The Link Between Regression & Smoking

The prevalence of smoking reaches in great numbers and nowadays even kids in the age of 12 are already puffing this cancer stick. What makes people smoke? The top 3 reasons that I always get are the following:

1. To alleviate stress
2. Builds instant rapport
3. Smoking is cool (okay, scratch that)

To Alleviate Stress

How do you even alleviate stress by sucking up nicotine and smoke into your system? The effect of the nicotine gives that distinct feel but it makes you even more dependent because it’s addictive. If smoking would be your resort in reducing stress, there are better alternatives.

Builds Instant Rapport

I must say, this is probably the most annoying and yet true. I get left out when my friends smoke because I don’t, and out of nowhere, they get to have instant friends with random strangers. Smoking makes people connect, or the shared action would likely to mirror the stranger’s behavior creating an air of rapport. We can always establish rapport in different ways, but must I suggest not on their cigarette break.

Smoking is Cool

Okay, this is just silly. What made it cool? Oh, because of what the media hyped it up to be. I noticed that people who easily conforms to their own groups would be the ones susceptible to smoking. It’s not just that it is cool, but the people they look up to is acting it out, and this somewhat admiration of that person translates into their behavior. “If I smoke like what popular people do, I get to feel better about myself because at least on the shallowest form, I imitate what that cool person is doing” kind of thing. Really now? 

Aside from the 3, we also have to look at the socio-cultural aspect, starting from the very cell of a society which is the family. We form our habits in the comfort of our own home and with the people who conditions us on the things we do. Some families are okay with smoking and some are not, but the greater the number in the family that smokes, the higher the chance that one in the family will participate in it as well. It’s more about what fits.

But what exactly made the older family members smoke? One would think it’s a chain of inherited habits, but I know people who do not smoke even if being surrounded by smokers. It has something to do with our ego defense mechanisms, specifically Regression.

Regression, according to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is a defense mechanism leading to temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way.

To simply say, you revert back to your childhood behavior where you lacked or overly-indulged in something. Aside from that, it’s closely linked to the psychosexual stages, Oral stage in particular. 

The term Oral Stage denotes the first psychosexual development stage where in the mouth of the infant is his or her primary erogenous zone. 

One becomes Orally fixated when during their infancy, the infant is either deprived or overly-indulged via mouth, having that as the case, it would manifest in the infant’s adult life.

It may very well explain the idea on why people smoke. Linking these two ideas, Regression and Oral Fixation. One of the evident things that backs up this conjecture is the idea of alleviating stress. As what I’ve said earlier and now we come to realize—this is the sole or the first reason why people smoke.

When we are going through something difficult that causes significant increase in our stress levels, our ego defenses are summoned to protect us against the bombardment of stress and anxiety. People, who are orally fixated or wasn’t able to find resolution on that stage, somehow commit regression—in a more subtle and sophisticated way of course—and this is done through smoking; it is socially acceptable in most places, a lot of people are doing it, and there’s an acceptance in smoking that makes people enjoy it. 

The next time you smoke, try to think of the reason on why you do the way you do, why you smoke and what made you to do so. You never know, you may be orally fixated, others would bite their nails, pencils, and even commit oral sex for the most over others, since these are not usually done for the most part, smoking is the viable way to express this oral fixation when they regress. 

I’m not telling you to stop smoking, but being mindful of the reasons on why you smoke (on a psychodynamic perspective) would be a big help when the time comes that you need to quit. The awareness itself would help you tolerate the withdrawal effects when you’re on your way to quitting since dependency of the mind to habitual consumption and intake of chemicals is a difficult feat to overcome.

Five Things You Should Know About Body Language

Excerpts taken from the book, “What Every Body Is Saying" by Joe Navarro. 

1. EYES 

“When we like something we see, our pupils dilate; when we don’t, they constrict. We have no conscious control over our pupils, and they respond both to external stimuli (for example, changes in light) and internal stimuli (such as thoughts) in fractions of a second.”

“When we become aroused, are surprised, or are suddenly confronted, our eyes open up—not only do they widen, but the pupils also quickly dilate to let in the maximum amount of available light, thus sending the maximum amount of visual information to the brain… Once we have a moment to process the information and if it is perceived negatively… in a fraction of a second the pupils will constrict.”

