Quotes and stuff

I read a quote today that got me thinking. Unfortunately, I couldn't fully remember the wording by the time I got to this stage, so I greeted Google with puppy dog eyes, a winning grin and requested the nice search-thingy to locate certain key words. The page I found contained the following quotes:

"What we are, that only can we see" - Ralph Emerson

"All criticism is a form of autobiography" - Oscar Wilde

and part of another quote:

"Life is but a mirror, in whose reflection I see,

Not a myriad of others, but a little bit of me." - Robert Brehm

"The story always represents the storyteller." - Robert Brehm

(as you can see, I love quotes :))

This paragraph also caught my attention:

Self-perception theory and other perception theory, briefly stated, are theories which refer to a means of increasing our self-awareness. The concept "self-awareness" refers to our ability to "observe ourselves", or to introspect, i.e., to notice how our behavior, feelings and reactions are caused by our thinking. Self-perception theory postulates that self-observation is important in increasing our self awareness. Other perception theory, or social comparison theory, maintains that making comparisons with others is important in increasing our self-awareness. (http://www.green-river.com/Interpersonal_Relations/class2.htm)

OK, aside from the minor brain-squishing feeling probably now being experienced, I wanted to acknowledge something important (well, I feel it's important) in this; the power of thinking, and of our thoughts. I think the best example of mind power is when someone can literally 'think' themselves into having symptoms of an illness. This happened on an episode of House once (if I recall correctly); took place in a plane, a person on the flight had a deadly virus, and soon it seemed to spread to every other person in the flight. None were legitimately ill; once they were told they weren't sick, the symptoms disappeared. Another example is Pseudocyesis, the imagined pregnancy syndrome. The mother will experience pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness and weight gain or breast tenderness. It is thought that the condition develops from intense emotional conflict (desire to become pregnant or fear of it), or a strong desire for a wish to be fulfilled (http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pseudocyesis.html). Actually, I discussed a while ago how sometimes, if you wish for something so badly, you can actually imagine it happening in a real sense. I won't go further with this, but it just shows how strong the mind is.

That might be why I suffer from stress and anxiety a lot, since I have such an active mind (unfortunately not always productively active). It seems in moments of stress/anxiety/depression or whatever, the best thing to do is distract your mind, or exercise it (literally, get the blood and other goodness pumping up there, feels good). I tend to look at quotes/affirmations, the inspirational/motivational kind. Or quotes like I posted above, since they get me thinking.

It is pretty much true that we are each our own worst critic. It's been said millions of times, and it will be continue to be said. I said in the previous post how everything is defined by how we each perceive things (one idea, anyway). It is strange to think that we are defining ourselves based on a perception that goes far beyond surface detail; no one else can know the depths of ourselves as we do, yet we tend to concentrate on what we see as our worst aspects, whereas other people see our good.

"An incomplete camera cannot take photographs, and an incomplete eye cannot see" - West Australian letters to the editor Wednesday 30/9/2009 'Please explain: A logical answer'

The person who sees us is the photographer; we are the subject.. we don't necessarily have a particular blind spot towards ourselves, but it seems many people are less willing to see some of their good aspects (eg. some people find it hard to accept compliments). Simply, given everyone perceives things differently, the way we see ourselves is probably not exactly matched by anyone else. Given that anyone prefers to be with people they like or see goodness in, logically each person is allocated the position of being their own worst critic.

Righto, this is getting slightly ridiculous, so, signing out.

Bubbles and pivotal points

What I really love about traveling is the journey; the destination is good, but I prefer the journey (as cliche as that may sound, and as odd as I may sound). The reason being is, sailing past what seems to be the unending wild landscape (by which I mean undisturbed trees, scrub, long grass, or perhaps the wheat-lookalike stuff, and red bull dust) enables (perhaps even unleashes) my mind to wander in any possible direction. I find myself getting lost in the deepest thoughts, being inspired and sure, day dreaming (or night dreaming, as may be the case, but it isn't usually) :) It is incredibly relaxing (apart from that particular moment when I find I have actually fallen asleep, when I am awoken with a jolt after dreaming that the car has crashed). It is made even more so when I'm listening to the iPod (yup, unfortunately modern technology has to play a part here - music inspires me and evokes a lot of other emotions).

There is a point to all that. Specifically, my thoughts from the last car trip. I started contemplating the 'bubble' concept; wondering whether we each exist in our own metaphorical bubbles. To start off; 'things' don't just bounce off us, so what are these bubbles protecting us from? In the movie, Bubble Boy, he was protected from germs, since his immune system didn't work properly. In reality though, it seems the 'bubble' is more like our facade; we are able to hide stuff within. Unfortunately, like all bubbles, there's a limited capacity ... there's only so much we can hold. That's why facades aren't exactly efficient; they're temporarily effective in many ways, but in the end that effect is counteracted by overcapacity (at 1.37am, that sounds weird, but I hope it make sense). Fortunately, some of this stuff can be 'eliminated' by processing, resolution etc.

