Why you should live like a bloke
ADOPTING a few of your man's lifestyle philosophies could actually make you happier, healthier and even thinner.
They drink beer, play footy and can pass an evening in each other’s company without exchanging more than 10 words.
While women are usually overly stressed, juggling numerous roles and constantly dieting, men are generally quite happy with their lot – even if the washing hasn’t been put away and the vacuuming hasn’t been done. We look at how women could benefit from a bit of “bloke health”.
Join a team sport to alleviate worry
Most women give up on participating in team sports once they’ve left school and usually join a gym instead, says psychologist Lydia Ievleva from Sydney.
“Yet men don’t really consider their weekly game a workout: it’s a social event for them,” she says.
Being part of a team can help a woman’s health emotionally and physically. According to the University of Copenhagen, women who participated in soccer became less self-focused and more team-oriented.
Any team sport will do. “When we’re stressed, we experience an increase in the hormone oxytocin, which also increases our need for comfort and friendship,” says Ievleva. “When women are stressed, they tend to isolate themselves, rather than seeking support. Any sport which involves friendship will help women feel less alone, rather than languishing in their worries.”
Stop cleaning up and stress less
Ever noticed how men will ignore the mess and read the Sunday papers instead? It’s not that they’re lazy, it’s because they’re not focused on a specific household task at the time, says wellness coach Fiona Cosgrove.
“Women tend to view keeping a clean and tidy home as one of their main tasks of the day, compared with men’s priority of doing outdoor tasks,” she says. “Women don’t need to take everything on their shoulders, but they may need to learn how to ask for help without it coming across as nagging.”
Cosgrove suggests getting into the habit of saying, “What I would like is…” rather than “You never help out”, which puts the other person on the defensive. And be sure to give a reason. “This will appeal to men’s logical and cognitive way of thinking. Ultimately, try to avoid the blame game.”
Trust your own decisions and simplify your life
How often do you hear a man confiding in their friends? Never, right? It may drive women mad, but men’s tendency to keep their emotions close to their chest may not be such a bad thing. A study at Columbia University’s Teachers College found that those who kept their emotions in check were better adjusted and became less distressed by events.
According to Melbourne-based psychologist Dr Elizabeth Celi, women process their thoughts and problems externally and bring in as many opinions as they can, getting lost in too many details. Men, on the other hand, process internally and weigh up the facts with less emotional “contamination”.
“They get to the point, keep it real and keep it simple,” says Dr Celi.
Next time you’re in a conundrum, try mulling the problem over for a while yourself, without asking your friends’ opinions.
“You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll come to a decision,” says Dr Celi.
Do one thing at a time and be more productive
While women simultaneously iron, cook dinner and talk on the phone, men focus on doing one job at a time, which can drive women to distraction.
According to research from the University of California, this is because the area connecting the right part of the brain to the left is thicker in women, allowing more ideas to flow.
Dr Celi says men set boundaries and focus completely on the task at hand. “They’ll reach a resolution quickly, with time left over for the next task,” she says. “For some women, combining multi-tasking with a superwoman mentality is a recipe for going mad!”
In order to get things done, men and women should try to work together. “Women’s contextual awareness and multi-tasking tendencies can complement a man’s pinpointed processing and focused decision-making, to achieve combined goals,” says Dr Celi.
Lose the guilt about food and eat better
“If a man needs to lose weight he’ll cut down on what he eats, but he probably won’t consider himself to be ‘dieting’,” says Dr Tim Gill, principal research fellow and scientific programs manager at the Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise at the University of Sydney.
“If a man has a day when he eats too much, he’ll probably shrug and begin his eating plan again the next day. Whereas women tend to feel that they’ve ruined their chances at weight loss if they ‘slip up’.”
Instead of lamenting that lamington, “just get back to your routine as soon as possible”.
Stop emotional eating to lose weight
Blame our hormones or the kids, but women eat three times more sweets than men. A Cornell University study found women eat sweet treats if they’re feeling down, whereas men tuck into a piece of steak. Therein lies the secret.
“Steak is protein, so you feel fuller for longer,” says Dr Gill. “Anything sugary will just spike your insulin levels, leading to abdominal fat, an unsatisfied appetite and excess kilojoule intake.”
