Nostalgia

                                                   (the news international)

Patti Austin’s “If I Believe” was aired on the radio. Time suddenly went back to a specific moment during your college days. You felt a warm surge of memories which made you forget about the present and went back to the past. An emotional interlude was experienced that your chest tightened and you feared that you would then cry. You were having NOSTALGIA.

Psychology Today defines nostalgia as sentimentality for the past, typically for a particular period or place with positive associations, but sometimes also for the past in general, “the good old days”.

In the 17^th century, this experience was considered as a mental disorder. It is a medical term designating a pathological brain disorder coined from the Greek words nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain, ache). Johannes Hofer attributed this to the homesickness of Swiss mercenaries fighting in foreign lowlands. The military physicians related this to ear and brain damage from the constant clanging of cowbells. The symptoms were crying, fainting and having fever.

Since its inauspicious beginnings, nostalgia has more in recent times come to be viewed as a purely positive emotional experience. When an old song or a familiar smell trigger pleasant memories of an event in our past, most of us pause to savor the momentary rush of emotions until it fades, rather than running to the doctor for a cure (Hal McDonald, 2014).

Neel Burton, M.D. further confirmed that nostalgia is no longer looked upon as a mental disorder, but as a natural, common, and even positive emotion, a vehicle for travelling beyond the deadening confines of time and space. Bouts of nostalgia are often prompted by feelings of loneliness, disconnectedness, or meaninglessness; thoughts about the past; particular places and objects; and smell, touch, music and weather.

During these times of revisiting the memory lane, one would sometimes feel that he or she is ageing since nostalgia is linked to being OLD. When the research of Gergov and Stoyanova was published, they mentioned that for elderly people, the past is very important because the majority of them often thought about it since they consider the past as a source of pride and inspiration.

But when we look keenly at the relationship between ageing and nostalgia, we could infer that most of the time, the elders are the ones with longer tracks compared to the younger ones. Meaning, most of the retirees and the persons above forty might have bouts of nostalgia since they have more experiences compared the the younger brood. They have sentimental experiences since they had the opportunity to experience life MORE than those who are younger who are still having the TIMES of their lives.

Although nostalgia is universal, The Conversation.com said that a nostalgic yearning for the past is likely to occur during periods of transition, like maturing into adulthood or aging into retirement. Dislocation or alienation resulting from military conflict, moving to a new country or technological progress can also elicit nostalgia.

Again, this is a part of human nature. It is an adult thing to understand what is happening to us. We need to be in control with the things to occur in our psyche rather than be victimized by the process of wallowing.

In marketing, this is even studied carefully how to sell the companies’ products and services. A lot giggled when the Sharon-Gabby tandem was used by McDonalds to promote their “good old” burger. The 80’s teenagers remembered a lot of things during their college days! And how many times when we gasp in awe and be showered with memories when the pictures will be shown from “One to Ten years ago” on our timeline?

It’s fine to reminisce the past. We remember the good old days and consider our present. We then have to prepare for our future.

Cranial

                                                 (cx trining)

Election is an emotional event. People choose the candidates based on what they feel about them. This could be explained why we elect those who do not understand legislation as long as they are friends, relatives or they SMILE a lot. According to Jon Morris: Substance is only part of the equation. How people FEEL plays a huge role in how they respond to the candidates and their policies.

In the field of social research, Psychographics has been applied to the study of personality, opinions, attitudes, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. With the results of the researchers such as the aforementioned one by Morris, one could directly say that elections in the Philippines are ruled over by what people feel and not what they think. In fact, latest work on emotional responses to communication showed that emotions are twice as good as raw facts in predicting behavioral outcomes. So, for the candidates to really understand people’s support (or disdain), they have to understand people’s emotional responses.

Just try to look back on the recently-concluded barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) elections. How many relationships got broken due to the emotional outbursts? How many family members led to become enemies? Crime was even committed during the time for the position some are aiming for. There were rumors created to make stains on the image of the candidates so that the emotional responses of the people would be affected.

On the other hand, there are candidates being supported by family and friends NOT by the capability of the one who ran for the position but simply because the candidate is CLOSE to their “hearts”. For them, the basics of making legislation could be learned and all they have to do is to affix their signatures on prepared resolutions and ordinances anyway!

Bernard Golden, Ph. D. mentioned that CHILD LOGIC overpowers most of the people. This is a term coined by him to describe logic that is hijacked by emotion. It emphasizes that regardless of age and intelligence, most of the people engage in magical thinking associated with earlier development. Such logic fuels unrealistic expectations and heightens the potential for destructive anger. It is when the EMOTIONAL BRAIN and the RATIONAL BRAIN are not effectively communicating with each other.

It is in this train of thoughts when one must realize the importance of emotional maturity. This is the time when a person transcends his/her emotional being to become a thinking one. Of course, our emotions are equally important but the whole brain must function well. We easily get hurt and our decisions could sometimes be muddled with the CHILD LOGIC to the point that we then surrender to such emotionally-tainted decisions. Most of them would be regretted.

