It's All in the Mind

 

                                    (img: youtube.com)

Mayaot na tuig an 2020. A lot of people mentioned this. One can hear comments on the different experiences we encountered this year including the pandemic. Who would have thought that we will experience a global threat on our health during our lifetime? And human as we are, we find something to blame. We need a scapegoat. And for that, we have no choice but blame the year 2020.

Our ancestors might disagree that 2020 is the worst year on record. Sure, frightening things are happening, but many of those things happened in the past, too, including the 1918 flu pandemic, during which 50 million people died. Plus, the belief that civilization is on the decline is a tradition as old as civilization itself. Even Ancient Athenians complained in the fifth century B.C. that their democracy wasn’t what it used to be. These days, we call that belief “declinism,” or “decline bias” (Renner, 2020).

Rob Picheta of CNN said: Even before Covid-19 existed, humans had an unmistakable and scientifically pinpointed tendency to believe the world is poorer, angrier and more unsettled than it really is; an unconscious desire to hold onto negative stereotypes and ignore the scale of progress unfolding right in front of us.

 

It's a habit picked up in childhood and reinforced by media coverage and our own psychological peculiarities, many experts believe. Put simply, we think the world is a bad place that's getting worse - a sense that undoubtedly grew in the last 12 months.

Declinism is the tendency to see the past in an overly positive light and to view the present or future in an overly negative light, leading us to believe that things are worse than they used to be. Declinism is often a feeling harbored about the overall state of a country, society, or institution, with the view that it is in decline or getting worse.

Looking closely, this might be one of the downsides of the information technology. Too much information allow us to compare and marvel the past (where we seldom saw what was happening because the internet was still unheard of) as better and of “good quality”.

The decisionlab.com said, the 24-hour news cycle that bombards us with negative and violent images contribute to declinism and end up confirming our existing beliefs that the world is getting worse. News stations, which have to compete with one another, capitalize on confirmation bias. They know that if they continue to present viewers with shocking and disturbing stories, viewers will continue coming back for more.

Then, our culture dictates us to rely on numerology. It is any belief in mystical relationship between numbers and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value of the letters in words, names, and ideas. It is more often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and other divine arts.

The Chinese also tags a year with a certain animal and it has a certain astrological connotation. 2020 is the Year of the Rat according to Chinese zodiac. This is a Year of Metal Rat, starting from the 2020 Chinese New Year on Jan. 25 and lasting to 2021 Lunar New Year’s Eve on Feb. 11. Rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Rat include 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032...

When 2020 arrived, events came to people all over the world presented through their smart devices and even in the social media sites. These can be considered as stressors. The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory lists 43 life events and assigns a point value to each event. That point value corresponds to the amount of life change caused by the event.

It is important to note that on this scale, according to Johnson (2020), there are both positive and negative events. This means that change, even a positive change, requires adjustment and therefore is a stressor. Our bodies respond to all stressors in the same way—including hormonal responses that increase blood pressure and promote weight gain. As changes add up, so does our stress load.

An example that many people can relate to right now is “work from home.” Working from home is accompanied by many changes—some good and some bad. For example, people may find that they no longer have a long commute to work, which is a positive change. However, they may also find that the physical environment is harder to work in.

Then, the learners started doing their lessons in a remote manner. This drastic change can cause stress both to the adaptive population and those with other learning preferences. This situation is another factor which made people complain. And these happened in 2020.

Kendra Cherry (2017) said: “Positive thinking actually means approaching life’s challenges with a positive outlook. It does not necessarily mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive light.”

It’s about increasing our control over our own attitude in the face of whatever comes along the way. We cannot control things and events happening around us, and we cannot always control the thoughts that pop into our heads, but we can choose how we handle them.

Another year is coming. There are things within our grasp but there are those that we can’t even comprehend. All we can do is adapt and become works in progress as we see the new ecology a challenging one for our growth and the chance to become better versions of ourselves.

