What we Focus on Matters
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at how what we focus on changes how we see things. This leaves with a ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg’. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
I find Twitter is an ever evolving and revolving door of information. You can get two people from the same age range, and you will get different attitudes and opinions. My biggest thrill on Twitter is finding people that I watched when I was a kid. They were the talent of the era and still active. I’m also very interested in the older comedians. I find many of the older comedians tended to avoid using a lot of profanity and were, as a result, I think, funnier than those that let the F-word do their talking. They had to find creative ways to say the same thing. They had to think about what they were saying. Their brilliance is legendary and they share their comedic gold. Of course there are also newer comedians and actors who maintain a fairly clean repertoire. Keeping up with their goings on is interesting and entertaining. Not sure if they appreciate that I comment on their posts. Of course if they totally hate me, they can get rid of my posts or block me. It’s a free internet community. I like the challenge of coming up with something…whether it passes the witty scale or not, I don’t know. It keeps the mind active.
In the following article (https://www.verywellmind.com/attitude...), they point out that “In psychology, an attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviours toward a particular object, person, thing, or event.” Perhaps my interest in actors from my time is because the shows we watched as kids were more positive in focus in some ways and lacked the vulgarity that seems more used today. We also knew that it wasn’t real and that they were actors playing roles. As much as this sounds pretty simplistic, I sometimes wonder if it is always the case now. We didn’t have the steady diet of violent video games. Parents were more concerned about disrespect toward authority that they felt came with some of the actors. As much as people don’t want to look at the violence and vulgarity in the media as contributing factors, children were more in view of their parents and the neighbourhood when I was growing up. So, my focus was developed as the article points out by experience and upbringing. So, these things are actually trained and thus, seems one can train oneself to change their focus. Some of my attitudes changed over time as I grew older and understood more from the world around me. This understanding is useful in areas where the focus is causing oneself harm. The article also contains a lot more information if you are interested in that area of psychology.
Now, this tells us where my interest in actors, comedians, and musicians comes from. Part of it was learned, part of it was experience. In this case, my interests are not harmful to myself so there is not a real need for change…unless all the actors, actresses, musicians, etc were to block me en masse. However, I do have other interests…though this brings me pleasure, and I hope to some who read the comments a bit of a giggle from time to time; it is not something I have to rush to change. On the other hand, my dislike of politics leaves me rather lost in what is going on in current events so I developed just enough knowledge to not be totally oblivious to the political stuff. So, I have reframed the topic into current events so I’m not as annoyed on the topic. I’m not that interested in politics other than as something I comment on in general. My focus is more on finding the issues that are blocking points for political work. I pick out the unrealistic and the absurd because that makes for fodder for my thoughts. They can also be more informed and I know what bothers me about the situations.
So, it does appear that the learning comes before the thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions and may be the creative force behind them. In other words, we create our reality. This is important because it tells us why there are so many different attitudes out there. Our reality isn’t necessarily the same as the reality of the next person. It is something that we can learn in various ways. The good news is that what you can learn, you can replace with new learning if it is maladaptive. This is especially important to someone who finds themselves focused on the negative. This is not to say that things are all great. But too much focus on the negative can create negative stress in your life and you feel out of control. With the huge amount of information out there that is available, one can find what the stumbling blocks are for themselves. What are the thoughts that one spent a lifetime learning that no longer serve you? https://www.verywellmind.com/what-hap... suggests that there are some potential drawbacks to having a negative outlook which can include becoming physically ill. They also give some advice on how to deal with focus or negative thoughts that you don’t want.
As Doc Childre is credited with saying, “Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment based on what you are feeling and thinking. That is what’s real.” This is the crux of the association between feelings and thinking…it is a form of creation. You can’t recreate the exact same moment because you are creating it with the new addition of the reality that you created at the time and the new reality since that time. It is an ever evolving and revolving door of creation and renewal. You can choose to recreate yourself and recreate your understandings at any time. They are a part of your reality and it is possible to change that reality. You can never go back to the past and change a moment. Your only option is to create new moments. After reading this blog post or listening to the podcast, you will never be the same. You will know that you have a reality. You now know that you can create your reality and you can change your reality. Of course, there is some shared reality that overlaps this great process.
If you don’t like your current reality, you can make changes that will give you a chance at a better reality. You have the power to seek the change that you want to live. This does not mean that the reality will be accepted by everyone. It never did. No matter what, you are still responsible for the outcome of your reality. Some people will agree with your thoughts and some will not. Nicholas Sparks is quoted as saying, “Emotions come and go and can’t be controlled so there’s no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions since in the end it was actions that defined everyone.” I see this as pointing out that we will have feelings about things. We may or may not like things…but it isn’t our feelings that will have us judged, it is our actions that will be judged. There is a lot to the whole argument and much more than can be addressed in a blog post and podcast of 10-15 minutes. This gives you a taste and a starting point. A book that has dealt with the idea of feelings and thoughts, in my day was “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” by Burns. I’m not sure if it is still considered relevant. I’ve been retired for a number of years so there might be better resources nowadays. What I know that is still relevant is that thoughts, feelings and actions are all interconnected as are the reasons I like the old actors, actresses, comedians and musicians. They were my reality and created wonderful memories for me and I enjoy trying to be a small part of theirs. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
I find Twitter is an ever evolving and revolving door of information. You can get two people from the same age range, and you will get different attitudes and opinions. My biggest thrill on Twitter is finding people that I watched when I was a kid. They were the talent of the era and still active. I’m also very interested in the older comedians. I find many of the older comedians tended to avoid using a lot of profanity and were, as a result, I think, funnier than those that let the F-word do their talking. They had to find creative ways to say the same thing. They had to think about what they were saying. Their brilliance is legendary and they share their comedic gold. Of course there are also newer comedians and actors who maintain a fairly clean repertoire. Keeping up with their goings on is interesting and entertaining. Not sure if they appreciate that I comment on their posts. Of course if they totally hate me, they can get rid of my posts or block me. It’s a free internet community. I like the challenge of coming up with something…whether it passes the witty scale or not, I don’t know. It keeps the mind active.