“Any decrease in the size of the eyes, whether through squinting or pupillary constriction, is a form of subconscious blocking behavior. And all blocking behaviors are indicative of concern, dislike, disagreement, or the perception of a potential threat.”

2. SHOULDERS

“We use shoulder shrugs to indicate lack of knowledge or doubt. Look for both shoulders to rise; when only one side rises, the message is dubious.”

“Partial shoulder shrugs indicate lack of commitment or insecurity.”

“If you see a person’s shoulders only partially rise or if only one shoulder rises, chance are the individual is not limbically committed to what he or she is saying and is probably being evasive or even deceptive.”

3. HANDS

“Hand steepling may well be the most powerful high-confidence tell. It involves touching the spread fingertips of both hands, in a gesture similar to “praying hands,” but the fingers are not interlocked and the palms may not be touching.”

“I see women steepling under the table or very low, undermining the confidence they genuinely possess. I hope that as they recognize the power of the steeple as an indicator of self-assurance, competence, and confidence—traits most individuals would want to be recognized as possessing—more women will embrace this gesture and display it above the table.”

4. THUMBS

“Often seen with high-status individuals, the thumb sticking out of the pocket is a high-confidence display.”

“When individuals carry their thumbs high, it is a sign that they think highly of themselves and/or are confident in their thoughts or present circumstances. Thumbs up is another example of a gravity-defying gesture, a type of nonverbal behavior normally associated with comfort and high confidence.”

“Feelings of low confidence can be evidenced when a person (usually a male) puts his hands in his pocket and lets the fingers hang out on the side… this signal says, ‘I am very unsure of myself.’”

5. LEGS

“Leg crossing is a particularly accurate barometer of how comfortable we feel around another person…We normally cross our legs when we feel comfortable. The sudden presence of someone we don’t like will cause us to uncross our legs.”

“When people sit side-by-side, the direction of their leg crosses becomes significant.”

“Here’s an interesting feature of leg crossing. We usually do it subconsciously in favor of the person we like the most.”

There you have it. The five things you should know and pay attention to when you’re studying body language. Focusing on these five will help you pay attention to even the most subtle of movements.

Reference

Navarro, J. (2008). What Every BODY is Saying. America: HarperCollins.

Cool Way to Hide Files Behind Image Using CMD and WINRAR

Today, I will teach you a way to hide some of your file behind image. What I mean is, you will actually put your files behind an image. This is a very effective way to hide any file with use of WinRAR and CMD.
To start off, first you need WinRAR. You can use Google to download it. After you download it, install it to you system. After that we are ready to go.

Learn To Hide Files Behind The Images...
 
1. Select an image to be used as a "hideout" image. This is where you will hide your file.

2. Now, select your file to hide behind the image and make it in .RAR format (the add to archive option),with the help of the WinRAR.

3. Next, put the image and your file on your desktop. You may do this anywhere instead of desktop if you have some basic understanding of command line.

4. Now open CMD by going to Start > Accessories > Command Prompt or press Windows Key on you keyboard plus R (WinKey + R) and type CMD then enter and type following commands in it.

         cd desktop

5. CD stands for change directory by typing above command you change your directory to desktop. After that type command

copy /b imagename.jpg + filename.rar finalimage.jpg

Replace "imagename.jpg" with the name of the image you're going to use. Don't forget to add image format (Eg: .jpg,.png,.gif)

Replace "filename.rar" with name of your file you want to hide. It must be in .rar format.

Finally Replace "finalimage.jpg" with whatever name you want your final image with hidden files should be. This is the image where your file will be hidden.

This is how it goes...

Now for extracting your files inside the image...

When you  try to open this newly created image it will open as normal image, but you can observe that the image size was changed into the size of the file you hid. Now, to get your hidden file all you need to do is:

How To Access Hidden File ?
1. Open WinRAR
2. Now locate your image (the final image produced.)
3. Extract the file and done.


That's it. As simple as that you now hide you important file inside an image. This is very useful in hiding confidential files.

