Qualia are the subjective or qualitative properties of experiences. What it feels like, experientially, to see a red rose is different from what it feels like to see a yellow rose. Likewise for hearing a musical note played by a piano and hearing the same musical note played by a tuba. The qualia of these experiences are what give each of them its characteristic “feel” and also what distinguish them from one another. Qualia have traditionally been thought to be intrinsic qualities of experience.

Do You See What I See

The term “qualia” (singular: quale and pronounced “kwol-ay”) was introduced into the philosophical literature in its contemporary sense in 1929 by <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/lewisci">C. I. Lewis </a>in a discussion of <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/sense-da">sense-data theory</a>.

QUALIA 

Lewis use of the term "qualia" in reference to rhe properties of sense-data themselves. In contemporary usage, the term has been broadened to refer more generally to properties of experience. Paradigm examples of experiences with qualia are perceptual experiences (including nonveridical perceptual experience like hallucinations) and bodily sensations (such as pain, hunger, and itching). Emotions (like anger, envy, or fear) and moods (like euphoria, ennui, or anxiety)

Does It Feel The Same To You

Qualia are often referred to as the phenomenal properties of experience, and experiences that have qualia are referred to as being phenomenally conscious . Phenomenal <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/consciou">consciousness </a>

Phenomenal Consciousness 

Has phenomenal aspects. What could be the representational content of the experience of an orgasm? The nature of the relationship between phenomenal consciousness and intentionality has recently generated considerable philosophical discussion. Philosophers think that phenomenal consciousness reduces to intentional content. While-others think the reductive relationship goes in the other direction.

Are we all experiencing the same reality?

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

problemsolving

Problem Solving

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Qualia | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

<ul><li>Evidence in both psychology and behavioral economics demonstrates that we are not the Mr. Spock-like thinkers and actors that we think we are. </li><li>We are unaware of our unconscious mind, yet it exerts considerable influence over how we think, feel, and behave. </li><li>Primitive instincts, emotional baggage, and ingrained habits are three unconscious forces that can guide our lives. </li><li>Our executive functioning gives us the opportunity to not succumb to the blunt force of our unconscious mind or be driven by our past. </li> </ul>

Not As Smart As You Think

We like to think of ourselves as highly evolved and rational beings who think, feel, and act in ways that are intentional and reasonable. We hold this perception because it enables us to believe that we are “captains” of our lives and help us believe that we are in control of the choices we make and the direction our lives go. In reality, considerable evidence in both <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963#:~:text=A%20cognitive%20bias%20is%20a,and%20judgments%20that%20they%20make.&text=Cognitive%20biases%20are%20often%20a,attempt%20to%20simplify%20information%20processing.">psychology </a>and <a href="https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/business/everyday-examples-of-behavioral-economics/">behavioral economics </a>demonstrates that we are far from the Mr. Spock-like thinkers and actors that we hold ourselves up to be.The reason why we don’t always think or behave in ways that are logical.

Who Has Control Of This Ship? 

Our Unconscious Mind The unconscious part of our minds is outside of our conscious awareness and is not easily accessible, meaning we can’t just conjure its content up like we can a seemingly forgotten telephone number (that resides in our <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/unconscious">subconscious </a>). This lack of ready availability makes our unconscious minds both mystifying (“<a href="http://chan%2C%20david%2C%20%22why%20people%20self-sabotage%2C%20and%20how%20to%20stop%20it%22%20%282019%29.%20research%20collection%20school%20of%20social%20sciences.%20paper%203079.%20https//ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3079">Why do I keep doing things that hurt me </a>?”) and seemingly beyond our control, often leading to a sense of frustration and helplessness.The unconscious mind consists of three forces that often lead us down unhealthy roads.

