Say cheese ..

Ah, camera ...It captures the most important moment of our lives! Do you know that first instance of photography theory was invented in the 5^th century by a Chinese man named Mo Ti? The camera was first debuted in 1885 by a man named George Eastman. “Kodak," it is!

--courtesy of flickriver.com

When someone nearby is happy, we tend to get the vibe and somehow the happiness spreads. I notice it in myself as well. When I am happy, people next to me seem to get happier. In fact, studies claim that when a person is happy, the nearby friend is 25 percent likelihood of being happy. A spouse is reported to have 8 percent of increased chance of being happier while the next door neighbor is 34%. (I don't quite get why would our neighbor have 34% chance of being happier when we are happy and our spouse has only 8% higher chance. Ah, I know! 'cause they are happy to begin with. Right!)

“Everyday interactions we have with other people are definitely contagious, in terms of happiness,” says Nicholas Christakis, a professor at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study. He mentions further on that the effect of happiness can spread up to 3 degrees – reaching friends of friends within the social networking. 

What do we do when we are happy? We smile! Right … but according to scientific research, it suggests otherwise. “Simply using the same muscles as smiling will put you in a happier mood," explains Dr. Michael Lewis, psychologist at Cardiff University. “That’s because use of those muscles is part of how the brain evaluates mood.” 

According to various sources on the internet, Charles Darwin was deemed to be the first person to suggest that using our expression can actually intensify our feelings. This theory is known as the “feedback loop” or “facial feedback hypothesis.”

Let’s us take another step into our journey, but this time with a smile in our face.  And witness how far our happiness can reach within our social networking. And ... it’s Friday! Yet, another good reason to be happy. So, what are you waiting for? I am done talking here, go but wait ...
Words of caution, please don’t give your smile to that hot babe or good looking guy when you are with your significant other. That would definitely prove Christakis's theory wrong. and in fact, it could be disastrous!   Are you still here? Go on with your life and be contagious!

Until next stop,
Journey of Life

Sweet progesterone ... bitter estrogen

Now that we have developed more understanding about how male brain works. I feel compelled to look at how female brain works. Did it ever crossed your mind, our male fellow, that you are probably married to a psychic? Fine, not quite! According to Scientists, females, are not psychic. We have been pre-wired to remember every details of emotional events way better than our counterpart, male. This is just how female’s brain works according to Brizendine, Louann, M.D, The Female Brain. 

--courtesy of amazon.com

I often told my girls in the past, “I know exactly what you are thinking. So, don’t try to fool mommy.” The girls would look at me in disbelief. I told them, "Mommy is psychic and I can read mind." It is true that I could read mind, facial expression and somehow can anticipate what my girls were about to do. But, it wasn't because I am a psychic, it turns out that I am just like any women in the world. We have this ability from day one in our life. 

Often you would hear from men that we, women, are very emotional. We are too dramatic. Well, just the way we blame on testosterone for their aggression. We could considerable blame estrogen for responsible on putting us in that mood and for declining of progesterone. Sometimes we are so social and chatty thanks to the estrogen boost that we have in first two weeks of the month.So guys, if you see us, moody, you know why … It has nothing to do with us, we are just controlled by those chemicals in our brain. 

According to Dr. Brizendine’s book in page 5, The Female Brain, “Women have 11 percent more neurons than men. The principal hub of both emotion and memory formation – the hippocampus—is also larger in the female brain, as is the brain circuitry for language and observing emotions in others.” She also mentions that what this means, a woman tends to better express emotions, remembering the details of emotional events much better. Unlike men, which seem to be a bit less developed in this area. With that in mind, don’t blame them if men don’t remember every detail of the memorable events that you have. Simply remind them, after all, they are not as emotionally intelligence as us, women. :-) Or better yet, give 'em a shot of estrogen! Ha!

Do you know why women tend to cry? In fact, according to Dr. Brizendine’s book, we tend to cry four times more than men. Somehow that is a signal that men understand. When they see tears, they then realize that something has gone wrong. We tend to display sign of sadness and suffering that somehow men can’t ignore. 

 

According to study, women find comfort in talking. In fact we love chatting and we couldn’t understand why men simply don’t. That is also another reason sometimes we find most females tend to choose career that involve more social interaction, because that is what their brain thrives for.  (That is another reason why we find fewer women in the R&D area and it has nothing to do with intelligence.)

 

Now that we have understood how both male and female's brain work, let’s take another step in our journey side by side as somehow by being together, we complement each other.

Until next stop,
Journey of Life