Your Actions are Your Prayers

 

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Gusto ko mabright, madato… o gusto ko magkugi, para mabright hasta madato?

There are people who consume too much information and process them. They will then possess a confidence based on the things that they know. Yet, one can wonder if the set of knowledge in one’s head would be enough to see others differently.

Developing one’s intelligence is a goal. There is nothing wrong about it. But what is the deeper meaning of acquiring such? Which will bring us to the discourse of INTENTIONS rather than goals.

Intentions according to Tumblin (2022) are the reasons behind what you do (i.e. the action). One’s actions naturally follow from one’s intentions.

But isn’t this the same with motivation?

Intention is what (the thing) you want to create and motivation is how you feel about what you're going to do or create (Ruelle, 2016). Therefore, intentions are deliberate while motivations are attached to feelings.

While intentions are deep, there are those who stop doing the things they do since their feelings changed. They become unmotivated. Those with strong predisposition continue the task deliberately. They WILL to do it.

Which goes back to query: What is your deliberate intent to consume information? Isn’t this to process them and create an output for the greater good? If not, what? Pure entertainment and self-consumption? Then, is your intention clear that you need to be well-informed to be a better public servant or leader?

Still, the reactive personalities will then retort: What is it to you? They will then remind us to mind our own business.

There are also those whose intentions are bad. That is the reason why our moral compass must be attuned well.

In a spiritual concept, our intentions and actions are our prayers.

According to Henderson (2022): Prayer and the power of intention are fundamentally one and the same thing; processes in which your mind has a particular focus: a healing, a desire, or an intervention of some kind.

Spiritual individuals, those who touch base with their core, are always reconciling their actions with their intentions. Those who are relying more on motivations oftentimes go astray.

 

Freedom or Something Else?

 

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Di siguro kun pinyangga nan bata pa!

Is freedom absolute? This question comes to mind when some people make “freedom of expression” as the excuse for their social media posts. But think about this: When you hurt, malign and cause someone emotional distress, can your “freedom” be still considered as an excuse?

The Constitution says that freedom of expression is the freedom for us all to express ourselves. It is the right to speak, to be heard, and to participate in political, artistic, and social life. It also includes the ‘right to know’: the right to seek, receive, and share information through any media.

While the right to freedom of expression is fundamental, it is not absolute. This means it can be limited in exceptional circumstances. Speech that encourages violence and discrimination against people (e.g. intentional incitement to racial hatred), should be prohibited.

Also, categories such as incitement, defamation, fraud, obscenity, child pornography, fighting words, and threats are not within the bounds of this freedom.

Which brought us to wonder why people hide behind this excuse when they post violent and unbecoming words on social media. Is this a symptom of a psychological disturbance or even some sort of mental illness?

Berne (1970) theorized recognition hunger as the need to be noticed or to receive attention and acknowledgement, which can only be supplied by another human being. It is a need for a sense of belonging and a feeling that other people know you exist in the world.

There are individuals in our social ecology who will post “catchy” or even “violent” contents (like cursing) hiding behind the freedom of expression concept. They sometimes fail to understand that the ulterior motive is to satisfy their need to be noticed and recognized.

A need for approval now and then may be part of human relationships, but seeking others’ approval every step of the way may signal an emotional challenge (Fergusson, 2022).

Bright Quest reveals that the signs and symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) include extreme emotions and mood swings, a constant fear of being abandoned, a strong need for validation from others, unstable relationships, a shifting sense of self, feelings of paranoia and suspicion, and a chronic and uncomfortable sense of emptiness.

When feedback come to us that we are posting too much “edgy” content on social media and we hide behind the excuse of freedom, we have to examine our character-traits as well. We might be on the verge of being unstable.

Minding Your Mind

 

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Mag-ajag nan ato pangisip…

In the Philippines, mental illness is becoming a common disability and at least 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from mental, neurological and substance use disorder, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Dr. Cornelio Banaag Jr, president of the Philippine Mental Health Association said: Mental health-related issues affect Filipinos of all ages and backgrounds - young or old, rich or poor.

The pervasive mental illnesses experienced by many based on latest data are: anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).