First, despite our being supposedly so evolved compared to the rest of the animal kingdom with our cerebral cortex and, more importantly, our pre-frontal cortex, we frequently still <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4451179/">respond to the world as animals </a>driven by our primitive instincts, emotions, and reactions (e.g., survival instinct, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/fear">fear </a>, and fight or flight, respectively). Not surprising given that these unconscious forces have been driving all living beings since we climbed out of the primordial muck around 3.5 billion years ago. In contrast, our cerebral cortex has only been around for about 250,000 years. L

Second, carrying around emotional baggage from our <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/child-development">childhood </a>is, for most of us, a part of the human condition. Early in our lives, we develop certain ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that help protect us from some perceived threat and survive in hostile environs of varying degrees. For example, to feel safe around an angry parent, we learned to be passive and accommodating. To be rewarded by a demanding parent, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313684716_Child_Perfectionism_and_its_Relationship_with_Personality_Excessive_Parental_Demands_Depressive_Symptoms_and_Experience_of_Positive_Emotions">we became a perfectionist </a>. These protective mechanisms were highly functional when we were young. Unfortunately, in adulthood, what had been functional can become dysfunctional

Lastly, the more that primitive forces and emotional baggage direct our lives, the more those characteristic ways of acting on and reacting to our world become habitual and the first response we make, even when it may not be appropriate or healthy. For example, when we perceive someone judging us, we react with defensiveness and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anger">anger </a>because that’s the way we’ve always reacted, even though such a reaction usually does more harm than good.

The PFC allows us to engage in what is commonly referred to as “<a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/">executive functioning </a>,” which involves the ability to guide our behavior in more intentional ways by weighing pros and cons, calculating risk and rewards, deciding what is best for us in the present, and, at an important level, empowering our conscious mind to override our unconscious mind.

At the same time, I don’t want to completely discredit any value that our unconscious minds may have; Mr. Spock made poor decisions despite his strong sense of what is logical. The unconscious mind isn’t driven solely by unhealthy forces. On the contrary, whether you want to call it your gut, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/intuition">intuition </a>, spirit, or what have you, we all have the capacity to allow our non-linear and emotional sense to guide us in making healthy choices and steering the direction we take in our lives. This intuitive part of us can draw on information that may not be readily available to our conscious mind,

Am I in control? Or just under the illusion of being in control?

Which force of the mind guides your life?

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

communication

Communication

Our Unconscious and Conscious Minds Do Battle Daily

<ul><li>There are only five basic fears, out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. </li><li>These fears include extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego death. </li><li>When we let go of the notion of fear as the welling up of evil forces within us and see fear as information, we can think about them consciously. </li> </ul>

The Science of Fear

President Franklin Roosevelt famously asserted, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

Fear, like all other emotions, is basically information . It offers us knowledge and understanding—if we choose to accept it.And there are only five basic fears , out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These are:

Define fear

<ol><li>Extinction —This is a more fundamental way to express it than just "<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/terror-management-theory">fear of death </a>." Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.</li><li>Mutilation —the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; Anxiety about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things</li><li>Loss of Autonomy —the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped</li><li>Separation —the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness</li><li>Ego-death —the fear of the shattering of one's constructed sense of lovability, capability, and worthiness.</li></ol>

fear-archy

<ol><li>Extinction —the fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist. This is a more fundamental way to express it than just "<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/terror-management-theory">fear of death </a>." The idea of no longer being arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.</li><li>Mutilation —the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; the thought of having our body's boundaries invaded, or of losing the integrity of any organ, body part, or natural function. Anxiety about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things arises from fear<warningtag> of mutilation.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Loss of Autonomy </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped, overwhelmed, entrapped, imprisoned, smothered, or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control. In physical form, it's commonly known as claustrophobia, but it also extends to our social interactions and relationships.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Separation </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness; of </warningtag><warningtag>becoming a non-person— </warningtag><warningtag>not wanted, respected, or valued by anyone else. The "silent treatment," when imposed by a group, can have a devastating effect on its target.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Ego-death </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of humiliation, shame, or any other mechanism of profound self-disapproval that threatens the </warningtag><warningtag>loss of integrity of the self </warningtag><warningtag>; the fear of the shattering or disintegration of one's constructed sense of lovability, capability, and worthiness.</warningtag></li></ol>

Some other emotions we know by various popular names are just aliases for these primary fears. If you track them down to their most basic levels, the basic fears show through. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/jealousy">Jealousy </a>, for example, is an expression of the fear of separation, or devaluation: "She'll value him more than she values me." At its extreme, it can express the fear of ego-death: "I'll be a worthless person." Envy works the same way.Some of our fears, of course, have basic survival value. Others, however, are learned reflexes that can be weakened or re-learned.

Jealousy

When we let go of our notion of fear as the welling up of evil forces within us—the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/freudian-psychology">Freudian </a>motif—and begin to see fear and its companion emotions as information , we can think about them consciously. And the more clearly and calmly we can articulate the origins of the fear, the less our fears will frighten us and control us.