Murder and Insanity on Christmas

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Kun Pasko baja kinahanglan gajod bibo? When one goes deeper and understands Christmas, it is really a religious event, not just a “social” one. Although it encourages interaction with others through the displacement of love, respect and goodwill, the event stems back to being of the spiritual context. Yet, materialism, commercialism and other stuff occur this time of the year.

When people seem to lack the resources like money, significant companions, new clothes and even social gatherings, the event seems threadbare. This is probably the reason why there is such a thing as “holiday blues”.

Feelings of sadness that last throughout the holiday season—especially during the months of November and December—are often referred to as the holiday blues. The holidays are usually viewed as a time of happiness and rejoicing. But for some people, it can be a period of painful reflection, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression (Cherry, 2020).

According to webmed.com, sadness is a truly personal feeling. What makes one person feel sad may not affect another person. Typical sources of holiday sadness include: Stress, Fatigue, Unrealistic expectations, Over-commercialization, Financial stress, the inability to be with one's family and friends.

But looking into the main culprit of the development of holiday blues, we can glean that it is the inability to understand the event and attach it with something which muddles with people’s emotions. This is probably brought about by traditions, media hype, commercialization and the recently theorized FOMO (fear of missing out) caused by the social media posts.

Ghio Ong of the Philippine Star reports: A man surrendered to police in Taguig City after killing his two children on Christmas day 2020, a day after his wife’s death. Aiko Siacunco, 28, admitted to strangling his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son in their room at his father’s house in Barangay North Signal, according to a report sent to city police chief Col. Celso Rodriguez. Rodriguez said Siacunco turned himself in after surviving an attempt to hang himself. Following his surrender, police officers rushed to Siacunco’s room at around 7:30 a.m. and found it in disarray. The floor was covered with unidentified stains and the children’s bodies were lying on a mattress on the floor.

In radio interviews, Rodriguez said Siacunco’s wife, Karina, 28, hung herself on Thursday, a claim that her family denied. Siacunco and his wife, who worked as a call center agent, had been arguing over his failure to find a job since the government imposed a lockdown in March, police said.

This might be a sad outcome of the so-called holiday blues phenomenon. If uncontrolled, emotions can cause the neurons in the brain to go haywire. If not for the pressure the suspect felt for the “happiness and joy” they have to feel during Christmas, he could have stayed sane and accepted the fact that the event will only pass.

Emotions become associated with objects, things, places, time periods, and any other element in your life. Once we have formed an emotional association between an object/scenario/thing, etc. and a psychophysiological state, just by simply sensing (i.e. seeing, hearing, tasting, etc.) it again, the same emotion is often evoked. This is one reason to the “attachments” on the Christmas season. We attach it with food, new clothes, gatherings and other material stuff. And without them, we feel depressed.

It was mentioned a while ago that the event is a religious one. So, the attachments people must have with it should be spiritual activities like going to church and reflecting. It is a Christian event so the activities must be in line with what Christ was presenting like humility and simple living. We have to remember that he was born in a barn, not a hospital. Ergo, not lavish but down-to-earth…

Religious people are happier than those without spirituality in their life, says psychologist Dr Stephen Joseph from the University of Warwick, and those who celebrate the original, Christian, meaning of Christmas are, on the whole, happier than those who primarily celebrate the festive season with consumer gifts.

Research entitled "Religiosity and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualization" published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture reveals a positive relation between religiosity and happiness. The study also suggests that the reason for this is that religious people are happier because they have more of a sense of purpose in their lives than non-religious people.

Dr Stephen Joseph, from the University of Warwick, said: "Religious people seem to have a greater purpose in life, which is why they are happier. Looking at the research evidence, it seems that those who celebrate the Christian meaning of Christmas are on the whole likely to be happier. Research shows that too much materialism in our lives can be terrible for happiness."

With these facts, it is high time for us to detach materialism from this event since it is basically a spiritual journey. We need to be in step with reality rather than getting stressed with something that we do not have.

As entertaining as it can be to escape daydreams from time to time, there are certain lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors our society presents as being cool and desirable which are actually far more harmful than they are aspirational (Aggeler, 2017).