In the following article (https://www.verywellmind.com/attitude...), they point out that “In psychology, an attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviours toward a particular object, person, thing, or event.” Perhaps my interest in actors from my time is because the shows we watched as kids were more positive in focus in some ways and lacked the vulgarity that seems more used today. We also knew that it wasn’t real and that they were actors playing roles. As much as this sounds pretty simplistic, I sometimes wonder if it is always the case now. We didn’t have the steady diet of violent video games. Parents were more concerned about disrespect toward authority that they felt came with some of the actors. As much as people don’t want to look at the violence and vulgarity in the media as contributing factors, children were more in view of their parents and the neighbourhood when I was growing up. So, my focus was developed as the article points out by experience and upbringing. So, these things are actually trained and thus, seems one can train oneself to change their focus. Some of my attitudes changed over time as I grew older and understood more from the world around me. This understanding is useful in areas where the focus is causing oneself harm. The article also contains a lot more information if you are interested in that area of psychology.
Now, this tells us where my interest in actors, comedians, and musicians comes from. Part of it was learned, part of it was experience. In this case, my interests are not harmful to myself so there is not a real need for change…unless all the actors, actresses, musicians, etc were to block me en masse. However, I do have other interests…though this brings me pleasure, and I hope to some who read the comments a bit of a giggle from time to time; it is not something I have to rush to change. On the other hand, my dislike of politics leaves me rather lost in what is going on in current events so I developed just enough knowledge to not be totally oblivious to the political stuff. So, I have reframed the topic into current events so I’m not as annoyed on the topic. I’m not that interested in politics other than as something I comment on in general. My focus is more on finding the issues that are blocking points for political work. I pick out the unrealistic and the absurd because that makes for fodder for my thoughts. They can also be more informed and I know what bothers me about the situations.
So, it does appear that the learning comes before the thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions and may be the creative force behind them. In other words, we create our reality. This is important because it tells us why there are so many different attitudes out there. Our reality isn’t necessarily the same as the reality of the next person. It is something that we can learn in various ways. The good news is that what you can learn, you can replace with new learning if it is maladaptive. This is especially important to someone who finds themselves focused on the negative. This is not to say that things are all great. But too much focus on the negative can create negative stress in your life and you feel out of control. With the huge amount of information out there that is available, one can find what the stumbling blocks are for themselves. What are the thoughts that one spent a lifetime learning that no longer serve you? https://www.verywellmind.com/what-hap... suggests that there are some potential drawbacks to having a negative outlook which can include becoming physically ill. They also give some advice on how to deal with focus or negative thoughts that you don’t want.
As Doc Childre is credited with saying, “Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment based on what you are feeling and thinking. That is what’s real.” This is the crux of the association between feelings and thinking…it is a form of creation. You can’t recreate the exact same moment because you are creating it with the new addition of the reality that you created at the time and the new reality since that time. It is an ever evolving and revolving door of creation and renewal. You can choose to recreate yourself and recreate your understandings at any time. They are a part of your reality and it is possible to change that reality. You can never go back to the past and change a moment. Your only option is to create new moments. After reading this blog post or listening to the podcast, you will never be the same. You will know that you have a reality. You now know that you can create your reality and you can change your reality. Of course, there is some shared reality that overlaps this great process.
If you don’t like your current reality, you can make changes that will give you a chance at a better reality. You have the power to seek the change that you want to live. This does not mean that the reality will be accepted by everyone. It never did. No matter what, you are still responsible for the outcome of your reality. Some people will agree with your thoughts and some will not. Nicholas Sparks is quoted as saying, “Emotions come and go and can’t be controlled so there’s no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions since in the end it was actions that defined everyone.” I see this as pointing out that we will have feelings about things. We may or may not like things…but it isn’t our feelings that will have us judged, it is our actions that will be judged. There is a lot to the whole argument and much more than can be addressed in a blog post and podcast of 10-15 minutes. This gives you a taste and a starting point. A book that has dealt with the idea of feelings and thoughts, in my day was “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” by Burns. I’m not sure if it is still considered relevant. I’ve been retired for a number of years so there might be better resources nowadays. What I know that is still relevant is that thoughts, feelings and actions are all interconnected as are the reasons I like the old actors, actresses, comedians and musicians. They were my reality and created wonderful memories for me and I enjoy trying to be a small part of theirs. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
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A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA
A & J PEI Treasures is located on Prince Edward Island, Canada. We are a husband and wife team and our companion animals. There are a number of things that drew us to the Island…one of which was the n
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