Asymmetry of Spontaneous and Deliberate Smiles

Asymmetric facial expressions such as smirk express negative emotions in everyday communication. Asymmetry in smile shows emotions of contempt, doubt, disapproval, etc. Ekman et al. conducted a study to determine the dynamics of asymmetry of spontaneous and deliberate smiles on the sides of face. 

In the first part of study, 36 children were asked to imitate facial expressions shown on screen. Correctly imitated expressions were chosen to study asymmetric deliberate expressions. To study asymmetric spontaneous expressions, experimenter told them jokes to elicit spontaneous smiles. In second part of study, 35 female adults were shown a pleasant film and a stress inducing film. Their responses while watching these films were recorded.

The asymmetry in Zygomatic Major, which is a primary muscle involved in smile was evident in data collected from children and adults. 

The asymmetrical deliberate smiles occurred frequently on the left side of face; while asymmetrical spontaneous smiles occurred frequently on the both sides of face. Asymmetrical spontaneous smiles were evenly divided between left and right side of face. This implies that asymmetry is more prevalent on left side of face when it comes to posed expressions.

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Reference - P. Ekman, Wallace Friesen and J.C. Hager. University of California, San Francisco.
Research paper name – The Symmetry of Emotional and Deliberate Facial Actions.
Published in - American Association for the Advancement of Science (1980)

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Smiling Faces Are Better for Face Recognition

This challenges the common notion of using neutral face images for face recognition. As smile is the most common expression, it can be used for optimizing performance when tens of thousands or even million faces are to be recognized. 

To test this, Yakoob and Davis, from University of Maryland, conducted an experiment in two parts. Two databases containing neutral and smiling face images of same person in each database were used. For first part of experiment, 10 subjects from first database were used. The discrimination power was calculated for smiling and neutral faces. 

It was found that the discrimination power was more for smiling expression than for neutral expressions which showed that smiling faces are better in face recognition.

In second part of the experiment, more face images were added from second database. In first stage of second part, 0-15 faces were added. Then in second stage, 0-40 faces were added again. The average discriminating power was calculated. 

In both stages, the average discriminating power of smiling faces was more than the average discriminating power of neutral faces which again showed that smiling faces are better for face recognition. 

To detect a face of person in video clips, expressive faces such as smiles will be more cooperative for access applications as well as surveillance purposes.

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Reference – Yaser Yakoob and Larry Davis. Computer Vision Laboratory, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20472. Research paper name - Smiling Faces Are Better for Face Recognition. Published In - Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (2002).

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How We Smile While Lying

Using a smile to conceal negative or genuine feelings can be a smart thing to avoid dispute or exposing honest feelings which can create problems. Ekman et al. conducted an experiment to know the difference between how people smile genuinely and how they smile when they are lying about pleasant feelings. 

47 student nurses were recruited for this study. They were videotaped while watching two short films. One short film was arousing pleasant feelings and another, arousing upsetting feelings.  Two scenarios were set to give their responses to an interviewer. In honest scenario, they were asked to discuss their honest feelings about film arousing pleasant feelings. 

In deceptive scenario, they had to convince interviewer that they experienced pleasant feelings while watching film arousing upsetting and depressing feelings.

Two types of smiles were distinguished as felt happy smiles and masking smiles. Felt happy smiles were identified by the activity of muscles around the eyes along with corners of mouth raised.

While masking smile is identified by raising corners of mouth only. It was found that when enjoyment was experienced, felt happy smiles occurred more often than masking smile. 

When subjects attempted to hide strong negative emotions, masking smile occurred more often than felt happy smiles. When you don’t see any activity around the eyes when someone is smiling; tell them you caught them lying and ask what is that they are hiding.

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Reference – Paul Ekman, Wallace Friesen, University of California, San Francisco. Maureen O’Sullivan, University of San Francisco. 

Research paper name – Smiles When Lying. 

Published in – Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1988)

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The Ideal Duration Of Smile Between Performer And Observer

Smile is meant to make people feel pleased to see you. Making a positive impression on others is dependent on the duration of smile. Hanibuchi et al. did a study to determine how observers perceive smile based on the duration of smiles. The smile patterns differed in duration between was fast (275 ms), normal (550 ms) and slow (1100 ms). 6 actors who can express smiles easily were selected for smiling for different duration. Actors as well as 20 other participants who were university and graduate students were observers for evaluating the experiment.

