Holiday happiness

I hope each and everyone of you has enjoyed the holidays. They are always a time where you can be yourself, enjoy food, receive gifts, a time to be happy.

My Christmas was well spend, I have had a great time with my family and friends. There was a lot of delicious food, gifts, love and laughter. Christmas has come to an end and our decorations have been put away. The preparations for new years eve start tomorrow.

Saturday a new year will begin. And at midnight an emotional high will enter all of us. We are great full for all the good things in our lives, regret mistakes we made, think about our loved ones, remember the ones we have lost, and think of all the changes you are going to make this new year.

Hugs and kisses go around and fireworks create a mist you can't see through. We keep on standing outside, trying to find someone you haven't wished a happy new year. Then we go back inside to finish our drinks and refill our glasses. Ready to enjoy the rest of the night, we look forward to the new year.

Where ever you are in the world. I wish you all a happy new year. Just in case I can't find you in the mist.

A guy eating dog poop? - Ameriquest Commercial

I was surfing on the internet today, trying to find a funny commercial, and I found alright! It is a bit of an old commercial, but it's still funny if you ask me. This commercial is from the mortgage company Ameriquest, the slogan they used in their commercials was: "Don't judge too quickly, we won't". What they created were some really funny commercials, there are a lot of them. All of them are very short and straight to the point, which makes them very funny. The one I found hilarious was this one:

In this commercial you see a guy with his dog, just sitting in the park and enjoying the weather. Deciding that it is time to go home he starts to gather his things and stands up. The dog then sees another dog and gets excited, pulling the guy forwards. The guy then drops his chocolate brownie (or whatever chocolaty thing it is), it lands behind the dog. An elderly woman and her granddaughter walk on by and they see the two dogs. Our guy pick up his brownie with a paper, making it seems like he is picking up the dog's poop. He cleans it up a bit and start to eat it. The disgust is obvious on the faces of the elderly woman and her granddaughter. The guy is happy with his brownie, then he realizes what it must seem like to the elderly woman. He quickly tries to sign to them that this is not what it seems! The emotions that the commercial transfers to us, the viewers, are obvious. We sit on our couch with a great big smile on our face. That is what I love about this commercial is all the emotions and the body language, there are no conversations, the entire story is told with emotions. What can I say, strong commercial, strong message, and a very good looking brownie.

Misinterpretations

Emotions don't only come to show when we talk to someone, I could be transferring a lot of emotions right now through writing. I am sure that you all have had moments where you text someone and that you get an unexpected reaction in return. This means that the other person has misinterpreted your message and did not get the emotion you were trying to transfer. The internet is filled with mistakes like this. I will show you one I thought was hilarious:

Misinterpretation can happen quickly and bring along a lot of trouble. So read something at least twice before you react like this, or ask what he meant. In this case, the relationship might have been saved if she had just asked: "What do you mean?"

What does anger tell me?

Anger can mean a lot of things to me, it depends on the context of the emotion. For example, when I am talking to someone and I see a micro-expression that shows me anger, I know that whatever I said must have been offending or hurtful for that person. If I don't notice it and I keep on going with my story I might upset him/her even more, which may eventually lead to an argument. When I see the micro-expression I know that whatever I said was hurtful and I can stop my story and apologize or explain what I meant with my story. This way I may have avoided an argument and saved a friendship.

Anger certainly is not my favorite emotion to see, feel or experience. It is , however, important that you know how to deal with it and to stop it in the act, if you can.

Young emotions

The first emotion I can remember is sadness. This might sound very dark and grim, but it's mainly because I was a clumsy kid. I fell very often and got injured (not badly), the little drama-queen in me couldn’t stop crying! I just had to have a towel that covered my wound so I didn't have to see it! Whenever I would see it again I started crying. Touching it was forbidden and talking about it, do you really want to go there? I remember it very vividly, I was about five years old and I was playing outside, on the grass, but on the end of the soft grass was a stone path. I tripped and fell on the stone path, ripping open my knee. I hopped on home and when I saw my mother I started crying so bad! I sat against the wall for at least an hour holding my knee with a towel to cover the wound. No one was allowed to touch it, mention it or see it, not even me. It is a bit funny when I think about it now, and I have to admit I still am a drama-queen every now and again. What can I say, I am a very emotional person. 

1+1= 1

Beyoncé's latest song tells us that 1+1= 2 (and math of course), but can 1+1= 1? Well, of course it can! Two completely different people can be connected by a shared story. Therefore equal one instead of two. Let me give you an example, let's take my mom and me. At one point we really were one, after my birth we became two different people. But during my life and hers we have created some great stories together, stories that combine us and make us one again. For instance, when I was 16 my mom and I were watching "The Uri Geller Show," we thought it was hilarious what some people could do. Knowing what Uri Geller can do (bending Spoons) we got the idea of hanging spoons on our noses. We were laughing so much that we had tears rolling over our cheeks! I always have a lot of fun with my mother, I can laugh with her, cry with her, she is like a best friend to me. This story was only one of many, we are one odd pair, but we sure do laugh a lot!

Personal hero

When it comes to personal heroes, I have to say that it would be Paul Ekman. I have mentioned him quite a lot in my previous posts. When it comes to the research in recognizing emotions and spotting liars, Paul Ekman is the leading man. He is the man behind the series "Lie to me," his research has been the base of every episode in the series. Paul Ekman was present at every shooting of all the episodes, just to be sure that the facts were right. Even on his website he put up a blog about the show, explaining into precise detail the science behind the show. Separating the facts from fiction.

Paul Ekman got me interested in recognizing emotions and even got me studying his literature. I wanted to know what he knows and to be able to do what he does. Watching the series and reading the books, I have to say I am nowhere near the level of expertise of Paul Ekman. I can say that I can recognize more now than I could before and I know what to do with that information. So I say thank you, my hero, Paul Ekman. Thank you for your inspiration and eye-opening research.