“It’s a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don’t even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don’t just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.”
By: Martin E. P. Seligman
This brings me to my rant about people believing in something without really knowing what they believe and why they believe it. It applies to Hellenismos…and because Hellenismos is about how we live, it also applies to life, regardless of religious ideation.
We talk about virtue, beauty, compassion, empathy and kindess. We BELIEVE that those things are necessary…and they are, but why? And what makes someone truly virtuous, truly kind, truly compassionate?
Saying flowery things and making someone feel good and loved is sometimes appropriate, sometimes it is not.
We may feel compassion for someone, but the appropriate action may not be a hug and a kiss on the forehead. Kindness just to say we are kind is a copout. Sometimes the most kind thing you can do is to appear to be cruel….walk away, shake the dust off your sandals.
Some believe that virtue means being full of light and love. Some believe that a beautiful person is one who never feels anger, never strikes back, always agrees and gives the perpetual agreeable answer to every question. They must be tactful, they must not hurt feelings, they must not sound harsh.
Not only is that not virtuous….it is a perpetuation of a lie. It is a false belief, and the consequences of that action, based on that false belief, are far reaching. It starts a downward spiral of people accepting things they know in their hearts are wrong. It starts silence over wrongs and transgressions, and by being silent….tacit acceptance of bad situations and people who should be and do better than what they are doing.
I believe that when we do this….we start to take away part of ourselves. We can become filled with anger and hidden resentments, and then lash out when it is not appropriate to do so. We become depressed, dejected, without hope.
Why? Because some of us are under the false belief that being virtuous means not being true….not being true to ourselves and what know to be right.
This may make us unloved, unliked, vilified and even treated as an enemy. And those that follow the status quo have a new target instead of looking at themselves and being truthful. They hide from adversity with a false belief, and the consequences of that may not be immediate, but they will come.
