In his book Studies in Expressive Movement, famed psychologist Gordon Allport and his co-author Phillip Vernon wrote that within the expressive behavior of individuals, consistencies exist. He explained that a person’s personality can be perceived by observing certain nonverbal cues. For example, introverts and extroverts tend to exhibit slightly different behaviors, as do Type A and Type B personalities.

A person’s habits, movements, facial expressions and gestures can reveal a lot about their personalities, and how one holds or clenches their fist can also be telling. Take a second and make a fist. Now look at your hand and check your thumb placement, then read below to see what it could mean in terms of your personality.

Fist Type 1: Compassionate, Sensitive and Intuitive

Sensitive with a strong imagination, yet highly intuitive and a heartfelt desire to help people. You have a loving gentle side and often take the role of protector in friendships and relationships. You are good at planning ahead when something is important to you, and can also quickly adapt to new situations.

You are a good judge of character and can often predict who will treat you good or who won’t. You desire to be accepted and the kindness in your heart often knows no bounds.

In the workplace you usually stand out for the high quality of work you do, while remaining humble about it. Your strength is your ability to perceive the problems of others, and by fine tuning your listening skills, you can become quite a valuable asset.

In your relationships, you often love more than the other person perceives. Being compassionate means that your partner is well taken care of, even if they don’t notice it all of the time. You care deeply about those close to you, and would do anything to see them be happy.

Fist Type 2: Outgoing, Confident and Honest

You have a deep rootedness of confidence that causes others to believe in you. Often thriving on the praise and attention that comes from being naturally charismatic, you aren’t afraid to be who you really are.

Honesty is one of your greatest strengths and can get you the furthest in life. You are also keen on taking action and can make things happen when you set your mind on a goal. Whenever your friends are in need of something, they know they can count on you to help get it done. If your friends were to describe your personality, then ‘reliable’ would definitely come to mind.

Often self-motivated with an ability to focus and remain persistent, you are a hard-worker by nature and natural leader. Balancing work life with relaxation and stress relief can really take you to the next level.

In your relationships, you tend to get stuck on negative experiences from the past, as your inner perfectionist desires the perfect relationship. When you love, you do so fully, and play no games. When you find someone with the same amount of loyalty and direction, then the sky is the limit on love.

Fist Type 3: Kind, Emotionally-Aware and Reflective

Your deep understanding of who you are and how you truly know yourself has come from your nature of being quieted inside and introspective. Reflection is a great resource and has made you highly intelligent and also very thoughtful. Some might describe you as shy, but your heart is open and those who get close to you are warmly surprised by how kind you really are.

You don’t desire to be hugely famous or popular, a simple day of relaxation on the beach while reading a book or enjoying the beauty of the nature around you often gives you the inner peace that you so deeply desire. For those who have discovered Yoga or heart centered styles of meditation, you already know how much success and strength it has brought into your life, and for those who haven’t, it’s time you start and find the means through which to bring out your inner beauty.

When it comes to relationships, you desire a steady and seemingly simple flow of love with as little drama as possible. Having a soft heart means you can be hurt easily, but gentleness is a sure-way to keep you comfortable and happy within a relationship. You forgive easily and once you commit, your showering of love and support is second to none.

You are Loved.

There is no better feeling in the world than loving someone and being loved in return. Your heart opens with more passion and brings luminance into your eyes, and just thinking about him makes your heart skip a beat.

If you’re looking for your loyal prince who will stay with you forever, here are 8 signs to help you identify your other half:

1. He Treats You Like Royalty

When your lover gives you the royal treatment, especially when you are either not feeling well or not looking your best, it’s a clear sign that he loves you and he really values you. You are the queen of his heart, and he will do anything to see you smile.

2. He Helps You When You Have A Problem

Showing support is one of the drivers of intimacy within a relationship, and you can be sure he is in for the long haul if he goes out of his way to help you solve your difficult problems. Your happiness is his priority, and if he sees you struggling, he’s going to help you get back to feeling 100% again.

