Body Language of the Hands

What the hands say is often louder than words

Photo by expressnightout.com

“Among all species, our human hands are unique -- not only in what they can accomplish, but also in how they communicate.  Human hands can paint the Sistine Chapel, pluck a guitar, maneuver surgical instruments, chisel a David, forge steel, and write poetry.  They can grasp, scratch, poke, punch, feel, sense, evaluate, hold and mold the world around us.  Our hands are extremely expressive; they can sign for the deaf, help tell a story, or reveal our innermost thoughts.” (“What Every Body is Saying", Harper Collins)  No other species has appendages with such a remarkable range of capabilities. And yet if you asked most people about the nonverbals (body language) of the hands, they would be hard pressed to tell you all the things the hands reveal.

Despite the acquisition of spoken language over millions of years of human evolution, our brains are still hard-wired to engage our hands in accurately communicating our emotions, thoughts, and sentiments (“The Psychology of Nonverbal Communications", Kindle Edition).  Therefore, whether people are speaking or not, hand gestures merit our attention as a rich source of nonverbal behavior to help us understand the thoughts and feelings of others.

It is interesting that our brain gives a disproportionate amount of attention to the fingers, and hands, as compared to the rest of the body. This could be in part because our first touch is with our hands and we seek the hands of our parents for safety or it is because the human hand can hold a weapon. For whatever the reason, we tend to focus on the hands and are mesmerized by them. Hitler used them to his advantage, as do magicians, orchestra conductors, and surgeons.

Tips to Help You Find the Right Doctor

by Lissa Rankin, M.D.

You might have been raised to believe that doctors are gods and that you shouldn't question us, but let me tell you the real truth, my loves. We docs are in the service industry - it's our job to love, nurture, tend, and care for you, and if we're not doing that the way you deserve, you should fire our sorry asses!

If you weren't getting what you needed from your massage therapist, hairdresser, or yoga instructor, you would find someone else, right? Why should your doctor be any different? And yet, your doctor is even more important. This is serious stuff we're talking about here.

Plus, medicine is, after all, a spiritual practice. At least it should be, and if your doctor doesn't believe that, do you really want to put your body and your life in his or her hands? If you didn't like your priest, minister, guru, or shaman, you would go elsewhere, right?

I just got an email from a reader saying she was miserable with her doctor, but she was afraid to see anyone else because she didn't want to get labeled as a troublesome "doctor shopper."

Tips Mengontrol Amarah

Kemarahan adalah emosi umum saat seseorang mengalami, melihat, mendengar, dan merasakan seseorang atau sesuatu tidak benar atau berlawanan dengan pandangan dianut seseorang. Namun dalam kasus tertentu, marah itu penting untuk menunjukkan ketegasan, integritas, dan nilai yang dianut. Dan amarah tersebut bukan kepada subyek individunya namun pada perbuatan individu. Setiap orang memiliki skala kemarahan sendiri. 

Menurut istilah, marah berarti perubahan internal atau emosional yang menimbulkan penyerangan dan penyiksaan guna mengobati apa yang ada di dalam hati. Pengertian marah dirumuskan secara singkat dalam A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis yang disusun oleh Charles Rycroft sebagai emosi dasar yang dibangkitkan secara khusus oleh frustasi. Maxwell Maltz  menyatakan bahwa amarah adalah frustasi, suatu jenis frustasi yang meledak dimana seseorang mengubah suatu perasaan terluka yang pasif menjadi suatu tindakan penghancuran disengaja yang aktif. 

A Killer Microbe As A Living Antibiotic

Predatory bacteria are native to many microbial communities and have been found in terrestric and aquatic ecosystems, as well as in the human and animal intestine. A research team at the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology, together with their colleagues from the universities of Nottingham and Bielefeld has now unraveled for the first time the complete genome sequence of a predatory bacterium in order to identify molecular mechanisms that are important when bacteria hunt their own. Insights into this ancient dependency may give rise to novel anti-microbial substances. 

