The Backwards Law

The Backwards Law was popularized by Alan Watts, but it actually comes from Tao Te Ching, the 2000-year-old classic Chinese text which became the basis of Taoism. It is the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place. 

The more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make. 

The more you want to be sexy and desired, the uglier you come to see yourself, regardless of your actual physical appearance. 

The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. 

The more we pursue trying to feel better all the time, the more we reinforce this idea that we are fundamentally lacking and irreparable.

Watts describes it as being in a lake. If you relax and put your head back, you’ll float. But the more you struggle and flail around trying to stay afloat, the more you will sink. Thus, wanting positive experiences is a negative experience – and accepting negative experiences is a positive experience!

What are you really working on at the gym?

Is atelophobia rife among the 'gymfam'?
 

Adopting a psychoanalytic stance to bodybuilding, Melanie Klein states that 'bodybuilding is, at the very least, a subculture whose [male and female] practitioners suffer from large doses of insecurity; hence, compensation through self-presentation of power to the outside world' (1993: 174).

 

Allegedly caused by antecedent personal and/or gender inadequacy and a masculinity-in-crisis within the larger society, bodybuilding...represent(s) an 'atavistic' strategy for concealing self-perceived flaws (Klein, 1993).

 

~ Bodybuilding, drugs and risk (Monaghan, L.)

Learned Helplessness and Depression

One cognitive account of depression is the Learned Helplessness Theory (Seligman, 1975). It argues, that depression occurs when people expect that bad events will occur and that there is nothing they can do to prevent them, or cope with them.

Learned Helplessness Theory emerged through Martin Seligman's work with laboratory dogs. He designed an experiment which consisted of three individual dogs, all restrained by harnesses. Dog group (a) was the control group, receiving no electric shock. Dog groups (b) were paired up. One dog in a pair was administered with a mild electric shock and at any time the dog could cease the electric shock by stepping their paw upon a lever. Dog group (c) were too paired up, however one of the dogs was a wired up to a dog in group b and the shocks they received were in congruence with that of group (b). The idea of this was that the group (c) dog would receive a shock that was erratic in timing, unavoidable and inescapable. The tests resulted in groups (a) and (b) recovering quite promptly from the experience. As predicted however, group (c) dogs were left meek and subdued; portraying symptoms similar to those of clinical depression and thus conforming to Seligman’s predictions: that helplessness can be learned. 

Learned helplessness results from being trained to be locked into a system. It can involve a state of apathy or passive behaviour induced by negative conditioning. People may believe that their personal 'defects' will render them helpless to avoid negative events in the future, and their sense of hopelessness places them at significantly greater risk for depression.

Although Seligman theorized that learned helplessness and depression had similar origins, the theory was widely criticized and he has since revised his ideas in his 'Explanatory Style'. This proposes that depression is linked to how we attribute causalities of certain events in our life or traits of our existence (i.e. whether we attribute events to internal, stable or global aspects) (Yen, 1998). Therefore, it is interesting to ask whether learned helplessness is in fact a cause of depression or a correlated side effect of becoming depressed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as on the pessimist, but the optimist weathers them better" ~ Martin Seligman

The Cracked Jar

An Indian legend tells of a man who carried water to his village every day, in two large jars tied to the ends of a wooden pole, which he balanced on his back. One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.

For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.

It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him: ''I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home''.

The man smiled, and said: ''When we return, observe carefully the path''. And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew. ''See how nature is more lovely on your side? commented the man, I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?''

''All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.''

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...



Rouge Test at 17.5 months 

An early test of self-recognition and awareness of oneself is the rouge test. Performed in front of a mirror, a child would have a spot of rouge make-up surreptitiously  placed on their forehead and the reactions based on the child's response to the mirror image would be assessed. It is successfully accomplished by most children by the age of 18 months.  And by god, once we did spot who was in the mirror looking out at us - we couldn't get enough it seems.

 

From clothes shops, shoe shops, sunglasses shops, and a bookies amongst others, some recent places that I have come into contact with this obvious necessity of a fixture include;

 

Starbucks! I'm looking at myself as I ordered a Starbucks the other day. Scruffy, half asleep and surrounded by coffee slurping smugatude...no escape!

 

In a TV store. I catch a glimpse of myself while I ponder which big electric b**tard to buy. While beside me kids jump about in front of an EIGHT FOOT MIRROR sporting 3D glasses, screaming at their parents who look at one other with an undertone of hatred in their eyes, ''Why God, Why us?''

 



@DoucheBag said,
''Ride-by Selfie...lol''

A bank! I mean what the fook? Yes, this is what it looks like to be broke. Haha, no they don't take bank bags full of buttons! ''Hey, I'm financially set for life as long as I die next Tuesday, you reflective son of a ...!''

 

I mean mirrors in phone shops? ''Yes, I think that this phone adequately portrays me as a bell-end, I'll take it''...just before you take a quick selfie and post it on Twitter along with some hoot of a line...Oh the hilarity.

 

In a deli shop! Right beside where you can heat up those heart-attack inducing lumps of dirt, while viewing the look of shame on your face as the microwave pings...and proceeding with a rubberneckers view of your own probable ''Oohh-face'' as scalding hot slop rolls from your chin.  

 

Discount Tuesdays: for those with room temperature I.Q's

What next, fruit and veg shops...''What would I look like eating this banana?'' Newsflash s***head, nobody knows where to look when you're eating a banana, so get over it.
 

Or petrol stations? Just in case you inadvertently go up in a ball of flames, well then at least you can have a front row view to your own smouldering crispy finale. ''20 on number 7 and some after-sun please''.

 

Years ago my grandmother used to come in from a night out and the first thing she would do is check how she looked in the mirror. Or I guess how she looked all those previous hours. I mean she was a great woman and everything, but sure by that stage there was no real point on fixing a stray hair. But nonetheless she did it and surprisingly not once was she presented with a 'There's Something about Mary' scenario.  





'Please leave the hotel room as you would like to find it'
Merle began first on tackling that unnecessary partition wall



Obviously we have the other side of the coin as with everything. Mirrors make a room feel more spacious...and all that Feng shui nonsense. Places such as barbers, fair enough, you're gonna have to wear this 10 euro haircut for the next few weeks...best to have a look at the butchery as it unfolds. Mirror shops, I suppose. Gyms, to inflate ego's or deflate self esteem, either-or.  



Maybe some people just got one too many ''Kick Me's'' posted on their back and you know, they have to check themselves every so often.

Le Moi. Now available in 42"

And then there's the addition of the 'Black mirrors'. Those omnipresent gadgets that allow you to view yourself on a continual basis; the screens of gadgets, TVs, mobile phones, computers through which we interact with the world. But that's for another days ramblings.

Jacques Lacan's Mirror Stage (1936) was described as a founding act that lead to the formation of the ego and the perception of the Subject. The baby's discovery of self is an intellectual act that involves the translation of an image into an idea - the idea of 'Me' or 'Self', or is it 'Selfie'?

Either way, it seems that in present times the "méconnaissance'' of the subject is truly no longer a concern.

__________________________________________________________________________

''Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only''
                                                                                                ~ Samuel Butler