Forgiveness

      There have been many times in our lives where someone has wronged us and we have to “forgive and forget”. Most of those times it feels almost impossible to even think of forgiving said person and it usually takes a long time to actually find peace with the matter. To help us, Sunny Sea Gold gives us 4 reasons why we should forgive the other person.

1. For your own sake- Forgiveness isn’t for the other person, usually they couldn’t give a care in the world as to whether you had forgiven them. Forgiveness is to benefit your own health and well-being. There was even a workshop in Northern Ireland for woman who lost their children to sectarian violence and it was found that they felt less hurt and the depression scores fell by 60%. It even showed long term effects and the woman reported being less stressed.
2. Aim for empathy- If you can understand, even just a little bit as to why the other person hurt you, your pain will begin to subside. There’s even a technique to help you empathize with who hurt you. It is called the empty chair dialogue; it is where you sit with an empty chair and you pour your feelings out to the chair and then switch chairs and try to justify for the other person. If you can feel any sort of empathy, the negative emotions associated will begin to recede and you will feel better.
3. Calm the fight or flight reaction- the emotions of hurt and trauma will come back in waves and it’s your natural reaction to be in a fight or flight mode. Stanford Forgiveness Project psychologist, Frederic Luskin, says that when these waves come back use stress management techniques such as deep breathing and meditation, if those don’t work the problem may need more attention.
4. Keep trying- Forgiveness isn’t something that can be achieved immediately or without some effort. The more you try and the more you acknowledge it the closer you get to forgiving the person who hurt you. And, as important as therapy is with a psychologist, having your own personal persistence is just not, if not more important.

So, although this year and these past couple weeks have been difficult, find time to forgive those around you who have hurt you. Do it for yourself and do it for those around you. And don’t be afraid to take as much time as you need because not matter the situation you are allowed to feel that way. Don’t ever apologize for how you feel.

J.M

Gold, Sunny Sea. "How to Be a Better Forgiver." Scientific American. N.p., 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 13 Nov. 2016.

Why "Healing" After the Election is not as easy as media implies

The election is finally over, and a new president will take office in 2017. The person that won has said things against many different minority groups, many different religions, many different sexual orientations, and many different genders. The news outlets are now saying, oh well, it is time to heal any wounds that have been formed over this election and move on. If this were a partisan issue there would be no trouble in doing so. However, when oppression is tolerated, and people do not resist evil, then evil can grow in peace. Letting things go and saying "oh well, there is always another election in four years" is not an option this time. In four years everything that this country has done in the past 60 will be wiped away. The way that this relates to psychology is this, distance from an event diminishes passion about said event.

It is an obvious statement to say that people will care less about something the longer ago that it happened. It is this way with every tragedy. People go so far as to make them into jokes. The amount of Holocaust and 9-11 jokes on the internet is astounding. This is dangerous. People do not have an attention span that is beneficial to revolution anymore. We stop caring that people are oppressed and we care more about ourselves than people who live just next door. We are only 3 days out from the election and the passion and desire to make any sort of difference is already diminishing. In a democracy, the rule is supposed to be by the people. If a large enough group of organized people tell the government its demands, it can not refuse. Before our minds become okay with the idea of oppression things must be done. Otherwise, as history has shown, we will become desensitized to the problem.

C.F.

Recognizing Significance (Prompt #9)

Being a fisheries and wildlife major I am constantly following what the US Fish and Wildlife Service is doing. This is an important field because by conserving the environment and managing natural resources, the field is also protecting the future for humans as well. The objectives of the USFWS are listed on their website as:

1.      Assist in the development and application of an environmental stewardship ethic for our society, based on ecological principles, scientific knowledge of fish and wildlife, and a sense of moral responsibility.

2.      Guide the conservation, development, and management of the Nation's fish and wildlife resources.

3.      Administer a national program to provide the public opportunities to understand, appreciate, and wisely use fish and wildlife resources.

As listed on the USFWS website here are some of the things they do to protect us and the planet:

·         Enforce federal wildlife laws

·         Protect endangered species  

·         Conserve and restore wildlife habitat such as wetlands

·         Help foreign governments with their international conservation efforts

Programs like USFWS are significant and important because without them regulating and managing resources, the planet would be in worse condition. Without protecting the environment and populations of species, different habitats and ecosystems would cease to exist. When those no longer exist, neither do the organisms that inhibit them, which directly connects to our food sources.

A.C.

Information from https://www.fws.gov

Decision Making

     We as humans solve problems in many simple, yet complex ways. Have you ever wanted to just get something done so you rushed your way through? Looking for the easiest or fastest way to get something or go somewhere. This method is called heuristics. For example, so you are hosting an open house for your friend but you forgot to make the punch. Do you go down every isle looking for the specific kind of punch you want or do you go to the spot where it most likely would be? Although the method of heuristics is faster and easier it may not always be accurate.

     The other method that we use is algorithms. Algorithms are a step by step procedure that is a guaranteed way to find that punch you are looking for. By going down every isle one by one there’s no way you could miss it or not find it. Although they do take longer than heuristics its always better to be safe than sorry.