These substances, however, will not be based on the structures of today's chemical antibiotics, but rather will be deduced from the protein sequences that become available from the Bdellovibrio genome project. Furthermore, the scientists predict in their publication of this weeks edition of Science magazine that Bdellovibrio may be developed into a therapeutic agent that could be used as a "living antibiotic".

Hukum Atraksi

Photo by fadhlyashary.blogspot.com

Kita sering mendengar orang mengatakan bahwa hidup adalah kenyataan yang  diciptakan di dalam pikiran. Benarkah demikian ? Emosi dan pikiran Kita seperti roll film yang berputar 24 jam sehari menayangkan cerita yang Kita buat sendiri. Kita sebagai sutradara, sekaligus pemeran utama, menciptakan kenyataan yang melibatkan orang-orang dan situasi di sekelilingnya. Lantas, apakah mungkin secara sadar Kita mengubah sikap orang lain melalui pemikiran dan emosi yang Kita miliki? Terkait dengan hal tersebut di atas, mari Kita bahas hal ini melalui aplikasi hukum atraksi atau Law of Attraction .

Treating Glaucoma Naturally

Photo by pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Glaucoma, which is increased pressure in the eyes, has been nicknamed the "sneak thief of sight" because the loss of visual field often occurs gradually over a long time with no other symptoms, and may only be recognized when it is already quite advanced.

Having your eyes checked every two years is an excellent example of preventive medicine. Opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists will routinely screen for glaucoma (easily) and can usually easily treat it as well. Both natural and prescription therapies are helpful. The information below is from our free new iPhone application called "Natural Cures" — already in the top 10 most popular free applications in the iPhone App store's "Health and Wellness" category.

Bahaya Kuning Telur

Melahap kuning telur sama bahayanya dengan merokok karena bisa meningkatkan atherosclerosis. Inilah hasil penelitian yang dipimpin Dr. David Spence yang telah dipublikasikan baru-baru ini. Menurut hasil survei lebih dari 1200 pasien, Spence menemukan bahwa mengomsumsi rutin kuning telur 2/3 kali sama buruknya dengan menghisap rokok karena akan meningkatkan timbunan plak dalam pembulu darah, faktor utama terjadinya serangan jantung dan stroke. Penelitian ini juga dipublikasikan secara online di jurnal Atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis, atau disebut juga penyakit arteri koroner, adalah kondisi di mana arteri tak bekerja secara sempurna mengalirkan darah karena timbunan plak, yang disebabkan oleh kolestrol, yang menempel di dinding dalam arteri. Kalau plak yang menempel dalam dinding arteri ini rontok,  maka si penderita kemungkinan besar akan mengalami serangan jantung atau stroke.

The Most Powerful Word in Your Life

By Mark Waldman and Andrew Newberg, M.D

Photo by stevecurtin.com

All words are not created equal. Some, like the words “peace” or “love,” can turn on genes that will reduce physical and emotional stress, while others can cause the release of stress-provoking neurochemicals in the brain. But there is one word that has the power to bring deep meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment into your life, and if you meditate on it for just a few minutes each day, it can change the way you work and improve your relationship with others.

However, no one can tell you what that word is. You must discover it for yourself. But don’t go looking for it right now, because if you are not in a deep state of relaxed awareness, you’ll only come up with words that are based on old ideas. Those words will not have the power to create an “aha” experience, but in our research we stumbled across a question that would illuminate this special word.

Surprisingly, it’s a question people rarely ask. In fact, it’s so rare that if you did a Google search, you'll get less than a dozen results. In comparison, if you type in a question like “What makes me happy?” you'll get as many as 28 million hits.

Manfaat Jambu Biji

Jambu biji memang tidak setenar jeruk atau semahal apel. Jika Anda berpikir jeruk adalah yang terbaik untuk vitamin C, Anda perlu mencoba jambu biji. 

Satu jambu biji memiliki 165 miligram (mg) vitamin C. Sementara, satu jeruk hanya mengandung 69 mg saja. Kandungan vitamin C pada jambu biji ini efektif dalam mengobati infertilitas pria. Di bawah kulitnya yang hijau, jambu biji memiliki banyak manfaat yang ditawarkan. Satu buah jambu sehari berguna mengurangi resiko penyakit mulai dari flu biasa, gusi bengkak, tekanan darah tinggi, obesitas, diabetes sampai kanker. 

