Vaporize

"It's not too late to feel a little more alive"

Through the looking glass

Alice, or rather the person who wrote her story, got it right. Each person's lens is different. In other words, each person looks on life with a slightly different perspective. No one is objective when it comes to their life. This affects them living their life to the fullest. Some people are only willing to think up to a certain point, and then can go no deeper. Some can go deep but they cannot apply what they know to their own lives. Still others can go deep, and what scares them causes them to, not back away, but to try to find a solution to what they find when they go deep. The solution usually gets so convoluted that even the person doesn't really know why they are doing what they're doing, but by that time, they believe so deeply in the lie they created, it seems so real that they can make reasons on top of reasons, to explain the lies. This is called denial.
People look on life with so many different perspectives. That is precisely why psychology is so fascinating to most people. The variation in/ of our minds is infinite. So, psychologists can study forever and still be learning new things in their field every day, except human nature gets in the way.
Our minds do so much and yet we use them so little. There is a saying "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" It is in a NAACP commercial talking about college for African Americans who can't afford it. In reality though, wasting your mind is your choice. It's just that some people have to work harder at it than others. Your background can be shitty,  rich or poor, but that has nothing to do with the ability to overcome hard times.
"A Mind is a terrible thing to waste" But, in reality, most people waste their minds every day, EVEN those with a college education, because for one reason or another, they aren't REALLY paying attention. Your perspective on life is YOUR CHOICE. So the saying shouldn't be "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". It should be "Change your mind, Change your life".

Verification

Who says?

Who says you can't catch up on sleep? I just woke up from a four hour nap and i feel great! I was woken up from a dream though :( however i was dreaming and i was lying on the ground looking up at the sky, and because i couldn't feel the ground underneath me i was getting dizzy in my dream. This never happens in real life. i wonder what that means....

Hmmm....

Update: Exercise :D

Proud to announce that i have been going to the Y and it has been paying off. My heart rate running 1.5 miles (and .5 miles walking) at 6 miles an hour is down from 190 to 125. I am in really good condition and i feel great! YAY ME :)

A few things

I have a few things that have been on my mind lately that i want to address in this blog so bear with me. Sexism is the first on my list. I was reading posts on my facebook the other day and a friend who will remain anonymous commented on the following post:

"my sister asked why in call of duty u cant chose to be a girl. i told her because its Call of Duty NOT Call of Dishes!! lol then she got tight."

I don't think that anyone is conscious of how sexist we are. How the culture is (in general) not kind to women. The glass ceiling is a classic example of this theory. It happens everyday, a look on the train, an attitude. I believe that in general women have to work a lot harder than men at overcoming stereotypes and the pressures that the culture puts on them to be a certain way, to buy a certain product, to act a certain "acceptable" way. In reality women should behave the way that feels comfortable to them, dress the way that feels comfortable to them, wear makeup because it is their choice, not because they feel they have to do it to feel pretty. The society is like one big peer pressure machine. Ultimately, the media tells us (women, and men too) the way we should be seen and see others and that is wrong. We should all be equals and we should all work on making ourselves comfortable with who we are. We shouldn't have to cater to others. we should only be catering to ourselves.

Idea number two: What is normal really? (discussing peoples' behavior) Well, I don't believe that normal exists, not in any world where emotions are involved at least. However, maybe it exists in some parts of the scientific world, or any world with obvious patterns. But for people normal is a very subjective term and has to do with a large scale of different behavioral approaches to dealing with life. Different people deal with life in different ways and the scale that i am talking about is anything from being really mellow... to really crazy and neurotic. It is all relative to what you are used to, and what you can handle for long periods of time, without going crazy yourself. Again, what does the word normal mean to you?

The third and final idea that i will address today is anger.

Anger is a huge topic and i could write forever about it, however i won't do that. I will only discuss an observation i just made, with a little background discussion. I have always had issues with people when they get angry. I HATE when people get angry for stupid reasons, reasons they can't justify, being petty, or directing their anger at the wrong person just so that they can get it out. I HATE when people try to hurt people with anger, or try to prove point with it. And because i am so particular, about my anger and why it is directed at the person it is directed at; i am constantly observing my anger and other peoples' anger to try to make sure that i am not being a hypocrite. Anywho, my most recent observation on anger is that if the anger you felt/ feel towards the person is justified, then you will remember the reason. I believe, from experience that this is true, at least for me. I have had unjustified bouts of anger and i have had peoples' unjustified anger directed at me, and i know how awful it feels. I have also had anger at myself that has been having unrealistic expectations for myself, and not meeting them. Anger is not a fun emotion, but it is very necessary. Anger and passion come from the same place, and you can't really pick one emotion without the rest of them tagging along. Unjustified anger that is directed at you is so frustrating and confusing. However, when you are the one feeling that kind of anger towards someone else you should stop, take a deep breath, and really think about where the anger is coming from, and what the affects of the anger will be on person you are feeling the anger towards and on your relationship with the person. In my experience unjustified anger is very destructive and just not worth it, and you have a mind, so before you let your anger out, stop. And think. And talk. Those feelings are coming from somewhere.

How do you want to be remembered?

I see people who obviously don't care how they are remembered. They don't pay attention to how they treat others or how they approach life (their attitudes towards life). I say that people should behave the way they want to be remembered, because deep down everyone really does care, and they care how they are remembered. So treat people the way you want to be treated and if you feel like you don't deserve to be treated well, do something to change that.

Dilemma:

If I were mild, and I were sweet,
And laid my heart before your feet,
And took my dearest thoughts to you,
And hailed your easy lies as true;
Were I to murmur "Yes," and then
"How true, my dear," and "Yes," again,
And wear my eyes discreetly down,
And tremble whitely at your frown,
And keep my words unquestioning
My love, you'd run like anything!

Should I be frail, and I be mad,
And share my heart with every lad,
But beat my head against the floor
What times you wandered past my door;
Were I to doubt, and I to sneer,
And shriek "Farewell!" and still be here,
And break your joy, and quench your trust-
I should not see you for the dust!

Dorothy Parker

Change

Be the change you wish to see in the world- Gandhi

Mistakes and TV

Everyone makes them. I make them, you make them, well, you get the point. The important thing is that you make whatever you did wrong right. You say sorry, you acknowledge what you did, and you do your best to not do it again. Change isn't easy. It is a hard and lengthy process for most people and some people never really change. One thing this culture does, is make it ok for us to ignore reality, and facing reality is what helps us change. We ignore reality with our credit cards and spending beyond our means. We ignore reality when we make mistakes and don't say sorry, we ignore reality by watching TV. TV has been called the "opiate of the masses", it allows us to zone out, become passive, and it allows us to avoid. Our lives would be so much better without it, because if we absolutely had to face our realities, then we would be inclined to work our hardest to change whatever we aren't happy with. But because of our passive lives and the lives we see on TV the world seems so much harder than it is, and this is ridiculous because it is already pretty damn hard! Dealing with problems allows you to move on and change, and for the most part the way we live now stops this from being any easier. We would be happier, less fat, less depressed, less anxious about dealing with our lives if we were not so used to avoiding people. I am not saying stopping the patterns will be easy... for anyone, (yes, me too). As people say... Change is Hard.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Barack Obama