Potential for Bad...

[Aeradalia]

If you knew there was something potentially bad in you... if you had the potential to be something bad, but for whatever reason... just aren't. How would you handle that? Would you assume that this potential for bad could one day actually happen and take steps to try to prevent that? Or would you act like there isn't anything wrong?

I wish I could go into specifics... but it is very difficult to put into words... difficult to share... causes a lot of pain.

Hopefully someone can read between the lines and give a little insight.



(And to answer some possible thoughts... no, I'm not a serial killer... nor do I have the inclinations... and this is not what I'm talking about. I will not be climbing the clock tower any time soon... )

[Junket]

Everybody has bad in them, the best way to avoid feeding into it is self denial.

[ecojeanne]

i agree i think everyone has the potential to be bad, just ignore it and think good thoughts i guess would be the answer.

[Gigabitch]

I agree that we all have potential for bad. Humans are capable of true evil, and you're one of them, Aera. You have a choice, though.

Hey! Get the **** down from that clock tower!

[Aeradalia]

I agree that we all have potential for bad. Humans are capable of true evil, and you're one of them, Aera. You have a choice, though.

Hey! Get the **** down from that clock tower!

I swear.. I'm just going to clean the clock!


But seriously... this problem is part of my pscychological makeup... I can't "make it go away"... but I'd really, really would like to. I can't make it go away anymore than I can remove my attraction to women (something I've had to learn to live with... and beginning to 'embrace').

I just see potential problems with this part of myself, if left unchecked... It's one of those problems that makes you feel truly alone... one of those 'face your demons' kind of things, I guess.

You're right Giga... I do have a choice... I do not want this potentiality to become something real... so should I take steps to prevent that? Should I research?

[Aeradalia]

Everybody has bad in them, the best way to avoid feeding into it is self denial.

Doesn't self denial just lead to even more psychological problems? Even unpredictable outbursts?

i agree i think everyone has the potential to be bad, just ignore it and think good thoughts i guess would be the answer.

This is not something that can be repressed or ignored. Believe me, I've tried. Just seems to make things worse.

[ecojeanne]

lock yourself in a cage then?

what exactly are we talking about here?

[Aeradalia]

I can't really say...

But I can give an example. Let's say you have a bad temper... sometimes you get angry enough to punch a hole in the wall or break things. Now, you've never hurt anyone... you've never punched them or been violent. But you realize that if you don't get your temper under control, one day you could do just that.

If you have the foresight to realize all of this... is it your responsibility to find a way to control your temper or should you not worry, because you haven't hurt anyone... yet?

[ecojeanne]

i've actually broken loadsa things but am able to make the destinction between an inanimate object and a person no matter how angry i have gotten. i can't really relate with your problem. there is a line one must never cross and that is physically hurting another or cause them indirectly to be hurt physically....other than that don't worry about it would be my view

[Mish]

But I can give an example. Let's say you have a bad temper... sometimes you get angry enough to punch a hole in the wall or break things. Now, you've never hurt anyone... you've never punched them or been violent. But you realize that if you don't get your temper under control, one day you could do just that.

If you have the foresight to realize all of this... is it your responsibility to find a way to control your temper or should you not worry, because you haven't hurt anyone... yet?

Yes, it's your responsibility to get it under control even though you haven't hurt anyone yet. You will need to do a lot of introspection and soul searching and find out what makes you lose temper, remember the saying, acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to the cure. Once you know the triggers inside of you, you can take steps to avoid them in the future.

And yes everyone has bad inside of them. And yes everyone repeats the same mistakes over and over again, but most people tend to learn (it's just the learning time differs).

A lot of it is to do with perception and the environment that you are in as well. What you are seeing in this world determines your reaction to it. Choose to see only the negative pieces of these world, the pain and the suffering and most likely you'll be suffering as well. Choose to see the uplifting and inspiring details of this world and people going through a great strife and coming out better in the end and your life will be filled by a deep sense of happiness and gratitude for what you have. How you are seeing your surroundings is very important.

[Gigabitch]

Yes, I agree. Take steps. Take control. Take responsibility. If your back yard were infested with crocodiles, you'd do something about it, right? This is the same thing.

if you're a ticking time bomb and nobody else can hear the ticking, only YOU can stop whatever it is, and if you do nothing about it, it's your fault if something bad happens.

[IndiReloaded]

I summarize it like this, D:

We aren't responsible for our thoughts, only our acts of will.

[Aeradalia]

Yes, I agree. Take steps. Take control. Take responsibility. If your back yard were infested with crocodiles, you'd do something about it, right? This is the same thing.

if you're a ticking time bomb and nobody else can hear the ticking, only YOU can stop whatever it is, and if you do nothing about it, it's your fault if something bad happens.

I understand and will do the necessary research into what I can do to curb the negative effects of this.

I summarize it like this, D:

We aren't responsible for our thoughts, only our acts of will.

Perhaps...

[littleme]

I summarize it like this, D:

We aren't responsible for our thoughts, only our acts of will.

We are responsible for our thoughts because we have the ability as human beings to strengthen the positive aspect of our psyche, which produces our random thoughts. This is a gift and possibly one of our deepest connections with the universe/ world around us. We are responsible for the resulting actions that our thoughts lead us to. We have the ability to control / train ourselves to control how we behave or continue to think, following a random thought that pops unwittingly into our mind. This is very difficult but very rewarding. The mind is a wonderful thing and both positive and negative thoughts should be embraced, then decisions made. This can be done by anyone.

If you also have the rare gift of intelligence and foresight to see the potential outcomes of various behaviours that you MAY manifest, then do yourself a huge favour and start training yourself to create some real good in our world, does any of this make sense?

[CocoChanel]

Why shouldn't we be responsible for our thoughts. It takes a thought to make a word, a word to make an action.