Logical thinking is most important in our life. It helps to identify the causes of failure and develop a suitable plan of action. Logic helps making decisions based on facts rather than emotions. Logical reasoning improves a person’s position in society. Logic influences all aspects of life.

Syllogism is an important part of Aristotle’s logic. It facilitates inference in which conclusion follows from two premises. We consider two kinds of syllogism: conditional and unconditional. Further, under conditional, there are two divisions: mixed and pure. Syllogism is a form of arguing in which two statements are used to prove that a third statement is true, for example, ‘All humans need to sleep; I am a human, therefore I need to sleep’. A syllogism applies logical reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two proportions that are established or assumed to be true. Aristotle defined the syllogism when two specific things have been supposed, something different, a third thing from the two supposed things results as logical reasoning.  

The use of syllogisms as a tool for understanding can be dated back to the logical reasoning proposed by Aristotle. The use of syllogism in real life lies in its ability to facilitate logical thinking to draw sound conclusions from given statements.

For example: i) All mammals are animals. All elephants are mammals. Therefore, all elephants are animals. Another example: ii) No doctors are children. Some immature people are doctors. Therefore, some immature people are not children. Look at this: iii) Some nice people are teachers. Some people with short hair are nice. Therefore, some teachers have short hair.

In everyday life, syllogisms can be applied to various situations where critical thinking and problem-solving are required. Syllogisms can be used to evaluate the validity of arguments: by breaking down an argument into its premises and conclusion, one can assess whether the inference logically follows from the given information.

It helps in making informed decisions: Syllogistic reasoning can help individuals to consider multiple factors, identify causal relationships, and arrive at well-reasoned conclusions when making decisions. For example: All love is wonder. She is wonderful. Therefore, she is lovely.

Syllogism Identifies to resolve logical myths. By recognizing the structure of a syllogism can aid in the identification of logical fallacies, such as the fallacy of ambiguity or the fallacy of affirming the sequent, which can commonly occur in everyday discourse. For example: All books from that store are new. These books are from that store. Therefore, these books are new.

Syllogism improves critical thinking and problem-solving: The systematic approach of syllogistic reasoning can enhance an individual’s ability to analyse information, identify assumptions, and draw logical inferences, which are essential skills in various professional and personal contexts.

Overall, the use of syllogism in real life lies in its ability to promote logical and analytical thinking, enhance decision-making, and foster effective communication and problem-solving skills, which are valuable in both professional and personal domains. Example: Most people get nervous when they tell lies. You appear nervous. You must be lying about something.

Various types of Syllogism based logical reasoning is part of competitive exams. Questions are being asked in different government and competitive examinations, which makes them the most important sections under the verbal reasoning section. It helps the examiners to check logical reason capacity of the examinees.  Syllogism consists of some statements, and candidates need to derive conclusions from the given statements. The statements and conclusions may seem to be illogical, but while solving questions related to syllogism in reasoning, candidates must assume the given statements to be 100% true.  In many ways, syllogistic fallacies are the ‘classic’ form of fallacy. Syllogism reasoning questions check the basic aptitude and ability of a candidate to derive reasonings from given statements using step-by-step methods of solving problems.

Happiness or true happiness is an inner quality. Some people are happy all through; for them it is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. Even if you have everything in world, you may not be necessarily happy. You might have the possession, power, money, name and fame, but still you might not be happy. Happiness is used in the context of mental, emotional, contentment, joy, satisfaction and wellbeing. We don’t bother of the definition or the description of happiness, we simply feel it.

The Greek Philosopher Aristotle (394-322 B.C.) observed that no person intentionally chooses to be unhappy. Then why human beings go in search of happiness? Why aren’t they always in the state of happiness? More than anybody else, Aristotle defined happiness as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. Aristotle is one of the greatest thinkers in the history of western science and philosophy. He made contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato.

The Greek word that usually gets translated as “happiness” is eudaimonia, and like most translations from ancient languages, this can be confusing. The main trouble is that happiness is often conceived of as a subjective state of mind. For Aristotle, however, happiness is a final end or goal that includes the totality of one’s life. He had described happiness in four levels. The names are in Latin.