Deconstruct

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

When we know where they really come from, we can start to control them.

The (Only) 5 Fears We All Share

<ul>
<li>The only way to make your dreams come true is to influence other people to change their behavior.</li>
<li>Trying to influence someone means you’re a threat to their time, money, pride, or social capital. Most importantly, influence threatens their attention. But when you make an invitation without any pressure whatsoever, they become inclined to lean forward.</li>
<li>Keep in mind that people are more likely to say yes to a face-to-face request, and far less likely to respond to a social media post. The pressure and likelihood of saying yes depend on the closeness of the interaction.</li>
</ul>

Making it ok for someone to say No makes them want to say Yes

<ul><li>There are 2 internal systems governing our thinking and behavior. The first is fast, unconscious, emotional, and instinctive; these are your gut reactions. The second is slow, conscious, effortful, and seemingly rational; these are your deliberate decisions.</li><li>Because the unconscious mind is fast, it is the first responder. The conscious mind, being slow, is the second-guesser. </li><li>We tend to overestimate the conscious system because it’s the only one we can experience, but the unconscious mind is far more powerful. Being influential requires us to focus first and foremost on people’s gut reactions.</li></ul>

Influence doesn't work the way you think 

The biggest misperception about changing minds is that you need to do it at all. A lot of our behavior doesn’t reflect any conscious thinking; that’s why the best predictor of behavior is ease. It’s more powerful than motivation, price, quality, satisfaction, or intentions.
Ease makes people happy, and effort can really annoy people. So whenever you want to influence behavior, make that behavior as easy as possible.

The best predictor of behavior is ease

You can become more charismatic—someone people want to pay attention to—with a few tweaks to your language, body language, and your attention.The simplest charisma hack is to practice focusing your attention on people one at a time. Start by asking questions and using people’s names more often. Pronouns reveal where your attention is focused (and I don’t mean gender pronouns). To have charisma is to shine so that other people feel like they’re the only one in the room, and people want to say yes to you.

Being charismatic isn't something you are; it's something you do

Few of history’s turning points can credit just one hero. Instead, there was an army of poeple who spread the word, or they stepped up and did it.
In Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of boat owners rescued people—single moms, toddlers, grandfathers—stranded in attics, on roofs, in flooded housing projects, hospitals, and school buildings. None of these people said, "I can’t rescue them all". All of them said, "I can rescue someone, and that’s work so meaningful and important I will risk my life and defy the authorities to do it". And they did.

Lasting influence is a group project

Behavioral scientist Zoe Chance reveals one of the aikido moves for handling resistance and other strategies to help you win people over.


leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

5 insights from behavioral science that can make you better at influencing others

Make a list of all the things that stress you out or give you anxiety and don't hold backWhile doing this, be honest and don't filter yourselfBenefits:<ul><li>It will help you become more aware of why you feel stressed </li><li>It can help you release your thoughts from your mind as you write them down </li></ul>Additional: highlight the things that are within your control and out of your control

Exercise #1: braindump

Ask yourself honestly what beliefs, mindsets or habits might be contributing to your stress and anxiety Make a to do list or simply write your thoughts, it's up to you. You have to investigate your mindIs it your perfectionism? Are you trying to people please? Do you feel like you have to prove yourself?As you get an answer, ask yourself whyAt the end, ask yourself what you truly want in the first place

Exercise #2: Investigate the beliefs, mindsets or habits

You can draw a circle: Inside the circle there are the things within your control, and outside, the things that are outside of your controlThis will help you understand if you are wasting your energy and thinking on the things you can do nothing aboutAlso this will remind yourself to focus more on what you can control "Energy goes where attention flows"

Exercise #3: What's within your control vs. outside your control

Ask yourself what does peace look like to youTry to describe it, visualize it and imagining it You can draw it, create a vision board or simply write it down

Exercise #4: Visualize peace

Ask yourself these questions:<ul><li>What is peaceful about today?</li><li>What is peaceful about your space?</li><li>What is peaceful about what's outside your window?</li><li>What is peaceful about the sounds you hear?</li><li>What is peaceful about your relationships?</li><li>What is peaceful about you?</li></ul>The more you pay attention to things the more you'll feel them

