Videoconference on Zoom, drinks on WhatsApp: it’s the boom of video calls, but what’s different in digital communications? An instructions manual for correct speaking and effective activity online.

Our lives have altered over the past few months and so has communication. The change has occurred in particular in the decrease of power in non-verbal (looks, expression, gestures) and para-verbal (rhythm and volume of a voice, inflection, pauses and silences) communication. All these elements alone convey 80% of the emotion in a conversation. Their contribution is so important that, in cases where there is an inconsistency between verbal and non-verbal channels, it’s the latter we tend to trust. Giorgio Nardone teaches us little tricks to improve our approach to work and interpersonal relations, even from behind a screen.

pp.160

When anxiety and panic take your breath away.

A guidebook to the causes and treatment of an increasingly common disorder.

Breathing: the first and last thing we do – the thread of life. The air we breathe, which nourishes our blood and our organism. If this mechanism breaks down, we get ill. It is what happens when anxiety forces us to breathe unnaturally: we feel oppressed, we gasp for air, inhale more of it, but create the opposite result. With contributions from Simona Milanese, a specialist doctor, and Sabino de Bari, a physiotherapist, Giorgio Nardone offers food for thought about the mechanism that fuels the feeling of choking effect, in order to break the vicious circle between pathological fear and dysfunctional breathing.

pp.128