Life Is A Journey Not A Race

Life is a journey and not a race. There are no fixed times or ages that one must achieve a certain goal in life, such as attaining academic qualifications, getting a job, owning a car, buying a house, having a love relationship, getting married, having kids and so on. However, societies have set aside certain times or age that individuals must achieve these life goals, and if anyone conform deeply to that societal norms, life can be stressful. Psychologists have performed various experiments which show the existence and power of conformity, and how conformity can be resisted. If you can be autonomous in life, you will be happy and experience a fulfilled life. Life is a precious gift that everyone should enjoy to the fullest without social or peer pressure. Moreover, sociologists argued that age is nothing but a social construct, while physicists claimed that time is an illusion.

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The Mystery We Call Dream

The source of dreams is a mysterious realm, so humans don’t usually last long in this realm. This realm is known as the subconscious mind. Despite the humans’ knowledge about the subconscious mind, its contents and how it functions remains a contested subject, especially in the academic field of philosophy and psychology. So, in this short article, a few mysterious aspects of dreams that emanate from the subconscious mind will be discussed briefly below. And this will bring about a few questions.

The first mystery is that many people can only have a specific dream once. However, a few people claim to be having particular dreams repeatedly. Thus, if this is possible, why is it only happening to a few people? Besides, can this type of dream be significant in any way?

From Death To Life

DEATH is what is believed to be the end of all living creatures. As a result, death remains the greatest fear and loss to generations of humans. Everyone living would love to live forever but no one wants to die, as most people lack the understanding that death is not the end of life. Life and death are intertwined, and this makes them difficult to distinguish. For instance, think about the death and regeneration of human body cells over time, in that sense, one is constantly dying while living. Besides, life and death are not static for they continuously evolve progressively. Thus, when death terminates the biological functions of a living creature, that occurrence gives rise to another form of life. Although life and death are intertwined, many humans still consider death as one unpleasant phenomenon. Death is inevitable, as it signifies the completion of a natural life cycle. Besides, humans should always remember that dying is also an act of living.

Dream Is A Mental Picture of Life

The dream you have while asleep is a recap and highlight of your previous conscious and unconscious perceptions. That mental imagery you called dream is actually a series of unresolved emotions which are sucked into your subconscious mind while you are awake. Thus dreams are by-products of your perceptions which are processed by your subconscious and presented to you while you are asleep, which can be a good or bad dream. A good or sweet dream is a presentation of pleasant imagery, and it is the type you usually wish for yourself and your loved ones – especially when going to bed. While a bad dream is a presentation of horrific imagery, this type of dream is commonly known as nightmare, but you can have it during the day. Basically, an average dream can last twenty minutes, and that is when the dreamer is having a good dream which is filled with sweet fantasies. But a nightmare is cut short when the dreamer is terrified or threatened during a dream.

Fear Is Illusion

Fear is an unpleasant emotion—which can be rational or irrational—caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. At some points in life fears that seems irrational must be eradicated. Fear is nothing but illusion which is blocking you from seeing the reality, thus you’re actually stronger than your fear – whatever it may be. This article will discuss the most common types of fears that people face on a daily basis and how to see beyond them, in order to experience a wonderful and fulfilled life.

Fear of confrontation, fear of saying “NO” and people pleasing attitudes are irrational, these types of fear will make you vulnerable to conformity and manipulation. If you have these types of fear manipulators can spot you from a mile away, and once they play their tricks on you and it works, they will continue pulling your strings. But if you don’t want to be a victim, the best method of countering these types of fear is to stay true to yourself and be yourself no matter the situation. Keep your head up wherever you found yourself, do your things in a way that satisfy your soul, and never allow the fear of failure, error, and rejection to paralyse your being.

Healthcare Ethics

Autonomy in General Internal Medicine and Sport Medicine

Autonomy is the personal ability to make decisions concerning one’s life, and such decision must be free from other interference and personal limitation. Besides, someone acting autonomously may be doing what they wants to do at will, but it must also be on the basis of conscious thought and reasoning. In this article, I will discuss autonomy and paternalism in healthcare by focusing on general internal medicine and sport medicine.

