If you haven’t been living underground for most of your life, you will notice a big difference in the summers of your childhood and today’s summers. The differences are even more obvious in the cities especially those located near the equator because of the cumulative effects to the environment of modernization. How do you survive in this inferno?

Check the ventilation in your home. Do not rely entirely on air conditioners to keep you cool during hot days. You should also keep in mind that air circulation and humidity can be huge factors. You can minimize the heat by making sure to close the curtains on the windows facing the sunlight and to let out the air occasionally by opening the windows near shaded areas.

Avoid caffeine. Limit your coffee consumption to early mornings when the day is still cool. If you need to keep energized at work, you should substitute coffee with other food and beverages. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means you will feel dehydrated easily if you rely on it too much.

Turn off your appliances. If you don’t need lights to move around in your home, then turn them off. You should also put down your cell phone if you have nothing better to do. The heat and light from appliances can make the place warmer.

Avoid alcoholic drinks. Alcohol is also a diuretic like caffeine, so you should limit your alcohol intake as much as possible.

Wear comfortable clothes. If you are staying at home, wear your most comfortable light-colored clothes. But if you need to go to the office, you should choose garments that are made from light fabric and have light colors. Dark colors absorb heat.

Limit protein intake. Protein can increase body heat and metabolism, which is why you should eat more fruits and vegetables instead during hot days.

Limit rigorous workouts. You might want to reschedule biking and hiking to cooler months in the year. Instead, summer should be for less rigorous workout routines like swimming, yoga, and indoor sports. Or you could also schedule your outdoor activities in the early hours of the morning or after sunset when it’s cooler. Stay out of the sun if possible.

Cool off downstairs. If your apartment has a lobby or sitting area in the lobby, you should stay there if your unit feels warm and stuffy. Remember that hot air rises because cool air is heavier. It is also a good opportunity to go to a park where you can enjoy fresh air.

Get a haircut. It is also the best time to get your hair trimmed. You will also spend less time fixing it in the morning.

Keep hydrated. Always take a bottle of water with you to stay hydrated. Do not wait for your body to feel thirsty before drinking water. If possible, avoid fruit juices, sports drinks, and tea because they are sugary. Clean water should be enough.

Lack of sleep is a silent epidemic in the modern world. Most of us associate health problems with poor diet and lack of exercise, but we fail to acknowledge how sleep affects mental and physical health.

In the world, researchers have found that for most working adults, the 7-hour sleep is considered normal. While sleeping may be different for individuals, an average of 7 hours is still considered inadequate.

Below are some habits that contribute to difficulty sleeping.

Eating just before bedtime

This is a common scenario in a busy household. After doing extra hours at work, you come home late to have a late dinner. You don’t give your body enough time to start digesting before going to bed because you’re tired from work. If you want a late-night snack, try food which contain calcium which promote sleep such as milk and crackers.

Drinking coffee before bedtime

Do not drink coffee, tea or soda three hours before bedtime. There are also plenty of food that contain caffeine such as dark chocolate. You will be tossing and turning in bed until the caffeine wears off.

Drinking alcohol before bedtime

There is a belief that alcohol promotes good sleep because it makes you feel sleepy, but most people forget that falling asleep quickly does not equate to a restful sleep. Alcohol disturbs the body’s sleep cycle when it is metabolized.

Relying on your alarm clock to wake up

If you go to bed anxious whether you will wake up on time, you are just making it more difficult to sleep. Maybe you should get rid of the alarms completely and focus on going to bed early instead.

You don’t try to relax before sleeping

Tucking yourself in to bed and then closing your eyes will not guarantee you will sleep within minutes. In fact, you might feel even more anxious if you’re still awake with your eyes closed. Try to relax first to signal to your body that it’s time to go to bed. Turn down the lights, put away your phone, and keep away distractions. Reading on your phone, laptop or e-reader or reading a printed book under a lamp are bad ideas, too.

Your bedroom isn’t cool

Not only will lights and noise make for an unrestful sleep, but even warm temperatures. Your room should be cool and relaxing, not hot and humid.

Using your smartphone before going to sleep

Blue light can disturb your sleep pattern. The content you browse will also keep your mind alert and might not make you feel relaxed. No social media post if worth losing sleep over.

