The pursuit of happiness is a constant impulse for the humanity. Dan Gilbert, author of the book Stumbling on Happiness makes an interesting analysis about our capacity to synthesize our own happiness, specially when we have no choice but to accept our fate. A good example is the capacity of marriages to accept and live with the defects and mistakes of their spouses. Gilbert argues that this occurs when our brain can't find another possible exit to our situation than to accept it. This discovery leads us to think that we can be more happy when we can't change our current situation. Well... maybe, but maybe not.
A similar phenomenon to the one described by Dan Gilbert it's the term cognitive dissonance, first mentioned by the american psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950's. When we have to face a situation or do something that is contrary to our beliefs, we tend to generate a new set of beliefs to support this situation, sometimes even making a u-turn from our previous set of beliefs.
But, what happens when the situation we face isn't just disgusting, but really aversive?
Another american psychologist, Martin Seligman, in 1967 carried out a series of experiments with dogs and electric shocks. He observed that when dogs had the possibility to escape from the shock, they recovered quickly after the experience. But when dogs weren't able to change their actual situation during the experiments, they ended whining and shaking instead of trying anything even in the situations where they could escape from the shocks. This was called Learned Helplessness. This phenomenon was observed also in cats, birds, babies and grown humans. When we face a lot of situations where we can't do anything, we tend to learn that we are incapable of overcoming future conflicts, even when sometimes we can.
Seligman also discovered something unexpected: some of the dogs who couldn't change their situation were able to recover quickly after the experiment. The mechanism behind this behavior was called resilience, or stress tolerance.
Resilience has been deeply researched since then, and it's been considered really important in overcoming adverse situations. It also seems to have some influence in our capacity to enjoy our actual lives. Maybe learning to be resilient it's one of the ways to achieve true happiness. After all, what we call adversity depends a lot of our subjective expectatives about life. In this age of desperation because the cellphone it's low in battery, this should be something to remember.
Thursday 10 October 2013
Thursday 3 October 2013
Wasting time.
Procrastination is an ugly word. But sadly, it's also really fun. That must be the biggest "guilty pleasure" i have. Pretty "nerdy"actually. But, please, before you judge me, let me defend myself.
Most people think procrastinating it's inevitably bad (i mean, you are actually not doing what you should), but i think that you can do lots of useful stuff even when you are avoiding your duties. What's this nonsense, you say? For example, research about something interesting. There are lots of different topics to investigate, and, let's face it, it's impossible to know everything, so that's more than enough to keep anyone busy.
Why i like this time of procrastination? The word tends to evocate images like the Spongebob episode when he had to make a simple essay and failed misserably. But the difference of (let me call it this way) "Research Procrastination" with other types of procrastination is that, there's more possibility that the knowledge obtained will be useful some day. Of course, this requires a wise selection of the topics we want to learn about, since it's not the same to study about a funny moment of history, that about the way to pass the last level of a videogame. Discretion adviced.
Personally, this way of wasting my time has proven to be more than useful, because sooner or later the knowledge proves to be useful.
Most people think procrastinating it's inevitably bad (i mean, you are actually not doing what you should), but i think that you can do lots of useful stuff even when you are avoiding your duties. What's this nonsense, you say? For example, research about something interesting. There are lots of different topics to investigate, and, let's face it, it's impossible to know everything, so that's more than enough to keep anyone busy.
Why i like this time of procrastination? The word tends to evocate images like the Spongebob episode when he had to make a simple essay and failed misserably. But the difference of (let me call it this way) "Research Procrastination" with other types of procrastination is that, there's more possibility that the knowledge obtained will be useful some day. Of course, this requires a wise selection of the topics we want to learn about, since it's not the same to study about a funny moment of history, that about the way to pass the last level of a videogame. Discretion adviced.
Personally, this way of wasting my time has proven to be more than useful, because sooner or later the knowledge proves to be useful.
Where to go?
A place i'd like to visit? I guess i'd like to go to Italy.
I would like to travel to Italy mainly because i like medieval fencing (not the olympic, but the historically accurate). Italy was the homeland of Fiore dei Liberi, a medieval sword-master that wrote a book called "Fiore di Battaglia". This is a book about the use of different weapons and techniques in real battles. It was made as a reference for duels between the nobleman of that period, but it also served as a general reference. The arrive of firearms and cannons marked the end of these militar strategies, but the basic principles of these manuals are used now as martial arts. Sadly, Italy has one of Fiore's books, the "Flos Dellatorum", but this one is part of a private collection (but dreaming is free, isn't it?). Also, there's a street in Udine called Via Fiore dei Liberi after him. This is something quite remarkable if we think that he was part of a battle in Udine more than 600 years ago.
Also, i'd like to visit the Catacombs of the Cappucinos, in Sicily. The catacombs of the Cappucinos are subterranean catacombs with large hallways full of momified friars. They were buried there since the XVII century. This place is a famous turistic site.
I would like to travel to Italy mainly because i like medieval fencing (not the olympic, but the historically accurate). Italy was the homeland of Fiore dei Liberi, a medieval sword-master that wrote a book called "Fiore di Battaglia". This is a book about the use of different weapons and techniques in real battles. It was made as a reference for duels between the nobleman of that period, but it also served as a general reference. The arrive of firearms and cannons marked the end of these militar strategies, but the basic principles of these manuals are used now as martial arts. Sadly, Italy has one of Fiore's books, the "Flos Dellatorum", but this one is part of a private collection (but dreaming is free, isn't it?). Also, there's a street in Udine called Via Fiore dei Liberi after him. This is something quite remarkable if we think that he was part of a battle in Udine more than 600 years ago.
Also, i'd like to visit the Catacombs of the Cappucinos, in Sicily. The catacombs of the Cappucinos are subterranean catacombs with large hallways full of momified friars. They were buried there since the XVII century. This place is a famous turistic site.
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