Diffuse
I've been keeping a journal since I was 13 and I try to write my thoughts as often as I can. Normally, I have one journal entry per day, or at least try to catch up when I get into the mood. I realized I haven't been writing on my journal, or on my blog for quite sometime now, probably because I was preoccupied with writing several essays for my application for a scholarship. It seems my mind can only be squeezed to write up to some point.
And so, it feels good to be writing right now. It diffuses whatever emotion I'm grappling with this moment. Trying to rationalize to dilute disappointment is always hard - it is a wrestling match between the objective and the subjective: other people's and my feelings, priorities, realities. I can only sigh, that's all I can do, and hope later on that something else will distract me from whatever it is I'm trying to deal with right now.
It has been ten years since I turned my back on the pursuit of psychology as a profession in favor of law school. Back then, I used to think that I understood my feelings and other people better because of the theories in psychology which I learned. Flooding my brain with the law seems to have eased out the theories from my gray matter. I can still try though, and here's what my shrink self would tell myself:
If the emotion is strong, attempt to weaken it by performing a certain behavior. Say or example, smile. Smile and your nerves will send a signal to your brain, activating the neurons which normally act up when you perceive a sensation which tells your brain to retrive the happy hormones and then send a message to your facial muscles to widen the opening of your lips, horizontally, narrow your eyelids, and tighten the muscles on your cheeks. Keep on doing this and yes, you will feel happy, even a bit. If you keep on doing this behavior, you will eventually modify the strong emotion. It needs a lot of work especially if the emotion is really, really strong. Good for me, it's only disappointment for today.
You should try it.
In the meantime, you don't change the situation - I still didn't have it my way. The thing that didn't happen, still won't happen. But probably, you wouldn't mind as much as you did earlier.
Gee... it works!
And so, it feels good to be writing right now. It diffuses whatever emotion I'm grappling with this moment. Trying to rationalize to dilute disappointment is always hard - it is a wrestling match between the objective and the subjective: other people's and my feelings, priorities, realities. I can only sigh, that's all I can do, and hope later on that something else will distract me from whatever it is I'm trying to deal with right now.
It has been ten years since I turned my back on the pursuit of psychology as a profession in favor of law school. Back then, I used to think that I understood my feelings and other people better because of the theories in psychology which I learned. Flooding my brain with the law seems to have eased out the theories from my gray matter. I can still try though, and here's what my shrink self would tell myself:
If the emotion is strong, attempt to weaken it by performing a certain behavior. Say or example, smile. Smile and your nerves will send a signal to your brain, activating the neurons which normally act up when you perceive a sensation which tells your brain to retrive the happy hormones and then send a message to your facial muscles to widen the opening of your lips, horizontally, narrow your eyelids, and tighten the muscles on your cheeks. Keep on doing this and yes, you will feel happy, even a bit. If you keep on doing this behavior, you will eventually modify the strong emotion. It needs a lot of work especially if the emotion is really, really strong. Good for me, it's only disappointment for today.
You should try it.
In the meantime, you don't change the situation - I still didn't have it my way. The thing that didn't happen, still won't happen. But probably, you wouldn't mind as much as you did earlier.
Gee... it works!
posted by wernicke @ 9:37:00 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home