They found different results for actors and other participants who were not trained for smiling. Actors had more positive impressions when duration of smile was normal, which is 550 ms, and negative impressions in slow and fast conditions. While participants had more positive impressions when duration of smile was slow and fast. The duration for which smile should be given depends on who is on the receiving end. So make sure whether your crush is an actress or not before you give a smile to her.

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Reference - Shumpei Hanibuchi, Shogo Nishida and Kyoko Ito. Graduate School of Engineering Science Osaka University. 

Research paper name - A study of impression differences between smile performers and observers -Toward the Significance of Smile Training. 

Published in – IEEE (2010)

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This Study Shows How Distinguishable Smiles Are

Having emotions in robotics is advantageous in various ways. Giving a pleasant experience in human-machine interaction will be practicable. For service providers, smiling makes a huge difference in order to create a friendly environment. Incorporating smiles in robots will lead to better performance as virtual agents. This study helps in using smiling to enhance the rating of users to performance of robot or virtual agents.

Borutta et al. (2009) introduced a psychological system-theoretic approach to generate various types of smiles in robots artificially. They also described seven different types of smiles and discussed the hypothesis whether smiles are distinguishable.

A system-theoretic approach was based on the Zurich Model of Social Motivation, which describe the effect of smiling on emotional state of a human. Each of the type of smile among seven types of smile was based on one of the three state dimensions – security, arousal or autonomy.

Security – 1. Trustful Smile 2. Smile of Relief 3. Embarrassed Smile
Arousal – 4. Anxious Smile 5. Surprised Smile
Autonomy – 6. Superior Smile 7. Inferior Smile

Total 20 participants, 10 male and 10 female, took part in experiment in which 126 videos were shown to each participant with 18 videos of each type of smile. The experiment was conducted in two parts. In first part, participants answered this question – “What happens in this situation and how does the person feel?” In second part, participants answered this – “Which kind of smile is shown?” and had to answer among seven types of smile.

The results of first part show that fearful and embarrassed smiles were identified rarely. Inferior smile was mixed with dominance. Best results were obtained for trustful and surprised smiles. The results of second part show that there was a great variation in accuracy of classification by participants. Some of them had accuracy of 19%, while some of them achieved up to 50%.

The overall results show that the classification rate is higher for some types of smiles, especially trustful, surprised and inferior smile. In comparison, superior and embarrassed smiles were classified worst. The frequency response for trustful and anxious smile was similar, so they had been mixed up frequently. 

The perception of smiling as a positive emotion, weaknesses in animation and presenting some situations in fast motion to participants were major challenges before researchers. But, they were successful to generate seven different types of smiles and some of those types of smiles were distinguishable.

This study gave helpful insights about how to design emotions of robots or virtual agent based on ability of people to distinguish smiles.

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Reference - 

Researchers - Isabell Borutta , Stefan Sosnowski , Michael Zehetleitner, Norbert Bischof and Kolja Kuhnlenz

Research paper name - Generating Artificial Smile Variations Based on a Psychological System - Theoretic Approach

Published in: The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication

Toyama, Japan, Sept. 27-Oct. 2, 2009

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Image Courtesy - 

Trustful - Image courtesy of adamr at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Surprised - Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Embarrassed - Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Anxious - Image courtesy of Gualberto107 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Automated System For Detecting Asymmetric Spontaneous Smiles

Asymmetric smiles show contempt, disapproval, doubt and defiance. When we see a guy not able to solve a simple mathematical equation or not aware in which foreign country the prime minister’s will be; only one corner of lip goes up while smiling on his lack of common knowledge. This asymmetry indicates a strong negative emotion.

To develop a system detecting spontaneous asymmetric smiles as people watched online videos, Senechal et al. did a study including one-sided and asymmetric facial expressions. The right facial nerve is independent of left facial nerve. When it comes to lower part of face, the muscles are contralateral which makes us easier to perform asymmetric expressions such as smirk. As muscles of upper face are bilateral, performing asymmetric movements is difficult. Try to raise only one eyebrow like the famous eyebrow-raising of ‘The Rock’.

