Greetings all, I have just watched an episode of the original Star Trek series on the television, in which it raised a few interesting ideas. In this episode there was a transporter malfunction (original yeah) and Captain Kirk was separated into two separate entities. These two entities were the classical definition of light/dark, which, although may not hold to some peoples beliefs brings forth some well known strongholds.
On the one hand we have the compassionate, fearless and logic man, whilst the other was an angry, irrational and violent man. Each of the halves of the man, referred to as positive and negative in that order were seriously flawed and imbalanced. The 'negative' man constantly erupted with anger and violence and was unable to control himself, yet the man without his negative side lost his will and motivation. So my thoughts on this? Well the compassionate side was looked on as good and positive because it was not primarily destructive. The other was looked on as negative because it appeared crude and flawed. The thing is that both were negative as they were imbalanced and dangerous to both the individual and those around them. One has to be careful not to take this too far though, after all it is fiction and the division was made to be so clear and the effects precise.
So how do we then move this into real life? Well this time think of it not as the separation into two entities, but the suppression of the qualities there are seen as negative or positive either through conscious, or subconscious thought. I have seen many people try to be one or the other, a person who wants for the life of them to be 'good' and that compassionate Captain Kirk. The way they see to achieve that is to completely disown and wipe out the 'negative' and the violent Captain Kirk. But then, as the episode theorises, take away that 'negative' and where is the motivation? If they are driven by the negative or the violence to do something, what happens when it is not there? The same the other way round. If you take away the compassionate Kirk from within you then the effects are similarly negative.
This comes down to knowing yourself. Within every human there is compassion, logic and all those 'nice' things. Also within every human there is violence, hatred and anger. You cannot deny a single part of it and none of them are as negative as they are made out to be. Each can have negative and detrimental effects if suppressed, or if allowed to inflate our of control, so allow your emotions free range for once, allow your thought free range for once.
Don't be afraid of what you can do and let things flow naturally. If you get to a point where you find it causing a detrimental effect to you or your surroundings then start to implement a little control. Learn how far you can take things before they do damage, don't stop early because you fear causing damage...and to the same tune don't stop too late just because you want to see just how far you can truly go. A little experiment for this. Take a box of elastic bands, make sure that no one else needs them because you'll probably break quite a lot when you first start out.
Take them one at a time and see how far you can stretch them, stretch them as much as you can until they break. Observe them as they begin to stretch, see the effects upon the elastic as it twists and controts then watch as an area suddenly it gives and it snaps. Continue doing this and you will be able to recognize the signs of when it is about to break, in the end you will be able to stretch the elastic bands to their limits without breaking them.
Now the relevance of this in real life? Well go and find a public place, a park or something similar isn't a good idea because it is a place designed for recreation and relaxation. Look for somewhere busy and stressful and find a seat, say a main transportation.
Look at the people as they go about their business. You will see varying stress levels so look out for those who are, for all intents and purposes so full of stress that they are about to explode. Look for the signs and learn to recognize them in other people, after a while you will be able to pick it up without trying. This can be done for any other emotion or common thought pattern with a little development of the strategy.
After you learn to look for these patterns, try it on yourself. Whilst your doing things, start thinking for once. You'll be surprised at how often people go into automatic mode when they're doing something. Sometimes this has little effect, but other times it can be fatal. An example a bus driver. If they drive the same route time and time again they get used to it. Things start to become automatic and they start to think less about what they are doing. In the event of an emergency the driver is less prepared to react, so the situation becomes more dangerous. The way bus companies get round this is to have a random rotational system where drivers switch around routes all the time. The result they are doing different things and constantly kept on their toes so that they have to think. Take this to yourself. Say you drive to work all the time. Try taking a different route every now and then. So what if it takes a little longer, account for the time differences and take a little note of how these differences effect you.
Get used to thinking whilst you're doing things, even if they have become routine because you are more likely to make mistakes if you don't. I could go on and on with examples but I think I've taken up enough disk space with this text. Until next time I bid you farewell.
Peace be with you