The Best Team Building Secret

By Doug Staneart 
The Best Team Building Secret is to Create Lots of Energy and Enthusiasm 

Photo by bigsurfwaterpark.com

If you are looking for a fantastic team building idea or a secret to conducting a great team building event, the best piece of wisdom I have ever come across is the importance of energy and enthusiasm. Often times, event planners or people who are organizing a convention or annual event will hire a professional team building expert to facilitate some type of team building activity, but if you have a smaller group of people, how can you get the same type of results without breaking your budget? The key is to create a team building activity that does three things. First, the activity has to insert energy into your meeting. Second, you have to facilitate in a way that everyone stays active and involved the entire time. And finally, the activity or event must create some type of emotional response from the participants.

Otak Tengah

Baru-baru ini di masyarakat marak terdapat fenomena yang membuat orang merasa ingin tahu dan merasa gelisah. Yaitu beberapa anak-anak setelah melalui suatu pelajaran dan pelatihan khusus, dapat melihat benda sambil menutup mata, membaca tulisan dan lain sebagainya. Sehingga membuat banyak orang merasa bingung. Menuai berbagai macam reaksi ada yang sangat gembira, ada juga yang menganggap sebagai aliran sesat; juga ada yang menganggap sejenis tipu muslihat baru untuk menipu uang orang banyak. Apakah sebenarnya kejadian seperti ini? Bila merupakan muslihat penipuan, mengapa tidak ada orang yang menguaknya? Bila benar-benar merupakan pengembangan daya otak, mengapa dengan menutup mata dapat melihat benda? Tidak menggunakan mata dapat melihat benda bukankah sebuah fenomena yang menyesatkan?

DHA dan ARA Optimalkan Saluran Respiratorik Bayi

Photo by mentalhelp.net

DHA atau docosahexaenoic acids selama ini dipercaya sebagai salah satu bagian penting untuk perkembangan otak bayi. Namun, mungkin belum banyak yang mengetahui bahwa DHA juga memiliki manfaat lain untuk tumbuh kembang bayi. 

Bersama-sama dengan protein, karbohidrat, dan vitamin, asam lemak tidak jenuh DHA dan ARA merupakan fondasi penting dalam sistem imun bayi. Selain itu, pada bayi, DHA ternyata juga memiliki manfaat untuk kesehatan saluran pernapasan. 

Menurut dr Bambang Supriyanto, Sp A(K), saluran respiratorik yang utuh akan membantu tubuh melawan infeksi. "Selain kulit, saluran napas merupakan bagian dari pertahanan tubuh," kata Ketua Bagian Anak RSUP Cipto Mangunkusumo ini. 

Build Trust Before Coaching

By Doug Staneart, CEO

Coaching and mentoring team members can be one of the most challenging responsibilities of leaders and managers. “Why won’t my team just do what they are supposed to do?” is a common question that leaders often think if not outright speak. One important thing to remember is that before we can coach or lead others, they have to have a solid trust in the leader personally as well as professionally. Otherwise, our team will always want to play “devil’s advocate” and try to improve the advice that they are receiving.

For instance, let’s say that some random person stops you on the street to give you financial advice and ask you to invest $10,000 in a new idea that will give you 1000% return on your investment in just six months. Since you have no personal relationship with this person, your initial thought might be, “con man”. Since you have no professional track record with the person, you will probably be skeptical of any financial advice as well. The trust just isn’t there, so there is no way you’d follow this random person’s advice.

Langkah Strategis Menjaga Motivasi

Salah satu faktor yang menghalangi Anda untuk sukses adalah kurangnya motivasi. Berapa kali Anda berkata, “Saya ingin kaya”, “Saya ingin berhasil” tetapi Anda tidak membuktikan dalam tindakan Anda bahwa Anda bisa kaya dan Anda bisa berhasil. Terkadang ada beribu alasan dan jawaban untuk menjawab hal tersebut di atas.

