Zarla

We all tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes us to do a certain task. Don't we?

It depends on the situation and the severity of the emotional pain that a person experiences with rejection. In a situation where the guy doesn't know the person very well, they are less likely to experience anything drastic. If they do, then the pain might dissipate away quickly. Another factor to consider is their life circumstances, which also have an impact on the magnitude of the pain they experience. For example, if a guy has limited relationship opportunities, and gets rejected by someone they barely know, then they will probably agonize over the problem as much as those getting rejected by someone they really love or care about. And dare I say, I don't think there are any "real" gender differences.

Oh yes, definitely! That's why we have weekly quizzes. It's helped a lot in terms of giving us the practice that we need. The only thing making it difficult is the textbook, which is replete with examples from the author's life who tries so hard to throw in jokes to make stats 'fun' for some people who don't enjoy it or find it difficult to understand. I'm like okay, just give me what I need to know, I am not interested in your life story. And I don't want to read through lots of pages to finally be able to understand what you are talking about.

Everything seems easy once you get your head around all of the basics - you feel like you have mastered the art of Stats. At least, that's how I felt, until I got to exploratory factor analysis and principal component analysis. But I know I can do this. I just need to spend a few more sleepless nights and reread every single page of the chapter. Then, I will be good.

My goal is to complete (or at least partially complete) the outline for my thesis, and read a few more pages of Stats textbook.

Argh...Stats is traumatising me! We are in a love-hate relationship. Anyone good at Stats and willing to help me?

Why does SC look so messy?!

اللهم صل علی محمد و آل محمد و عجل فرجهم

Wonderful blog! I like how you have started by focusing on identifying and understanding our negative thought processes, because that's what lies at the core of nearly all psychological disorders. Change is easy once people can identify and understand the reasons behind the irrationality of their dysfunctional thoughts. However, sometimes it is difficult to understand that our negative core beliefs are illogical, because they may imply 'facts' (e.g., "I am worthless." "The world is a scary place" "People are evil") and have been with us for a long time (since an early age/childhood) and so have had the opportunity to grow and become strengthened. This is why they are deeply-held beliefs and create the essence for how we see ourselves, the world and other people. And so we rarely question them and tend to screen information according to these thoughts or beliefs (which can over time appear automatically across different situations). Educating ourselves about the role our negative thought processes play in creating mental health problems is the first step to breaking this vicious cycle.

Okay, let's assume I am wrong and you are right. What exactly do you mean by "it was abnormal"? Are you referring to people's behaviour? Did every single person you met behave the same way towards you? Can you think of only ONE instance where a person was nice to you? You say that you were the only one going through this. What makes you think that you were the only one?

I don't think it's the people that are rude. Maybe you expect everyone to be nice to you and let's be honest, not everyone can be nice towards you. Maybe you are too focused on the negatives that you overlook the nice things about people. Stop thinking in binary terms: e.g., "People are either rude or nice." Most people don't perfectly fall into either of these categories.

Belief is not all-or-nothing; we can believe more or less firmly, with more or less certainty and tentativeness. This then dictates how we behave in any given situation. We may act differently upon a tentative belief than upon a firm one. Another thing is that our belief may be very strong, but still overriden by other beliefs. Then there are degrees of unethicality. For example, we know that some crimes are worse than others and I am sure you would agree that murder is worse than armed robbery, which in turn is worse than shoplifting. In some circumstances we might do something which is wrong in order to avoid a greater wrong. Sometimes we have to make a decision on the basis of insufficient evidence. We must simply make the best decision we can with the knowledge we have. These are all grey areas.

Just because you offer salah doesn't mean it will get accepted. You are kept away from sins as long as your prayers are being accepted.