Five Inner Merits for Better Communication

Yahoo Shine published a fresh and "real simple" psychology piece by Amanda Armstrong under the heading 5 Ways to Win People Over, or how to deal with situations where you don't seem to link with others, and need to create a sense of synergetic connection to improve communication and cooperation. It's simple if you can take a moment to reflect on it and put it into practice — and it gets awfully complicated if you don't or won't!

Alexander the Great is famous for cutting the endless Gordian Knot.
Before using a sword to get heard, please consider the following options.

Armstrong's interviews with professional "influencers" resulted in five simple considerations on how to deal and not deal with people. When things just don't seem to click, keep the following in mind:

1. Puncture your own ego — or cut a bit of slack and be less serious about yourself and your pride,
2. Don’t be needy — or don't recruit people to ride your hectic roller-coaster only to scare them away,
3. Tell someone (nicely) what he/she has to lose — or present the reasons behind a prospect instead of building up mirages,
4. Throw a curveball in conversation — or first find common ground and then build toward the actual issues at hand, and
5. Reiterate the other person’s argument — or think of yourself in his/her shoes, and show that you actually understand their position.

Be sure to read the source article for more on the why and how of these five simple adjustments to your approach. Let's have a look at the background and ponder the inner mechanics behind, if only to escape from the often unavoidable reality of people manipulating and abusing others under unsavory pretenses. If you communicate, you have an ethical responsibility even with the best of tricks in your arsenal.

These five simple approaches to help win people over hold a strong inner merit — which is why they work to begin with, because actual positive inner prospects become shared. Your success in communication is a reflection of your own inner state. Always remember and never forget — inner peace and a sense of connection and security are attractive prospects for one and all.

The positive prospects in the above list arise from (1) absence of obsessive ego, (2) absence of greed and thoughtlessness, (3) helpful attitude of goodwill, (4) perception of unifying perspectives, and (5) a "do-unto-others" mentality with the perspective shift — and they help both you and others around you.

On the other hand, when you (1) push your ego without giving in, (2) rock on "I want it all and I want it now", (3) prefer mirages over helpful realism, (4) doggedly push on and refuse to listen and pay attention, or (5) fail to see and relate to others' perspectives — it's all downhill from there onwards.

Even while it all sounds simple, the fact is that we're all too often so lost and conditioned in our small worlds that even the simplest of considerations seem like an ocean away. As patterns and systems of advancing narrow selfish and partisan agendas escalate and collide, they give rise to degeneration, corruption and violence, ensuring a healthy dose of mayhem and pandemonium for everyone, despite possible best intentions in absence of virtue and wisdom.

Prophets emerge and diverse systems of faith and ethics are created in forming a common playground, to prevent the emerging chaos and the evils of ill will, poor spirit, and general disarray. Over time, these establishments forget their essential wisdom and virtue, degenerating and ultimately only further advancing the same dynamics they once sought to prevent. The exact same patterns are at play with nations that initially form to serve the interests of the people, and then proceed to leech and feed on the citizens as the inequalities escalate.

Wouldn't it be sweet if everyone could read and understand a simple bullet-point list, like the ones seen in this blurb? They could just grasp the basic points on spirituality and wisdom, be happy and be done with it, and move onward to living positive lives — instead of battling their own shadows until the bitter end of their days.

Embodiment of wisdom and virtue is what I consider true and beneficial transhumanism — not the prospect of plugging a hard drive into one's head, only to contain even more information...

Review: There Will Be Blood (2007)

Today's review deserves a prelude to do the depth of the movie full justice. It's a very decent movie about an all-out asura exploiting the people and the oil fields of early 20th century California, after all!

Asuras, featured in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, are evil or envious gods, beings of great prowess and ambition, fallen deep into the dark side. As a psychological profile, asura-hood features intense paranoia, envy, cruelty, and lust for power over all. The asura's self-securing drive for achievement leads to consuming competitiveness and a division of world into allies and enemies — divided by their fitness for furthering personal ambitions.

Fully immersed in his schemes, the asura grows paranoid of others; they are all seeking to thwart him, they are his enemies, a pitiful foe begging to be confronted and eliminated. No abuse or crime is beyond the scope of the asura; his sheer hunger for control drives him to manipulate others, his conscience is all but dissolved in his dark primal instincts. In short, asura is a psychopath of some power. And if there is an asura, There Will Be Blood...

Title: There Will Be Blood
Year: 2007
Genre: drama
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/

Released in January 2008, There Will Be Blood explores the grim world of southern California's oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Featuring the ghastly life of Daniel Plainview, it portrays some of the darkest aspects of human psyche with substantial realism, owing largely to the excellent performance of Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis.

The narrative carries you through some thirty years of Plainview's life, from the beginnings as a budding businessman to a shrude capitalist who shuns no opportunity at exploiting one and all if it serves his purpose. As the film unfolds, the wicked nature of our oil miner becomes more and more explicit, and even apparently innocent acts in the path turn out to feature as aspects of his elaborate schemes.

The born-again young Christian priest of the village, a gifted fanatic with bizarre stage acts in his Church of Third Revelation, grew to be a second favorite character of mine, right along with Plainview of course, who did little to work on his largely irrational anger towards the priest. Overall, the characters are well performed, even if it is Day-Lewis's performance that carries the watcher to the farther shore of the two-and-half-hour movie, the theme of which might otherwise have not been that interesting to me.

The atmosphere and environment are well-created and realistic, camera moves very well and the occasional handheld shots create an engaging visual display. The movie is saturated with the eeriest of musics, if indeed it can be so called, predicting ill at each turn even where none is to be seen. The end of the movie is as grim and unexpected as any I've ever seen, perfectly fitting for a movie of such caliber of unusuality. Not your run-of-the-mill American tale, not by a long shot.

[ 8/10 ]