Our hormones are also responsible for emotional eating. “The menstrual cycle does drive women to the bread bin, so you become a slave to carbohydrates to improve your mood,” says Dr Gill. He suggests sticking to three meals a day and banishing tempting treats from the house. “If you need an emotional pick-me-up, exercise is a better solution,” he says.
Commit to a goal and achieve more
Been trying to give up smoking or start exercising? If you’re a man you’re more likely to achieve your goals. In a study reported in the American Journal Of Health Behavior, men are more likely to adopt healthy changes as permanent habits.
“This may be because when a man commits to a goal, he’ll stick to it, whereas women tend to find excuses to put off lifestyle changes,” says Dr Gill.
“Write down your health goals,” says Cosgrove. “Lists appeal to a woman’s sense of responsibility, so you’ll be more likely to follow through.”
Work the weights to maintain muscle
“We’re not just getting fatter, we’re becoming less muscular,” says Dr Tim Gill.
Maintaining muscle mass is important to keep you slim, as well as preventing osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes. “As you get older, maintaining muscle mass helps to keep you stable, prevent falls and keep you mobile for longer.”
For women wanting to increase their muscle tone, it’s not necessary to lift dumbbells at the gym. “Using your own body weight is ideal,” says Dr Gill. “Try sit-ups, push-ups and hill or stair walking to build your muscle mass.”
Source: FUN emails / Dr Gill
Monday, August 16, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Born liars...
*One of the renowned lawyers in Texas had made love to a city prostitute who
unfortunately forgot to take her panty from the lawyer's car. *
*Afterwards he drove home and as usual the wife came out with open arms,
hugged him warmly and led him to the house. The man then remembered, "Honey
please rush to the car and get some chicken. *
*Sorry I forgot to bring it with me after the hug." The lady dashed to the
car. What met her eyes? A woman's panty!!!!!! "Caught
this idiot today" she thought. "You thought you could escape this time
round!" She muttered. With all her strength she tore the panty into* *pieces
and rushed back to the husband ready to tear him down. *
*During all this time' the man had realized his folly and was ready. *
*He was smart enough. *
*"Now why do you ruin my life?" the lady asked. *
*"You! Do you realize what you have just done!?" the husband stammered
outrageously "That's the case worth ten million dollars I told you about
yesterday and the panty was the rape evidence.*
*What am I going to present before court tomorrow? Why do you rush
into action
without consulting me first? You must produce that item!" *
*Unbelievably the wife was so sorry. *
*She even went to look for the torn pieces and brought back to her husband
with a promise never to repeat the mistake. *
*She wouldn't imagine her husband losing 10 million. *
*Really who should have apologized? *
*NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH A LAWYER, THEY ARE NATURAL BORN LIARS!!!*
unfortunately forgot to take her panty from the lawyer's car. *
*Afterwards he drove home and as usual the wife came out with open arms,
hugged him warmly and led him to the house. The man then remembered, "Honey
please rush to the car and get some chicken. *
*Sorry I forgot to bring it with me after the hug." The lady dashed to the
car. What met her eyes? A woman's panty!!!!!! "Caught
this idiot today" she thought. "You thought you could escape this time
round!" She muttered. With all her strength she tore the panty into* *pieces
and rushed back to the husband ready to tear him down. *
*During all this time' the man had realized his folly and was ready. *
*He was smart enough. *
*"Now why do you ruin my life?" the lady asked. *
*"You! Do you realize what you have just done!?" the husband stammered
outrageously "That's the case worth ten million dollars I told you about
yesterday and the panty was the rape evidence.*
*What am I going to present before court tomorrow? Why do you rush
into action
without consulting me first? You must produce that item!" *
*Unbelievably the wife was so sorry. *
*She even went to look for the torn pieces and brought back to her husband
with a promise never to repeat the mistake. *
*She wouldn't imagine her husband losing 10 million. *
*Really who should have apologized? *
*NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH A LAWYER, THEY ARE NATURAL BORN LIARS!!!*
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
How people trust
How people trust
When we meet and need to interact with someone else, how do we decide whether our requests will be taken seriously? How do we decide whether this person can or cannot be trusted?