I have connected the four levels of happiness described by Aristotle with Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche, the id, ego and super ego. Human psyche is structured into these three parts; they all develop at different stages in our lives. These are organisms, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical.

The Id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trend; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.

Happiness level 1: Laetus (immediate happiness gained from material objects) Laetus Happiness is short lived; it is simply about sensual gratification based on things. It is external in nature. For example you feel like eating ice-cream, you had it and the happiness is gone. This happiness has limitations. It is all about instant gratification. You buy a new car, you are happy for few days roaming in the car, showing it off to the world. You go for travel, eat a nice meal, go to an exotic restaurant, and wear anew dress, a new watch. It satisfies your instinctual drive. You want something and had it. It satisfies your id. The id is the disorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human’s basic, instinctual drives. The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. It is the source of a person’s bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses

Happiness level 2: Felix (ego gratification, achievements) This happiness comes from comparison: being better, looking superior to others, to be more admired than others etc. You experience this type of happiness when you score the highest marks, when you get an award, a medal, when you get promoted in job, when you marry the most sought after person. Everyone likes admiration and winning. It depends how much winning strength a person has. For some people it is everything, for others it’s just a very minor and very short lived pleasure.

Happiness from continuous comparison with other people is wobbly because very few people can win in all domains of life all the time. In case of failure, focusing too much on this level can lead to frustrations and a sense of irrelevance. Excessive focus on comparison and self-promotion is risky setting against the people around you and can lead to self-absorption, jealousy, pessimism, and the oppression of others.

This happiness level is linked to ego. Ego is the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious.

Happiness level 3: Beatitudo (contributive): This happiness comes from doing well for others and making the world a better place. This level of happiness is based on the human desire to connect with others with kindness, to help others in their difficult times. This happiness comes out of compassion, friendship, unity, togetherness and love. As this level we move away from ourselves to focus on the well-being of others. In quintessence our own happiness depends also on the happiness of others.

This happiness relates to super-ego which always aims for perfection. It plays the moralizing role in our lives. The super-ego balances good and bad in our life. It does not allow us to do bad work, but allows doing well. Super ego guides individual’s ego-ideals and spiritual goals. It drives our conscience; it criticizes and prohibits our drives such as fantasies, feelings, and actions. The Super-ego punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.

Happiness level 4: Sublime Beatitudo (enduring, eternal): This is the ultimate happiness, it is perfect happiness. This happiness is the most difficult to describe. It involves a search for completeness and fulfillment. It has to do with finding the right balance between the other levels of happiness i.e level one, two and three. Psychologists have labeled this desire for ultimate happiness a call for connection to the larger universe. This happiness is philosophical in nature. It has a lot to do with individual perspective. It is transcendent. When we realize that we cannot be in control of everything, when we realize that some things must be allowed to let go of, and that some things will be taken care by the universal energy.  We start looking for the beauty, truth, goodness, and love in nature, around us in small things.

Some fulfill this desire through spirituality or religion, others through philosophy, art, or scientific endeavors to find answers to some of the big questions of life, human existence and the universe. The fact is there is no ultimate or universal answer. This happiness is also connected it with super-ego.

To get the ultimate happiness you have to find your own calling!

An emotion is our individual manner of putting meaningful labels on experiences; we do it each moment and we do it automatically. Emotions are experienced as a sense of pressure directly tied to a physical sensation in the body; for example anger signals urgency to fight, to abuse verbally or physically someone who has angered you. Anger is usually tied to the sensation of heat in the face and preparedness in the limbs. Anger tends to hold the meaning that we need to oppose a foe. Similarly, joy is a sense of urgency to immerse yourself in the goodness around you. Joy is usually felt as pleasant warmth across the whole chest, neck, and midsection. Joy tells us to pay attention so that we can remember to have this same experience again. We urge in different ways to allow the joy to continue.