Researchers collected and labeled 2265 videos of spontaneous data of clips ranging from 30 seconds to a minute. They also collected 200 posed videos in participants were asked to pose various asymmetric facial expression with slight variations like tilting their head. The template matching technique was used to identify asymmetric smiles in spontaneous data clips.

For each frame of video, the face was located, scaled, cropped and flipped around vertical axis to train and test. It was found that training with combination of mixed and spontaneous data gave best results.

After training and testing, they achieved 69% precision in detection which can be interpreted as only 1 false detection of asymmetric smile in every 85 videos. This system can be used for automatic detection of spontaneous asymmetric smiles. This provides valuable understanding of how people take part while watching videos or films. The emotions they convey while watching a fiction or real film gives insights about human nature through different aspects.

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Reference - 

Researchers - Thibaud Senechal, Jay Turcot and Rana el Kaliouby. Affectiva Inc., Waltham,

MA, USA.

Research paper name - Smile or Smirk? Automatic Detection of Spontaneous Asymmetric

Smiles to Understand Viewer Experience.

Published in: Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG), 2013. 10th IEEE International Conference.

5 Reasons Why It Is Necessary To Take Risks In Life

Everybody wants to achieve something in life. We don’t want to go to our deathbed realizing our life didn’t mean anything, or we didn’t live the life we wanted, but lived the life what others wanted us to live. The regrets are so painful in the end, but the time has gone. We can’t do anything at that point of time. Only choice we left at that time is embrace the death with regrets.

There is always a choice to do what we always wanted to do and leave the life that we don’t find worthy of living. To lead the life we want to live, to become the master of our fate, we need to make some tough decisions. They might be unreasonable, but the most important ones. One of those decisions is taking risks. 

Taking risks does not only involve business, it also involves taking risk to chose the career we are passionate about, to take the unexplored path with no guarantee of success, fighting in a war for our nation, driving at speeds greater than average speed to experience the thrill or climbing a mountain and much more things that has uncertainty of outcome. Here are some reasons why taking risks is necessary in life:

1. We come out of comfort zone

When we take risks, we have to stretch ourselves. We have to do things we have never done before. Facing challenges and setbacks is inevitable. We have to overcome fear in order to get things done. It takes us out of our comfort zones and each time we come out of comfort zone, we grow. That growth leads us to the success. Due to taking risks, living at the highest potential is possible. We use every bit of us to get what we want. As we grow mentally and emotionally, it makes us a stronger person.

2. Thinking at a whole new level

When we play safe, we do not stretch ourselves, we do what is comfortable, and we think small. We do not explore the options that involve stretching out minds, thinking in a different way. We do ordinary things without realizing our true potential. But by taking risks, we put everything on the line, so we think at a whole new different level and we are astonished to know how we could even think that much. We surround ourselves with global thinkers who teach us how to think different in different situations to make the most of it. Thinking creates the outer environment and consequently the results of our actions. In the end, we realize the results are worth it.

3. Eliminates unnecessary things

We have the bigger fish to fry, so we don’t get attached to unnecessary small things. Sacrificing good things for great things can give staggering results, so we give more attention to what matters the most. A small diversion can ruin the efforts we took to reach certain level. So we eliminate unnecessary things, unnecessary conversions, and unnecessary relationships that waste our time. We focus on productivity, not the trash. Getting attached to small things or people can drain the productivity which causes failure. The mind will be trained to focus on things that are important and necessary.

4. Win big

Those who risk big, win big. Taking chances is necessary, because regrets cause more pain than a pain of failure. We cannot win every time, but the efforts are worth it. Because with each failure comes a lesson to try more intelligently next time. To win big, risking the failure is necessary. Walt Disney, founder of Mickey Mouse had faced bankruptcy seven times. He didn’t hesitate to risk failure next time. He took risks on his creativity and he is one of the greatest artists of all time. Those who risk big, win big and live extraordinary lives. The rewards are even greater than we can ever imagine.