Ultimately, we can all be into whatever we choose to be into. But when you're deciding how to build your life and what to fill it with, make sure you're making a decision based on facts, and not some romanticized version of reality.

  

Violent Parenting

 

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Kay uman kun pulis an tatay mo? This can be puzzling. Did she mean that the father must be respected because he is an “authority”? Or is this line related to bad parenting when her idea of respect is only limited to those people with “titles” and the rest of humanity does not deserve respect. In the first place, who displaced disrespect first?

Neil Jayson Servallos of the Philippine Star reported: An off-duty policeman shot dead at point-blank range his elderly female neighbor and her son after an altercation in Paniqui, Tarlac on Sunday (Dec. 20, 2020) afternoon. Police Staff Sgt. Jonel Nuezca, 46, of the Parañaque City Crime Laboratory, later surrendered to the police station in nearby Rosales, Pangasinan after he shot twice in the head Sonya Rufino Gregorio, 52, and her son Frank Anthony, 25. The shooting incident was caught on cell phone camera and has since gone viral on social media.

Another video taken during the incident also showed Nuezca’s daughter shouting that her father was a policeman, a few seconds before shots rang out. In the video, Nuezca shot the victims after the elder Gregorio taunted the suspect’s daughter.

People who saw the video online were horrified and castigated the dastardly act of the policeman. The blaming mutated into something which generalized the PNP as killers which can be unfair but people are emotional and these outbursts are expected to happen.

Gun violence, according to the American Psychological Association, is associated with a confluence of individual, family, school, peer, community, and socio-cultural risk factors that interact over time during childhood and adolescence. Although many youths desist in aggressive and antisocial behavior during late adolescence, others are disproportionately at risk for becoming involved in or otherwise affected by gun violence. The most consistent and powerful predictor of future violence is a history of violent behavior.

Prior to the shooting, Jonel Nuezca already had episodes of violence. Two of the cases against Nuezca were of grave misconduct involving homicide. One was dated May 9, 2019, and the other, December 29, 2019. Both cases were “dismissed for lack of substantial evidence,” JC Gotinga reported. In 2016, Nuezca was accused of serious neglect of duty when he allegedly failed to attend a court hearing as a prosecution witness in a case involving illegal drugs. Police involved in the apprehension of drug suspects are supposed to provide witness in court.

With this background, what can we expect of his parenting style? Yes. It is true that any child will be a victim of adult misdeeds and it is not fair to blame her. But what would become of her? Philnews.ph said that a witness said that after the attack the police father put his arm on the shoulder of his daughter or “akbay” and allegedly said, “Mission accomplished baby.” Then they went home and the suspect asked for his helmet from his wife and flew away.

Witnessing violence can lead children to develop an array of age-dependent negative effects. Research in this area has focused on the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional effects of domestic violence. Children who witness violence and children who are abused may display many similar psychological effects (aafp.org).

Some of the men in uniform, specifically the PNP are reacting on the smearing on their image. For them, this is a fallacy of generalization. But history tells a different story.  By late 2016, approximately 9,000 casualties, mostly from the poorest areas of urban Manila, had been ascribed to the war on drugs (Human Rights Watch 2017). In 2018, three Philippine policemen were found guilty of murdering a teenager during a drug sweep — the first conviction of officers in President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs. The victim was Kian delos Santos.

In January 2014, the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) exposed a secret detention facility in Laguna, a province south of the capital, Manila, in which police officers appeared to be torturing detainees for entertainment. The CHR found a large roulette wheel on which were written descriptions of various torture positions. If the wheel was spun and landed on “30 second bat position”, for example, this meant that the detainee would be hung upside down (like a bat) for 30 seconds. “20 second Manny Pacquiao” meant that a detainee would be punched non-stop for 20 seconds. The existence of such a device, apparently for police officers’ entertainment, clearly demonstrates the casual attitude towards torture within the police force.

Still, we adhere to the belief that there are policemen whose mind, heart and soul are dedicated to serve and protect the people.

