Assignment 5 - Thoughts

 In the first century, a philosopher named Epictetus said, "Men are disturbed not by events which happen, but rather by the opinion they have of these events." Another version of this says, "Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things." What this means is that it isn’t the event that made you feel this way, it’s the way you view the event. Like when you are in line at the gas station and someone cuts in front of you, or takes too long at the register. You begin to get annoyed, or irrational. You react based on the way you perceived that event. Let’s say the person who cut in line happened to be mentally challenged, and after you hear him talk you discover this. Now you’re probably thinking “ Oh that poor man “ rather than being angry and thinking something like “ What a jerk “.  Our feelings and actions are based on our thoughts rather than just the events around us. Have you ever noticed how some people overreact way to much for a simple misunderstanding ? Or how others can act like nothing ever happened, and remain calm and collected, when they’ve just been involved in an upsetting incident, such as a car wreck. It’s amazing to think that we could all be like these people if we just stopped to think for a minute before we jump to conclusions. Our mind has a way of processing things, and if we learn to control how our mind processes events, we can learn to lessen the stress certain events have on our mind and body. Some people let their thoughts get them sick, or completely upset their entire persona based on an event. People must learn to take responsibility for their own thoughts, and not blame others for our attitudes. It isn’t your teacher’s fault you failed, it isn’t your doctor’s fault your sick, it isn’t your friends fault you’re a loser. You get angry at your teacher for failing you, but if you stopped to think before jumping to that certain emotion, take the time to think about exactly why you were failed. We need to learn to control our thoughts, not the other way around. We must use the power of thought to better our understanding of the events we encounter daily, and not let them overpower our common sense. The one thing we should have absolute control over is our thoughts. Some people get so angry at others, not because that person harmed you in anyway by sharing they’re opinion, but because the more you think about it the more you turn it into something it is not. People interpret their own thoughts in a manner that makes them hateful. Several different cognitions, or thoughts, are constantly running through their head. Cognitive dissonance is when you have two thoughts that sort of contradict one another. Such as if you like a certain type of food, but at the same time you’re trying to loose weight. So although you may want the food, at the same time you do not. During our day to day we constantly go through this cognitive dissonance, if we are faced with a situation in which I mentioned earlier where a man cuts in front of you in line, your first thought was originally a hateful one but now you have seen that this man may be mentally challenged your thought has changed to the complete opposite. This is a type of cognitive dissonance.
My point to this paper is to conclude that our thoughts are to blame for our hateful, and spiteful attitudes. That if we just took a moment to stop and really think about what it is we are processing at the moment, that a lot of us wouldn’t get upset as easily as we normally do. From what I can tell, we are responsible for our actions and the repercussions that come from them. We do have free will, and that allows us to make all kinds of choices about how we are going to react. Unfortunately, many people spend much of their time being mean, spiteful, angry and all of the above. Rather than taking the time to think out the situation, they jumped to the first emotional conclusion and stuck with it. But so much of this goes on unconsciously that we are often not aware of the reasons for behaving negatively.  I think if we all learned to be a little more patient with our thought processes, the world would be a much better place.