Most commonly reported illness is depression. Reports mentioned that this can be genetic or triggered by substance use and character traits like being envious and the development of the FOMO (Fear of missing out) ushered in by information technology. It seems that the people’s attitude is being dictated by what is “in” in the social media platforms.

The National Institutes of Health (2023) published: There is positive correlation between envy, depression, self-reported inferiority, and low self-esteem. Depressed individuals feel more envious and inferior, particularly when faced with attractive Facebook profiles (significant interaction: depression x envy). There is also a positive correlation between neuroticism, envy, and depression.

These are self-destructive illnesses. But there are also mental illnesses which can lead to social disruptive cases. These are also causes for alarm since their illnesses are inflicting pain, discomfort and abuse to others.

Narcissism, delusions of grandeur, hunger for power and recognition, psychopathy, pathological lying and others… A lot of people are sick with these and they are thinking that it is OK to hurt others because of their childhood deficits.

What this writer is advocating is self-reflection and regular visits to the inner self. Self-reflection involves being present with yourself and intentionally focusing your attention inward to examine your thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations.

Self-reflection is important because it helps you form a self-concept and contributes toward self-development. Keeping a journal is one way of doing this. Also this allows the individual to widen the awareness to the world and others as well.

We can control our feelings, moods, thoughts and even the way we see the world and not the opposite. The world will be a little more peaceful with lesser insanity.

Pea-sized

 

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Di jaon kun abtik sanan lihero…

This might be shocking but there are observations that those who complain a lot are NOT good workers. They have ample time to look into some lapses and are not busy enough improving themselves,

Research has shown that across a wide array of psychological events, people tend to focus more on the negative as they try to make sense of the world. They tend to pay more attention to negative events than positive ones.

Complaining is good so to express the negative things you are feeling. It is also a feedback mechanism to improve system lapses and judgment. But dwelling and making a career out from it is different, Chronic complaining is unhealthy.

A chronic complainer is always focused on obstacles and barriers in any situation in life. They see every little change as a problem and complain about it. They focus on mistakes and have a negative perspective instead of focusing on the brighter side of the situation (Rogerro, 2022).

Is there a relationship between chronic complaining and efficacy at the workplace?

The chronic complainer will often attempt to engage co-workers in their negative and unproductive discussions. They view their co-workers as allies and believe they are equally passionate about the issues (Pate, 2023). This would lead to unproductive time and can allow their brains to be rewired to complaining rather than being effective workers.

Repeating a behavior like complaining makes a person’s neurons branch out, easing information flow. This makes it much easier to repeat that behavior in the future—so easy, in fact, that the individual might not even realize doing it.

Scientists like to describe this process as, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Repeated complaining rewires the brain to make future complaining more likely. Over time, the person finds it is easier to be negative than to be positive, regardless of what is happening around them. Complaining becomes their default behavior, which changes how people perceive the individual (Bradberry, 2021)

Research from Stanford University has also found that complaining reduces the size of the hippocampus, which, is responsible for memory and problem solving. The study found that engaging in complaining or simply hearing someone complain for more than 30 minutes could physically damage the brains.

Therefore, how can complainers achieve in real life when the size of their brains is shrinking?

Foolhardy

 

 

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Hilabian da na pagsalig sa kaugalingon!

Self-confidence is the key to success, so the adage goes. But what happens when it would become too much?

In our scrutinizing eyes, we see opinions posted on social media sites intended to create “noise” even if these are ungrounded. There are those who post offensive words to become famous.

The present media landscape is increasingly saturated with the need for fame and celebrity status. We are living in a cultural moment in which ostensibly anyone can achieve sudden fame via [Tiktok and Facebook] (Greenwood, 2022).

While the allure of fame is certainly not a new phenomenon, the ubiquity and perceived accessibility of fame seems to give a false sense of self-confidence.

Then, with the number of “likes” and followers, one can then feign the feeling of being famous.

This is when the person must be careful on treading the fame ground. Mclennan (2022) wrote: Humans are all too tempted to believe their own hype or the hype created around them, and when they cannot live up to it, the mental ill health seeds that they have previously sown, sprout as poisoned ivy.