But then, we go back to the daughter’s would-be psychological makeup. Children who witness violence or are victims of abuse themselves are at serious risk for long-term physical and mental health problems. Children who witness violence between parents may also be at greater risk of being violent in their future relationships, according to womensheath.gov.

The daughter of Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca will undergo counseling following the fatal shooting incident that she witnessed in Paniqui, Tarlac on Sunday (gmanetwork.com).

The fact that people are reacting on such violence presented on different media, it is still our individual roles to raise our voices against senseless killing, violence and bad parenting.

 

 

Romanticizing Calamities

                                        (photo: YouTube.com)

Kibali bibo kun bahaan? A question occurred on the mind of a sane individual as he sees people showing photos making fun out of the flood which recently took place in the vicinity. There were those young people who made fun out of the situation by posting jokes and insensitive comments as the typhoon intensified.

Being an archipelagic country sitting on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is a hotspot of calamities. In fact, the past year ended with a Typhoon right on Christmas day wrecking regions in the country’s central islands. And in less than a month, Filipinos again faced another catastrophic event to kick-start their New Year, the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas after half a decade (Pangilinan, 2020).

To some, there is this portrayal of victims of calamity as resilient and discerning groups. This rosy view of disaster-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. It allows corporations, governments, and nonprofits to deny this vulnerable population the protections it needs. Romanticizing the poor also hobbles realistic interventions for alleviating poverty.

A lot of people who are also using the social media platforms falls prey on this romanticizing thing. Good for those who make such platforms as sources of information and avenues to facilitate help and rescue but there are those who seem to over-romanticize the events. It is good to be resilient but making disasters as avenues for selfies and posts to gain number of “likes” can be psychologically-skewed.

We also see those who are making the flood look like the worst disaster that happened. Instead of facilitating help, there are some who sends the wrong messages creating anxiety to the families of some in far places. Information can be thwarted, you see…

Jain (2001) said: "Information is power" and it is a catalyst to sustainable development. Complete and correct information to the community is clearly a very important tool to assist in developing a transparent system free of bureaucracy, corruption and general mismanagement of already limited resources.

The role of information and communication changes in emergency situations and can play important role at varied levels based on different needs, Jain continued. Flashing warning news - Incorrect or unreliable information while forecasting the disaster can often result in great damage.

The most effective information dissemination system is community based participatory approach where technical know-how is provided through training to enhance internal capacity of community and local NGO’s of the region. The information and knowledge thus provided enters the system and stays effective in the long run. To accomplish this, the group has now developed an archive of user friendly information packages, which include posters, brochures, pamphlets, information leaflets and training manuals designed for different end users. These include beneficiary families, community workers and site supervisors. These packages include interactive literature in form of user manuals, production manuals, family passbooks, and other documents customized to their needs in regional language (devalt.org).

Legislators and political leaders play a great role in disaster and risk management. In fact, this is one of the competencies the elected officials must have. It was already mentioned that our country is prone to natural calamities and so, the officials must put a lot of premium on this.

Eva (2020) wrote: We see the same things happen over and over again: we weren’t prepared for a disaster, the disaster strikes, and we depend on aid and relief goods with politicians’ names on the plastic bag. It is the inaction from our government that perpetuates the vicious cycle of patronage politics.

BANGON SURIGAO is not just a tagline. It is not only fortifying resiliency. It is in fact a message sent to the local leaders to stand firm and not collapse every now and then when natural calamities strike. A thorough study and recommendations must be in place. The system of disaster preparedness is needed. An orientation on “what to do, when to do and how to do” can empower the vulnerable communities with valuable lifesaving information.

Designing appropriate relief and mitigation projects for natural disasters requires a solid understanding of the magnitude, geographical distribution and frequency of these hazards. This level of information requires both horizontal and vertical flows within the relief providing organizations and from organizations to community. Information is not an end in itself, but a tool to assist the community to organize themselves in the hour of emergency.

After any disaster, there is sudden decline in the confidence of people in traditional / prevailing building systems. The reconstruction phase is considered as a second chance to start afresh with something more "reliable".