3. He Uses ‘WE’

When your lover has spent time reflecting and assuming that the two of you will be together long-term, he says ‘we’ often instead of ‘I’ when talking about future plans and activities. He’s proud of telling you and others about how happy he is to be in a relationship with you.

4. He ‘Glows’ When You Are Near Him

One of the signs of being in love is how attentive and how deeply they smile when they are with you. Someone once said, “take a lover that looks at you like maybe you are magic.” If consistently your man’s face brightens up and he smiles when you enter the room, be sure that he loves you and you may have found your answer.

5. He Shares Everything With You

However his day may have gone, he shares it all with you, the good and the bad. He is open and honest about everything with you because he wants you to be involved in his life. He also wants to know everything about you. If your man shares every detail of his life with you, it means that he thinks highly of you, values your opinion, and most of all, he really values you.

6. He Talks About Your Future Together

When he plans your next vacation together, and is comfortable bringing you to meet his family, he is in for real. In his mind the two of you are staying together as time goes on, and if you’ve noticed his habit of keeping his word and having integrity, be sure that he will be there for you. On the other hand, men who are not serious tend to stray away from making plans, because they are often afraid to commit or are open to finding someone else. While this is not always the case, it’s good if your man can handle making a few important future plans with you.

7. His Family And Friends Tell You So

You have met his family and friends, and after you’ve met them for the first several times and their initial politeness has worn off, they still tell you how much he loves you. Regardless of if he’s perfect or not, when the people who have known him the longest and known him the best say this to you, it’s for real.

8. He Tells You That You Are The One

When the other 7 signs have occurred and then he utters these words, it means he is as serious as serious gets and wants to pursue a lifelong relationship with you. Relationships require healthy communication and a strong matching of intimacy, passion and commitment to succeed, but if he exhibits all of these signs, you know he has set his heart on you.

Many of us work in offices, and we end up sitting for 6 to 8 hours each day. Sitting for too long without moving can lead to health problems. Studies have shown that people who experience prolonged periods of sitting can suffer from cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and more.

Here are 6 exercises that you can perform while sitting at your desk to refresh and strengthen your body.

Exercise 1: Knee To Elbow Lift

This exercise is great for your waist. It works the obliques and lower abs. To start, make sure your knee meets your opposite elbow. Your upper body should also slightly turn.

To Do:

1. Sit with a straight spine and without touching the backrest of the chair. Put your hands behind your head.
2. Lift your right knee towards your chest. While doing this, bend your left elbow to meet your knee.
3. Then return back to the original position. Repeat 15 times.
4. Switch your knee and elbow, and repeat another 15 times.
5. Try to do 4 sets of 15 for each side.

Exercise 2: Body Lift Above The Chair

This exercise burns fat fast. It helps tone the muscles in the belly, back, and shoulders. Just make sure that your chair is not set on rolling wheels.

To Do:

1. While sitting in the chair, hold the arms of the chair tightly.
2. Lift your body above the chair, making your hips and legs hang in the air. Then use your abdominal muscles to raise your knees to your chest.
3. Stay in this position for 15-20 seconds, or as long as you can, then slowly return to your original sitting down position and take a few seconds to rest.
4. Repeat this exercise 4 times.

Exercise 3: Bending

This exercise helps to workout the abdominals, sides and the hips.

To Do:

1. Keep your feet flat on the floor.
2. Straighten your arms out at the level of your shoulders.
3. Turn your upper body to the right, bend forward, and touch your left hand with your right foot. Stay in this position for 5-10 seconds and enjoy the stretch.
4. Return to the original position with arms out to your sides.
5. Now bend to your left, and touch your right hand to your left foot.
6. Repeat 20 times, alternating sides with each bend.

Exercise 4: Double Knee Lift Combined With Body Side Bends

This exercise shapes your waist. Oblique muscle workouts can help to give your hips a beautiful shape.