I'm not entirely sure how this is related to the 'bubble' concept, but it also got me thinking about reactions. In a conversation I had a while ago, it was discussed how the world is what it is, and the elements of the planet are what they are, but it and they are all defined by how we perceive them. In other words, nothing is technically defined, since each thing is defined only by perception, and each individual perceives things differently, based on their own knowledge and experiences (even if we are heavily influenced by scientific or other theories). Now, this might not be a very popular opinion (or it could be; who knows), but it is one I find interesting (funny that).

Extending this is the idea of predicting reaction. Let's say that each individual is a pivotal point on the planet; we each perceive an object, and the resulting definition is reflected back into the world, activating any response we have to the object (verbal or physical)... if that makes sense.. there is another branch though, from each of us, if we are to follow the pivotal point idea. It is difficult to predict one's reaction to an object or incident, given that each person is broken down into (ironically) more complex emotions. I.e, we are each one person; we look at the world around us, at thousands of objects, we process what we see, and our ideas and consequent reactions are derived from numerous locations in our minds (I'm loving the squishy feeling my brain is currently experiencing.......).

There was a bit more, but I think I have caused enough damage for one night ;)

.......I think the scariest thing is that was a result of a one hour car trip. I hate to think what might happen on a drive to the other side of the country :P

'Back To the Future' is potentially good advice..

Wow, I haven't posted in quite a while. I've had thoughts, many of them deep and somewhat complicated, but I've found myself either not quite knowing how to put any of it into words, or feeling like those words don't really sound right. Or, option three, I've started writing and found myself questioning the whole thing. Not really the best frame of mind to be in whilst attempting to present a case :)

This is something I was contemplating a while back; being able to go back into your past, whether to relive certain moments or simply review what you learned from them, to prevent the same mistakes from being remade. Actually, to be honest I can't remember what I was thinking exactly, but this feels like it's along the right line.

The silly thing is, nearly (and possibly every) event taking place in the world is one that has been repeated at some point in the past, be that yesterday, last week, last year or a century ago. Each event, then and now, has a process - a cause and an effect. We know what causes dispute, we know what causes war. We know the effects of each, and they aren't pleasant, not even really for the people that come out closer to the top (I won't say 'winner' or 'at the top' because there is always some kind of sacrifice even in being the stronger party). Yet, even with this knowledge, it all continues to happen.

The vicious cycle we're caught in seems to indicate that human nature, our historically enforced habits, really do drive us. In trying to make peace we end up sparking war.

So many factors come into play - cultural and social backgrounds and situations, dominant religious beliefs, political systems - that are all human designed and constructed concepts, policies and beliefs, that are basically the 'guarantee' that there will be disagreement, there will be dispute, and there will be battle. Yet it's impossible to unravel all this because it's such a complicated, deep, fixed group of systems. I wouldn't say 'fixed' as in unalterable, only as in things that are embedded so deeply in some societies that they can't be eliminated (without some sort of possibly presently uninvented tool/s).

How about all this on a personal level - if we could revisit past dreams or real experiences to prevent repeated situations? Would we? Or are some repeated actions just hidden desires that can't be suppressed? Not that we want to find ourselves in uncomfortable situations, but perhaps there's an element of even these situations that we seek to revisit (in the present or future). I can't quite think what at the moment, but there could be something :P

When it comes down to it, how many people act the way they do out of expectation or fashion? (Similar things, but what I'm trying to say is, acting on the one hand, out of pressure, or on the other hand, enjoying being a part of the crowd, being accepted [another type of pressure?]). A topic covered recently at uni was personal autonomy, and the question of whether it really exists or not. Are we really autonomous individuals given our ideas, perspectives, beliefs and values are based on a combination of family, social, cultural, political, economic, education (etc etc) factors? Or are we simply led to believe we are by clever advertising strategies? How many people would really choose to suffer through war? I fully respect the many soldiers who have battled for the sake of patriotism and as a result of their character. Just want to clarify that. My question is, are these ideas of pride (and everything associated) embedded in us through school, for the very reason of participating in war (and other things).. i.e. the point of education is for the older generations to ensure they have fully trained groups to carry their rituals into the future? I definitely think learning is a great thing; knowledge is wonderful (the way it is and isn't used is sometimes questionable), but this question is now in my mind from a lecture I heard last week.

OK, this is getting pretty long, (had to make up for some missed weeks!) but I think it's something to think about.. or a few things. Or an insomnia cure ;) One thing I hope (I don't necessarily believe, but one can hope) is that we will actually learn from the economic crisis and different politically-rooted problems around the world, and somehow reshape the planet into a friendlier, cleaner, more efficiently operated grand piece of rock, flora, fauna, cement and the homo-sapiens we call ourselves.