5. People admire those with courage

People greatly admire those who have guts to take risks. We can uplift others to live the life they want to live. So it not only benefits us but also those around us and many more people who we don’t even know. The impact on lives on people in a positive way is a better currency there is. It is not about the money, but making an impact that will last long and inspire others to live life to their highest potential and make them free from mediocre way of living.

Risks not only make a better person but also teach many important life lessons. Even though we fail, we emerge as an improved person who is wise and can help others from the experiences he had.

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WHY DO I MAKE WRONG CHOICES EVERY TIME?

Why things go right when others make choices for me and go wrong when I make choices for myself? Do I not know how to predict what will work and what will not? We can’t be right every time when we make choices, but I am not able to any exception for that when I made a choice for myself. Or I get so desperate to prove myself right that I forget to do what is right, to enjoy the journey, not thinking about the consequences and proving others that I’m right. Or I make some irrational choices those are certain to fail because those are out of the world and don’t fit into the world or so called system.

When others make choices for me, they make it according to system and those will be right as those are according to system and system always wins. But what’s the point in going according to system if our beliefs differ from what system says. When we make choices those are against the current, the level of determination required to swim is greater than which is required for swimming with current. The dead fish can swim with the flow. A lot of people swim with the flow, because they don’t have reason to swim against the current. When those who dare to swim against and fail, they judge them on the same ability required to flow with the current.

Yes, swimming against the current is an irrational decision, an unreasonable choice. But is it necessary to make the right choices every time. If we start making the right choices every time, then from where we will learn? Either we are so intelligent that we tested everything that could go wrong or we are so fortunate that everything turns out to be as planned. But both of these things are irrational. To test everything we have to know what could go wrong and that wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from the wrong choices. The mistakes or wrong choices made as early as possible have an advantage. The more wrong choices we make, the wiser we become at early age.

When I make wrong choices, every time it makes me wiser. Let go what people think about it. Only those who are dissatisfied with themselves judge others. Instead of helping and learning from others’ bad choices, they are content with the failures to make them feel good about themselves. It gives them satisfaction that there are losers in the world other than me. But those who fail due to irrational decisions and learn something from it, which makes them wiser, are they failure? Should they be judged on the same scale as others who are right because they made choices based on what flowing with current says, what system says. Anybody can do that, even the dead fish. But that’s not a choice. That’s not taking any decision due to fear of failure. Actually it is not wrong to make choice to go with the flow. The types of difficulties are different on both paths. Flowing with current involves competition, crowd and unpredictability of existence. Swimming against involves fear of failure, isolation and uncertainty. What’s wrong is judging people who make choice of swimming against current and flowing with current on same scale.

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OPEN MINDED - WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN?

Open minded are not those who say that they are open minded in today’s open minded world, but never let their girls wear small cloths thinking it provokes rape. Open minded people are not those who say they are open minded but do not let their child marry a girl from another caste. Open minded are not those who say they are open minded, but after knowing a girl’s best friend is a boy, they think she sleeps with him. Open minded are not those who say they are open minded, but never want to marry a non-virgin girl thinking that she is a slut. Open minded are not those who say they are open minded, but have problem with their children who want to follow their dreams, because their dreams are impossible. Open minded are not those who say they are open minded, but never accept homosexuality thinking mentally retarded people do that.

In the society, a lot of people pretend being open minded, but only when it comes to other people about whom they do not care, about whom they don’t give a damn. When it comes to them, they are conservative, reserved, closed minded about some issues, especially those which puts people in minority, out of flow. When they see other girls wearing short clothes, they think this is today’s generation, the world is changing. When their own girl asks for permission to allow her to wear skirts, they are not allowed. The explanation is what will people think or it provokes rape? They don’t realize that when they were the ‘people’, they didn’t care. And only rapist mind is responsible for rapes. Women are raped in full clothes. It doesn’t matter what kind of clothes they are wearing, what matters is our attitude towards it. It is all about attitude. Some guys date those girls who think they are open minded, but do not want to introduce to his parents, because according to them, she is not that type of girl. What type of guys they are? They work with the female colleagues, but never want their wife to work outside kitchen. Why does everything change when it concerns us?