As adults, we even apply the CHILD LOGIC to our children. We get angry if we they will not conform with what we say. We often forget that they are children, prone to commit a lot of mistakes and we are there to guide them. But we allow ourselves to see them as equals. We turn our backs to them and most of the time, we punish them.

But going back to the elections… We often complain about the way the government is being manned. Yet, we have to remember that it is us who elected the people who manage the laws and governance of the land. We often allow our emotions lead us to elect the persons who we FEEL as able. And it is also us who would then criticize them once they do not adhere to what we FEEL as beneficial to ourselves. The CHILD LOGIC would soon prevail.

The point of this discourse is that we must know how to think and understand our emotions and allow them to be processed properly by our rational brain. It has been a long term discussion among educators that keeping a JOURNAL is healthy since it allows the emotional outbursts be translated into the thinking process.

We understand that emotions drive 80% of the choices we make, while practicality and objectivity only represent about 20% of decision-making (Levine, 2012). But then we have the power to keep a balance once we allow reasons and objectivity to prevail through what we call as the THINKING. By doing so, we could avoid hurting ourselves and others. We could then embrace the road towards maturity.

Thirsty

                                                                         (The Monthly)

Kadaghang! This is a Sinurigao word which literally means thirsty. Ironically, this has a strong connotation of challenging someone for a drinking binge. We all know that alcohol could cause dehydration aside from the intoxication that could loosen the tongue and leads to devolution. Also, the word is muttered to candidates for a political position. Most of the people claim that this is just done for the sake of fun yet this has something to do with values being radiated from a generation to the next. Something which is embedded and could sometimes become a NORM.

If a person runs for a political seat in our land, he will be bombarded with the so-called jokes of KADAGHANG and most of the time, the pressure has its effects. The candidate then spends a lot and considers the event as an investment. In business, it is OK to take a risk since the capital might become a hundredfold in the future. So, would it be safe to say that sometimes, the cause of corruption stems from the people themselves?

There was even a time when someone aired that he needed to have a taste of government money even for a little amount since the soon-to-be elected official will have all the money in the world. But who made THAT person? Isn’t he made by the collective and twisted norms rather than the main point of running to office which is public service?

According to Abraham Maslow (1943) two needs motivate people to do what they are doing: deficiency needs and growth needs. Deficiency needs arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are unmet. The motivation to fulfill such needs becomes stronger the longer the duration they are denied. Maslow continued that growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person. Once these growth needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.

If a person is running so to attain power, fame and money, we could infer that he/she might be doing this because of a deficiency need. But if the individual is doing it for the desire to serve, to make his or her life meaningful through public service, he/she is satisfying his or her growth need.

But what motivates those of us who push the politicians to become the crooks that we project them to become? Freudian theories lead us to ponder on psychological egoism which is the empirical doctrine that the determining motive of every voluntary action is a desire for one’s own welfare. This is a valid reason for us individuals to constantly evaluate our motives and intentions through introspection for us to be able to take a hold on ourselves. Am I doing this for selfish intentions? How can I be of help to make this place a better one? (This could be the time to do a crossover from having a deficiency need to evolve into a growth need.)

Egoism is not bad at all since it also preserves the SELF. Ethical egoism is a theory that we should seek our self-interest to be able to take a hold on it. We need to remember that we are the ones to control our desires and not the other way around.

Parents and teachers really play a great role in making these things be inculcated to the children. It is in the hands that nurture lessons and values where the future of the country dwells. We are making the government function well. We are the ones to propel the future of people to the highest potentials. We need to better understand our selves and our roles to be a harbinger of the BETTER WORLD we are dreaming of.

Meaningful

Burnout. According to Psychology Today, it is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion; cynicism and detachment; feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. When one is experiencing this, he or she could no longer function effectively on a personal or professional level.

Lifehacker states that it is a common misconception that burnout is simply a result of working hard or for too long. According to Alexandra Michel, a science writer at the Association for Psychological Science, burnout results when the balance of deadlines, demands, working hours, and other stressors outstrip rewards, recognition and relaxation.

The symptoms of burnout are shown by the breakdown of Sarah Geronimo during the American leg of her concert tour. People reacted to the event. Some bashed her for being over-reactive. Others empathized. But then, the poignant part of her speech was when she told the audience that despite the success and material rewards she is having, she feels EMPTY.

One of the reasons why people feel empty is the realization that they are NOT doing things which are meaningful. There is a certain thirst that they feel which sometimes motivates them to work their energy out. This thirst could be an unmet need during their younger years. They then strive to continually work out for the “meeting” of the need only to realize that the thirst is going to be unquenchable. It is for the reason that the need was not confronted and processed well. That is the significance why clinical psychologists and psychotherapists exist. They help people confront the shadow which continually haunt them. Later, people then realize that money, fame and material things do not count. It is love, affection, respect and the connection to the divine which count most.

