It’s not always physical appearance that makes a person look attractive. Someone can be charming and adorable because they possess qualities that can’t be physically seen.

You know, it’s not always easy to say the reasons why you like someone. Perhaps it’s the way they laugh or communicate their ideas; perhaps it’s their sharp or sarcastic wit; or perhaps it’s just that they make you feel comfortable when you’re around them.

Whatever the reason, there’s just something about them that makes them extremely attractive and irresistible. It’s like they possess some magnetic force that attracts everyone around them, and I repeat – this has nothing to do with their looks.

Are you wondering what qualities make you attractive in more than just physical ways? If your answer is yes, then continue reading:

1. Self-awareness.

People who are self-aware are attractive because they’re approachable and easy to maintain a relationship with. Why?

Because they know both their strengths and weaknesses. They’re aware of their insecurities, fears, and failures and they don’t feel ashamed because of them. They also never beat about the bush, but express their feelings and opinions honestly and directly.

So, if you want to make yourself attractive, be more aware of both your good sides and flaws. Accept and cherish yourself the way you are. And, of course, be more straightforward and direct in your conversations with others.

2. Confidence.

People who feel comfortable in their own skin and believe in their abilities and strength ooze charm. Confident people know exactly who they are and they don’t feel the need to pretend to be someone they’re not so as to impress others, and jealousy is a term they know nothing of.

When you believe in and feel good about yourself, it means you’re in control of your emotions and actions. It also means that you possess the willingness and courage to deal with tough situations and face challenges and risks. And last but not least, it means you’re not afraid to take responsibility and apologize for your mistakes.

Believe me, the more you ooze confidence, the more charismatic and attractive you’ll appear to others.

3. Have big goals.

People easily get attracted to someone who has clear, high goals and works hard to fulfill them. Someone who knows what they want in life and what their priorities are. Someone who believes in and pursues their dreams no matter how unattainable these may appear to others.

On the other hand, a person who has no goals and desires and who doesn’t know where they’re headed in life is like a book without an idea and a message. Why would anyone read such a book?

4. Stop complaining.

A person who constantly complains about how miserable their life is or how dissatisfied they’re with their physical appearance can never be attractive. Nobody wants to be in the presence of someone who constantly whines and talks about their problems.

So, instead of being negative and complaining about your problems, or about what you don’t have in life, or about your lost opportunities, focus on and start to appreciate all that you have in life.

Remind yourself of your abilities, potential, and successes and put your energy, time, and thoughts into finding a solution to whatever is bothering you.

5. Body language.

The first impression you leave on someone depends, in good part, on your body language. Standing straight, making eye contact, and smiling more often when talking with someone will certainly make you look confident and attractive to the point of being irresistible.

6. Focus on the person you’re talking with.

Unless it’s important to answer a call or replay to a message, don’t use your phone when you’re having a conversation with someone. You can check your inbox on Facebook or how many likes your selfie on your Instagram profile has after you finish talking with the other person.

It’s really rude to stare at your phone or elsewhere when talking to someone. So, make sure you avoid all distractions and pay more attention to what the other person is saying instead. Let them know you’re attentively listening to them and show interest in their opinions.

Trust me – there isn’t a person who doesn’t enjoy being around someone who is an amazing listener.

7. Become a great storyteller.

There’s something very attractive about a person who is an amazing speaker and can start a good, interesting conversation. You don’t have to be extremely talented to make almost every story compelling or funny.

Just speak with clarity and confidence, make eye contact, and use humor. Express your ideas in a clear, and yet, pleasant and entertaining way. Make jokes at your expense and be positive. And in cases where you’re telling sad stories, make sure you show emotions.

8. Don’t copy others.

There’s no point in imitating someone’s facial expressions or the way they talk, walk, or dress because this doesn’t make you unique or irresistible at all.

So, instead of copying someone, or pretending to be someone you’re not, be yourself. Show that you have your own identity and feel good in your own skin.

By being yourself, you’ll never have to wonder whether you look attractive, charismatic, and irresistible to others. Because you’ll know you do.

