How much mental control do you have? And is it important?
How much mental control do you have?
And how important is it to you?
I'm asking from the frame of my own mind - I consider myself an extremely mentally controlled person, and take a great deal of pride in it. However, many of the people I know and hear about exhibit an astonishing lack thereof and likewise don't see it as being an important trait.
By mental control, I mean the ability to take things rationally and not react emotionally to a situation that doesn't warrant it. I mean not crying unless there's a justifiable reason: strong mental or physical pain. I mean not letting undesirable emotions perpetuate in your pysche so long that they're destructive. I mean not staying sad for more than the absolute minimum necessary to learn and move on. I think the worst exhibition of a low mental control is justifying current actions with previous actions; "I am emotional like this becuase of X event in my past." No. You're not. You're emotional like that because you're lettting X event of your past CONTROL YOU NOW. This, to me, is the biggest sign of a lack of mental control.
Personally I'd rather stray towards the "emotionless" side than the "emotional-wreck" side, but I'd be interested to see how the TFPers as a whole place themselves.
On the whole, in general, from my own experience, women seem to be less mentally controlled then men. This implies nothing about any woman in particular and presumes nothing about individuals, just that my life experience has given me reason to find credibility in this idea.
Most mental disorders I classify as a mental disorder and not a physical disorder, and I believe they can be controlled quite well by a mentally controlled person. Depression, "suidical" tendencies, PTSD, etc. They are all very mental constructs, created usually by situation and not a chemical imbalance, especially later in life. I see people get ridiculously mad in arguments with their spouses, to the point of screaming and slamming things. To me, that's absolutely ridiculous -- it takes very little skill to realize when you're going to become emotional and avoid it. Do you feel controlled? Do you wish you were more controlled? And how important is it to you to improve that ability, if it is important to you?
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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel
Last edited by Jinn; 05-15-2006 at 06:51 AM..
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