You don’t go to bed consistently

It is important to stick to your regular sleeping schedule no matter how busy you are. It might be strange to you, but our bodies cannot adjust quickly to cope with changing sleeping patterns. You will notice this when a person moves to a location with a different time zone.

Anywhere you work in Singapore, you’ll always have a bad coworker. This isn’t just some dude who annoys you, he’s bad bad. He’s the type to gossip about every person he has a fight with, he’s the person who always talks back, he’s the person who passes all the work to you.

Now, if you work 8 hours a day, you’ll be spending that long with this person. And for some people that can surely be a bit too much. So, here are some things you can do.

Just look for ways to avoid them

The easiest way to handle a bad coworker is simply to avoid them. One great reason is that you won’t have to confront them about their attitude when the time comes. For example, if your cubicle is right next to this person’s you can try asking your boss to move.

Another thing you can do is to move to another team or change your schedule. This approach, though, isn’t necessarily very effective in the long term especially if your workplace is relatively small.

Acknowledge your differences

One of the most common reasons why there’s conflict in the office is everyone’s differences in personality and work ethic. Some work faster than others and it could annoy them if those people can’t keep up.

There are also those who like to work alone and others who thrive in group work. So, the best thing you can do is try to understand everybody’s situation. If you understand the other guy’s personality, you can adjust easily and handle them better.

Consider the work culture and office environment

Most of the time, it’s also best to consider how the work culture affects the employees. For example, famous companies are likely to be more demanding from their workers. This can encourage competitiveness which, in turn, might also lead to different conflicts.

In this case though, having a bad person won’t be much of a problem if you also have a lot of people on your side. In bigger companies, employees usually approach their higher-ups if the person goes overboard. Whereas in others, it might be difficult to kick them out because of a shortage of employees.

Discuss it with the supervisors

Speaking of approaching the higher-ups, it’s exactly what you should do if you really can’t handle it anymore. If you’ve talked to this person one-on-one and things still don’t change, just save yourself the trouble and go to the higher-ups. Make sure to express how it’s affecting your work and maybe even your mental health. If many other coworkers share your sentiments, you can also approach your higher-ups together.

Both verbal communication and non-verbal communication are important for people to understand each other. Though body language is important, more and more people are beginning to make wrong assumptions about it. One is that body language is the same for everybody.

However, if you are a Singaporean, chances are you may have different gestures compared to an American simply because of culture! Aside from that, here are some other body language myths.

You can tell what a person is thinking through their body language

It’s already known that what we’re thinking about can manifest on our body language unconsciously. So even if you lie, your body language might show otherwise. But is that really the case? Actually, it’s not necessarily true all the time. Sometimes we just have habits that even if we’re not lying, for example, we still do them. That means you won’t be able to pinpoint what a person is thinking all the time even if you watch their gestures. 

Looking to the right indicates lying

The belief that eye direction is related to lying came about as a result a certain neuro-linguistic system invented in the 1960s. The thing is though, there has not been any solid evidence of this to be true. There have even been many studies that disprove this claim as well. These separate studies found that there is no correlation at all between eye direction and the telling of a lie.

Liars avoid eye contact

Another common myth is that a person will not make eye contact when he/she tells a lie. But those who are already good liars and manipulators can actually make direct eye contact. Plus, there can be many different reasons why a person will not make eye contact with you. He might just be shy, or maybe he has a short attention span. That’s why you can’t easily say that people avoid eye contact when lying.

“Body language makes 93% of communication”

Although body language is just as important as words when it comes to communication, 93% is definitely too big of a number. In fact, there is no proven exact number! This myth came as a result of a misunderstanding of a certain study. It’s been concluded in the study that 55% of information is shown through the face, 38% in the voice, and 7% in words. That’s why people assumed that they can just add the 55 and 38 to mean that body language is 93% in communication.

Fidgeting signals nervousness

This can be true, but not in all cases. One of the main signs of nervousness is fidgeting, but that doesn’t mean you’re already nervous once you start doing it. For one, you might just fidget as a habit. This is again why you can’t directly know what a person is thinking or how a person feels just by looking at his/her body language.

