Why is the chill before it gets really cold so different than a regular drop in temperature? 50 degrees on its way to 40 is tolerable, but 50 degrees on its way to 30 feels frigid! What gives?
Category: Random
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What does it mean to be a kid at heart?
To ask questions without considering what others will think of it, or you.
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One day, I will write a book.
One day, I will take that risk.
One day, I will talk to that person I’m curious about.
One day, I will rest.
One day, I will go to Sandia Crest.
One day, I will star gaze all night.
One day, I will ride in a hot air balloon.
One day, I will finish that self portrait.
One day…
One day..
One day.
There is only one day. Today.
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Response to Weekly Wednesday Prompts
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I have thought, many times, and heard other people say that they wish they knew what their dog/cat/pet is thinking.
Animals don’t have language like we do, at least as far as we can tell. So that would not work, because our thoughts are based on language. What if, though – we could know what emotion our pet is experiencing? Because animals experience emotions. If you don’t believe that, I think you don’t have a soul. But if you could look into your pet’s eyes and know that they are feeling longing, love, anger, fear, apprehension or just lost in general…. how much better would that make our relationship with them? I know for a fact that dogs and cats can feel whatever emotions you are experiencing, and can respond accordingly. Now, with cats, it’s questionable how they react, but with dogs…. Dogs want to make any negative emotion better and enhance any positive emotion. They take action to do so. They cuddle when you’re upset, they lick your face or hug you when you’re sad, they get excited and wag their tail when you’re happy, they bark when you’re afraid.
I want the ability to do the same type of thing for my dogs, present and future. I just don’t know how.
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Loyalty is one of those words that uses its root – loyal – to define itself. The word faithful also comes up in the various definitions. Full of faith. But faith in whom or what? Could be in the relationship, the agreed terms of said relationship. Could be a concept or principle. Or it could be in a person or deity. Loyalty is often thought to be an external thing. You’re loyal to your spouse. You’re loyal to your job. Your dog is loyal to you. A marine is loyal to his country and his teammates.
I propose that loyalty is not – at least at its foundation – an external thing. Before you can be truly loyal to anything outside yourself, you have to be loyal to yourself. If not, then you are simply using that external thing to gain some sort of validation, safety, or comfort.
You can be “loyal” and devoted to anything. But, if that thing is a source of resentment for you – your job, for example – then it’s not really loyalty. You keep the job because you know it. You’re good at it. You have job security. This ties back to my post on uncertainty. In this instance, you’re “loyal” to a job that you can’t stand because of what it provides for you, not because of anything having to do with your character. And most people in the world use the word “loyal” to describe a positive character trait. But, they very well could be mistaken.
If you know not only what you value most in the grand scheme of things, but also your own worth, and strive to partake in activities that align with that, then you can be a truly loyal person. And knowing these things takes a level of self-examination and honesty that many people are not comfortable with. But, if you’re willing to put in that work, and live your life accordingly, that’s where the magic can happen.
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My favorite Greek goddess is Athena. The reason for this affinity initially sprouted from two facts. She is the warrior goddess of wisdom (meaning she is smart and tough), and the story of her birth – that she sprung, in full war regalia, from Zeus’ head when it was split open by another god. Because… how badass is that?
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What’s something most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t know that I am an extremely emotional person. Most people will tell you that I am laid back, easy going. I am adaptable, that is a fact, but that doesn’t change the fact that I experience emotions to a much higher degree than anyone realizes. Most people don’t see or feel the signs and signals from my internal environment, mostly because I have fine tuned the art of hiding them or minimizing them. Is this healthy behavior? Not likely. Is this a coping mechanism? Quite likely. Am I working on striking a balance between authenticity and emotional chaos? Absolutely.
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I had a conversation the other day, and something came up where I said that uncertainty is rooted in fear, and people are not wired to live in fear all the time.
It’s the other way around though, I have realized. Fear stems from uncertainty about something. See a rattlesnake in your bedroom? Instant panic. See a rattlesnake in a tank in the zoo? Apprehension, maybe, but no full-fledged fear, unless you have a phobia. You can relate this to any situation, physical or emotional. Fear comes from a lack of reasonable certainty that you are safe, in whatever respect. The larger the deficit of certainly, the more pronounced the fear is. And the more pronounced the fear, the higher the probability (certainty) that we will act upon it.
Humans, for the most part, go to great lengths to avoid or minimize uncertainty. There are industries focused, at least in part, on the study of risk management. We buy insurance. We stay in shitty situations because we can’t handle the fear of being outside of something known. We don’t go after our dreams for the same reason.
It seems that to conquer your fear in a situation, you have to increase your tolerance for fear, because the uncertainty is certain.
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Uncertainty is a mathematical thing. Math is the language of the physical. The physical creates emotions, which in turn, influence the physical. Where does the mind fall – thoughts? Thoughts can impact the physical and vice versa. Do thoughts fall somewhere between, serving as a bridge between the physical and the emotional? Are we our thoughts, or something separate? Words are the language of the emotional. Words are physical. They say that words can hurt. Math speaks about the physical world to the emotional, the emotional world speaks to the mental world with words. Physical = math. Emotional = words. Thoughts are the how. What is truly the distinction between mental and emotional? If the difference is the presence of rationale, then math or logic has to be its language. I keep seeing a triangle in my mind. Flow charts too. Thoughts impact the emotional. Physical – MATH -> Emotional – WORDS -> Mental – LOGIC. Math transforms the physical into emotional, words translate the emotional into thoughts, and logic transforms thoughts into the physical. There is a bigger thought here. If I am not my body, then we can also infer that I am not my emotions, and I am not my thoughts. I am aware of and separate from all three. Awareness. Awareness is the only element that exists without translation or transformation. That is what I am.
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I had a conversation recently with a friend of mine and he was telling me about a comedy show where the dude also hypnotized the audience members. During the show, the dude instructed the audience members in a few things, but the final part was to put your palms together, press them together as hard as you can, and imagine that the two hands fused into one.
My friend told me he could not separate his hands after being brought out of the hypnosis, try as he might. This got me thinking.
Your mind really does have amazing power over your experience. In this case, you are guided to a place of openness by the hypnotist, given a task that makes you imagine something, reinforces that imagined reality with something physical, and once you bring your focus back to the moment, that imagined thing becomes your reality.
I don’t think most people realize how much your mindset and thoughts truly do shape your reality. If you want to change your reality, you have to start with your thoughts…
Interesting factoid. I read somewhere that your brain reacts the same no matter if you are experiencing an event, remembering it, or imagining it.
My friend is fine now, by the way. His hands are no longer fused together by the power of his mind.
A Peculiar Cerebral Tangle 