If it not acceptable to wear small clothes, then we should not pretend that we are open minded. We are asking someone to compromise their individuality, so we should not have problem when someone is asking us to compromise ours. If we are dominating others, we should not expect freedom of choice. If we have a bad attitude of looking at others who are open minded, we should not expect them look at from a good point of view because we are closed minded. In the name of tradition and culture, we are putting restrictions on them. Indirectly, we are not only putting the restrictions, we are depriving them of their birthrights.

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This post is also a part of Ultimate Blog Challenge and A to Z Challenge. 

Today's letter is 'O'.

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NON-CONFORMITY - THE PRICE OF BEING DIFFERENT

I always wanted to do something different, something that will make me unique. I didn’t know what it will be? But only thought that occupied my mind from the childhood was what makes me, ‘me’? What I can do, anybody can do that. There has to be something for which only mine. I never knew what it will be, but in subconscious mind, the thought was there. And, I am blessed to have something unique. I got it. I also came to know that it has to be shared to benefit others. The purpose of having some unique gifts is to benefit human kind. It should not be restricted to us; but everyone should make the most of it. I have a purpose to live for, dedicate my life for. It is unique and different. I think differently, I look at the world differently. Actually, I look at it from my own point of view and because everyone is different, what I see automatically becomes different. Everyone can do that.

But the most difficult part of being different, unique or going against the flow is the struggle for acceptance of the idea by people. You know that the non-conformist idea and beliefs will surely helpful for others to their lives better, to make this world better; but the question is, whether people will believe you or not. It doesn’t get accepted easily because those ideas flow against the current. So people avoid trying new or different things that challenge the convention. That’s where the struggle lies. The revolutionary idea is useless if people are not using it for their benefit. The idea is revolutionary doesn’t matter at that phase, selling the idea matters. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man,” but the progress takes place when those non-conformists are able to sell the idea.

Being a non-conformist is fascinating to conformist people, but they fail to understand the struggle behind it. The struggle starts from home itself. The rejections start from home itself. Our parents do not support it. When we are exhausted rebelling against our parents, the whole new level of struggle starts when we try the non-conformist ideas to the world. We can’t rebel against it because we are too exhausted. In addition to that, the world doesn’t care about the struggle; it only cares about how it will be benefited from it. In the process, we get too lonely. We have to accept the fact that we have to believe in ourselves when no one does. And, it hurts. The loneliness is favorable in the process of creating something different, it is a great source of creativity; but not in the process of struggle to get acceptance from the world. Flowing against the current is difficult, but flowing with it is lethal. So, the beauty of the struggle is that we get to live the life that is uniquely ours, not somebody else’s.

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This post is also a part of Ultimate Blog Challenge and A to Z Challenge. 

Today's letter is 'N'.

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MAGNETISM - FEW MOMENTS OF ATTRACTION

We lose track of everything when we are immersed in a work we love to do. It feels that the time is passing so rapidly. But when we have to do the work we don’t care about, we question why the time is passing so slowly. We can’t help it. We need a reason for not doing that work. That’s when the excuses emerge. We start finding a ways to either procrastinate or avoid that work. Though, we know that we got no option for it. One day or another, we have to do it, willingly or unwillingly. Then why do we find excuses for not doing that work now? Why does our mind repel that work? Do we lack the sense of responsibility? A lot of people do not reach where they want, not because of lack of talent or skill, but they spend time doing things they don’t care about.

Yes, due to circumstances, we have to make those choices. We have to choose the work that we do not care about for the sake different reasons like feeding a family or we do not know what the work that we love is? We never go deep inside ourselves, because we are too busy running with the pace of the world. Even we know what that work is, we cannot find the courage to pursue it. If we pursue it, many obstacles try to stop us, and maybe we give up because we can’t take those. Not because we are weak, but we are naïve. We don’t know what it takes to get the job done. We don’t know what the future holds for us, so we hesitate while taking the bold step. But we never realize that uncertainty is the only certain thing. So, whatever the path we will choose, it will be there with us.

Still, we don’t take the path; maybe less travelled or not travelled at all, because we don’t get the approval. But deep inside, that thing which is so dear to us remains. It comes out in different ways. Thought it’s not the mainstream work, but it has magnetism. We get attracted to it through indirect ways. While doing anything, we think about it the moment we find any connection or reference to it. We forget the work in hand for some moment and lose ourselves in those beautiful experiences of thinking about it. It doesn’t matter whether we are getting something out of it or not, the experience is the biggest reward. It feels that it counts in our account of life. It makes us feel alive. The magnet has a force of attraction which attracts the truth. We may feel miserable all the time we are into the work that we don’t care about, but the few moments of attraction makes everything beautiful.