Exercise #5: Mindfulness 

Sometimes, our tech habits can take away our peaceInstead of being a victim of technology, you want to be in control  and intentional of itAsk yourself how you want to detox from tech today or this week<a href="https://medium.com/writers-blokke/dont-quit-social-medias-instead-use-them-wisely-907dcfbcfe5">Read more here</a>

Exercise #6: Tech/Social Media detox

Imagine a jar, you have three things: Big rocks, pebbles and sandIf you fill the jar with sand completely to the top there'll be no space for bigger pebbles or rocksIf you fill up the jar with sand you can't fit the big things, but if you put the big rocks in first the pebbles and sand will fitThe jar is a metaphor of our time, energy and attention= Prioritize the most important things first and the rest will fill up your time regardlessWhat are your big rocks, pebbles and sand in your life?

Exercise #7: The jar exercise

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Mindfulness

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Habits

Calm your stress, anxiety & overthinking with these journaling prompts & mindfulness exercises. Thanks BetterHelp for sponsoring this video! Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp: http://betterhelp.com/aileen 

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7 exercises to calm stress, anxiety, overthinking 🧠  journaling & mindfulness

<ol><li> A spirit of self-renewal</li><li>Cleanliness</li><li>Consideration towards other people</li><li>Religious harmony</li><li>Delicious food, no matter what</li><li>No room for theft</li><li>Lots and lots of masks</li></ol>

7 Things To Learn From Japan 🇯🇵

<ul><li>Earthquakes, tidal waves, fires and volcanic eruptions have marred the history of Japan, with large scale destruction on each occurrence.</li><li>While most places in the world would never attempt rebuilding these structures, many ancient temples and shrines around Japan that were previously destroyed, have been rebuilt</li><li>Perhaps it is because of the age-old Buddhist belief that life must go on, and renewing one's self is the only way to survive</li></ul>

1. A spirit of self-renewal

<ul><li>Japan is undoubtedly clean, and littering and fines for it are completely unheard of. </li><li>But get this, there are no dustbins either. </li><li>No trash cans, as far as the eye can see, just recycle bins that are strictly for plastic bottles and soda cans that are bought from nearby vending machines.</li></ul>

2. Cleanliness

<ul><li>Travelling on the bullet train, many people stepping out of the seating area of the train compartment and standing near the doors to attend their phone calls. </li><li>Even on the metro, many people answer phone calls in hushed tones, promptly informing their callers that they are in transit and will call back as soon as they have the time. </li></ul>

3.Consideration towards other people

<ul><li>Despite being the frontrunners of technology and coming up with innovative ideas, traditions and religion still influence the daily life of the Japanese.</li><li> Businessmen pay their respects at the shrines of deities while excited students buy good-luck charms and fortunes foretelling the future.</li></ul>

4.Religious harmony

<ul><li>Japanese food is often thought to be expensive due to items like sushi and sashimi that make use of fresh ingredients. </li><li>However, that is not true. </li><li>There are hole-in-the-wall establishments that are moderately priced with a limited menu and a homely atmosphere.</li><li>But what's even cheaper is convenience store food!</li><li>Convenience stores are mini supermarkets where fast-moving consumer goods are sold</li></ul>

5. Delicious food, no matter what

<ul><li>Despite the notorious existence of the Yakuza, Japan is quite a safe place, and petty crimes like pickpocketing and theft are virtually non-existent. </li><li>Primary school children are taught from an early age that if they do come across an object that doesn't belong to them, they should attempt to find the owner, or bring it to the nearest police station. </li></ul>

. No room for theft

<ul><li>In public places, A lot of people wearing medical masks. </li><li>At first I thought it was strange and that they were a bunch of germaphobes (which is partly true). </li><li>But the broader reason for this is that the people wearing masks are unwell or have caught a nasty cold and do not wish to pass on their germs to their fellow commuters. </li><li>It's not because you stink.</li></ul>

7.Lots and lots of masks

Learn from this country to improve your self and be a happy and successfull in life

10 Things I Learnt When Visiting Japan And Why It Was Worth The Lesson

food

Food

travel

Travel

10 Things The World Needs To Learn From Japan And Its People

We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is news doesn’t make us informed. In fact, the more news we consume the more misinformed we become.News is, by definition, something that doesn’t last. It exists for only a moment before it changes. As news has become easier to distribute and cheaper to produce, the quality has decreased and the quantity has increased, making it nearly impossible to find the signal in the noise.

