Are you a V, A, or K?

Last Sunday there was an interesting title of Darcy Rezac's "Positive Networking Tips" weekly note, which attracted me at 9am. This weekly tips contain useful hints for impressive communication, networking, making connections, and related topics, and the title of the latest one was "Are you a V, A, or K?". Not finding the letter of my initials among the possible options, I jumped to the content to see what they are talking about. The crux is the following, and I am citing from their note to be maximally precise.

"In his book, How To Make People Like You in 90 seconds or Less, Nicholas Boothman says that one of the key components of building rapport with someone is to first figure out if they are a Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic person. You can do this by listening to the words they use when they speak. "Visuals tend to use picture words: 'I see what you are saying.' Auditories choose sound words: 'Sounds familiar' and Kinesthetics favour physical words: 'Hang in there'.” Once you have identified someone’s sensory preference, you can respond using their language -- get on their wavelength. Try it this week with your work colleagues, boss and even your spouse. Chances are they will walk away from that conversation feeling like you two are really connected."

Being able to make connections is a valuable asset. Why don't you do one more step forward towards making your connections better? Just try to figure out whether they are V, A, or K.


You can find more information about the "Positive Networking Tips" and about the very useful book published by the same authors at www.workthepond.com.

Being Aware of Brainwashing

Brainwashing has always been a strong, sometimes evil, but quite successful method for influencing the minds of the targeted people. The brainwashers, be it an individual or an entire country, normally have exact expectations from their prey, and may affect their beliefs, perceptions, and judgments. Though, depending on the  level of civilization and the culture, in different societies the brainwashing is done using different techniques, the main approaches remain the same. Let me expose some of  the variations of this hideous allurement.

One of the main sources to affect people's minds is the controlled media. It is mainly used for political and personal reasons, and normally has a huge impact on its users. With the growth of the online magazines with increasing number of users, this method becomes more significant over time. If you are seeking true and unbiased information, it is always good to use more than one information source with different political and strategic orientations. The same applies to the individual cases too. It is important to consciously avoid being misinformed and used.

Another brainwashing method is trying to affect person's emotional state, making him/her feel guilty, angry, or satisfied. People are human beings and cannot always disregard their emotions. They may occasionally have emotional imbalance, and this is usually the time when they are the most vulnerable. While emotions are among the main gifts that make our lives meaningful, it is important to be able to control them and always be cautious.

Last but not the least, I would like to talk about the method when people make favorable moves or say things we want to hear or things that coincide with our opinion, in order to extract desired information from us. Having friends and developing trusts with them is an inherent subconscious property for human beings, and we tend to be open to those people who share their opinions and are open towards us. Not questioning the value of the true friendship and the genuine relationships towards other people, it is worthy be alert and do not fall into the trap.

The brainwashing has always been malicious threat to our minds, but this is one of the reasons why the true relationships are so precious... Live honestly! 

About Armenian Lavash

Two days ago I was invited for a dinner by a family which I respect a lot, and we started to talk about the common breads in Armenia. It turned out that no-one has ever heard about the Armenian national bread called Lavash, and it seems that only very few people in Canada know about Lavash. In order to let Canadian people and everyone else in the world know more about Armenian culture in general, and Lavash in particular, I am providing the web-link where you can find the description, ingredients, as well as the preparation methods of Lavash. One day you may want to try it yourself!

 http://www.whats4eats.com/breads/lavash-recipe