Image : fotoyorum

There isn’t a person who hasn’t experienced conflicts and arguments with someone. Because even the calmest, coolest, and most collected person will lose their temper at some point. And when this happens, it’s really hard, almost impossible, for anyone to control what will happen next.

However, what we can certainly control is the way we react when we find ourselves in situations that make us feel frustrated, angry, and disappointed. Instead of letting your strong, negative emotions get the best of you, you should learn to recognize, acknowledge, and handle them.

Instead of making unnecessary drama, i.e. shouting at and/or insulting the other person, you have to think about and re-evaluate the reasons for the conflict, and, of course, try to stay calm and collected as much as you possibly can before you say or do something you’ll regret later.

Here are 6 simple, effective ways to keep your cool during an argument:

1. Take a deep breath.

When you feel like you’re going to fly off the handle, remember to take a deep breath and count to ten. This will help you remain calm since slow and deep breathing reduces the production of the stress hormones – cortisol and adrenaline.

So, remember, deeply inhale through the nose and slowly exhale through the mouth and watch how your whole body gets more and more relaxed.

2. Focus on your body posture.

Focusing on the way your body moves during an argument can really help you stay calm. You’ll notice that in such situations you’re very tensed and you tend to show aggressive bodily movements, such as tapping your feet or balling up your fists. Your breathing gets shallow too.

When you notice that your body starts to tense, relax your hands and shoulders, take a deep breath, and try to return your body to a more neutral state.

3. Don’t raise your voice.

I know that keeping your voice down is a hard thing to do when you’re angry, but the volume of your voice is something that can decide whether a conversation will turn into a conflict or not.

Of course, raising your voice always results in a conflict. But, if you really want to solve the problem causing the conflict, you should lower your voice. In this way, you’ll make yourself appear calm and relaxed, which in turn will calm the other person. How great this is, isn’t it?

4. Listen attentively.

Instead of taking everything personally, or hurrying to respond immediately, or insulting and cursing the other person, try to patiently listen to what they have to say. This technique is beneficial for both sides because it makes the other person know you’re paying attention to their words and it also helps you better understand their point of view.

And, of course, in this way, you also gain the necessary information for an appropriate, intelligent, effective response.

5. Don’t ask “Yes” and “No” questions.

Instead, ask them questions beginning with “Why,” “What,” and “How.” In this way, you’ll show the other person that you’ve been carefully listening to them as well as that you want them to fully express their opinions rather than answer to your questions with a simple yes or no.

6. Agree to disagree.

Not every argument will produce results that will be satisfying for both sides. However, you can prevent the conflict from escalating by ending it before things start getting out of control.

So, if you can’t get the other person see and understand your point of view, which means that the conversation is going nowhere, or if you notice that they’re very hostile and negative,  then you don’t have an option – other than to exit the argument and walk away.

Unfortunately, depression is a very common mental disorder. Anyone who’s had the misfortune to suffer from it knows very well how not only mentally, but emotionally and physically incapacitating and frustrating it can be.

There are thousands of videos online in which people who are either still struggling with depression or have already won the battle talk about their experience with this nightmarish health condition.

And I can say that the most powerful as well as thought-provoking assessment of depression is the one given by one of the most famous and talented Hollywood stars – Jim Carrey.

Actor Jim Carrey is best known for his energetic, slapstick performances, which have made him one of Hollywood’s most profitable stars.

He opened up about his experience with depression in a powerful, eye-opening interview that will certainly cause you to think more deeply about this mental disorder.

He openly talked about his battle with the illness for the first time in 2004. However, in 2017, he claimed that he no longer had depression.

“At this point, I don’t have depression. There is not an experience of depression. I had that for years, but now, when the rain comes, it rains, but it doesn’t stay. It doesn’t stay long enough to immerse me and drown me anymore.”

In the interview, Carrey shares with the world how he sees depression and what he realized after years of fame.

He explains that there’s no point spending our entire lives trying to create some specific identity for ourselves. In his opinion, our desire to be important, to be successful, to be someone is nothing else but ego.