Emotions have a long evolutionary history; they are adaptive, but they have evolved over time in order to increase our reproductive fitness. Emotion plays an important role in issues of survival, and it involves both cognition and behavior. Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act quickly and take actions that will maximize our chances of survival and success. Our emotions have a major influence on the decisions we make, from what we decide to have for breakfast/lunch/dinner to which candidates we choose to vote for in political elections.

Naturalist Charles Darwin believed that emotions are alterations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce. When we are angry, we try to confront the source of our irritation. When we experience fear, we are likely to flee the threat. When we feel romantic, we go to seek out a mate and reproduce.

When we think about our emotions, we tend to think of them solely as states of feeling. Psychologist Robert Plutchik stated that there are eight basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Plutchik created the wheel of emotions, which illustrates the various relationships among the emotions.

Aristotle gave a systematic, practical account of the emotions and how they affect ethical actions and choices, which is the base of ethical theory. Aristotle stated that there is a special, interactive and reciprocal communication between the body and the mind (cognition). At the very core of the theory of emotions he comes up with is the idea that there are two types of emotion-based actions that go along with two basic emotion types: 1) some emotionally charged actions are much more cognitive than others and therefore we can say these actions are voluntary 2) some emotionally charged actions are so fast and intense that stopping them is almost impossible and therefore these actions are counter-voluntary.

Emotional intelligence is our ability to understand and manage emotions, has been shown to play an important role in decision-making. EI is also about recognizing and respecting other’s emotions. Emotional balance is the ability of the mind and body to maintain stability and flexibility in times of crisis in our life. Emotional balance promotes physical health, and is a precondition for our personal well-being and growth. What we experience as our mind is made up of our thoughts and emotions, and our happiness depends on us remaining in a balanced mental/emotional state. We all experience negative thoughts and emotions from time to time but if we stay in any state for too long we lose the ability to return to our balanced, neutral position which is called equanimity.

We basically find ourselves locked in number of negative states; such as anger, fear, worry, dissociation, self-sabotage or depression; agitation, impulsivity, anxiety, panic attacks and sleep trouble, lack of drive and motivation, or poor concentration. These stuck emotions run just below the level of realization, elusive yet often overpowering. These uncomfortable emotions can dominate our thinking process and give rise to incongruous reactions that impair our ability to be at our best.

Emotional balance facilitates our body and mind’s well-being by practicing emotional regulation and distress tolerance. Emotional regulation relates to identifying the emotions that are being felt in the moment, and observing them without being overwhelmed by them. Emotional regulation skills include self-soothing activities that help to reduce emotional intensity and provide a calming effect. It comes with meditation, calculated deep breathing, long walks, meeting friends regularly, taking short breaks from work and going for travels, yoga, listening to music you enjoy, progressive muscle relaxation, hiking, fishing, nurturing a hobby such as gardening, reading something pleasurable, spiritual practice, singing a favorite song, exercising, visualizing a comforting/relaxing image, journaling, etc.

You can practice some of these steps for striking the emotional balance:

Honor your emotion: A crucial reality of our life is to learn to acknowledge and express a full range of emotions; they can be negative or positive. The first step of balancing emotion is to honor an emotion; to realize the emotion and let go of it, if it’s negative. The fact is anger and sadness are an important part of life, and new research shows that experiencing and accepting such emotions are vital to our mental health. Acknowledging the complexity of life is in particular fruitful path to psychological well-being, https://www.urgentway.com/xanax-buy-now/.

Respond, don’t react: we gain emotional balance when we respond instead of reacting. It’s a fact that much of our lives we spend in reaction to others and to events around us. The problem is that these reactions are not always the best course of action, and as a result, they can make others unhappy, make things worse for us, and make the situation worse. The truth is we often react without thinking.

Have true compassion for your authentic self: Being authentic means that you act in ways that show your true self and how you feel. Rather than showing people only a particular side of yourself for impressing them. Instead, you express your whole self genuinely. That means to succeed in being authentic; you first need to know who your true self actually is.