Indeed, let us rise from the old beliefs and inefficient ways. The poor will always be the victims of indifference, natural and MAN-MADE calamities. 

Incapable of Appreciation

          

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Dili mahibayo maghatag nan bili. This is one thing that a lot of people lack; they do not know how to appreciate. Most of the things they see are the mistakes and the errors one can commit. When one displaces a good deed or creates an act of goodness, people dismiss them as commonplace. Although a lot of mature people do not demand for appreciation, it is more on the development of the attitude that matters.

The Harvard Medical School defines gratitude as “a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result; gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals–whether to other people, nature, or a higher power”

It is also a social emotion that signals our recognition of the things others have done for us (Fox et al., 2015).

Then why is it difficult to be developed among people? What are the causes of such deficit? You see, we often hear people complain about their life, the situations they are in, their jobs and how they get busy with it. A lot of people complain on almost everything including the weather!

According to Dr. Robert Emmons, the feeling of gratitude and appreciation involves two stages (2003): First comes the acknowledgment of goodness in one’s life. In a state of gratitude, we affirm that all in all, life is good, and has elements that make worth living. The acknowledgment that we have received something gratifies us, both by its presence and by the effort the giver put into choosing it. Second, gratitude is recognizing that some of the sources of this goodness lie outside the self. One can be grateful to other people, to animals, and to the world, but not to oneself. At this stage, we recognize the goodness in our lives and who to thank for it (i.e., who made sacrifices so that we could be happy?).

Despite the great and many benefits that it confers, gratitude is hard to cultivate, because it opposes itself to deeply ingrained human traits, in particular, our striving to better our lot, our need to feel in control of our destiny, our propensity to credit ourselves for our successes while blaming others for our failures, and our belief in some sort of cosmic equality or justice.

According to Burton (2014), since human nature does not leave much place for it, appreciation or gratitude is an attainment associated with emotional maturity—which is why children taught to parrot ‘thank you’ never really mean it. Conversely, many grown-ups express gratitude, or a semblance of gratitude, simply because doing so is useful or the ‘done thing’. Expressing gratitude is good manners, and the aim of good manners is to ape profundity when profundity is lacking.

Emotional maturity and good manners are two major factors of displacing appreciation. These are two main reasons why people lack it. They oftentimes cultivate on envy and other negative emotions to the point that their emotional maturity is curtailed. Manners can be learned from the family and the education that people get. We can then consider the gaps families are giving input to the children which they later practice as adults. And, what about the educational institutions’ role in developing the affective part of the students… is this aspect considered properly?

There are many reasons some people don't appreciate others. One might be that they like to mind their own business. They don't care how others are performing. Another reason might be that appreciation is not in their nature. They don't like saying good things to others. One important reason for not appreciating or motivating others might be that they are jealous of others. They don't want others to do well (Upadya, 2020).

The psychologist Orlando M. Lourenco mentions: Some reasons may have to do with people's biological inheritance. Psychopaths, for example, are not able, say, to put on another's shoes and, hence, they are deprived of any empathetic concerns for others' well-being. Other reasons are situational. If people are born and grow up in a competitive, instead a cooperative, atmosphere and environment it is likely that they fail to value people. Other reasons have to do with people's moral development. The less morally developed people are, the more they are likely to fail to value people. The American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, found that people located at his Stage 1 or Stage 2 of moral reasoning are dominated by egocentric interests and desires and, because of this, think, feel and act without taking into account others' needs, interests and concerns.

Indeed, the harshness of life can affect the things inside people’s heads and their emotions. Yet, it is also the mind that allows us to weigh things carefully including the way we LOOK at things. Self-examination is one key in opening up to improvement and maturation. There is no other person that can help you change for the better but the SELF.

Morality is not an easy thing to master. We have different criteria on what is good and what is not. Also, we need to understand that moral beliefs must be paired with moral actions to make them tangible. But there are things we call as universal values. These can be applied anywhere and to everybody. 

Appreciation is one. While developing this behavior, we are also assured that our mental well-being and manners are nurtured.