It has then become the interest of persons who want to have self-mastery to find that MEANING they are craving for. The fact of being human must also be confronted well. There is a continuous debate on what could make a person happy and most of the sages point to the direction of spiritual maturity. A lot of us crave for the worldly things only to realize later that the craving won’t stop unless you go deeper to understand the inner person. The realization of living life simply is alien to most of us since we equate success with the riches that we own.

Mindtools.com then suggests that to avoid burnout, we need to work with PURPOSE. If you embrace the work that you are doing as meaningful, there is a tendency that when you extend your time and energy, you understand their impact to your mission. You might get tired but you know that your tiredness has a meaningful price.

We are individuals. We are driven with different purposes. We might consider money as a good purpose to be able to acquire things which could make us comfortable. But we need to understand how to slow down as well. For the work that we extend might allow us to get tired and lead us to gesticulate: I am not happy! I feel empty…

There are those of us who need others to fill that empty space inside. We think that relationships will make us whole to the point that we embark on one relationship to another to make us WHOLE. Yet, we might be looking for affirmations that we fail to have before. We might not have the parental support and nurturing backgrounds so we leave people behind since we are looking for that SOMETHING which could fill us up.

But these things all boils down to contentment. We need to accept the things that we have and share them to others. Humility would be attained once we stop comparing ourselves to others. We could be happy with what we have and do not kill ourselves to work hard to be at par with our contemporaries.

In Luke 18:22, On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But when the rich man heard this, HE BECAME VERY SAD, BECAUSE HE WAS EXTREMELY WEALTHY.

It is in these lines where we could infer that the craving for more wealth could oftentimes become our source of being sad and empty. We could not detach our SELVES from our riches to the point that we forget the sole reason why we are here in this world: to be connected with our brethren through love, respect and affection.

It Matters

There were people discussing if there is a correlation between the school and the performance of the alumni. If given the chance to research, some of the social scientists will not agree with the direction of the study for it may sound bias and subjective. But Statistics tells us that the number of passers in any board or bar exam is synonymous to most of the renowned universities in the land. Lately, we see the schools redundantly paired with topnotchers to the latest result of the Bar examination.

It seems that the conversation was pointing at standards and school culture. The two are always great factors in making good outputs once the school adheres to certain standards and project a culture of excellence. These would cascade to the learners and their attitudes towards the learning process would be the things to propel them towards academic success.

It has been repeatedly mentioned that skills could be acquired if they are practiced constantly for a period of time. In college, I was  introduced rigidly to the basics of Mathematics since we were told we could not proceed to Physical Science unless we master Algebra, Calculus, Geometry and all the mathematical disciplines. We were surrounded with professors who constantly bombard us with math equations telling us the importance of them in construction, transportation and even in daily life. This was in a school being monitored by the Augustinian Recollects.

When I took my diploma in Physics at Ateneo de Davao University, I realized the strict standards of gaining competencies in all the topics learned. I need to reach the mastery level of each subtopics with a rating of 85% before I could proceed to other subtopics in the syllabus. Else, we need to take remedial lessons to be able to reach the cut-off grade. We need to put a lot of our resources to the subject so to attain the desired goal.

Most of the school I studied are sectarian schools. They always adhere to the values and mission of the institution  to the point that strict self-monitoring of attitudes  and behaviors were instilled.

But this could not be considered as a sweeping theory since generalization is a fallacy. There were those who thrived and wilted. It is the individual’s reaction to the stimuli that count. And that is the main point of this discourse. There are those schools who offer a lot of stimuli and there are those who are lenient in giving the learners the exposure and opportunities they need. That is the reason why the learners could not expand their horizons. They are limited to the belief that what the teachers are giving them are enough to face the cruel and challenging world.

There is this school which pride itself of having teachers who are good in the English language. The teachers are so good in pronouncing the words to the point that the students think that an intelligent person is that who could speak the English language. The teachers indirectly communicate this idea. They failed to realize that they are also offering business courses and the tech-voc tracks. They do not care if the concepts given are shallow and trivial. They laugh at those persons who mispronounce words but they do not laugh at the banal ideas presented to them. They draw their confidence to the mastery of a borrowed language and not on the mastery of expressing ideas using a borrowed language. Their syntax could sometimes make an amateur writer die a natural death.

When I had my two-week stint in UP Diliman for Science teaching and a week at UP Los Banos for Cultural Education, I realized how important it is for these schools to develop progressive thinking linked with the love for country. The professors do not care how you deal with the lessons as long as you get the point. They do not label persons through uniforms and social status. They grimace on status quo and push you to discover many things. They stretch your mind and make it a point to utilize your learning for your roots. They are so Makabansa/Makabayan to the point that they will leave their classrooms to rally for a cause since the point of their learning is to make the Philippines a better country. So, if there’s a threat to national stability, they leave the classrooms because they will then ask: What is the point of these concepts and knowledge when we do not have the freedom to apply them soon?

The foundation of competencies comes from the school you studied. You might not notice it but the culture you embraced was the same as what you have witnessed and experienced as you mold your being and becoming.