Respect for autonomy is a basic ethical principle in healthcare. This requires health professionals to do their best to preserve and enhance the autonomy of their patients. They must not interfere or constrain the autonomy of their patients, unless the exercise of such autonomy will harm others. Also, to mislead patients is to fail to give them the necessary information required to make autonomous choices. Besides, knowledge is an essential component of autonomy. A patient may have little understanding of the cause and effect of their medical conditions and the treatment they will receive; thus such patient cannot make an autonomous decision. Also, illness can have a disorienting effect on the individual, especially if it has obvious psychological consequences. In that case, patient may have little or no ability to make an autonomous decision.

Animal Ethics

The Moral Status of Animals

Human beings usually justify their oppression and exploitation of non-human animals by pointing to supposed empirical differences. Few among the claimed differences is that non-human animals lacks certain psychological capacities, soul, and human genome. Therefore, some humans usually treat non-human animals as things without moral significance. In this article, I will discuss the moral significance of animals by elaborating the aforementioned differences.

What is it that really differentiates human beings morally from non-human animals? Most people will respond by citing some set of psychological capacities which human beings possess but non-human animals lack. For instance, human beings are self-conscious, rational, and autonomous. Human beings also have the ability to use language, and they have a moral sense. However, the problem with that response is that there are some human beings who lack or only possess the aforementioned abilities to the same level as certain animals; such as infants, severely mentally impaired persons, and demented persons. Therefore, if the criteria which determines moral status is the possession of higher psychological abilities, then those human beings who lack or possess the same level of psychological abilities as certain animals should possess equal moral status with those animals.

The Sleeping Nymph

The title, brief, and location of the art piece
The above marble sculpture named the ‘Sleeping Nymph’ was made by Edward Hodges Baily. The Sleeping Nymph is a beautiful marble sculpture of a female figure which lay down on its side at the entrance of the Plassey House in the University of Limerick. Baily was a famous English sculptor and he was the acknowledged master of ideal and poetic sculptures, he made few different nymph sculptures during his artistic career, but the Sleeping Nymph marble sculpture is spectacular. The sleeping nymph is a motif that entered European art during the renaissance era, and there are speculations that this motif emanated from the ancient Romans. The motif was the idea of a statue of a nymph sleeping in a grotto, near a spring, or a river. Also, there are poems written allegedly describing a nymph sleeping near the fountain, and this motif became influential among artists and poets during the renaissance era.

Be the Best You Can Be

Discovering your true self in life requires a great courage, for this feat is a lifelong process. The very first step you must take to know who you are is to take control of your life. Once you have reached your age of accountability, do your best in taking responsibility for your thoughts and actions, don’t be a slave to religions, traditions or foreign ideals. Just do that which suits your soul, nobody have the right to stop you as long as you’re not hurting anyone. Some people may call you Sherlock Holmes if you say you knew who you are but you’re still trying to find out more about yourself, take no offence if you ever get caught in such situation. In fact, knowing who you truly are is a continuous process as long as you live. So, it is your responsibility to develop yourself, and you can do so by practicing more of what you like doing to find your true self. Finally, take control of your life and be the master of your own destiny, start living intentionally and stay positively alive. Always remember, the only way you can be your best self is to constantly portray yourself confidently.

The Parable of a Nation

A child born centuries ago was captured and raised by foreign parents. This child was officially liberated to be independent decades ago after she has been defiled, molested and exploited by her foster parents; while this child was still immature and also malnourished. The said child grew up through pain and suffering in all its forms. She weds and divorces husbands every four or eight years, for that’s the kind of life she was taught to live by her foster parents. So, when one husband treat her better than the previous, she will cry and shed tears of joy that her previous husband never treated her this good. But if another one comes and treat her bad, she will cry again and shed tears of pain and agony, complaining that her ex-husband never treated her this bad. Those who has been chosen to be her crown are nothing but bloodsuckers, they’ve got nothing to offer in making her life better but to steal from her and add to her problems.