The News Does Not Keep Us Informed

Rarely do we stop to ask ourselves questions about the media we consume: <ul><li>Is this good for me? </li><li>Is this dense with detailed information? </li><li>Is this important? </li><li>Is this going to stand the test of time? </li><li>﻿Is the person writing someone who is well informed on the issue? </li></ul>Asking those questions makes it clear the news isn’t good for you.

The Media And Our Wellbeing

We’re surrounded by so much information that is of immediate interest to us that we feel overwhelmed by the never-ending pressure of trying to keep up with it all

We used to have to wait to get a newspaper or gossip with people in our town to get our news, but not anymore. Thanks to alerts, texts, and other interruptions, news finds us almost the minute it’s published.

The Problems With The News: Speed

Some people write 12 blog posts a day for major newspapers. It’s nearly impossible to write something thoughtful on one topic, let alone 12. Over a year, this works out to writing 2880 articles (assuming four weeks of vacation). The fluency of the person you’re getting your news from in the subject they’re covering is near zero. As a result, you’re filling your head with surface opinions on isolated topics. Because the costs to produce the news have dropped to almost nothing, there is a lot of competition.

The Problems With The News: Low Cost Of Production

News producers perpetuate a culture of “tune in, don’t miss out, someone knows something you don’t, follow this or you’ll be misinformed, oh wait, look at this!” The time used to consume news comes out of time that could be used for timeless content.Like a drug, the news is addictive. Not only does it alter your mood, but it keeps you wanting more. Once you start consuming news, it’s hard to stop.

The Problems With The News: A Drug -like Addiction

When the news is free, you still need to pay people. If people aren’t paying, advertisers are. And if advertisers are in charge, the incentives change. Page views become the name of the game. More page views mean more revenue. When it comes to page views, the more controversy, the more share-ability, the more enraged you become, the better. For a lot of people who create news , the more page views they get, the more they are compensated. A lot of these ads aren’t just static impressions; they’re also transmitting information about you to the advertisers.

The Problems With The News: Misaligned Incentives

Most of what you read online today is pointless. It’s not important to living a good life. It’s not going to help you make better decisions. It’s not going to help you understand the world. It’s not dense with information. It’s not going to help you develop deep and meaningful connections with the people around you.When all you consume is noise, you don’t realize there is a signal. Your attention is valuable. In fact, your attention is so valuable, it might be the most important thing you have. If you know it’s valuable, why would you consume it on something that is irrelevant tomorrow?

Junk Food For The Mind

The first thing you notice about people who read the news is how misinformed they are. Often, they cherry-pick one piece of information and give it enormous weight in their opinions. You realize that they have a tiny lens into a big and messy issue.You also see that you weren’t as well informed as you thought. The news didn’t make your opinions more rational, it just made you more confident you were right. Rarely do we read things we disagree with. It’s much easier to just put our walls up and tune out. Filtering our own news like this self-reinforces what we already believe.

When You Stop Reading The News

Stepping back from news is hard. We’re afraid of silence, afraid to be alone with our thoughts. That’s why we pull out our phones when we’re waiting in line at a coffee shop or the grocery store. We’re afraid to ask ourselves deep and meaningful questions. We’re afraid to be bored. We’re so afraid, that to avoid it, we’ll literally drive ourselves crazy, consuming pointless information.

News Is The Nothing To Do-Boredom Filler

Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time.

We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is news doesn't make us informed. In fact, the more news we consume the more misinformed we become.

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The toll that working through the global pandemic has taken on employees’ job satisfaction and emotional well-being has focused business leaders on fostering workforce happiness as never before. While many — if not most — of us are motivated by genuine caring for the people who power our organizations, we also intuitively know that employee happiness should boost job performance. Still, two nagging questions remain: Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding? And just how much does initial happiness matter?

Happiness And Success

Not only do happiness and optimism matter to employee performance, but they matter a lot, and both predict how well employees will do. The research highlights the competitive advantage that employee happiness offers businesses. There are some things about employee happiness that every business leader should know and be able to apply. As we emerge from a demoralizing global pandemic, we would all do well to take stock of how to influence the happiness and optimism of those around us in the workplace.