He argues that whether you’re famous and successful or have nice clothes and drive fancy cars is totally irrelevant since none of these things is where happiness comes from.

These things are just ideas, but such that do us more harm than good. And the only way to put an end to this frustration and suffering is to let go of the desire to be “important,”  to be “someone.”  As Carrey nicely puts it: “The feeling of wholeness is a different feeling than me-ness.”

And he knows this the best because he explains that Jim Carrey was just one of the many characters he’s played.

And this together with the fact that people commonly mistake depression for sadness, Carrey points out that there’s a huge difference between the two:

“Sadness is just from happenstance – whatever happened or didn’t happen for you, or grief, or whatever it is. And depression is the body saying f*ck you, I don’t want to be this character anymore. I don’t want to hold up this avatar that you’ve created in the world. It’s too much for me.

And you should think of the word ‘depressed’ as ‘deep rest.’ Your body needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character that you’ve been trying to play.”

Is it possible that something you do for pleasure and fun, in fact, make you smarter and more productive?

Well, I have good news for you – it certainly is. It turns out that practicing your favorite hobbies is not only a way to deal with stressful situations more easily, or have fun, or relax, but also helps sharpen your mental skills. 

Your intelligence levels can be increased by exposing your brain to new stimuli. When you challenge your brain, it forms neural pathways which make it work better and more quickly. So, the more you challenge your brain, i.e. gain new skills and learn new things, the stronger your brain gets.

Wonderful, isn’t it?

So, in what follows, there’s a list of 6 super creative hobbies you can indulge in while sharpening your brain. So, make sure you practice as more of them as you can.

Here they are:

1. Learn to play a musical instrument.

Whether you choose to play the violin or strum the bass, you won’t make a mistake either way. Not only will you enhance your motor skills, but also your analytical, math, and language skills.

Playing a musical instrument strengthens the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the brain by forming new connections. And a strengthened corpus callosum improves the memory and the problem-solving skills as well as the overall function of the brain, irrespective of your age.

2. Read anything.

The positive effects of reading are the same whether you’re reading Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece Anna Karenina, or some daily newspaper, or enjoying Game of Thrones. Reading reduces your stress levels, thereby making you feel better about yourself.

Reading also increases the three types of intelligence – fluid, crystallized, and emotional that enable you to understand processes, detect patterns and identify and respond to the feelings of others.

3. Do regular exercises.

I guess you’ve never thought that exercising can do as much good to your brain as it does to your body.  Well, let me tell you that exercising can really keep your mind sharp.

However, here, exercise doesn’t refer to the occasional going to the gym or doing push-ups at home. Instead, it means that you should do exercises on a daily basis. Because when you exercise regularly, your body produces more BDNF, a protein that helps the brain create new connections and protect its healthy cells. This protein also helps with memory, concentration, learning, and understanding.

4. Learn a new language.

If you want to improve your problem-solving and planning skills, learn a new language. Speaking at least two languages improves your perception of your environment and enables you to better focus your attention to processes.

Additionally, speaking two or more languages can come in really handy when you travel abroad or come across tourists in your city. And here’s an interesting fact I’d like to share with you: research has shown that bilingual speakers are better at solving puzzles than their monolingual friends.

5. Test your cumulative learning.

The only way you can make sure the things you learn are stored in your long-term memory is by testing your cumulative learning. One reason why learning a new language sharpens your brain is that it requires cumulative learning. For example, you constantly learn new vocabulary and grammar rules, and, of course, you need to continually revise them.

But you can test your cumulative learning in your everyday life, not only when learning a new language. You can do this by keeping track of keywords from the books you read, observations you make during important meetings or anything new you learned that day. You can also keep a small journal of anything that captures your attention.

6. Meditate.

Did you know that by meditating you can control your brain waves and feel whatever way you want to feel? For example, you can feel more confident when you’re asking your boss for a rise. Or you can feel more powerful and look more convincing when you’re doing business with someone.

And I believe we all already know how doing meditation exercises reduces your stress levels and makes you feel more relaxed.