Move on instead of getting stuck: It’s always better to get clarity about what is bothering you? Why? Whether you want to release the feeling or not? Honor the sadness, the mellowness, the opportunity to let your energy recede and flow and settle in a new way is the highest level of self-care. It is nice to just feel and not get attached to the thoughts. Do not force yourself to be happy or think positive, but just be; after a while move on.

Have gratitude for your existence: Do you feel thankful? It is truly a worthy and noble pursuit. Certainly, expressing thanks to all those who cross your path each day is a start. Being aware of those less fortunate than you, can also help you appreciate your blessings. Feeling of gratitude is most beneficial to balance your emotions. It also helps in balancing your life. To truly master gratitude, you must become grateful for it all. This means being grateful for the ups, the downs and the in-between. It means appreciating when times are easy, but also when times are hard.

Practice equanimity: It refers to a mind that is at peace even when you are stressful and in unpleasant experiences. It refers to one’s ability to stay relaxed and centered, in the midst of any situation. Equanimity is an acceptance of what is, the recognition of the truth of the moment. I think accepting reality is the beginning of balancing of emotions.

Models of communication are conceptual models used to explain the human communication process. We study models because they make us understand a concept easily and clearly. Through a model one can easily understand a process and draw conclusions from it. In simpler words a model makes the learning simpler. An individual must possess excellent communication skills to make his communication effective and create an impact among the listeners. The speaker must know where to take pauses, where to repeat the sentences, how to speak a particular sentence, how to pronounce a word and so on. The speaker must not go on and on. He should also make a point to cross check with the recipients and listen to their queries as well. An individual must take care of his accent while communicating. A bad accent leads to a boring conversation.

A communicator’s attitude matters. It is rightly said that if one has the right attitude, the whole world is at his feet. There is actually no stopping for the person if he has the right attitude. A person might be a very good speaker but if he doesn’t have the right attitude, he would never emerge as a winner. He must possess knowledge. He must have the clarity of the information which he wants to convey to the listeners. One must be thorough in what he is speaking with complete in-depth knowledge of the subject. Questions can pop up anytime and the speaker must be ready with answers.

Besides the attitude, knowledge the communicator must be aware of the Social System. Especially politicians must be most aware of the social system. A politician delivering a speech where he proposes to construct a temple in a Muslim dominated area. What would be the reaction of the listeners? They would obviously not be interested. Culture refers to the cultural background of the community or the listeners where the speaker is communicating or delivering his speech.

Here are a few communication models:

Aristotle: was the first to take an initiative and design the communication model. According to this model, the speaker plays a key role in communication. He is the one who takes complete charge of the message. The sender first prepares a content which he does by carefully putting his thoughts in words with an objective of influencing the listeners or the recipients. The listeners respond to the thoughts of the speaker positively or negatively depending on the contents. Aristotle model emphasizes on very impressive contents from the speaker; the audience or the receivers need to get convinced. The model says that the speaker communicates in such a way that the listeners get influenced and responds accordingly. The speaker must be very careful about his selection of words and content in this model of communication.

The Berlo’s model of communication:

This model takes into account the emotional aspect of the message. Berlo’s model of communication operates on the SMCR model.

In the SMCR model

S – Stands for Source

M – Message

C – Channel

R – Receiver

The source in other words is also called the sender is the one from whom the thought originates. He is the one who transfers the information to the receiver after carefully putting his thoughts into words. The sender transfers his information to the recipient with the help of communication skills, Attitude, Knowledge, Social System and Culture.

M – Message: When an individual converts his thoughts into words, a message is created. The process is also called as Encoding.

Any message further comprises of the following elements:

C – Content: One cannot show his grey matter to others to let him know what he is thinking. A thought has to be put into words and content has to be prepared. Content is actually the matter or the script of the conversation. It is in simpler words, the backbone of any communication.

R – Receiver: When the message reaches the receiver, he tries to understand what the listener actually wants to convey and then responds accordingly. This is also called as decoding. The receiver should be on the same wavelength as the speaker for smooth flow of information. If the speaker is going to speak on a topic of saving trees, and receiver is a builder who wants to chop trees for his upcoming construction both speaker and listener won’t enjoy the topic because they are on different perspectives.