The Long Term Research On Happiness

What really is happiness? The behavioural science literature often refers to happiness as subjective well-being because the meaning of happiness varies in different contexts. As with most concepts that emerge from psychology, definitions vary, but when it comes to happiness, they generally coalesce around three areas: a person’s own assessment of their satisfaction with life; how much positive emotion (such as enjoyment, enthusiasm, inspiration, or pride) they experience; and how little negative emotion (such as hostility, irritability, fear, or nervousness) they experience.

Defining Happiness

Some people just seem happier, and researchers have looked closely at heritability (factors we’re born with) and how our environment shapes our happiness. Research suggests that heritability accounts for about 40% while 60% is attributed to other factors, especially life experiences. Researchers found that while heritability accounted for about 30% of job satisfaction at age 21, the importance of heritability dropped to less than 20% when measured again at ages 25 and 30. Thus, environmental factors within the workplace become more important over time

The Reasons For Happiness

The relative importance of some of those environmental factors has shifted recently. The “World Happiness Report 2021” noted that within the workplace, happiness before the pandemic was largely due to employees’ sense of belonging within an organization and among coworkers, the flexibility afforded to workers, inclusivity, and a sense of purpose to their work.Things changed dramatically during the pandemic: Having a supportive manager became the largest predictor of happiness — nearly twice as important as the next ranked workplace happiness factor, purpose.

Environmental Factors Influencing Happiness

Not surprisingly, money matters to employee happiness too — but research has shown that is chiefly for those employees who indicated that money is important to them. In a recent study, the relationship between income and happiness was over four times greater for people who reported that money was important to them compared with those who cared much less about money. Thus, for employees who aren’t driven by money, income may merely be a hollow way to keep score.

The Importance Of Money

Within the workplace, we know that happier employees are more likely to emerge as leaders, earn higher scores on performance evaluations, and tend to be better teammates. We also know, based on substantial research, that happier employees are healthier, have lower rates of absenteeism, are highly motivated to succeed, are more creative, have better relationships with peers, and are less likely to leave a company. All of these correlates of happiness significantly influence a company’s bottom line.

A Happy Workplace

While happiness should be placed ahead of the knowledge, skills, or talent needed for a job, we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators, or tiebreakers, because the risks are low and the benefits could be important.  Many organizations already use a variety of surveys to evaluate job candidates. Even if adding these questions about happiness and optimism to the applicant survey results in only a small increase in downstream productivity and profitability, most leaders would jump at this opportunity, because it costs almost nothing.

Enhancing Employee Happiness: Measure Happiness in Both Employees and Job Candidates

Beyond hiring, employee happiness should also be a consideration when measuring organizational performance. Yes, objective performance still matters greatly. But, while a high-performing division within a company may bring short-term profit, if that performance was driven by toxic leadership and management practices, then those profits could evaporate quickly if employees were to leave in response. Unwarranted attrition is expensive.

Measuring Performance

Given all the training and development requirements placed on most organizations, the thought of actively trying to develop happier employees may initially seem daunting, time-consuming, and expensive. However, the academic literature repeatedly shows that training initiatives targeting employee well-being do not require a significant time investment, are cost-effective, and carry a high ROI.For organizations willing to make a larger investment, there are of course turnkey, validated programs shown to improve employee well-being.

Enhancing Employee Happiness: 
Develop Happiness In Your Workforce

The pandemic has reminded us of some tough realities, namely that organizations can contract in turbulent times just as fast as they expand when the economy is booming.<ul><li>Organizations need happy employees because happiness is in fact contagious.</li><li>Like happiness, unhappiness is also contagious. This contagion effect places leaders in a precarious position, especially if they are presented with the difficult scenario of being able to retain only one of two employees. </li><li>With performance and other factors held constant, they should keep the one who is happiest.</li></ul>

Enhancing Employee Happiness: Retain Employees Who Are Happy

Employee well-being initiatives work best when confident leaders present the material and when senior leaders place significant emphasis on the overall effort. Leaders must be willing to invest their efforts into making the initiatives successful by not only advocating for them — for example, by securing resources for a program and promoting positive strategic messaging — but also by participating in the training and incorporating it into their own behaviours. We learn best by watching others, so let your employees learn to be happy by watching you.

The Bottom Line

Employee well-being and happiness are surprisingly powerful predictors of performance.

Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

Do you tend to focus on negative details? Mental filtering is a cognitive distortion that leads us to magnify the negative details of a situation while filtering out the positives. Also known as selective abstraction, this bias for dwelling on your shortcomings could lead you to focus on one piece of negative feedback while disregarding or disbelieving the ten other positive comments received.

