Internal Dialogue and Desires

I first want to take the opportunity to thank Theo Huffman (A Touch of Pansophia) for his comments on my most recent post on this topic.

So this week is shaping up to be a very very interesting week. I have several things happening all of which are coming to a head over the next few days. Some of those work related, some of those study related, and other interested events that I'm sure to cover in the near future!

I feel it's pretty unlikely to get a second round offer for University admission - and I understand completely why (and detailed it in my previous post). Today I applied for a bridging course to do full time over the next six months which upon completion will get me admission into my chosen degree. The admission for this course is basically open so unless classes are full, so it looks like either way I will be studying in the near future. My chosen subjects for the bridging course are Philosophy and Classical Studies (Ancient Greece and Rome) - which work well with the Arts degree I plan to eventually enroll in.

If the particular full time job that the Universe and I have been discussing recently comes together it will actually be on campus as well, which will make studying/working and somehow balancing those two things much easier. If necessary I'll fall back to part-time study - but we'll play this one by ear.

I made the point in my previous post on the evolution of ideas and thoughts into attitudes and ultimately convictions, what I left out of that post is the importance I feel of 'self-checking' these ideas before they become an attitude. In my experience these self-checks take practice - it's not something that you can 'turn on' and just do, it takes training to stop yourself and analyse your own thought patterns.Some of the things that can assist in doing this, I find, are:

• Attempt to refrain for forming immediate positive or negative opinions on information presented to you.
• Spend some time each day reflecting on your actions for the day, how you could have improved your handling of specific situations and the successes you have accomplished.
• In times of emotional turmoil try to take a moment out to relax, analyse and regain composure as to deal with a situation in the most constructive way possible.
• Use caution with your internal dialogue. This is covered extensively in Nuero Linguistic Programming and a lot of psychology text. The words we use internally when we make a decision or form an opinion. Attempt not to use negatives (i.e. instead of "i'm not good at sports", try "my atheletic ability could do with some improvement").

The last point is one that really warrants an entire post dedicated to it, which I will hopefully write in the coming week.

Pax tecum.