Inspiration & Paradox 46: Aggressiveness could mean Timidity

I noticed that when a person encounters uncertainty, insecurity, or threats and is overcome by fear and stress and pressure, aggression can easily set in. That is, the more one is gripped by fear, the more agressive his/her behaviour can become. It is like a defensive mechanism. So behind an aggressive and confrontational person, there could be a real timid, and insecure personality.

Inspiration & Paradox 45: Honey Fights Tooth Decay!

I am a honey enthusiast and I just found out that some university professor believed that certain honeys could stop plaque-forming bacteria in teeth and gums from growing. The honeys work to reduce acid in your mouth and stop the production of dextran, a gummy substance that helps plaque stick to your teeth. And the result is less tooth decay and fewer cavities! Ironical isn't it, I mean, I am very surprised because we always warn our children not to take too much sweet stuff as they are not good for the teeth.
PS: You might want to learn more about what honey is and its amazing benefits from my web resource: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/. You will be amazed that a tiny little creature like bee could create such extraordinarily huge goodness for the human body. Yet, another paradox in life.

Inspiration & Paradox 44: When Less is More

In the pursuit of simplicity in our modern, hectic lifestyle, we are challenged to reflect upon our ambitions, possessions, career, and attachments and ask ourselves if we could let go of any unnecessary baggages. Having a mindset that "Less is More" can help us put our feet on the road of freedom and simplicty .

Inspiration & Paradox 43: When great understanding of each other in verbal communication leads to great misunderstanding in others

It seems paradoxical that the more you understand how and what the other person thinks, the lesser the verbal signals you will provide, and the more bizarre the conversation can become for outsiders, and the greater the misunderstanding it could cause in others. Give you an example that I encountered this morning:

I hit my little toe real hard against an old table leg accidentally this morning. It was excruciatingly pain, and I told my husband that I was going to sell the table to the “garong gunu” man (man who goes from house to house to look for old stuff to buy) as it was getting too much in my way. I said I will sell it for 100 bucks. He said the garong gunu man would laugh. Even though I knew that he actually meant my price was ridiculously high and I was asking too much, I purposely added “you mean the garong gunu man will be too thrilled to know that it’s only 100 bucks, ok, then let it be 200 bucks, how about that”. I knew my husband understood that I wasn’t serious about it and I also knew he wasn’t serious and what he meant exactly when he next said with a plain smile on his face – “Okay, 200 bucks then”. That’s how our conversation on the table ended. And I thought in my heart no outsider would ever understand our kind of language. Interestingly, many things are somehow left unspoken when two persons know each other well enough to interpret words the way they are supposed and intended to mean.

Inspiration & Paradox 42: Like attracts like or unlike?

Paradox strikes when I think about chemistry between people. There seems to be two different laws of attraction at work. People say that like attracts like and for a couple to sustain a relationship, they need to have common interests, likings, and share the thoughts and aspirations, but I also commonly hear people say that opposites attract, people look out for attributes which they do not have themselves in their other halves and even argue that opposites can be provide a complementary element in the relationship and they could live in mutual dependency.
Ask yourself how you would reconcile this paradox....

Inspiration & Paradox 41: Who can we best learn parenthood from?

As a child, I had a very difficult relationship with my mum. Basically, I could not agree with anything she did and I gave her a hard time. And when I had my first baby, I went through a very "blue" period. Strange enough, I did not have any natural mother instinct to tell me what were the expectations of a good mother. Having no mental picture of what an ideal mother should be, I was very fearful, felt very helpless and lost.

I realise that by the time we know well enough what is correct parenting and learn how to act and communicate like good responsible parents, it is the end of parenthood, our children have grown up and entered into parenthood themselves, and they start to wonder what they are supposed to do as responsible parents. And this vicious cycle of parenting struggle goes on and on. It seems that no children actually have known or seen before or could even envisage in their mind what perfect parents should be like. If this is really so, how can we learn to be perfect parents when parenthood cannot be repeated there will never ever be perfect parents for us to model after?

Inspiration & Paradox 40: Be glad when you feel lonely?!

I have friends who see loneliness as an emotional pain and fail to see any possibilities of good things springing from it. They undermine their sense of self-worth and feel they are not sufficiently loved by others as a result of feeling lonely.

But only as we thoughtlessly throw ourselves into the maddening mass, and start to compulsively secure relationships with all our might, fill our agendas and crowd every single bit of our own space, we then realise what we actually need after all.

Loneliness could be a place of solitude to discover your true self, a clue to help us find that stable inner security which will build us meaningful friendships, an amplifier to help us hear that still small voice within us telling us which direction to go, and an energising potion upon which we depend to engage in life pursuits.

Inspiration & Paradox 39: The Liar Paradox

If you love paradoxical statements, take a look at this one -- the Liar Paradox which revolves round a self-referential sentence:

(A) This sentence is false.