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This post is also a part of Ultimate Blog Challenge and A to Z Challenge. 

Today's letter is 'M'.

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LOVE - THE SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

When there is no inspiration, the motivation is futile. Because, inspiration occurs from within, from inside to outside, but motivation comes from outside to inside. If we are not driven by a purpose, we just wander on the whole football pitch, not knowing where to score. My situation was something opposite of this. I knew where the goal is, but no inspiration to score. No inspiration to run, pass and score. I had to pass all the subjects, but didn’t feel like studying. I found no purpose in passing the exam though it was my final year. It was the most important phase of my career. If I start right, it can save a lot of efforts in the later stages of life.

But what if we have no inspiration to start? What if we have no purpose? It was the basic thing. Just complete the graduation and then think what to do. I lost the interest in completing the graduation at that point of time and I didn’t know why? I tried different methods to focus on studies and not on everything else, but I used to get distracted by small things. It was like I was trying to find ways not to study.

On the other hand, I tried to test the idea of my business on few people. I went to my college with my friend who was invited to give a motivational speech. Some of his friends attended the same whom I didn’t know. It was an opportunity for me to test my idea on strangers. I took it. I told them about themselves from their smiles, took their feedback and made some new friends. They were more interested in knowing how I got the idea in the first place.

It is always enchanting to tell the stories that are original, which made a big impact on your life. The process was spontaneous. I didn’t want any motivation for that. I wanted to tell them more and more. How this will benefit them in many ways? Why they should recommend this to their friends? Due to time constrain, I couldn’t give them everything I had to offer. The feeling of something holding inside was making me sick. I never wanted something in return, only wanted to give everything I had inside. I just wanted get everything out. I could not keep it inside. I wanted to share the special gifts. The external motivation was no matter, because I was inspired by a purpose bigger than myself. The purpose by which, not only me but also others were benefited from it. The source of this inspiration was nothing but love for the idea, because it was making the world better.

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Today's letter is 'L'.

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KARMA - WHAT GOES AROUND, TURNS AROUND

Giving justifications was leading me astray from myself. I was becoming more and more irresponsible day by day thinking that I'll be on the track when I'll do the work I love. Just because I didn't care about something doesn't mean I should have no sense of responsibility. Lack of responsibility was being my way of life. I was enjoying the state of being; but actually it was making me lazy, deprived of my duties. I hadn't started preparations for the exam.

All I used to do was pretending in front of parents that I was studying. Only sitting at one place and daydreaming that one day will be my day. Picturing in my mind and drawing it on paper about what I want to become one day, I was wasting my time. Daydreaming is not a bad thing; but doing anything in excess is. All I ever did was find different ways waste time and finish the day. Parents were feeding me, so there was nothing to worry about. But I was blaming them for not supporting me in my endeavors. I didn't know how all this will turn out, because I surrendered myself to instant gratification.

I used to see the big picture of my life, of my business; but what about the present day? One day or another, I had faced my own karma. Everything was going to turn around. Every action had consequences. But as Steve Jobs said, we can't connect the dots by looking into the future. I was unaware of the fact that every dot will be connected even if I act irresponsibly. At the present moment, we have no idea of how this will turn out. So what's in our hands right now is to do the work sincerely and honestly. This is what we realize when the time is gone.

Easier said than done. What about implementation? When the habit gets into the head, it gets very difficult to get rid of it and install a new, healthy habit. The mind is so powerful that once gets conditioned, it is very difficult to recondition. It is attracted to bad things easily, indirectly, to bad habits easily. The only way to recondition it is through hard work. It actually takes work. Otherwise, it is always the karma which decides everything. It is up to us, what face and what not to. Karma is nothing but a choice, a conscious decision. The moment of truth hurts more on the day when everything turns around than the pleasure in days of solace. Only regrets remain and we have to accept that and move on.

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Today's letter is 'K'.

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