Perhaps, there’s no such person who wouldn’t like to be happy. In the midst of the demands of life and work or school, happiness is often pushed aside to make room for worry, stress and anxiety. It doesn’t have to be this way all the time. Here are 10 simple things you can do that can help improve your level of happiness.

1. Have some dark chocolate. The antioxidants in dark chocolate can trigger production of oxytocin—the ‘feel good’ hormones—and help relax blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure.

2. Get a massage. Who wouldn’t be pleasured with a massage? Whether it’s done by a professional or by your spouse, gentle touches are relieving and make anyone feel good.

3. Listen to music. It should be a part of your everyday routine. Playing upbeat songs will make you feel positive and energized, while slow and calming songs at the end of the day will help you feel relaxed and rested.

4. Take a relaxing bath. Make this a habit before going to bed. Prepare a warm, relaxing bath with essential oils and rose petals (if you like). Giving your body a much needed relaxation at the end of the day will give you the peace of mind to sleep well during the night.

5. Go shopping. Women love this! But it can be equally satisfying for men, too. Shop not just for clothes, but anything you want—shoes, bags, sports gear, etc. It’s always nice to buy yourself something, isn’t it?

6. Whip yourself some good food. This is a lot better when done with your significant other. Cooking together will make the both of you feel happier. Plus, nothing beats good food when it comes to instantly lift your mood.

7. Prioritize yourself. Whenever you feel exhausted or bummed out, take a break and do whatever relaxes you. Even if it means 15 minutes of break to savour a cup of joe or take an afternoon nap, prioritizing yourself in the middle of a busy day is always worth it if it gives yourself a chance to relax.

8. Go on a picnic. Go out with your family, friends or with your partner. Prepare something to bring with your for an afternoon picnic at the park. Spend some time outdoors, savouring the beauty of nature, breathing fresh air and just having fun.

9. Live a healthy lifestyle. Bad habits have the tendency to pull negative vibes into your life. It’s not just smoking or taking drugs, it may be spending too much time on TV, laziness, etc. As simple as when you’re not making the right choices in your life, you’re far from being happy.

10. Love may hurt, but it also gives us absolute joy. If you love and you are loved in return, you feel the happiest, don’t you?

Remember, happiness is a choice. It’s all up to you how to make it happen.

All Singaporeans have attitude – some are easy to bear with, some are difficult. Regardless of the attitude of the people you meet, it is important that you know how to handle them because it can make you successful at the end of the day. It is helpful that you have this kind of emotional intelligence so you can deal with people especially those that are toxic or difficult.

Here’s how you should handle difficult people:

1. Establishing boundaries. At the beginning, smart people already know that they cannot please everybody. You can start with that. Once you accept that, you will not sell yourself short. You will instead rise above amidst the chaos and establish some distance or boundaries with difficult people.

2. Focusing on solutions. You should not waste your time trying to understand difficult people and changing them. Instead of focusing on them, why not focus on the problems and make actions. It will better the odds. There is no point listening to their negativity.

3. Being self-aware. When you are aware of your weaknesses and strengths, you have better chances of outsmarting difficult people. When you are met with different stress every day, by knowing your weaknesses and strengths, you do not allow difficult people to influence your actions.

4. Learning from the situation. Yes you can forgive but you cannot forget because it served as your lesson learned. All these years, you have learned that experience is the best teacher. You can protect yourself from the claws of negative or difficult people by remembering the lessons you learned in life.

5. Tuning out negativity. There is no surprise that difficult people always speak of negativity and criticism. You should be wise enough not to listen to them because chances are they are just making things a lot messier. You should not listen or even engage in negativity and criticism talks.

6. Saving energy. Difficult people will stir disagreement and fight. If you are involved, you will be damaged. The best way is to save all your energy for the next day. Do not respond to all negative things you hear.

7. Focusing on the good things. Smart people simply want to be happy and pray to stay that way for a long time. If you derive your joys within rather than the external forces, brighter days will come. However if you need other people to make you feel happy, that is the time that you need to get away.

8. Resting when necessary. If you get enough rest, nothing can break you. Sleeping is important because it recharges your brains and emotions.