Twisted Thoughts

A single thought passes through your mind as you stare blankly at this confusing page. Then another. Then another. I don't know what you are thinking, but you are thinking. Each and every one of us thinks, whether it is through a normal or abnormal process depends on the person and situation. The problem comes when our thoughts become confusing or not comprehensive. Have you ever been in a situation where your thoughts become muddled and your heart races? A friend or family member is physically in trouble, or perhaps you simply have thoughts of that friend or family member being in trouble? We all have dreams like this. We all have real-life situations like this. The real question is: How do you think calmly and clearly in these kinds of difficult situations?

A couple of different options are available. We must become aware of our thoughts. Breathe. Close your eyes and just breathe. Then carefully sort through your thoughts and become precisely aware of what they all are. How do you feel? What are your worries? Why are you worrying? The trick is to identify each strand of thought, like picking out different colored threads from a clump of them. What is the thought and what made you think it. Become aware of what it is you are thinking.

Another option to untangle our thoughts is to--once we have picked out the different strands and have become aware--assess the untruthful thoughts. Ask yourself, is this worry plausible? Is it true? And if it is not true, replace it. Replace it with something true. Now there is something to look out for during this process. Our untruthful thoughts are often unpleasant or negative, which means that often when replacing these untrue thoughts, we tend to replace the thought with something more positive. The positiveness is okay; however, we need to be careful not to replace the negative, false thought with a positive, false thought. That is counter-productive. Make sure the replacement thought is true first, then worry about whether or not it is positive. 

These are the different ways untwist your foggy, confusing thoughts in difficult situations. But one thing to remember: DO NOT "cope" ineffectively. This is often our first instinct, but it is wrong. Some ineffective coping mechanisms to look out for: drugs--specifically, marijuana and alcoholic drinking. These are the world's way of coping, but it is not the right way. Instead, use the steps above to conquer your fears and untwist your unyielding thoughts. You can do it. I believe in you!

kthanksbye

The Woes and Wonders of Sexual Relations

I am not exactly sure what kind of a picture I can post. This topic isn't exactly image-friendly...but maybe I'll find a good one to go with some analogy that I come up with that I can stick in the middle somewhere. I guess we'll see.

So you may have guessed from the title the purpose of this post. Let me just clear one thing up that may or may not be questionable: I am single. I am not married, nor will I marry in the next year, probably (one can never say anything for sure). I do not have personal experience in this subject. There, now that we have that out in the open, let's get down to business.

In class we talked about a lot of things, but the most interesting aspect of a sexual relationship in my personal opinion is the psychology of it all. The physical portion is not the only part of a sexual relationship. It also includes the emotional part of us and the spiritual part of us. I have noticed from the different perspectives given in class that the emotional portion of a sexual relationship is often the most prominent. The physical stuff is the easy part--we humans are meant to be good at it; to have sexual relations be emotionally pleasing, however, could be a little trickier. Emotion is directly connected to the brain--although everything in our body is. However, pleasing the emotional parts of the brain is more difficult than the pleasing the part of the brain connected to physical pleasure. Becoming emotionally attached requires time and effort on both parts, which not every person is willing to put forth.

The other part of sex is the spiritual part. God gave us the power to procreate actual human beings, and this is not a responsibility we should take lightly. He gave us the commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth," and then gave us the tools to accomplish this commandment. It is an act of spirituality: creating a body for one of Heavenly Father's precious spirit sons or daughters to reside in. I would say that most people in the world do not understand this concept. A lot of the world believes it simply to be an act of physical pleasure. They do not comprehend the emotional and spiritual aspects of having a sexual relationship with someone.

This is one of the reasons why sex should be reserved for marriage. With marriage often comes knowing the person and love of the person already, which is a good start on the emotional part. All three parts of sexual relations are easier to please within the bonds of matrimony.

Well, there ya go. My thoughts on the different parts of sex, mostly coming from my professor. But that's okay. Here's a picture of a field of grass for your pleasant enjoyment:

kthanksbye