Kurangnya motivasi berkaitan dengan tidak jelasnya cara untuk mencapai tujuan Anda. Barangkali sering terlintas di pikiran Anda untuk menjadi pengusaha sukses atau mencapai karir tertentu di kantor, tapi Anda tidak tahu caranya sehingga Anda kurang termotivasi untuk mencapai apa yang Anda inginkan.

Natural Help for Heart Disease

By Jacob Teitelbaum, MD

Four-part recipe to a healthy heart.

Photo by 4sportspros.com

Although the prevalence of congestive heart failure is skyrocketing, medical treatments are only modestly effective. The good news is that natural therapies can safely and dramatically improve heart muscle efficiency and function. Because of this, these treatments can also help those with angina, abnormal heart rhythms, and heart valve problems. One gentleman was too sick to even be on the heart transplant list. After these treatments, he is happily out riding his motorcycle—too healthy to need a heart transplant! Here is a simple four step recipe that can give you your life and function back.

The Foods Can Decrease Sexual Desire

Photo by doc Corbis  

Anda pasti sudah sering mendengar tentang makanan afrodisiak yang dapat membangkitkan hasrat seksual. Tapi, tahukah Anda bahwa ada makanan yang benar-benar bisa mengurangi atau bahkan menghilangkan gairah seksual Anda?

Jika Anda tidak ingin gairah seksual Anda menurun, sebaiknya mengomsumsi makanan di bawah ini jangan terlalu berlebihan. The Star menyebutkan ada delapan makanan yang dapat menurunkan hasrat seksual Anda. 

Male and Female Orgasm: Not So Different?

by Alan Fogel 

The experience of orgasm for men and women is very similar.

Photo by intertwined ms photo

Women are from Venus and men are .... Well, let's not go there. These and other metaphors point out a common truism: that men and women are different when it comes to love and sexual response. Women like to be cuddled and men like sex. Women like to talk and men want to have sex. Most women take longer to achieve orgasm than most men. A common sexual dysfunction in women is inability to achieve orgasm, while the corresponding dysfunction in males is premature orgasm.

Here's what you may not know: The actual orgasm, for both men and women, is very similar. This is the case both for the timing and duration of pelvic muscle contractions during orgasm as well as the body sense - the felt experience - of orgasm.

This is not exactly new information. The research on this goes back to the late 1960's. I want to review these findings to make a few points about the erotic dimensions of body sense, points that lead to important implications about enjoying and improving one's sex life by cultivating your body sense.

Tips Badan Tetap Sehat Setelah Lembur

Pada saat-saat tertentu terkait dengan pekerjaan dan "deadline" yang harus segera diselesaikan, terkadang "memaksa" Kita untuk terus bekerja hingga larut malam. 

Bekerja lembur hingga tengah malam seringkali membuat tubuh tidak fit dan gampang sakit. Lalu, apa saja yang harus diperhatikan agar kondisi tubuh tetap bugar meski kurang tidur di malam hari? Dampak dari kurang tidur adalah terganggunya produktivitas, karena tubuh menjadi tidak bugar, otak sulit berkonsentrasi dan terkadang emosi pun gampang tersulut oleh hal-hal kecil. Namun jika diantisipasi dengan cara yang benar, gangguan tersebut seharusnya bisa diminimalisir. Berikut ini adalah beberapa tips yang bisa diterapkan, dikutip dari The Daily Telegraph.

The Honesty of Body Language.

By Joe Navarro
"If language was given to men to conceal their thoughts, then gesture’s purpose was to disclose them." John Napier

Photo by imageofthecity.wordpress.com

For millions of years, our early ancestors ambled on this planet, navigating a very dangerous world. They did so by communicating effectively their needs, emotions, fears, and desires with each other. Impressively, they achieved this through the use of nonverbal communications such as physiological changes (flushed face), gestures (pointing hand), noises (grunting is not a word) and facial or body reactions (quizzical or frightened look). This has been part of our biological heritage for so long that we still primarily communicate nonverbally, not verbally, and why we need emotional icons in our written communication.