This is one of my favorite trick. :)

Panthera Hybrid

Panthera 

   There are four living species of Panthera genus, namely: Panthera Leo (Lion), Panthera Tigris (Tiger), Panthera Onca (Jaguar), and Panthera Pardus (Leopard). These species can produce hybrid crosses which means, an offspring resulting from the mating of two genetically distinct individuals. 
   Names of these hybrids are produced either by compounding the names of the two species or sometimes by associating it with some traditional name. Below here are the list of hybrid cross between the four living Panthera genus.

(Photo source: Wikipedia)

Male Tiger

 • Tigon a hybrid cross between a male tiger and a lioness.   
 • Tiguar the crossbreeding of a male tiger and a female jaguar. 

 • Tigard the crossbreeding of a male tiger and a female leopard.

 • Taliger the crossbreeding of a male tiger and a female  liger.

 • Titigon the crossbreeding of a male tiger and a female tigon. 

Male Jaguar

 • Jagger produced by crossbreeding a male jaguar and female tiger. There has been no report of the birth of this hybrid.

 • Jaglion or jaguon is the offspring between a male jaguar and a female lion (lioness).

 • Jagupard, jagulep, or jagleop, is the hybrid of a jaguar and a leopardess. A single rosetted, female jagupard was produced at a zoo in Chicago. 

Male Leopard

 • Leoger or Dogla is a natural hybrid offspring of a male leopard and female tiger or possibly a leopard with aberrant patterns.

 • Leopon is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of a male leopard with a lioness. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards.

 • Leguar is a hybrid resulting from the crossing of a male leopard with a female Jaguar.

 • Leoliguar is the result When the fertile offspring of a male lion and female jaguar (Liguar) mates with a leopard.

Male Lion

• Ligers, crossbreed between male lion and female tiger, can be over 4m long and are the largest cats in the world.

• Lipard or Liard is the proper term for a hybrid of a male lion with a leopardess. It is sometimes known as a reverse leopon. The size difference between a male lion and a leopardess usually makes their mating difficult.

• Liguar an offspring of a male lion and a female jaguar.

• Liliger an offspring of a male lion and a female liger.

• Litigon an offspring of a male lion and a female liger.

Random Animal Trivia

(Photo Source: Photobucket)

Random Trivia About Animals

1. If an ant was the same size as us, it would be twice as fast as a Lamborghini.

2. A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.

3. Slugs have four noses.

4. Tigers cannot purr. To show happiness, tigers squint or close their eyes.

5. Starfish is the wrong way to call a starfish, it should be 'Seastar'.

6. Jellyfish is not a fish, it is an echinoderms. The correct term is 'Seajelly'.

7. Secretariat was the first race horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown on June 9, 1973. They also made a movie about his life.

8. You can hear a Lion’s roar up to 5 miles away.

9. Small animals, like ants, cannot die by falling from any height.

10. Sarah, the fastest animal on land, is a speedy cheetah from Cincinnati Zoo who sprinted 100m in 6.13seconds. Over 3 seconds faster than Usian Bolt (9.58s).

11. There is a snake called Boomslang and its venom disables the blood clotting process and the victim may well die as a result of internal and external bleeding.

12. Elephants can die of a broken heart if a mate dies. They refuse to eat and will lay down, shedding tears until they starve to death.

13. When cats blink slowly at you, it is a sign of affection referred to as a "cat kiss."

14. To attract a female hippopotamus, the male poops and pees while spinning his tail to spray it around.

15. Lobsters resort to cannibalism while in captivity. This is why they have their claws secured with rubber bands in tanks at restaurants.

16. There are more than 260 known species of monkeys in the world.

17. Sea Otters keep rocks under their armpits. They carry their 'favorite rock' to smash open shellfish and clams, at a rate of up to 45 blows in 15 seconds.

18. Sea Otters do 'hold hands' when they sleep, so as to not drift apart in ocean currents.

19. Mother Sea Otters whose pups have died have been observed carrying the corpse for day, in apparent mourning.
 

20. Laika, originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly), is a russian street dog and the first living animal to be sent into space on November 3, 1957 at 2:30AM.