Similarity
A simple fact of interpersonal relationships is that we assume that if people are like us, then they will both think and act in the same way as us. This allows us to predict how they will behave, including how trustworthy they are. Similarity allows us to transfer our beliefs about ourselves to the other person. I’m a nice person and they are like me, then they must be nice too. And as I am trustworthy, so also must they be trustworthy.
We thus seek signs of similarity, both in their internal beliefs, etc. and in the external signs and behaviours through which they demonstrate what they are really like.
Internal factors
The way we think and understand the world determines how we act. If I can ‘get inside your head’, then I can better understand your real intent and whether I can trust you.
Beliefs are mental underpinnings to everything we do. They are assumed truths on which we base many decisions. If we believe that people are, in general, good and do not seek to deceive others, then we are more likely to trust them.
Values are the rules that tell us what is right and wrong, what we should and should not do, what is more important and less important. They often are concerned with how we behave in relationships with other people. Agilent’s company values include trust as a rule which says ‘trust the other people in the company, and act in a trustworthy manner’.
Mental models are the complex maps we make of the world and which we then use to interpret what is going on around us. They help us predict what will happen and hence keep control of our personal world. We have mental models of how we and others work in
Goals are the targets we set ourselves to achieve, based on our models of both the world and ourselves, and hence what we believe is possible to achieve. If my goals and yours are the same, then it is easier to trust that you will act to help me, because it is in your interests too.
External factors
Appearances: When people have the same outer accoutrements of living as us, from cars to clothes, we tend to translate this outer appearance into an assumption that the inner beliefs, etc. are also similar.
Behaviours: We can easily observe how the other person acts, perhaps in situations which do not require significant trust to be given. From both direct experience and from what other people tell us about them, we can build up a picture and judge from this how much we have in common.
Experiences: Where we have had common experiences, from working together on the same project to going to the same university in different decades, having an experience in common is likely to make us feel some sense of camaraderie, enabling at least a first level of comfortable conversation.
Preferences: When the other person prefers the same music as us and has the same biases, whether it be religious, political or otherwise, we feel more like them and consequently believe that they are more like us.
Contextual factors
Culture: Cultural contexts include being at work, being at home and being on the golf course. In each situation, there are different cultural rules about trust.
Group: If we are in a similar group, such as the same department, same family or same profession, then this says ‘we are similar’ and we will automatically trust more.
Concern
We can evaluate how people will treat our vulnerabilities by evaluating the concern they show, both for other people and for ourselves.
Care
Someone who clearly cares for us, taking positive steps to help and offering emotional support as needed, is someone we will quickly conclude that we can trust. Caring is often an emotional attribute, but it can also be logical, such as when I know that to be accepted within a group, I must be civil and civilised in my dealings with the other people.
Power
Where the other person has power to hurt us, but does not, then we may conclude that they are trustworthy. Types of power include positional power (eg management), charisma/social leadership, expertise/knowledge. Thus, for example, if I am buying a car from you and you tell me what the problems are,
Reliability
We can judge a person’s trustworthiness by how reliable they are, which translates into how easily we can predict what they do. This may also include a person who we disagree and who may harm us: it is often better to trust a person to be unkind or unhelpful than face the uncertainty of whether or not they will be in a good mood today.
Reciprocity
We can check their fairness in exchanges by determining the overall value balance. Do they give a little and expect a lot? Are neutral or biased standards used to decide what is fair? Do they conveniently ‘forget’ the help you gave them last month?
A trustworthy person will, over time, give and take on an approximately equal basis. This can be difficult to determine, for example where someone is giving physical help and receiving gratitude (and is quite happy with this. In the end the best way of judging fairness is whether all parties feel good about the exchange.
Integrity
A person of integrity sticks to their values through thick and thin, even when it is apparent that they could gain at least a short-term advantage from ‘bending the rules’. This makes them very predictable and their words and actions can be trusted, even when we largely disagree with them.
It is worth noting here that in many studies of leaders, a key attribute of leadership is unswerving integrity. Especially when you are leading a company into uncharted waters, you need a high level of trust to be placed in you by your followers.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/trust/how_people_trust.htm
When we meet and need to interact with someone else, how do we decide whether our requests will be taken seriously? How do we decide whether this person can or cannot be trusted?