To Do:

1. Sit on the edge of your chair with your back straight. Hold the chair tightly with both hands.
2. Bend your body to the side, and sit only on one glute.
3. While holding your legs together in sitting position,  lift both knees towards your chest.
4. Return to your original position.
5. Now bend to the other side and repeat the exercise.
6. Repeat 10-20 times on each side.

Exercise 5: Double Knee Lift

This exercise is great for your lower abs.

To Do:

1. Hold your legs together and hold the sides of the chair with both hands.
2. While keeping your back straight, lift your knees and pull them towards your chest. Your abdominal muscles should be flexed at this point.
3. Slowly lower your feet back down, but don’t touch the floor.
4. Now raise your knees back up to your chest, and repeat.
5. Repeat this movement 10-20 times.

Exercise 6: Knee-To-Chest Lift

This strengthens the abdominal muscles, gives a good hip stretch relieving tension, improves digestion, and helps to burn body fat.

To Do:

1. Sit down in your chair. Keep your back straight without it touching the back of the chair.
2. Put your feet on the floor,  hips-width apart.
3. Keep your back straight. Then lift your right knee, and pull it towards your chest. Pull in the stomach when you do this.
4. Put your hands on your shin and pull your knee to your chest even further for a greater and more relaxing stretch.
5. Repeat this 20-30 times while alternating your knees.

Give these 6 sitting exercises each day you are at work, and learn to enjoy them as they are keeping your body healthy and free from the potential difficulties of sitting in a chair all day.

As with any serious exercise regimen designed to give you a flat belly, it’s important to remember that burning calories and reducing the body’s total overall body fat is the only way to really work the stomach size down. Exercising a certain body part will indeed strengthen and grow the muscles in that area, for example the abs get stronger and bigger from doing sit-ups, but a 6-pack will only come from an exercise routine based high in cardio and aerobic activity that burns calories, and is matched with a lean diet low in fats, carbs and sugar.

Enjoy!

See Also: 10 Wonderful Piriformis Stretches To Help You Get Rid of Sciatica, Hip & Lower Back Pain

Source: brightside.me

During previous eras in human history, people believed that talents could only be “God-gifted.” They thought that people were born with a certain level of intelligence, and that was it. As science and every study has shown, intelligence is not something we are born with, but rather something that is developed through education, and any person regardless of nationality, ethnicity, height, weight, skin color or physical stature can achieve the same levels of intelligence.

Science has shown us that we can fine-tune our intelligence and augment our capability. Integrating new habits and skill-sets into our daily lives helps the brain build neural pathways that benefit its functioning.

Here are 7 hobbies that increase your intelligence level according to science:

1. Play A Musical Instrument

Studies suggest that regularly playing a musical instrument leads to changes in the shape and functional ability of the brain. This also can be used as a therapy to enhance cognitive skills.

Psychologist Lutz Jäncke reported that,

“Learning to play a musical instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points, in both children and adults. We found that even in people over the age of 65 after four or five months of playing a instrument for an hour a week there were strong changes in the brain. The parts of the brain that control hearing, memory, and the part that controls the hands among others, all become more active. Essentially the architecture of the brain changes.

For children especially we found that learning to play the piano for instance teaches them to be more self-disciplined, more attentive and better at planning. All of these things are very important for academic performance, so can therefore make a child brighter. Of course music isn’t the only answer, but I do believe that it should be used in addition to other things.”

This hobby provides strength to the corpus callosum which links the two hemispheres of the brain, leading likely enhanced memory, skill in execution and overall brain functioning.

2. Reading

It’s no mistake that many of the world’s most monetarily successful individuals read novels and books in the fiction category. Research suggests that it indeed makes people smarter.

The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, says that reading novels such as the ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Fountain’ helped to shape his worldview. Bill Gates is also known for his wonderful habit of reading as many books as he can, and he always includes a novel during his semi-annual book recommendations.

“If ‘smarter’ means having a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge … then reading may well make people smarter,” psychologist Keith Stanovich writes in the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. He adds that the data supports this finding time and time again.