Shannon and Weaver model: This is the most popular model of communication and is widely accepted all over the world. Shannon and weaver model simply proposes that a message actually originates from the person who gets the thought or has the information. The sender is also called the Source of information or the Information Source. The information then gets transmitted from the brain to the mouth and comes out as a signal which then reaches the recipient after joining hands with several noises and other disturbances. The recipient then further passes on the message to its final destination or other minds of other individuals.

Concepts in Shannon Weaver Model

Sender (Information source) – Sender is the person who makes the message, chooses the channel and sends the message.

Encoder (Transmitter) –Encoder is the sender who uses machine, which converts message into signals or binary data. It might also directly refer to the machine.

Channel –Channel is the medium used to send message.

Decoder (Receiver) – Decoder is the machine used to convert signals or binary data into message or the receiver who translates the message from signals.

Receiver (Destination) –Receiver is the person who gets the message or the place where the message must reach. The receiver provides feedback according to the message.

Noise –Noise is the physical disturbances like environment, people, etc. which does not let the message get to the receiver as what is sent.

This model takes communication as a two way process. It makes the model applicable in general communication.

Schramm’s Model of Communication:

Wilber Schramm proposed the model of communication in 1954. Information is of no use unless and until it is carefully put into words and conveyed to others. Encoding plays a very important role because it initiates the process of communication by converting the thought into content. Encoding means to convert body of information from one system to another system in the form of codes; and code is the system of symbol, sign or letters. When the information reaches the recipient, his prime responsibility is to understand what the speaker intends to convey. Decoding means that communication process is continuous. There is no end in it, because one encodes the message and the other decodes the message. Unless and until the second party is able to understand or decode the information what the sender wants to communicate, the message is actually of no use. Thus encoding and decoding are two most important factors of an effective communication without which information can never flow between two individuals. Schramm’s model also revolves around the above principle. According to the Schramm’s model, coding and decoding are the two essential processes of an effective communication.

The Helical Model of communication:

It was proposed by Frank Dance in 1967 to throw some more light on communication process. Dance thought of communication process similar to helix. What is a helix? A Helix is nothing but a smooth curve just like a spring which if goes upwards also comes downwards. The Helical model of communication was designed by Frank Dance keeping the simple Helix in mind. A child from the very moment he comes to this world starts communicating. When a baby is born, the nurse rubs his back to make the child cry. If the child doesn’t cry, it is an indication of a still born child. A child’s crying refers to his being alive. As the child grows up, he cries whenever he is hungry or expects something from his parents and sometimes simply for his parent’s attention. When the same child grows up and starts going to school, he soon interacts with his parents, teachers, friends in the form of words. Now crying actually gets replaced by words or his speech but one thing which is common is the process of communication which existed since the child’s birth. Thus the child actually started communicating from the very first day of his life and has been communicating all through till the present day.

Taking a walk a day keeps the doctor away, because both physically and mentally it keeps you fit. The early morning walk is power packed with first rays of the sun which are the reservoir of energy, which is why people who take their morning walks are most energetic, productive and cheerful throughout the day. We all are aware that walking helps from helping lose weight, getting de-stressed to lowering blood pressure and reducing risk of many chronic diseases. Walking shores up your bones. It can stop the loss of bone mass for those with osteoporosis. Walking lowers Alzheimer’s risk. A study from the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville found that men between the ages of 71 and 93 who walked more than a quarter of a mile per day had half the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, compared to those who walked less.

For women post menopause, 30 minutes of walking each day reduces their risk of hip fractures by 40 percent. Walking supports your joints. The majority of joint cartilage has no direct blood supply. It gets its nutrition from synovial or joint fluid that circulates as we move. Impact that comes from movement or compression, such as walking, squashes the cartilage bringing oxygen and nutrients into the area. If you don’t walk, joints are deprived of life-giving fluid, which can speed deterioration. Just a caution for what is called a brisk walk: it is a relative term, since “brisk” for some, is either slow or quite speedy for others, depending on levels of fitness. One measure to quantify brisk walking is “steps per minute,” and 100 steps per minute is considered moderate intensity or brisk walking. A precious advice to all is: listen to your body, your body keeps giving the signal for slowing down, warming up or speeding up.