If unguarded and unprocessed by the self, the need to be famous by posting ungrounded opinions can possibly lead to a psychological case.

One of the most elaborate recent investigations of fame interest was undertaken by Maltby (2010), who found that narcissism was positively correlated with Intensity (e.g., “Very little matters to me apart from being famous”) Celebrity Lifestyle (e.g., “I want to be rich”), Drive (e.g., “I work hard every day to be famous”), and Perceived Suitability (e.g., “I’ve got what it takes to be famous”).

Narcissism was associated with increased appeal of Visibility and Status, more time spent engaged in fame fantasy, and greater perceived realism of future fame. This is from the study titled “Fame and the Social Self: The need to belong, narcissism, and relatedness predict the appeal of fame” by Greenwood, Long and Dal Cin (2013).

There are things that we need to understand like our motivations of fame and power. We also have the capacity to reroute our movements since we control our own sails. If not, we might be part of the statistical data on the verge of insanity.

Self Check

 

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Nahadlok or poloho lamang gajod?

It is understandable that we experience fear when our lives are threatened. Without fear, self-preservation won’t happen. Fear also drives the ego to protect the self.

When the earthquake happened, we were afraid of our lives, our possessions and the well-being of our loved ones. Some even experienced trauma. This had some adverse effects in the way they feel and see things.

PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by specific symptoms, including intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal, flashbacks, nightmares, and sleep disturbances, changes in memory and concentration, and startle responses.

Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people (helpguide.org).

When work suspension was announced by the province of Surigao del Sur, there were those who felt relieved since they did not trust the structural integrity of their office buildings and the like. When some tasks were required by higher offices, there were some who expressed their dismay and hurled accusations on social media. A few even sent written complaints generated by artificial intelligence. They do not want to do minor tasks citing the executive order.

We then wonder if this is caused by trauma or simply sloth.

Procrastinators according to Scott (2022) chronically avoid difficult tasks and may deliberately look for distractions.

A researcher can filter out social media posts and will find those who are looking forward to long weekends and through focused observation, could see people flocking on fast-food chains and malls.

Self-control is the ability to regulate and alter your responses to avoid undesirable behaviors, increase desirable ones, and achieve long-term goals. Research has shown that possessing self-control can be important for health and well-being (Cherry, 2023).

Self-evaluation is also a key to unlock personality traits. Am I afraid? Or something else…

We cannot discount the fact that lots are traumatized. But we also understand that others are just making excuses.

 

Unreasonable

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Hilabian da na pagbati!

When the breakup of Kathniel became a national issue, one can ask: Are we that emotional that such things become an object of the majority’s attention? Are we allowing emotions to take over our cognitive processing?

Emotional overwhelm according to goodtherapy.org is a state of being beset by intense emotion that is difficult to manage. It can affect your ability to think and act rationally. It could also prevent you from performing daily tasks.

There were those who cried helplessly. Social media were flooded with comments, memes and other sensitive and insensitive comments. Indeed, these platforms allowed everyone to become dancers, performers, newscasters and psychologists as well.

But what happens when you allow yourself to be too emotional over things that you resonate on breakups of film stars?

Emotional investment is actively the heart ruling the head, to give balance to that statement Friedrich Nietzche said “many find their hearts when they have lost their head” (Larkin, 2015).

There are people around us who gets angry over petty things. They blurt out words while reacting to the stimulus. They cannot control their emotions since they have invested too much on them.

A highly sensitive person (HSP) is a neurodivergent individual who is thought to have an increased or deeper central nervous system sensitivity to physical, emotional, or social stimuli (Scott, 2023).

There is no official diagnosis that HSP is a mental illness. High sensitivity is a personality trait that involves increased responsiveness to both positive and negative influences.

Research shows that a lack of parental warmth growing up may cause a child to develop high sensitivity and carry this trait into adulthood. The same goes for negative early childhood experiences (Chen, Moyzis, et al, 2011).

Too much investing on emotions leads to friction. Always, these persons cause some sort of disagreement around since they base their reactions to emotions and NOT reason.