<ul>
<li>We give gaze physical properties.</li>
<li>We create implicit mental programmes in which the visual attention of others is understood as a forceful beam emitted from the viewer’s eye and directed at the object of interest.</li>
<li>These mental programmes allow us to use cognitive shortcuts in order to process peoples’ visual attention quickly and efficiently.</li>
</ul>

How we interpret gaze

It can synchronize activities and convey social dynamics without a gesture or spoken word.
It requires a quick interpretation and explanation of the meaning behind another person's gaze, but the trade-off for the speed of that interpretation is the mistaken understanding of gaze as something that can move things in our environment.

Gazing is an essential form of communication

Extramission means “sending out,” and the extramission theory is the belief that vision is a force emitted from the eye. It is an intuitive understanding of vision common among children that persists among many adults. 
In contrast, the modern visual theory is called “intromission,” and is based on the notion that vision results from light entering the eyes.

The “extramission” theory of vision

The power of gaze appears in stories and myths throughout the centuries. 
<ul>
<li>Medusa turned people to stone with her gaze. </li>
<li>The catoblepas and the basilisk, both described by Pliny the Elder, could kill with the single glance.</li>
<li>In Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, Venus complains of the pain caused by Adonis’ glance.</li>
<li>As a cultural reference, we can also mention the Jedi master or Superman.</li>
</ul>

Believing in the power of gaze

<ul>
<li>It reveals where a person is focusing their attention, and, when directed at us, it can have a strong emotional effect. </li>
<li>Gaze can play a role in social organization, with a direct gaze demonstrating social dominance and gaze aversion indicating passivity. </li>
<li>Eye contact can elicit alertness and bodily awareness, while indifference or aversion to eye contact can signal emotional or neurological disorders. </li>
<li>When we direct our gaze at something or someone, others who notice subconsciously direct their gaze in the same manner. We can take advantage of this tendency to deliberately influence the gaze of others.</li>
</ul>

Gaze is a powerful element of social interaction

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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When Our Gaze Is a Physical Force

Happiness and satisfaction are subjective concepts – while for some of us monetary benefits can be equated with job satisfaction, some might strive for recognition of their hard-work and lose motivation on failing to achieve so.
No matter what the standards are, being content with our careers is crucial for maintaining the ‘work-life’ balance.

Happiness

In a fundamental sense, workplace happiness comes when:
<ul>
<li>We enjoy doing the tasks assigned to us</li>
<li>We feel right about the people we are working with</li>
<li>We are happy with the financial benefits we get from the job</li>
<li>We have the scope of improving our existing skills</li>
<li>We feel respected and acknowledged at work.</li>
</ul>

Workplace Happiness Defined

Happy employees are compulsory for a growing business.
A study on organizational success revealed that employees who feel happy in the workplace are 65% more energetic than employees who don’t. They are two times more productive and are more likely to sustain their jobs over a long period of time.

Importance Of Happiness At Work

<ul>
<li>Happiness at work can spread like fire</li>
<li>Happiness builds positivity</li>
<li>Happiness reduces stress</li>
<li>Happiness at work means a healthy life</li>
<li>Happiness at work Increases likeability.</li>
</ul>

Workplace Happiness Benefits

<ul>
<li>Workplace autonomy and the freedom to decide</li>
<li>Task variations and scope for creative ideas</li>
<li>Task significance</li>
<li>Recognition for work</li>
<li>Task difficulty</li>
<li>Professional skills and specialization</li>
<li>Social support within the workplace</li>
<li>Feedback from superiors</li>
<li>Environmental conditions at work</li>
<li>Business management and networking channels.</li>
</ul>

Factors Associated With Happiness At Work

<ol>
<li>Declutter your workplace</li>
<li>Mindfulness</li>
<li>Exercise, in any form</li>
<li>Engage in feedback mechanisms</li>
<li>Reflect on one task at a time</li>
<li>Help a colleague</li>
<li>Choose your responses wisely. Practice mindfulness, gratitude, and effective communication.</li>
<li>Value yourself</li>
<li>Start Your day on a good note. Take some moments each morning to collect your thoughts and plan your day ahead.</li>
<li>Adjust your schedules. Prolonged working hours without breaks can take a toll on the brain and bring us down, thereby making way for unproductivity and distress.</li>
</ol>

