Thursday, April 24, 2014

Looking Back

 
My memory loves you;
 
it asks about you all the time.
 


Saturday, April 12, 2014

Things Mentally Strong People Do

 


Grandpa

 
I like to walk with Grandpa...
 
He takes his time you see.
 
His steps are little just like mine;
 
He stops and waits for me.
 
 
He lets me ask him questions.
 
He lets me hold his hand.
 
 
He makes me feel 10 feet tall
 
And I think that he is grand.
 
 
He says there's no one like me
 
And gold is what I'm worth.
 
When I get to walk with Grandpa,
 
I'm the luckiest kid on earth.
 
                                                    Patsy Gaut


Friday, April 11, 2014

Inexpressible

 
 
 
"After silence, that which comes nearest
 
 to expressing  the inexpressible is music."
 
                                                                                                           Aldous Huxley
 


Saturday, April 5, 2014

How Our Eyes Affects Our Behavior



Cutting-Edge Leadership

The best in current leadership research and theory, from cultivating charisma to transforming your organization
 
There has been considerable research on how nonverbal cues, particularly those coming from the eyes, affects our behavior.
Here are 5 interesting results:

1. Eye-to-Eye Contact Causes Arousal.
Staring directly into someone’s eyes causes an arousal reaction. How that arousal is interpreted, however, depends on the parties involved and the circumstances. Being stared at by a stranger who appears large or ominous can be seen as a threat and elicit a fear response. This is common in social animals. A direct stare from a human to a dog or an ape can be interpreted as a threat from the large (and strange) human. However, the gaze of a potential sexual partner causes arousal that can be interpreted positively—as a sexual invitation.

2. The Eyes Will Tell You if a Smile is Real or Not.
Psychologist Paul Ekman has distinguished between smiles that represent genuine happiness (“Duchenne” smiles) and fake smiles that might be used to feign happiness, or cover some other emotion. The key to telling a fake smile from a real one is in the eyes. When forming real smiles, the eyes narrow and create lines, or “crow’s feet,” at the outer corners.

3. Pupil Dilation is a Sign of Interest (and It Can Make You Sexy). 
When we are interested in something or someone our pupils will dilate. In one study, a woman’s eyes were altered to make her pupils look dilated. The exact same photos of the woman with dilated eyes was rated as more attractive than those with normal-size pupils.

4. Mutual Gaze is a Sign of Love.
Research on love and attraction has found that mutual gaze—staring into each other’s eyes—is a good predictor of two individuals being “in love.”

5. Eye Contact is a Valid Cue to Deception, But Not in the Way That You Think.
Everyone assumes that a liar won’t look you in the eye, but research on the nonverbal cues associated with deception suggests that a liar engages in more eye contact than a truth-teller. The explanation is that the deceiver goes the extra mile to try to convince you of his or her veracity and so “overdoes” the eye contact in order to appear truthful.

 Read more about nonverbal communication and your ability to master nonverbal cues here.
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ronriggio

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D.
                
Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and former Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Professor Riggio is the author of over 100 books, book chapters, and research articles in the areas of leadership, assessment centers, organizational psychology and social psychology. His most recent books are Leadership Studies (Elgar, 2011), The Art of Followership and The Practice of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2008, 2007), Applications of Nonverbal Behavior (co-edited with Robert S. Feldman; Erlbaum, 2005), and Transformational Leadership (2nd ed.), coauthored with Bernard M. Bass (Erlbaum, 2006). Professor Riggio is an Associate Editor of The Leadership Quarterly, and is on the Editorial Boards of Leadership, Leadership Review, Group Dynamics, and the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, and he was the originator of the Shoptalk column at the Los Angeles Times, a Q&A column dealing with workplace problems/issues.


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Paul Newman's Letter To His Wife On Their Wedding Day

 
"Happiness in marriage is
 
not something that just happens.
 
A good marriage must be created.
 
In the Art of Marriage,
 
the little things are the big things.
 
It is never being too old to hold hands.
 
It is remembering to say 'I love you'
 
at least once a day.
 
It is never going to sleep angry.
 
It is at no time taking
 
the other for granted;  the courtship should
 
not end with the honeymoon;
 
it should continue through all the years.
 
It is having a mutual sense of values
 
and common objectives.
 
It is standing together facing the world.
 
It is forming a circle of love that
 
gathers in the whole family.
 
It is doing things for each other,
 
not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice,
 
but in the spirit of joy.
 
It is speaking words of appreciation
 
and demonstrating gratitude
 
in thoughtful ways.  It is not expecting
 
the husband to wear a halo or the wife
 
to have the wings of an angel.
 
It is not looking for perfection
 
in each other.  It is cultivating
 
flexibility, patience, understanding
 
and a sense of humor.
 
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
 
It is giving each other an
 
 atmosphere in which each can grow.
 
It is finding rooms for things of the spirit.
 
It is a common search
 
for the good and the beautiful.
 
It is establishing a relationship in
 
which the independence is equal,
 
dependence is mutual and
 
obligation is reciprocal.  It is not only
 
marrying the right partner,
 
it is being the right partner."
 


Share Moments of Your Life

 

Inspiration

 

Understanding Life

Rainbow Mountains in China's Danxia Landform Geological Park


Life can only be understood backwards,

but it must be lived forwards...

~ Soren Kierkegaard