There are many valuable thinkers nowadays, but the wisdom of the classics cannot be replaced. A very important classic is Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).

Among 19th century philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer was among the first to contend that at its core, the universe is not a rational place. Inspired by Plato and Kant, both of whom regarded the world as being more amenable to reason, Schopenhauer developed their philosophies into an instinct-recognizing, mystical, and essentially ascetic outlook, emphasizing that in the face of what he believed to be a world filled with endless strife, we ought to minimize our natural desires in order to achieve a more tranquil frame of mind and a disposition towards universal beneficence. Often considered to be a thoroughgoing pessimist, Schopenhauer in fact advocated ways — via artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness — to overcome what he considered to be a frustration-filled and fundamentally painful human condition. Since his death in 1860, Schopenhauer’s philosophy has had a special attraction for those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts. - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Schopenhauer, sometimes called “the gloomy philosopher”, believed that people are perpetually unhappy because they are pushed by a natural will to strive forever without ever being satisfied. He believed that this natural will could be controlled through the intellect and thus reduce people’s suffering.

Our life is like a journey on which, as we advance, the landscape takes a different view from that which it presented at first, and changes again, as we come nearer. This is just what happens–especially with our wishes. We often find something else, nay, something better than what we were looking for; and what we look for, we often find on a very different path from that on which we began a vain search. Instead of finding, as we expected, pleasure, happiness, joy, we get experience, insight, knowledge–a real and permanent blessing, instead of a fleeting and illusory one.  - Arthur Schopenhauer

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“We remember what we understand; we understand only what we pay attention to; we pay attention to what we want” - Edward Bolles

It’s natural to forget things. The process of forgetting is spontaneous and consists in our incapacity to recall memories from the memory storage. Forgetting is subject to a delicately balanced optimization that ensures relevant memories are recalled.

Whether drawing a mental blank on a new A.T.M. password, a favorite recipe or an old boyfriend, people have ample opportunity every day to curse their own forgetfulness.

Now let’s talk about a less-known method that you can use for remembering things.

Anchoring

“Anchoring” in the sense of connecting and holding information, much like a boat uses an anchor to keep a certain position.

By anchoring, you code information from the short term memory into the long term memory, using your senses. This means connecting the information to something relevant to you and your processing preferences - visual, auditory, kinesthetic. There are several types of anchors that can be identified, as following.

Visual anchors

Using colour or images, you can visually anchor ideas.

Anchoring ideas visually - using bright colours or images - can be a great way to store and remember information. For example, picture a football field and two football teams. Imagine that the players have important years printed on the team jumpers (this will help you remember important dates). You could even anchor a particular year by having the referee waving a bright orange flag on it with the year in black.

The more bizarre the association or image, the easier it is to remember.

Sound anchors

You can anchor ideas or memories using sounds (eg. songs, melodies, intonations, rhythms, etc). Something that you could use right away: choose your favorite song and change its words to fit the information you need to remember. To anchor the information deep within your mind, hum the tune a few times.

Activity anchors

Anchoring also works with physical actions. For example, every time you turn on your radio, or open your front door, you can remember the steps in a process or a list of words by associating them with that action.

Smell anchors

Smell is one of the strongest memory senses we have as humans. Aromatherapy doesn’t only fill your house with heavenly scents, it can also help you remember details of a topic. You could also use aromatherapy when you’re working on different subjects to switch between different mindstates.

You can create connections between scents and emotions or events.

Pathway anchors

You can also anchor information to a familiar route.You can build connections or imagine a story based on your regular pathways.

For example, if you have a shopping list for tomatoes, donuts, chocolate, bananas and an umbrella, then you can imagine your usual journey to the local shops as something like this

• You open the door and you find a big squashed tomato at the door.
• You get in your car and you see a huge donut in place of the tyres.
• You get to the shopping centre and step into mud, and imagine melted chocolate.
• Imagine as you enter you see someone slip on a banana.
• And as this happens it’s pouring with rain, so you remember the umbrella.

Association and analogy anchors

You should use analogies to form connections between form and content everytime it’s possible. It’s a very powerful method that you can use to remember things.

Body anchors

By far, one of the most powerful anchors for information is your body. You can anchor emotions, moods, states of mind, information, ideas, everything.

When I first read about information anchoring a few years back, I naturally decided to try it and see if it really works. So I thought about me coming home from school that day and anchored the thought to my left arm wrist.

4 years have passed since then and I still remember the anchored thought down do the smallest detail.

You are now probably wondering how to anchor information to your body. Well, the process is really simple.

To anchor an idea, you need to focus on it and squeeze the part of your body that you want to anchor it to. Real-life example: last night, while trying to fall asleep, the idea to write about information anchors came into my mind; I was too sleepy and lazy to get out of bed and write it down, so I anchored it to a spot on my right arm. It’s easy to see that the anchoring process worked.