Finding Real Happiness at Work

Practical lessons for anyone who wants to find more happiness at work

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Happiness At Work

Last Updated on How often do you consider quitting your job and feel that you are not getting paid enough for the dedication and service you offer your organization? Happiness and satisfaction are subjective concepts - while for some of us monetary benefits can be equated with job satisfaction, some might strive for recognition of their hard-work and lose motivation on failing to achieve so.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Tips on How to be Happy at Work

To adopt a paradox mindset means to consider the world with a “both/and” approach instead of an “either/or” one.
In times of change, uncertainty and scarcity, we need to do many tasks together. And people need to feel comfort with discomfort.

The paradox mindset

A simple framework to cultivate the paradox mindset :
<ul>
<li>Reframe the situation you're facing. When considering tensions, think in terms of enhancement and enrichment.</li>
<li>Accept the tension and develop comfort with the discomfort. With a paradox mindset, acceptance allows for the understanding that these tensions are a natural part of reality, and that we all experience them to a certain extent.</li>
<li>Distance yourself and search for new possibilities. We can try to distance ourselves from the problem and connect with others to get a different perspective</li>
</ul>

A paradox mindset can be cultivated

When resources are scarce, what is the best way to thrive?

Overwhelmed? Adopt a Paradox Mindset

This metaphor means seeing your mental health as a wallet: money comes in, money comes out. How much money is in there is how many adverse events you can go through while sustaining your mental health.
We usually only worry about our mental health during distressing events, and don't take into consideration the many daily events that empty our mental health wallet, often without us realizing it.

Your mental health is like a wallet

<ul>
<li>The ways people are using social media has more of an impact on their mental health than just the frequency and duration of their use.</li>
<li>Microaggressions and discrimination.</li>
<li>Urban life: urbanites are 21% more likely to have anxiety disorders and 39% more likely to have mood disorders.</li>
<li>Financial worries have been linked to mental health issues among university students, and about half of people in problem debt.</li>
<li>Lack of sleep, a poor diet and alcohol consumption.</li>
</ul>

Events that empty our mental health wallet

<ul>
<li>Journaling has many science-based benefits. It can be used to reduce your anxiety or process traumatic events.</li>
<li>Exercise is powerful medicine. Whenever you are feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, try to go for a short run to clear your head.</li>
<li>Talking it out. Not expressing your feelings will not help you process them. And talking about your emotions is not about receiving advice. Instead, it’s about having someone to share what you are going through.</li>
</ul>

Investing in mental health

<ul>
<li>Educate yourself. Read about mental health, common adverse events impacting people’s mental health, and the different realities faced by different populations when it comes to mental health.</li>
<li>Listen without judgement. Validate the person’s experience. Do not jump to giving advice. Offer them a space to share.</li>
<li>Be mindful of your language. Avoid vocabulary such as “crazy” or “insane” which may dehumanise the person you are trying to help.</li>
</ul>

How to be a mental health ally

We have a limited mental health budget. For some people, daily aggressions make this budget much smaller. If we want to be able to enact change and contribute positively, we need to manage that mental wealth carefully.

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Mental wealth: managing your mental health budget

One of the most important things when planning your new year is not trying to change too many things at once.
Focus on achieving one change that can then be turned into a habit, because once something is a habit you are likely to do it every day.

Feel better guide: Keep your resolutions manageable

For the new year, focus on good quality sleep as the foundation of good health and longevity.
We are in control of having a regular bedtime and wake-up time and establishing good sleep habits. Once these are set, you'll be in a better place to tackle other goals, such as a regular exercise routine and nutrition.

Feel better guide: Keep your sleep habits under control

So much of the internal problems we have start from beating ourselves up.
Pay attention to how you speak to yourself and try to come to an internal conversation that is not about being hard on yourself.

Feel better guide: adopt a self-compassion mindset

While there are things that are simply outside of your control, there are lots of actionable steps you can take to seize control and feel better. 

