Mental strength

How strong are you mentally?

There are 2 types, either your mind is strong and faithful or gullible and susceptible.

I took the time to google the meanings:
Gullible - Easily persuaded to believe something; credulous
Susceptible - Easily influenced by feelings or emotions; sensitive

When we were younger, we often get protected by our parents from negative influences because we are most susceptible when we are young. We do not have faith, and any facts thrown to us, we accept them with an instant. Hence we are called innocent. I enjoy watching kids expressions with a mixture of awe and wonder when a fact is unraveled before them. Still we have to protect them because often things we say or do to them at that age sticks to them for a really long time.

As we grow older, we have built up a library of beliefs in ourselves, so when we do hear some facts, we need proof to back them up before being accepted into our library of beliefs. But we all are still gullible and susceptible to a certain extend. Some of us might need little or nil proofs to backup new facts, but some might be as stubborn as a mule because they just didn't like people challenging their beliefs. Sometimes we hate talking to stubborn arseholes like that, because they think admitting their mistakes will make them lose face. Maybe it is the life experience they been through that makes them that way, or they could be born with a really extreme ego.

A good example would be hypnosis. If you haven't know, hypnosis do exist - you lose conscious, but at the same time your body is fully controllable by the inducer through suggestions. In other words, you are not thinking anymore, your "processor" shuts down and someone inserts an "external processor" to control your peripherals. Some people, like me seem to have a mental barrier to hypnotic induction (I keep staying conscious through out the procedure and find the suggestions funny no matter how hard I try), but people who are susceptible will be easily hypnotized. I know people who do hypnosis for the lulz, make their friends act to funny stuffs they do not see in real life, but there are also bad people who use it to trick people on the streets to lose their money. However, if the suggestions by the inducer challenges the fundamentals of your conscious, you can snap out of hypnosis. For example, if the inducer suggests you to drop your pants, you will definitely snap out of it, unless you are a person who often drops your pants in the public. lol.

People will not tell you if you are gullible or not, because if you really are, they just want you to be that way. We are all selfish, we want people to accept what we think and think like us, and to some extend, could not tolerate other peoples' thoughts. We want a partner who shares our thoughts and beliefs, but we definitely can't have 100% same thoughts because chances to find a person like that are a million to 1. So we tolerate each other, until one day we achieve an equilibrium of tolerance, get married and live together for a long long time. Love is never about sex, because sex is just a temporary want, but it is about finding a soulmate who you can share and tolerate each others thoughts and beliefs. Arguments are unavoidable but fundamental to a relationship, because it shows our clash of beliefs, and tests our tolerance limit.

Even with siblings, when we were younger I use to fight with my sisters day and night. But as we grew up, fighting and arguments becomes less and less, because we realize what are the things that pisses each other off. We avoid doing them, tolerate and finally reaches an agreeable equilibrium.

What I am trying to say is, we must stay faithful to our own beliefs, but at the same time give and take when it comes to thoughts. Be sure you know how to differentiate right and wrong when being told new facts. When people tell you stuff, don't be an arse by rejecting it in their face. Accept first, then filter. At the same time, do not force people to accept your thoughts right away. It is their right to accept or not. Never lie because it is the biggest arsenal of people with ill intentions. It reminds me of people from Amway. They attack your weak spot - greed, and build up a cult belief in you from there onwards. That is why I never believe whatever they say, because I am too stubborn. lol.

When we are susceptible, we give in to peer pressure too. We feel sad for not achieving what people has achieved at our age. Sadness can lead to many ill feelings like jealousy and hatred. Why should we be sad? Why must we be told how to feel happy? Why can't we be ourselves and be happy doing what we want, instead of being happy doing something that people tell us we must do? If you know what I mean.

I am writing this blog because often thoughts like this overwhelm me during certain points in life. I read my old blogs and amazed how immature I was, but posts like this are points in life when I realized a fact about life, and stop being sad over certain things. Life is a one-way train, so never be sad over anything because everything is temporary. Heck, even life is temporary. Things mean little when you leave this world, so might as well make your stay a meaningful one instead of trying hard to be someone else. :)