Fortunately for us we evolved a system to immediately communicate to others how we feel and what we sense. If not for this, a room might be dangerously hot - not just warm and a swim in a lake might turn into hypothermia. If we had to think, even for a few seconds, at every perilous encounter (imagine a coiled rattle snake by your leg) we would have died out as a species. Instead we evolved to react to threats or anything that might harm us and not to think.

Semakin Optimis, Otak Semakin Cerah

Photo by nimh.nih.gov

Daerah yang jauh di belakang mata itu menjadi aktif ketika orang berpikir mengenai hal baik yang terjadi di masa depan. Semakin optimis seseorang, area itu semakin cerah. Itu tampak dalam pemindaian otak sebagaimana dilaporkan ilmuwan dalam studi kecil yang dipublikasi secara online di The Journal Nature. 

Bagian sama dari otak yang disebut rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) kelihatan mengalami gangguan ketika orang depresi, demikian kata Elizabeth Phelps dari New York University dan Tali Sharot of University College London yang ikut dalam penelitian itu. 

Para ahli dalam penelitian itu melakukan pemindaian MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) terhadap 15 orang ketika mereka sedang memikirkan kemungkinan di masa depan. Ketika partisipan memikirkan soal kejadian baik, baik rACC maupun amigdala yang terlibat dalam respon emosi dan ketakutan diaktifkan. Namun, korelasi dengan optimisme terbesar ada pada cingulate cortex. 

Heart Attack

Anger + metabolic syndrome = heart attack

Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome and high hostility levels have a four-fold risk of having a heart attack compared to those without these cardiovascular risk factors, according to researchers. While evidence suggests that the Metabolic Syndrome and hostility are independent risk factors for the development of heart disease, the combined effect of these two factors on the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) has rarely been studied.

Dr. John F. Todaro, of Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island prospectively examined the effect of having both Metabolic Syndrome and hostility on the frequency of heart attacks in 754 men (average age 59 years) who participated in the Normative Aging Study. At baseline, the subjects were free of heart disease and diabetes. 27% met the criteria for having Metabolic Syndrome. The subjects were categorized as having high or low hostility levels. The subjects were followed for an average of 13.8 years. Subjects with high hostility levels and the Metabolic Syndrome had a more than 4 times greater risk of having a heart attack. 

Stres Itu Menguras Nutrisi Otak

Ada kalanya stres diperlukan untuk memacu prestasi. Tapi jangan anggap enteng stres yang berulang, karena ia akan seperti badai yang menguras nutrisi otak dan memunculkan berbagai penyakit fisik. Pilih mana, lari dari tembakan aparat yang menggunakan peluru tajam saat berdemonstrasi menuntut reformasi, atau menghadapi lalu lintas yang macet total selama dua jam karena demonstrasi? 

Mungkin Anda akan dengan cepat berkata, “Tidak semuanya.” Tapi kalau diharuskan memilih, biasanya orang cenderung memilih lalu lintas yang macet.Kedua situasi itu memang akan menimbulkan reaksi yang sama pada fisik dan psikis kita. Yaitu stres, dan darah serta adrenalin mengalir deras. Tapi kalau mengacu pada pendapat ahli endokrinologi dari Universitas Rockefeller di New York, Bruce McEwen, sebaiknya pilih ditembaki aparat saja. Bahkan lebih baik dikejar harimau lapar daripada menghadapi kemacetan lalu lintas. Kok, bisa?

Instant Success

By Jim M. Allen

As a success coach, I have a lot of fun working with energetic, motivated individuals who are eager to turn their dreams into reality. They’ve made that important step from talking about success to actually creating it.

In helping these “doers” create the necessary strategies to achieve their goals, much of my time is spent talking with them about their expectations of how quickly they can accomplish their goals. In the success coaching process, it’s not always the most enjoyable part of what we do together, but it is a very important one. After all, it’s important to have big goals to work towards, but it’s just as important to have realistic expectations about how and when those dreams can be made real.

Unfortunately, everything today is about speed and getting more done, faster than ever before. Not necessarily a bad goal, but that push for speed spills over into all aspects of our lives. We want fast service and fast results -- no matter what we’re doing.