    Have you ever wanted to go to Florida but one of your friends just insisted on taking that long drive rather than a plane, claiming its ‘safer’ when more car accidents happen than plane crashes? This is called availability heuristics. When you think of a plane the image of 9/11 might come to mind and not the daily car crashes you hear on the news.

     We also sometimes let our beliefs hide the truth which we know but won’t willing admit. Even when proven wrong we still hold on to these beliefs this is called belief perseverance. Have you ever watched a football game and your team scored a touchdown but they were still down by seven points, and there was only two minutes left in the game? You still believed they would win because they scored a touchdown and ignored the fact that there was two minutes left in the game and your team lost the ball. This is called confirmation bias. You ignored the contradictory evidence because your team scored a touchdown. Could the way you chose to solve a problem relate to your personality?

Hambrick, David "Thinking and Language" Psychology 101. Wells Hall, East Lansing. November 18,2016. Lecture.

C.C.

Being Happy For Others Can Make Yourself Happy

    Envy is usually our first feeling when we see someone we love doing something exciting or fun without us. We become jealous and judgmental almost immediately after and are left stewing. In an article I read recently, it explained how to take a step back from these feelings and how to begin showing yourself "self-compassion". Through self-compassion you can become happy for the other person and let go of the envious feelings.

    It's easy to feel happy for others until a situation is presented that you wish you were a part of. The article states that to dull negative feelings you should first stop “self-blaming”. It is common to feel envy in this type of situation, so you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Instead of focusing on your envy and letting it manifest, it states that it is better to think about why you’re feeling how you feel because you’re not self-blaming at this point. Once you get past this idea of self-blaming it’s supposed to open you up to being compassionate and happy for others.

    What I got from this article was basically to think clearly before you react, which can be said so easily but can be extremely difficult to carry out. Emotions are so powerful and can overtake someone quickly but if you have enough power to keep the idea of self-compassion in your mind then go for it. The article was overall heartfelt but could’ve been more descriptive in the terms self- blaming and self-compassion in the given situation.

A.C.

Bernhard, Toni. Feeling Happy for Others Can Make You Happy Psychology Today, 02. Nov. 2016, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/turning-straw-gold/201611/feeling-happy-others-can-make-you-happy?collection=1095555

Pessimism and this Election

     With the presidential election only two days away, many of us are faced with whether or not we should vote and more importantly, who we should vote for. Never, in any election have we had such extreme candidates for the presidency. Both parties have chosen the epitome of their beliefs and it makes it hard for any average person to pick between the two. What makes it even harder is that there are constant advertisements for both candidates. The ads never have anything positive to say about the other candidate. Instead of focusing on what good they can bring to the table, they just bash the other candidate and what they are doing wrong or trudges up the past. 

     This practice has been going on in the world of politics for years, so it clearly is working. Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, says that it happens because of evolutionary reasons; being risk-averse and really sensitive to threats during a more dangerous time was worth it. Christian Smith says that the reason we see so much negativity in elections is because of this and that politicians reinforce morals. Through all of this though, it’s important to remember to do individual research and not listen to just the ads, especially given that they are so negative.

J.M.

Shermer, Michael. "Why Political Pessimism Trumps Optimism." Scientific American. N.p., 11 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

The Path of Least Resistance

My roommate was mentioning to me the other day how if one door is open a row of 4, people will go out of their way to enter using it. People will go so far as to stand in a line to go through the open door. This got me thinking about human nature. Are we perhaps so desperate to do the least amount of work possible, that we end up doing more work in trying to avoid it?

The argument can be made that we should follow the path of least resistance just as easily as it can be said that we should not. The real question comes down to how someone decides that they want to live their life. Some people think that lists, organization, and planning ahead leads to a happier life in the long run. Others believe that going with the flow, and living in the moment, is the key to a happy life.

The "planners" often feel like they are avoiding stress and last minute changes by keeping everything written down and removing it from their mind. This decreases the worry that they may end up forgetting something and therefore missing out on something that they really wanted to do. It is more of a forward thinking mentality than the other group.

The "flow goers" don't often plan or write down that which must get done and prefer to just use their minds to keep track. The feel that they are avoiding stress because looking at a list of things to do is much more stressful than trying to keep track of it all in their head. If they forget to do something or go somewhere than it probably wasn't important anyway. They tend to be more present minded people than the other group.

I find that whether you belong to one group or another, we are all just trying to find the path of least resistance. "Water resist containment and seeks ways to move on a journey of its own inclination…our social conditioning tries to meet definite expectations and goals….however our intuitive compass wants to be free to follow its own unique course" (sid para. 2). We may have different ideas on what the best way to live is, but we are all trying to find our own "path of least resistance."

C.F.

Works Cited

Sid. "FLOW PSYCHOLOGY." FLOW PSYCHOLOGY. N.p., 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2016. <https://sidhere.wordpress.com/tag/path-of-least-resistance/>.