You could also use your body to anchor emotions or feelings. It’s the same process as for anchoring ideas, but the anchoring must take place while you live the feeling or emotion that you want to anchor. You could anchor feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and recall them when you’re feeling blue.

I’ve used all these methods and got great results out of them.

If you know more about this subject, please share the information with us in the comments!

Many self-improvement sites / blogs / books are telling you about the importance of creating positive thinking patters. They tell you to always look on the bright side of things and teach you about the importance of positive thoughts.

But what’s behind all those theories? The way you think has the power to influence your future? Yes, it does.

It all starts from within the depths of your mind…

Thoughts

“Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires.” - Wikipedia

You should always keep your thoughts positive, because they become your words.

Words

The same as the “thought” process. You should keep your words positive at all times, because it’s your words that become your actions.

It’s impossible to talk negative and live positive, because your subconscious translates words into actions.

Actions

Like the previous two processes (thoughts and words), you should keep your actions positive. The reason is simple: your actions become your habits. You wouldn’t want to nurture bad habits. Bad habits are a vicious circle and they often create fertile grounds for other bad habits to appear. You know that bad habits don’t do any good and are hard to break.

Keep your actions positive, so that the habits you form out of them will be positive.

Habits

If you manage to create good habits, you’re very close to achieving a good destiny.

Your habits are one of the defining things that influence your lifestyle.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is the way you live (relations, consumption, entertainment, etc).

“Having a specific “lifestyle” means engaging in a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and the self in different times and places. Therefore, a lifestyle can be used to forge a sense of self identity and to create cultural symbols for the way a person is. The behaviors and practices within lifestyles are a mixture of habits, conventional ways of doing things, and reasoned actions.”- Wikipedia

As you see, your thoughts, words, actions, habits, are connected and determine your lifestyle. And time turns your lifestyle into your destiny.

Keep your lifestyle positive and your future will be on the same note.

Now you know that the process which turns your thoughts into your future is real. Take action and start living on the bright side! 

Here’s for a better life,
Armand

Today I’m going to put your mind to work with a very simple problem.

Prove me that this blog doesn’t exist.

Put your thinking cap on and get to work. Let’s see your answer in the comments.

One of the communication stages that sends out the most clues about one’s mindstate is the greeting process.

Greeting is a way for humans to intentionally communicate awareness of each other’s presence, to show attention to, and/or to affirm or suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. As with many forms of communication, greeting habits are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures. - Wikipedia

One of the most common gesture used to greet others is the handshake. Certain types of handshakes can be distinguished and each one of them has a particular psychological and social meaning.

Vice. Strong grasp of the other person’s hand. It’s often used unconsciously, but most of the times it has the intention to express power. People who want to show that they’re not weak and inefficient as others may believe often use it as a form of compensation.

Dead hand. The opposite of the vice, a totally relaxed hand. The ones who employ this type of handshake don’t connect to the other person. Their attitude, just like their hand, remains passive. Often met at persons with big egos, but also at people who have to shake lots of hands. It’s also influenced by the cultural background (African handshake). Still, the dead hand is often used for other reasons: women wanting to leave the impression of languishing femininity or by strong men use to underline their power (Mike Tyson had a dead hand handshake).

Firm hand. Fingers get around the partner’s hand; the pressure is moderate. Studies found that it is used by extrovert persons. It is also used by women who are open to new experiences.

Blood sucker. Spooky name… There are people who hold their partners hand after the handshake. By holding the other one’s hand, a person can control the flow of the discussion. What is interesting about this handshake is that the “victims” rarely have the courage to free their hand.

Wet hand. People with damp hands often try to hide this by wiping it off their clothes before shaking hands. It’s a sign of anxiety, but there are also people who have a genetic illness that determines this.

Restrengthen. An amplified version of the handshake, in which one uses his both hands.

Invasive handshake. In a symmetrical handshake, the participants hands should meet at half the distance between their bodies. The invasion refers to moving that space in one of the personal spaces of the participants.

Dominant handshake. One of the participants turns their arm so that their hand ends up above the other one’s.

For more information on the handshake psychology, read the “Handshake psychology” post.

Determining the psychological state of a person from the greeting moment can prove to be very useful in the communication process.

Use these informations together with the ones on how to interpret the eye movements, and you should be able to have a pretty decent (but still foggy) picture of what’s going on in the other person’s head.

That’s it for the fourth part of the series.

Summary:

1. I can read your mind (I). Introduction and eye movements.
2. I can read your mind (II). More eye movements.
3. I can read your mind (III). Last two eye positions.
4. I can read your mind (IV). Handshakes