Heresy

Poetic Heresy v.4

WHAT WOULD IT 

 BE LIKE NOT

      TO FEEL?

 

NOT

  TO DELVE,

        IT WOULD NOT HURT...

 

BUT HOW

CAN I PARALYZE

THIS HEART OF MINE...

 

I WOULD SIMPLY

  NOT KNOW HOW!

The opportunity to explore

It is inevitable. As years go by we adopt certain likes, rules, methods and forms that work for us in "most" situations. They bring the comfort and safety that comes with what we know. And as time elapses, these become paradigms, our credo which guides us and allows us to make decisions more easily, based on patterns we have established throughout our lives.

The problem of clinging to paradigms is that they may probably work for us in "most cases", but they don't necessarily contribute ideal answers to situations out of the ordinary. Thus, they lead us not only to make inappropriate (perhaps incomplete) decisions, but also to miss out on opportunities to discover superior alternatives which go beyond the approaches and forms we master.

We have to force ourselves to question our own paradigms constantly.  Hopefully we could do this every day in such a way that we give ourselves an opportunity to look into alternatives that could bring new things into our lives.  My heresy is a proposal to turn the questioning of our paradigms into our basic paradigm, so that we give ourselves an opportunity to explore each day in such a manner that considering new alternatives becomes the color that lights up our lives.

What paradigm are you going to question today? 

Thoughts of actions against anxiety

The feeling is familiar: chest tightness that results in hyperventilation together with a feeling of frustration and losing control of the situation. Anxiety is the sister of panic and the direct mother of heartburn and bad decisions. There are many kinds of psychological, pharmacologic, and methodological treatments to cope with anxiety. Today I'd like to propose a simple, but immediately effective treatment. Let's focus on thoughts of actions, not on thoughts of paralysis and inaction.

Thoughts that lead us to feel panic and anxiety are usually self-victimizing. We do not visualize how we can have control and we continue to think in the same way. For example, we think "I'm going to lose my job", "the economy is terrible, and it won't get better", "my partner has a lover", "I'm going to lose the contest", etc.  If we enter the road with these thoughts of paralysis and inaction, it will leads us to more paralysis, to a total block.

This is the reason that we must focus on thoughts of action. This means that we  must concentrate on the things over which we have immediate control, on the things that we can do such as "I'm going to start sending my résumé to other companies", "I'm going to think of new products that will be successful in this economy", "I'm going to reinvent myself and cultivate myself", "I'm going to prepare better for the contest", and so forth.  We will strengthen ourselves when we face crisis and the questions of life from this perspective. It can even help us prepare better to face any event that could occur, having peace of mind in our heads and our hearts without letting anxiety disturb us.

It will go away right away. Repeat this procedure as many times as the symptoms arise.