 

At Risk

                                       (photo: Unicef)

Amo baja ini ila kahimtang?. This is the thing to register in the head of a teacher as he/she sees the situation of the learner. The heart will then be gripped with compassion. The innate empathy in the educator will then be awakened as a myriad of things bombards the mind: the required readings the teacher gave, the online activities they sometimes demand, the products like collage from magazines and even the bond papers they require for the outputs to be written. These things merge with the muddy area as a porch, the dilapidated house, the near-naked kids the learners are babysitting, the sores on their skin and the putrid smell of poverty.

According to UNICEF, despite rapid economic growth and overall declining rates of poverty in recent years, the situation remains extremely challenging for children in the Philippines. In 2015, a staggering 31.4 per cent of children were living below the basic needs poverty line (down from 2012), with poverty rates actually increasing for children in ARMM: from 52.6 per cent in 2006, to 63.1 per cent in 2015.

With such data, it is not surprising that a lot of learners who have the capability to work are pushed to the work force even if child labor is not allowed by the legislation of the country. The young learners would opt to work so to survive making education as a second priority.

Adding to the difficulties is the pandemic. The COVID-19 is estimated to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021, depending on the severity of the economic contraction. Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, is likely to affect between 9.1% and 9.4% of the world’s population in 2020, according to the biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report.

The corona virus pandemic’s impact on the economy could lead to 1.5 million Filipinos becoming poor, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in an August 2020 study.

Although there is this cliché that poverty is not a hindrance to success, come to think of how one person can learn with an empty stomach? Aside from it, there is this looming fear that the virus can be acquired by them. Experience has taught the poor that they are the most vulnerable to calamities, illness, violence and oppression.

This is the one of the reasons why the teachers visit the learners. They need to encourage them to pursue their studies so that they will become empowered. Current research findings support the continued use of teacher home visit programs as a tool to encourage students’ academic success and parent involvement in the classroom, with many studies also noting teacher home visit programs’ improvement of students’ behavior (Lin & Bates, 2010).

With the distance learning modality, a lot has changed in the delivery of the curriculum. The educators were groping in the dark how to come up with a feasible modality where learning can take place. As part of the teachers’ job, they are expected to visit the learners who manifest difficulties based on their tracking forms. This is not a unique task of the teacher but with the health risk, it is an additional hazard to their safety. Still, they adhere to the belief that NO ONE must be left behind.

Teachers later understand that they also benefit with the activity. They commented on their teaching beliefs and practice as impacted by their home visit. Results of a study indicated that home visits enabled educators to see the families and children that they work with from a different and more positive perspective. The guided home visit questions/tools allowed them to better understand children and their families from historical and cultural perspectives. Also, teachers were better able to create a more diversified learning environment and lesson plans for their learners (Lin, Bates, 2010).

Empathy, the ability to connect others’ feeling without losing himself/herself (Chiu and Yeh, 2017), is found to play an important role in education (Ahmetoglu and Acar, 2016). Research has suggested that empathy is one of the crucial factors that influence how successful teachers are in leading their personal and professional lives (Vucinic et al., 2020). Therefore, empathy is regarded as one of the core contents of teachers’ professional development (Bullough, 2019).

The more empathetic the teacher is, the better he/she understands the situations of the learners which can lead to a more compassionate adjustment he/she will do to make learning take place. Empathy will also make the teacher’s life more meaningful. The educator will then understand his/her role in molding the community through the students and eventually makes the world a better place.

In social psychology, empathy can be categorized as an emotional or cognitive response. Emotional empathy consists of three separate components, Hodges and Myers (Encyclopedia of Social Psychology) say. “The first is feeling the same emotion as another person … The second component, personal distress, refers to one’s own feelings of distress in response to perceiving another’s plight … The third emotional component, feeling compassion for another person, is the one most frequently associated with the study of empathy in psychology,” the authors  explain.

There is a need for the educators to feel more empathy. The activity sheets which are allocated with a lot of funds are just papers. The one using them is the main concern. Without affection, all of the printing efforts and the gargantuan cost will be put into waste.