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How to Feel Better About Yourself

Normally a fan of January goal-setting, 2021 feels different for Brigid Delaney – with the help of experts she’s aiming for more humble but longer lasting good habits

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Burnt-out resolutions: a feel-better guide for the already tired

When used correctly, there’s nothing to worry about in terms of a microwave’s radiation, according to the World Health Organization. 
But other concerns are less clear: for example, whether microwaving food causes nutrient loss, or whether heating food in plastic can trigger hormone disruption.

The debates around microwave cooking

There’s no simple answer as to whether microwaving vegetables will retain more nutrients that any other method, because each food is different in terms of the texture and nutrients they contain.
Studies show that shorter cooking times tend to not compromise nutritional content. Steaming and microwaving could even increase content of most flavonoids, which are compounds linked to reduced risk of heart disease.

Microwave cooking and nutrients

<ul>
<li>We often microwave foods in plastic containers and wrapping and this comes wit a risk: the risk of ingesting phthalates. When exposed to heat, these plastic additives can break down and leach into food.</li>
<li>Phthalates are common (in toys and body lotions for example) and it’s still unclear just how much damage they do. But most experts agree that heating plastic with phthalates can increase exposure.</li>
<li>The best way to avoid this is to use other microwave-safe materials than plastic, such as ceramic. If you do use plastic containers, avoid any that are losing their shape, since old and damaged containers are more likely to leach chemicals.</li>
</ul>

Microwaving and heating plastic

<ul>
<li>Even if you avoid plastics, there are other potential risks of heating food in the microwave – including uneven heating, and the high temperatures used.</li>
<li>Consider using microwaves to reheat, rather than cook, food, as it may cook unevenly.</li>
<li>Reheating food comes with risks, too. Food must be heated until it is 82C (176F) throughout to kill any harmful bacteria, and because bacteria can still grow each time food cools back down, you shouldn’t reheat a meal more than once.</li>
</ul>

Microwave: Heat risks

Microwaves use low frequency electromagnetic radiation (same as in lightbulbs and radios). 
When you put food inside a microwave, it absorbs these microwaves, which makes water molecules in the food vibrate, causing friction that heats up the food. Humans absorb electromagnetic waves, too. But microwave ovens produce relatively low frequency waves and they are contained inside the microwave.

Radiation in microwaves is completely harmless

There’s nothing risky about microwave radiation – but there is about heating up plastic.

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Food

Is it safe to microwave food?

Worry is generally seen as a negative thing. But it could also have a positive function.
Worry is an adaptive function to better solve problems and imagine creative solutions. And worrying well is a skill anyone can learn.

Learning to worry well

Worry is actually a product of imagination. If we didn’t have an imagination, we wouldn’t worry. 
Worry and imagination are built on remembering things from the past and projecting ourselves into the future.

Worry and imagination

<ul>
<li>Worry. A repetitive form of thinking about the future or the past. </li>
<li>Anxiety. An uncomfortable feeling of fear, apprehension, or dread, often in the gut or chest, accompanied by physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat and sweating.</li>
<li>Stress. A physical response (fight or flight) to a threat, real or imagined. It’s characterised by an adrenaline and cortisol surge, and increased blood levels to your muscles.</li>
</ul>

Worry, anxiety, and stress

<ul>
<li>Good worry: it anticipates and solves problems. It is functional to worry about certain future events instead of burying your head in the sand. </li>
<li>Bad worry: it is circular and habitual. It doesn’t lead to any solution, and it makes you feel scared, blocking you from seeing things clearly.</li>
</ul>

Negative and positive worry

Worrying well: how to bring wisdom to your worries

The debate about how material belongings can get in the way of our happiness dates back hundreds of years:
<ul>
<li>The Buddha talked about a balance between asceticism and pleasure.</li>
<li>Early Christian monasticism preached spiritual transformation through simple living.</li>
<li>Philosopher Lao Tzu warned that if you chase after money, “your heart will never unclench.”</li>
</ul>
Today, the question of whether money can bring us happiness remains a subject of intense debate.

