They're Cute And Smiley

One thing that comes with having a degree in psychology is that I am constantly trying to define my feelings or analyze where those feelings came from.  It's a gift...and a curse.  Defining my feelings isn't the hard part, but analyzing their origins can take up a lot of time.  Analysts spend decades with their patients figuring out the origins of their feelings, which is pretty stupid because feelings change as often as I change underwear.  At least mine do.  (Does that mean I have a mood disorder?)

So many times the answer is just so plain and simple, yet the process of analysis can weave in all sorts of forgotten memories, displaced blame, and other assorted psychobable into the emotion du jour.

Lots of our behavior and emotions can be traced to very unpleasant origins.  Most times it's unnecessary to do that tracing.  Why bother?  For example, this is the desktop background of my computer.  What deep psychological urge compelled me to choose this image? 

One could guess I have delusious of grandeur as power is the theme behind the subjects of the ocean and a strong animal.  Or it could be just the opposite ~ I may have a poor self-esteem and the representations of strength and power were subconsciously chosen by me to boost my self-image.  One could also think I crave more balance in my life as depicted by the amazing balancing skill of the animal. 

Guess what?  I picked it because I like elephants. 

I've been doing way too much analyzing lately.  Analyzing myself, analyzing other people, analyzing data.  I've analyzed myself into a mass of meaningless statistics, factoids, and whimsical theories. 

This week I'm going to take everything at face value and just roll with it.  Because conjuring up causes doesn't always fix the effects, and sometimes the effort and insight just makes things worse.  This week, I'm just going to like the elephant.