Walking is free, all it requires a good pair of shoes. Besides great physical benefits, walking improves creativity in human.

Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, was known for his walking meetings. Jobs used to invite people to walk with him, various matters were discussed during the walk and post walk decisions were informed to the concerned people. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has also been seen holding meetings on foot because he believes that pacing back and forth on occasion has tremendous good ideas coming to mind. A new study by Stanford researchers provides an explanation for this. Creative thinking improves while a person is walking and shortly thereafter.  The study found that walking indoors or outdoors similarly boosts creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and the environment is the main factor. The study found that creativity levels are consistently and significantly higher for those walk compared to those who simply sit. Walking helps improve learning, memory and cognition.

Albert Einstein the great theoretical physicist and father of modern physics, who was also a prolific writer of non-scientific work, often felt like he needed to take a long walk on the beach to introspect and work out complex problems in his head. He was advised by his doctors in the late 18th century that living by the beach to improve overall health. Einstein used to love his beach walks, because it helped to solve a lot of complex problem.

Friedrich Nietzsche is known as one of Western culture’s most influential philosophers. And he did much more than just philosophize. He was also an accomplished classical scholar, professor, poet and avid author. The secret of his creativity was – he used to walk each day and during those walks he used to get inspirational thoughts, on which he created classical writing.

Charles Dickens is known for his attention to detail in his lengthy novels. A lesser known fact is how Dickens got to know London inside and out- twenty-mile-long speed walks in the middle of the night! His walks served him for more than data-gathering. Dickens claimed that writing didn’t come easy to him and it put him under immense stress. He would go on five-hour-long walks to relieve this anxiety. His walks grew so long that his friends thought he was mentally ill. After writing from 9 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, he would go for a long walk almost a 20- or 30-miles. This was routine for him. When Dickens couldn’t sleep at night, which used to happen frequently, he would go strolling on London’s streets until dawn. Dickens walked so much that his worried friends felt he had a mania for walking. But clearly, the walking worked; Dickens was prolific, writing more than a dozen major and well-regarded novels, several short story collections, a few plays, and even some non-fiction books.

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, empiricist, and pupil to Plato, conducted his lectures while walking the grounds of his school in Athens. His followers who quite literally followed him as he walked were even known as the travelers. Really, it’s so inspiring to know the great minds utilized the cognitive benefits of walking while thinking, and it’s so incredible. Imagine walking with your teacher, while listening to his teaching.

It’s so very inspiriting to know that the poet William Wordsworth walked nearly 175 thousand miles throughout his life while preserving a prolific writing career! He managed these two seemingly opposing habits for two reasons. First, for writing poems requires shorter time than novels but poems require rhythm, which he would get with his style of walk with a tempo.   Second, Wordsworth’s walking was writing, in a way, he believed the act of walking was inseparable from the act of writing poetry. Both writing poetry and walking are rhythmic, both acts engaged meter (meter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot) and walking is counted in the unit of meter. Wordsworth needed to walk in order to write.

Back to importance of walking: a recent study has found that changing the way you walk can change your mood and boost happiness. While it’s long been known that our mood can affect our posture, as people who are sad often slump their shoulders, and those who are happy tend to have a bounce in their step, researchers have found that the reverse is also true. A slumped, sluggish gait might indicate sadness or distress, while someone with a bounce in her step is clearly in high spirits. But after walking for few minutes, mood boosts up.

Just 30 minutes of walk every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance. It can also reduce your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, memory loss and some cancers. Research shows that regular walking actually modifies the nervous system so much that the walker experiences a decrease in anger and hostility. Walking helps increasing social life, because you get to know new people around – a neighbor, or a good friend, with whom the interaction helps feel connected. What are you waiting for? Put on your shoes and go for your walk because all truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.