Cognitive dissonance

The past weeks I've been chewing on some thoughts and I stumbled upon Lex's blog about a term I recently learned. Cognitive dissonance. Now, I looked it up in Wikipedia which defines it.

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension that may result from having two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's beliefs.

In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs. In detailed terms, it is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where "cognition" is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. Experiments have attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive. Some of these have examined how beliefs often change to match behavior when beliefs and behavior are in conflict.--Wikipedia

will post more on this topic soon.

timelessness

Today, I realized that relationships should not be measured in "time". Years, hours, minutes and dates including the concept of time itself are all mental constructs. Part of man's invention. But love, spending time with your loved ones are "timeless" experiences. The best things in life are not measured by time. Some writers would describe a moment to last an eternity and a decade as if only a week has passed. Everything is relative, specially time. I love the idea of timelessness.

The beauty of the moment that we treasure is measured by the meaning we personally attach to them. Timelessness is to be immersed where our faith, hope and love resides. Morphed into various manifestations within our lives.

I thank God for the many blessings that He sends our way. Insights that empower us to live our lives, not as just mere mortals, but enlightened beings.

measure in love

This song was sung during our wedding. Coincidence, I read about it today as uncanny as it may seem of all days. It just presented itself again. The universe seems to unfold as it should. God's fingerprint in everything there is.

Seasons of Love
From Rent the musical
by Jonathan Larsen

Five hundrend twenty five thousand
six hundred minutes
Five hundrend twenty five thousand
moments so dear
Five hundrend twenty five thousand
six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year

In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights,
in cups of coffee, In inches, in miles
in laughter in strife,

In Five hundrend twenty five thousand
six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life

(chorus)
How about Love
how about love
how about love
measure in love
seasons of love
seasons of love

Five hundrend twenty five thousand
six hundred minutes
Five hundrend twenty five thousand
journeys to plan
Five hundrend twenty five thousand
six hundred minutes
how do you measure the life of a woman
or a man

In truth that she learned
or in times that he cried
In the bridges he burned
or the way that she died

Its time now to sing out
though the story never ends
lets celebrate remember a year
in the life of friends


******************

Happy Anniversary Tatay!

And it is doesn't seem to be just ___ years. It seems it has been a lifetime of living a full life with you! Praying for more timelessness in our life together!

room with a view

We had a strategic planning and resource mob workshop last week. I just want to share the view with you here. I will revive having a gratitude journal to remind me to be thankful for the many small miracles in life. As they say to be truly present. I am grateful for the time spent in Lake Island. Thank God for the wonderful view that greeted us every morning during our stay there.

create possibilities

A couple of weeks ago I had a great conversation with Honey and I was happy to read about it in her blog. We always have good conversations albeit these are few and far between because both our schedules were full the past months. We talked about creating possibilities for our lives now. She always inspires me to think creatively. I love the way she writes and shares her experience.

the nations

I was doing some cleaning up around the house. I realized dust have gathered on most of my old files that I haven't touch for a while. One of the rule-of-thumb that I go by is that if I did not use it for the past year, I either throw it away or if still something useful, I give it to someone who might need it more than I do.

In the process of cleaning up I found this old paper with these verses:

YOU SAID

You said, "Ask and you will receive
Whatever you need."
You said. "Pray and I'll hear from heaven
And I'll heal your land."

You said Your glory will fill the earth
Like water the sea
You said, "Lift up your eyes
The harvest is here, the kingdom is here"

You said, "Ask and I'll give the nations to you."
O Lord, that's the cry of my heart
Distant shores and the islands will see
Your light, as it rises on us

O Lord, I ask for the nations.

Hiro

Image from Wired Magazine The 2007 Rave Awards.

"We may have the power of gods, but we cannot play God."

From the last conversation of Hiro Nakamura and his father. Heroes (Season 2).

Shades of gray

Not everything is what it seems. Not everything in this world is black and white. There are shades of gray. The optical illusion above shows that it seems that A is in a darker shade of gray and B is in a lighter shade of gray. But the gray lines on the side shows that they actually are of the same shade (true check out the % gray in your monitor if you want:-) ). One would realize and reason that "ah ok dahil sa shadow" it is because of the shadow that made the B of the same shade as A. But our eyes deceive us. Why? I think because of preconceived notions. Our minds tells us things. Our world view defines what we see. Even if the actual logical reason is already there in front of us. The solution to our illusion there but still our stubborn "worldview" and concepts that we hold on to prevent us to see objectively, sometimes.

The past week I've been meaning to write the many insights that has been pouring in. But I guess I was trying to get a grasp of these messages and been waiting for the right moment to write about them. Inspiration to write often comes but I was resistant in many ways.

Black and white. The world is gray. There are many shades of gray. I bet there has been thinkers and sages before me who have written something about the topic at hand. I will refer you to them if you want, look up Kant. But this would just be a sharing of how I received several insights through different mediums saying this gas-gas na linya. I was just amazed that in a span of one week, every day I encountered these messages. But I will only share the ones for public consumption. Of course :-).

In Supernaturals the TV series, they hunt "evil things" and eliminate them like ghost busters as it were. At one point they encountered a "humane" vampire who doesnt feed on human blood and just feed on cows. Shades of gray. The brothers chose not to.

In Grey's Anatomy, Bailey missed her son's first something. She as a doctor had to do a pro bono operation on another child in the hospital. She said in a black and white world in the eyes of her husband she missed a milestone in their child's life.

Not everything is what it seems. Not everything is black and white.

A beautiful like gray.

an orange morning

I am up early this morning. Actually I am always an early riser. I just force myself to stay in bed sometimes just lying there thinking of many passing thoughts. More often than not I try to make it a creative moment of sorts. I try to think of good things always. Conjuring images of a beautiful home. I read somewhere that the moment between sleep and waking up is the best time to tap into that power of creating. Whatever it is. Three things. Thoughts become things. I realized that I need to be careful of the things that I think about. I try to avoid negative thoughts I dont really suppress them I just let them pass by. I just do not dwell on them. But what I keep in mind is to think of positive things always. The "can do" attitude.

The door in the kitchen is open with just the screen door with the small lock. After reading something inspiring, I walked towards the kitchen to have my usual drink of Milo in the morning. And there. There was this orange glow of the morning. After a long time, I saw a sunrise. It made me happy. My heart jump slightly at the sight. Simple, yet it brought much joy. What made it so special is that I know in a couple of minutes this orange glow will be gone. I am thankful that I was able to catch that orange glow that only last for a minute or two. The next one will be in the next 24 hours but will I chance upon it again?

I can actually hear the birds chirping as I write this. A nice sound given that I live in the heart of Quezon City.

Ocean Adventure at Subic