Reading serves as a way to calm and sooth the nerves. It also affects three areas of the brain; the crystallized, fluid and emotional. It helps in stringing together information, solving and navigating problems, recognizing patterns and in understanding other human beings from their perspectives on life.

3. Exercise Regularly

The key word in this is ‘regularly’. A study on the acute bouts of physical activity and their effect on the cognitive performance of adults which found that submaximal aerobic exercise performed for periods up to 60 minutes facilitates specific aspects of information processing; however, extended exercise that leads to dehydration compromises both information processing and memory functions.

If we consistently incorporate exercise into our weekly routines, we can increase the brain’s cognitive performance. Choosing to walk, run, or do push-ups only once every month on the other hand will likely not yield favorable results.

Exercising regularly improves memory, charges cells with BDNF, and can help in the areas of concentration and understanding.

4. Learn A New Language

Rather than relying solely on crossword puzzles and sudoku to maintain your mental functions, try learning a new language! Studies have found that people who speak more than one language are not only better able to solve puzzles, but this habit protects the brain against aging and can increase their intelligence.

Adults who speak multiple languages were compared to adults who only spoke one language, and it was found that those who those who speak more than one language:

1. Have higher overall intelligence score.
2. Are better at planning, prioritizing, and decision making.
3. Score higher on standardized math, reading, and vocabulary tests.
4. Are more perceptive of their surroundings.
5. Avoid falling for marketing hype.
6. Understand the point of view of others better.
7. Have a better focus, concentration, and attention span.
8. Delay immediate gratification in the pursuit of long-term goals.
9. Have better memory function and memorization skills, including a better working memory.
10. Exhibit mental flexibility.
11. Are able to switch between tasks quickly.
12. Are more creative.
13. Have good listening skills.

5. Exercise Your Brain

Many activities exert your brain and increase neuroplasticity; crosswords, mystery games, riddles etc.

Psychologists have found that they allow the brain to organize the information stored within a bit better. They can help us see the causal relationship of emotions and thinking and can also hone our cognitive skills quite effectively.

Neuroplasticity, for example when involved in cases of tinnitus, can help individuals to relieve symptoms of stress and depression.

6. Test Your Cumulative Learning

Most of us are familiar with the current strategy of many students today: memorizing seemingly endless pages of information before an exam, and then forgetting it shortly thereafter.

Yet when we learn a new language for example, we have to constantly practice the vocabulary and the grammar, giving us extended learning through repetition. This step in increasing intelligence involves testing your current cumulative learning habits and seeing if it is effective in the long-term, not just the short-term. Cumulative learning includes many intelligent techniques, such as posting daily notes in a visible area or carrying them in your pocket to review later, or other forms of repetition style learning where you learn the information multiple times and it becomes solidified as memory.

7. Meditate

The scientist Richard Davidson conducted an experiment related to neuroscience and emotional intelligence on the Dalai Lama and his fellow compassionate monks by hooking them up to MRI machines and studying their brains. He found that, “the best way to activate positive-emotion circuits in the brain is through generosity,” Davidson, who founded the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin, Madison reported.

“This is really a kind of exciting neuroscientific finding because there are pearls of wisdom in the contemplative tradition—the Dalai Lama frequently talks about this—that the best way for us to be happy is to be generous to others. And in fact the scientific evidence is in many ways bearing this out, and showing that there are systematic changes in the brain that are associated with acts of generosity.”

Davidson and his colleagues ran a simple experiment on eight “long-term Buddhist practitioners” whose had spent on average 34,000 hours in mental training and meditation. They asked the subjects to alternate between a meditative state and a neutral state in order to observe through the MRI how their actual brains changed. One of the monks explained his meditative state as, “a state in which love and compassion permeate the whole mind, with no other consideration, reasoning, or discursive thoughts.”

“When we did this, we noticed something remarkable,” Davidson said. “What we see are these high-amplitude gamma-oscillations in the brain, which are indicative of plasticity”—meaning that those brains were more capable of change, for example, in theory, of becoming more resilient. The researchers also found in MRI scans of monks that a region of the brain known as the anterior insula was activated.