Only Focusing On The Negative

Mental Filtering can be described as focusing only on the negative aspects of an event, such as I ruined the whole recital because of that one mistake.This blinkered thinking was found to be strongly associated with anxiety and depression. Mental filtering also shares a close relationship with self-esteem. The more distorted our reasoning becomes, the less confidence we have in ourselves.

Blinkered Thinking

<ul><li>Upon submitting a project for approval, the overwhelmingly positive feedback is quickly overshadowed by one piece of constructive criticism. This can lead you to believe that you are doing a poor job, even though this is not what you were told.</li><li>A colleague fails to greet you when you walk past each other in the street. Rather than consider that they simply may not have seen you, you assume that they dislike you, or that you have done something to offend them.</li></ul>

Examples Of Mental Filtering

Mental filtering can have a detrimental impact on your self-confidence and personal growth. If the one piece of advice your boss gave you after a presentation led you to feel that you were no good at public speaking, then you may internalise that any future attempts will be a disaster. This vicious cycle can lead to intensification of anxiety and worsening of your mood. Furthermore, it will do little to improve how you feel about your next attempt at public speaking.

Impact Of Mental Filtering

To manage this cognitive distortion, you must consciously start to manage negative thought patterns so you can begin to see your efforts and achievements in a more positive light.First, recognise when mental filtering occurs. A key step to managing a cognitive distortion is to acknowledge its presence. Reflect on how you respond to life events, professional feedback, and social situations. If your glass tends to be half-empty, explore your feelings further by journaling, creating a log of voice notes, or using a habit tracker.

Manage Mental Filtering: Recognizing The Bias

In psychology, a cost-benefit analysis is a technique used as part of cognitive behavioural therapy.  On a piece of paper, create two columns for costs and benefits. Think about whether mental filtering benefits you, as well as what it costs you. Write each point down in a column and assign it a value of importance from 1 to 10. It is likely that filtering costs you far more than it benefits you. The next step in the analysis is to think about alternative thought or behaviour patterns you could employ to see situations more positively.

Manage Mental Filtering: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Asking your friends or colleagues for an objective opinion on your performance or achievements is a good way to gauge your ability or progress. If you have become entrenched in negative self-talk, listen carefully to what others objectively report.Write down all of the positive opinions your friend or colleague shares, and focus on each one individually. Start forming positive habits and mindsets, and allow yourself to believe in your own ability, rather than focusing on the negatives.

Manage Mental Filtering: Ask For Objective Opinion

Challenging unhelpful thought patterns and becoming more objective can help to avoid the automatic descent into unwarranted negativity.Journaling and keeping an open mind when receiving feedback can help you recognise the positives. By avoiding mental filtering, you will be better equipped to mitigate the anxiety and low mood associated with any difficult challenges you may encounter in life.

Do you tend to focus on negative details? Mental filtering is a cognitive distortion that leads us to magnify the negative details of a situation, while filtering out the positives.

Mental filtering: when we focus on negative details

For the vast majority of time, people communicated with one another face to face and could interpret facial expressions, body movements and voice tone. Texting gives only the bare minimum cues to understand what someone is saying. Moreover, texts are meant to be written and sent quickly, which leaves room for ambiguity.

Texting suitable for basic communication

Our brains don't like ambiguity and make guesses and form conclusions based on previous experiences. The lack of nonverbal cues can cause us to interpret the text through a different lens. For example, we read text messages in our own voice. This makes it easier to project your own thoughts onto a message. If you have some anxiety about rejection in a relationship, you will interpret the text in line with your fears.

It's not you, it's me

After drafting a text:<ul><li>Notice how you're feeling and consider any potential ways your emotions could steer your message.</li><li>Imagine how the text you're sending will make the receiver feel.</li><li>Decide if you want to send your text.</li></ul>

Reflect on your emotions

Be honest about your needs. It can be easy to jump to the wrong conclusions based on your own thoughts, fears, or previous experiences. Taking a moment to view someone else's behaviour with curiosity and compassion can help you overcome your instincts. And if texting makes you feel stressed, you can always give someone a call or meet in person.

Evaluate your needs and expectations

Experts weigh in on how to navigate the anxiety that comes with messaging romantic interests — or anyone.

Why Is Texting So Stressful?

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