.

Related Articles:
1) Body Language Brain 2) Clusters 3) Congruence 4) Proxemics 5) Context 6) Micro Expressions 7) Para Language 8) Facial Expressions 9) Hand Gestures 10) Challenges 11) Interpretation 12) Baseline 13) Perceptual Bias 14) My posture discovery 15) Good posture is Healthy 16) Basic Bodily Clues 17) Power Postures