Similarity
A simple fact of interpersonal relationships is that we assume that if people are like us, then they will both think and act in the same way as us. This allows us to predict how they will behave, including how trustworthy they are. Similarity allows us to transfer our beliefs about ourselves to the other person. I’m a nice person and they are like me, then they must be nice too. And as I am trustworthy, so also must they be trustworthy.
We thus seek signs of similarity, both in their internal beliefs, etc. and in the external signs and behaviours through which they demonstrate what they are really like.
Internal factors
The way we think and understand the world determines how we act. If I can ‘get inside your head’, then I can better understand your real intent and whether I can trust you.
Beliefs are mental underpinnings to everything we do. They are assumed truths on which we base many decisions. If we believe that people are, in general, good and do not seek to deceive others, then we are more likely to trust them.
Values are the rules that tell us what is right and wrong, what we should and should not do, what is more important and less important. They often are concerned with how we behave in relationships with other people. Agilent’s company values include trust as a rule which says ‘trust the other people in the company, and act in a trustworthy manner’.
Mental models are the complex maps we make of the world and which we then use to interpret what is going on around us. They help us predict what will happen and hence keep control of our personal world. We have mental models of how we and others work in
Goals are the targets we set ourselves to achieve, based on our models of both the world and ourselves, and hence what we believe is possible to achieve. If my goals and yours are the same, then it is easier to trust that you will act to help me, because it is in your interests too.
External factors
Appearances: When people have the same outer accoutrements of living as us, from cars to clothes, we tend to translate this outer appearance into an assumption that the inner beliefs, etc. are also similar.
Behaviours: We can easily observe how the other person acts, perhaps in situations which do not require significant trust to be given. From both direct experience and from what other people tell us about them, we can build up a picture and judge from this how much we have in common.
Experiences: Where we have had common experiences, from working together on the same project to going to the same university in different decades, having an experience in common is likely to make us feel some sense of camaraderie, enabling at least a first level of comfortable conversation.
Preferences: When the other person prefers the same music as us and has the same biases, whether it be religious, political or otherwise, we feel more like them and consequently believe that they are more like us.
Contextual factors
Culture: Cultural contexts include being at work, being at home and being on the golf course. In each situation, there are different cultural rules about trust.
Group: If we are in a similar group, such as the same department, same family or same profession, then this says ‘we are similar’ and we will automatically trust more.
Concern
We can evaluate how people will treat our vulnerabilities by evaluating the concern they show, both for other people and for ourselves.
Care
Someone who clearly cares for us, taking positive steps to help and offering emotional support as needed, is someone we will quickly conclude that we can trust. Caring is often an emotional attribute, but it can also be logical, such as when I know that to be accepted within a group, I must be civil and civilised in my dealings with the other people.
Power
Where the other person has power to hurt us, but does not, then we may conclude that they are trustworthy. Types of power include positional power (eg management), charisma/social leadership, expertise/knowledge. Thus, for example, if I am buying a car from you and you tell me what the problems are,
Reliability
We can judge a person’s trustworthiness by how reliable they are, which translates into how easily we can predict what they do. This may also include a person who we disagree and who may harm us: it is often better to trust a person to be unkind or unhelpful than face the uncertainty of whether or not they will be in a good mood today.
Reciprocity
We can check their fairness in exchanges by determining the overall value balance. Do they give a little and expect a lot? Are neutral or biased standards used to decide what is fair? Do they conveniently ‘forget’ the help you gave them last month?
A trustworthy person will, over time, give and take on an approximately equal basis. This can be difficult to determine, for example where someone is giving physical help and receiving gratitude (and is quite happy with this. In the end the best way of judging fairness is whether all parties feel good about the exchange.
Integrity
A person of integrity sticks to their values through thick and thin, even when it is apparent that they could gain at least a short-term advantage from ‘bending the rules’. This makes them very predictable and their words and actions can be trusted, even when we largely disagree with them.
It is worth noting here that in many studies of leaders, a key attribute of leadership is unswerving integrity. Especially when you are leading a company into uncharted waters, you need a high level of trust to be placed in you by your followers.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/trust/how_people_trust.htm
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Some Hidden Information contained in Famous Logos!!!
Some Hidden Information contained in Famous Logos!!!