Money And Happiness

The things we buy might make us happy in the moment, but that feeling fades away over time. This phenomenon is called the “hedonic treadmill."
We get used to things that we have, and when new, more attractive things catch our eye, we feel like we need to keep getting more stuff to maintain those feelings.

The  Hedonic Treadmill

<ul>
<li>Happiness is a really difficult topic to study, because it’s subjective, unstable, and intangible.</li>
<li>Affluence has a certain impact on our well-being when it comes to satisfying our basic needs and standard of living, but in general, research shows that it is a weak predictor of happiness.</li>
<li>Researchers agree on is this: there are ways to spend our money that are more likely to elicit joy.</li>
</ul>

Money: Happiness Vs Misery

Time famine is something experienced by people across all income levels.
People who feel time-constrained are more stressed, less likely to spend time helping others, and less active. This is also one of the main reasons people give to explain why they’re not exercising regularly or eating well.

Time Famine

Buying time can increase our sense of control and, ultimately, our feelings of well-being. For example: hiring someone to clean the house for us, ordering takeout instead of cooking, or paying extra for a direct flight.
But we are less likely to benefit from buying time when we focus on its economic value (something we’re more likely to do if we have less money to spend).

Buying Time

People who think of their time as a limited resource are more likely to derive joy from life’s simple pleasures (talking to a friend for example).
Also, if you’re spending money on a time-saving purchase, use those extra minutes to do something that lifts your mood.

Treat Time As A Commodity

<ul>
<li>Even this may not sound like a practical thing to do, an intangible experience can often bring you joy for longer than a physical object.</li>
<li>Experiences are short-lived, but not in a psychological sense. They live on in our memories, they live on in the stories we recall and tell - they get more satisfying over time, but material goods only decrease.</li>
<li>We also get boosts of pleasure from planning and anticipating experiences (vacations, for example).</li>
<li>Another benefit of investing in experiences is that they inspire us to engage in more altruistic behaviors.</li>
</ul>

Invest In Experiences

Today, the average American family spends about 50 percent of their income on necessities like food and shelter, compared to almost 80 percent in 1901. But though the things we buy might make us happy in the moment, that feeling atrophies over time. Here's how to actually be happy with your purchases.

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How to spend your money for maximum happiness

This is what researchers call when we mimic the expressions and the emotions of the people around us. 
The phrase "misery loves company" is a widely-used term and it seems that there is truth behind the phrase. Emotional contagion happens because of the mirror neuron system. Our neurons fire up when we behave in certain ways and is a probable explanation for how we experience empathy towards others.

Emotional Contagion

<ol>
<li>Mimicry - emotions are starting to be recognized, subtle copying of gestures or facial expressions</li>
<li>Feedback - here is where we begin to experience the emotion being expressed towards us</li>
<li>Contagion - the emotions evoked in us has to be expressed or related to others to provide release.</li>
</ol>

The 3 Stages of Emotional Contagion

<ul>
<li>Surround yourself with things that make you happy</li>
<li>Send back positivity to others</li>
<li>Practice self-awareness to recognize what is happening in the present moment better</li>
<li>Laugh out loud</li>
<li>Try not to take things personally.</li>
</ul>

Tips on Staying Positive

Emotional contagion refers to the phenomenon of "catching" someone else's emotional state the way you would a contagious illness.

Emotional Contagion: What It Is and How to Avoid It

<ul><li>It consist of 13 full body, lower body and upper body exercises </li><li>The exercises are simple, not too tiring and incredibly effective. </li><li>Because this workout is short it can become easily an habit and, by doing it everyday, you'll see great results and it will become easier</li></ul>

What is the 7-Minute Workout?

1. Jumping Jacks2. Wall sits3. Push ups ( if you can't, you can try them on your knees)4. Ab Crunches5. Step-Ups

The exercises

6. Squats7. Triceps dips on a chair8. Plank9. High knees running in place10. Lunges (Alternating legs)

11. Push up and rotation ( or on your knees)12. Side plank (Left)13. Side plank (Right)

The 7-minute workout from WebMD can help you get and stay in shape.

The 7-Minute Workout

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