Improving The Quality Of Your Life

A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.
— Jules Carlysle

The question is simple: do you know your mind? More specifically, do you know what it is biased towards detecting when you look at things? What is the above picture about? Get voting! Read the rest of this entry »

“Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.”
— Elbert Hubbard

If you were to rate your mornings, how good would they be? Would your mornings be the great, motivating and inspiring part of the day, or the part which clutters your mind and makes you feel confused and powerless? Read the rest of this entry »

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Before I knew anything about it, I was attracted to the ideal of philosophy. I thought of it as a practical subject that could make a real difference, that might have wise things to say about everyday worries - like

failing in a job, not having any friends. Philosophy promised something that might sound a little naive, but was in fact rather profound: “the way to learn to be happy.”

And as I found out more, I discovered that there were a few ancient philosophers I was particularly interested in, because they had the wisest things to say about the areas of life that I thought were rather problematic.

Anger

Anger refers especially to that faculty of the mind which subsists between reason and desire and which seeks to direct the latter in accord with the former – a faculty which seeks to ordinate the self and its environment. It is part of the brain response to a perceived threat of pain - mental of physical.

Anger may be expressed actively or passively. When expressed actively, an angry person “lashes out” verbally or physically at a target. When expressed passively, it is often characterized by silent sulking, passive-aggressive behavior, hostility and tension.

Anger is usually magnified and lasts longer when a rational decision is made about the intent of the source of the disturbance. In other words, if one decides the pain infliction was intentional or deliberate, the emotion of anger that results is usually more intense. This also happens when one thinks he can do something to change an unchangeable painful situation.

Getting angry is not a hard thing to achieve. Is is sufficient for one to drive through a city, especially if it is a crowded one, to get very frustrated because of the careless drivers that seem to be everywhere.

The world we live in is a very frustrating one and most of us seem unable to respond very philosophically to it. Anger seems as much a part of our lives today as bad driving and traffic jams. Read the rest of this entry »