This logo doesn’t seem to hide much at first sight, but it gives you a little insight in the philosophy behind the brand. First of all, the yellow swoosh looks like a smile: Amazon.com want to have the best customer satisfaction. The swoosh also connects the letters a and z, meaning that this store has everything from a to z.
This is probably one of the best known logos with a hidden meaning. If you look closely, you’ll see an arrow that’s formed by the letters E and x. This arrow symbolizes speed and precision, two major selling points of this company.
Continental is a manufacturer of tyres. You can actually see this in their logo, because the first two letters create a 3-dimensional tyre.
Toblerone is a chocolate-company from Bern, Switzerland . Bern is sometimes called ‘The City Of Bears’. They have incorporated this idea in the Toblerone logo, because if you look closely, you’ll see the silhouette of a bear.
Sony Vaio is a well known brand of laptops. But did you know that the name Vaio logo also had a hidden meaning? Well, the first two letters represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal.
The old logo of Baskin Robbins had the number 31 with an arc above it. The new logo took this idea to the next level. The pink parts of the BR still form the number 31, a reference to the 31 flavours.
Carrefour is one of the biggest European retailers, and it’s also French for “crossroads”. The logo symbolizes this word via two opposite arrows. They also added the first letter of the name, because if you look closely you’ll see the letter C in the negative space between the two arrows.
Unilever is one of the biggest producers of food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. They produce a huge amount of different products and they wanted to reflect this in their logo. Each part of the logo has a meaning. For example: the heart represents love, care and health - feeling good, a bird is a symbol of freedom. Relief from daily chores – getting more out of life.
At first, this logo might not make much sense. But if you look closely, you’ll see the number 1 in the negative space between the F and the red stripes. I also love how this logo communicates a feeling of speed.
The Sun logo is one of the most famous ambigrams in the world. You can read the brand name in every direction; both horizontally and vertically. This logo was designed by Professor Vaughan Pratt of Stanford University
The NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the biggest American television networks. I think most of you have already seen the peacock in this logo. The peacock has 6 different tail feathers, referring to the six divisions at the time that this logo was created. The peacock’s head is flipped to the right to suggest it was looking forward, not back.
This logo doesn’t seem to hide much at first sight, but it gives you a little insight in the philosophy behind the brand. First of all, the yellow swoosh looks like a smile: Amazon.com want to have the best customer satisfaction. The swoosh also connects the letters a and z, meaning that this store has everything from a to z.
This is probably one of the best known logos with a hidden meaning. If you look closely, you’ll see an arrow that’s formed by the letters E and x. This arrow symbolizes speed and precision, two major selling points of this company.
Continental is a manufacturer of tyres. You can actually see this in their logo, because the first two letters create a 3-dimensional tyre.
Toblerone is a chocolate-company from Bern, Switzerland . Bern is sometimes called ‘The City Of Bears’. They have incorporated this idea in the Toblerone logo, because if you look closely, you’ll see the silhouette of a bear.
Sony Vaio is a well known brand of laptops. But did you know that the name Vaio logo also had a hidden meaning? Well, the first two letters represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal.
The old logo of Baskin Robbins had the number 31 with an arc above it. The new logo took this idea to the next level. The pink parts of the BR still form the number 31, a reference to the 31 flavours.
Carrefour is one of the biggest European retailers, and it’s also French for “crossroads”. The logo symbolizes this word via two opposite arrows. They also added the first letter of the name, because if you look closely you’ll see the letter C in the negative space between the two arrows.
Unilever is one of the biggest producers of food, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. They produce a huge amount of different products and they wanted to reflect this in their logo. Each part of the logo has a meaning. For example: the heart represents love, care and health - feeling good, a bird is a symbol of freedom. Relief from daily chores – getting more out of life.
At first, this logo might not make much sense. But if you look closely, you’ll see the number 1 in the negative space between the F and the red stripes. I also love how this logo communicates a feeling of speed.
The Sun logo is one of the most famous ambigrams in the world. You can read the brand name in every direction; both horizontally and vertically. This logo was designed by Professor Vaughan Pratt of Stanford University
The NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the biggest American television networks. I think most of you have already seen the peacock in this logo. The peacock has 6 different tail feathers, referring to the six divisions at the time that this logo was created. The peacock’s head is flipped to the right to suggest it was looking forward, not back.
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