Week 10 Post 3

When reading Chapter 9 and 10 this week, the main concept that stuck out to me was forgiveness.  I feel forgiveness is essential to helping an individual get over and move on from a negative situation.  It was interesting to read about the different levels of forgiveness.  It made me go back and think about all the different times I have gone through experiences dealing with each level of forgiveness.  The author of the text states that it is difficult for an individual to "see himself or herself as a person capable of harming others" (Abigail, p. 181).  This is why it is so hard for some people to forgive others because they can't come to this conclusion.  Like I stated earlier, I feel that forgiveness is a big part of moving along and not getting stuck in a negative situation.  Forgiveness reflects a sense of maturity and sometimes, an individual has to put their pride aside when forgiving someone.

Week 10 Post 2

The event that I am going to describe is one from the past.  It involved one of my best friends and was pretty difficult for me to handle at the time and something that is always in the back of my mind when I'm with him.  I was dating a girl in high school and things were steadily progressing.  While I was still talking to her, he was also trying to date her even though he knew I was in the process of doing so.  It was hard for me to forgive him because he broke my trust.  It was also difficult because I know that I would never do something so shady to him, regardless of the circumstances.  Our friendship was damaged for a while, but in the end he apologized and we worked everything out.  Even though things are on good terms today, I still will never forget that the incident happened and always have my guard up around him.  It was an unfortunate situation and one I'm still trying to move on from.

Week 10 Post 1

I am a member of the Facebook community and always try to keep my profile clean and positive because I am friends with older family members and friends.  It is important to me to be portrayed as an adult, mature and responsible.  I usually untag pictures and delete comments that show otherwise.  Another reason to keep my profile clean is that potential employers usually check social networking sites before hiring an individual.  A new feature that Facebook has installed is the “remove from timeline” option.  This is a nice tool to remove information from your profile that you are not fond of.  The information is still visible to the person who posted it, so their feelings aren’t hurt.  To me, this is a win-win option.  Social media is an online representation of the self.  We are able to choose who we are and what we like.  It is one of the most popular means of communication in today’s world.  It relates to conflict because a person may lose a job opportunity or friend based on the interpretation of a negative posting.  If a person wants to be viewed as responsible, I believe it is important to censor your page because many people will judge a person based on the information that is posted and visible to the public.

Week 9 Post 3

The concept and idea that I thought was most interesting and helpful from this week's readings was the part on the three solutions on how to lighten up.  Each solution is extremely important to helping an individual enjoy life more.  I believe that people not enjoying life to the maximum is a major problem in today's world.  People are too consumed with work and school and don't have enough time for leisure activities to make things more pleasant.  The first solution helps people make a distinction between work and play.  Adding a few fun activities to an individual's day or week may help reduce stress levels.  The second solution is important in helping an individual find joy in what they do. This is important, especially when it comes to work.  If an individual is working full time at a job they don't like, their outlook on life is probably not a positive one.  Finding ways to liven up the work environment is essential to having a positive attitude.  The third solution talks about accepting the bad with the good and this is important for an individual to realize.  People learn from their mistakes and from negative situations.  For every negative outcome, there will be a positive one down the road.

Week 9 Post 2

The First Solution talks about making a distinction between work and play.  When applying this solution to work and school, I feel that I have made the distinction between both and have allowed for enough leisure time to keep me sane.  I will sometimes procrastinate when it comes to school work, so when making this distinction, I could really focus on becoming better at getting things done in a timely matter to reduce stress levels.  The Second Solution talks about turning work into play.  I feel that I do this with both work and school.  I surround myself with people that can relate to what I'm doing and this makes for a more pleasant time. With papers, I enjoy writing about topics that I'm passionate about and this also helps me stay on track with my assignments.  The Third Solution has to do with accepting the bad with the good.  I know understand that for every day that I don't want to work or every assignment that is extremely hard, there will be one down the road that I will really enjoy.  It's about getting your work done regardless of how you feel and this is my mindset going into work and school.

Week 9 Post 1

After reading the question regarding how I handle anger, I came to the conclusion that I’m someone that usually remains calm during bouts of anger.  In rare instances, I will blow up and express my anger so it is evident to everyone around me that I’m unhappy.  I believe blowups are caused by keeping anger inside and not dealing with the problem.  When dealing with family members and friends, I tend to do this.  Once the amount of pent up anger adds up, a blow up with eventually happen.  If I’m  out in public and someone disrespects me or the people that I’m with, I usually try to remain calm and handle the conflict so that all parties involved leave being happy with the end result.  I will occasionally blow up if things get physical or something totally uncalled for happens.  In the end, I believe that it’s best to confront the person or situation that is making the individual unhappy. That pent up anger could lead to an unfortunate blowup that the individual may later regret.