The statement in itself is a contradiction. If (A) is true, then (A) is false. On the other hand, assume (A) is false, then (A) is true. Since (A) is true if and only if it is false and (A) is one or the other, then it is both -- true and false, which is not possible!

Inspiration & Paradox 38: Beginnings are Endings & Endings are Beginnings

I understand why people say "All beginnings are also endings."

The beginning of life is usually marked by celebrations and joyful thoughts, however every beginning will surely has its ending, and when life marks its ending, it is remembered by just the opposite -- only grief and hard-to-let-go feelings. Similarly, beginnings of trials, sickness or persecution will bring tears, pain and suffering, but all trials will eventually come to end, and their endings bring relief and a heart of restfulness.

So, beginnings are also endings, and endings are also beginnings.

Inspiration & Paradox 37: Trouble with recalling unforgetable dreams

I am a dreamer, I tend to dream a lot, I mean having frequent dreams and long dreams at nite while asleep. And there is one thing that I always find very unexplainable and bizzare -- whenever I am awoken from a dream in the middle of the night, every scene and detail of what I see and hear in my dream seems to so vivid and deeply etched in my mind that I am always so very sure that I could remember everything becasue it was so real and I tell myself that I will describe it to my husband the next day. However, strangely, whenever morning comes, I wake up with hardly any recollection of the contents of the dream no matter how hard I try to recall. And I get very frustrated and confused because I just could not remember it anymore.

Inspiration & Paradox 36: Confusion is Positive

Have you ever been told by others when you are confused that "confusion is good" or have you ever told someone who is confused that "confusion is good"? Probably. The rationale is confusion shows that you know enough to actually recognise conflicting ideas and unclarity and it could indicate the beginning of knowledge. And if you know nothing about the subject, there will absolutely be no ground for confusion and thus no chance for learning to take place.

Inspiration & Paradox 35: Wish to change the wish to change

A couple of days ago, this TV host contester was asked “if there is one thing that you could wish that you could change in your life, what would that be?” His answer was original and unexpected – “it would be the wish to change the wish that he could change something in his life.” The whole beauty and glory about life itself is that it could never be repeated. Yes, he felt that there would always be some regrets in life, but instead of wishing he could do it all over again, he would rather think of how to face the consequences of those regrets.
I thought the way this guy has put his response across was quite interesting.

Inspiration & Paradox 34: Office workspace and Creativity level

Probably you might hear this kind of argument before when people in the office start to debate over whether work space should be improved to crank up the creative tempo in the organisation -- If we already enjoy a thriving creative culture, we really don’t need to talk about wrecking our brains in giving special space for creative work. If, on the other hand, creativity is not an integral part of your culture, this sort of workspace will then not be needed to contribute to a more creative organization. Question to this paradox then is: So when do we really need creative work space?

Inspiration & Paradox 33: Can you ask what you do not know?

I am pretty sure that you can identify with me this problem-- whenever people blame us for not taking the iniative to ask or clarify with others about a matter and hence not being able to contribute to the final resolution of the issue, we sometimes can't help but to protest "how am I supposed to ask about anything when I do not know anything??!!"

Inspiration & Paradox 32: Have you ever had the feeling of being so finite in this infinite world?

When I was not even a teenager, I mused a lot over my existence in this world and state of my existence. The fact that I actually existed as part of this amazing universe then overwhelmed me a lot, so much so that I felt that that my being was so small, insignificant and even absurd. I was very sure that if I were to just disappear in a split second from the surface of this earth, it wouldn't mean anything at all to this world. Trying to put dimension to my existence in this universe made me feel trapped and imprisoned. The deep consciousness and the fullness related to the acknowledgment of my finite existence was overpowering and actually caused me to feel that I was but an empty shell that is just a micro bit part of the infinite universe.

Inspiration & Paradox 31: Motion is an illusion?

Have you heard of the famous Zeno's Paradoxes which have interesting arguments about motion?
The first one I know is called the Dichotomy Paradox. Basically it says that if you want to get to a point that is say, 100 meters away, you must first get to the 50-meter mark, and to reach that, the you have to complete 25 meters. But to do that, you must first finish 12.5 meters, and so on and so forth. Since space is infinitely divisible, we can repeat these 'requirements' forever. Thus you have to reach an infinite number of 'midpoints' in a finite time. This is impossible, so you can never reach his destination.
Another one is known as the Arrow Paradox: A flying arrow at any given time has a certain position, and so does a motionless arrow. The question then is: which arrow then is actually moving?

Inspiration & Paradox 30: Paradox Theory on Personality Traits

According to Jung and Freud, every individiual has two types of opposing personality traits, "passive" and "aggressive" traits. If our range of behavior is able to extend to both the aspects, we will have an exceptional capability and versatility. If our range of behavior extends only either of them, our behavior will have some "counter-productive tendencies" and have a "balanced deficiency" in our behaviour. Hence, these traits in actual fact can be argued as complementary rather than opposing.

Inspiration & Paradox 29: Simplicity is not at all simple

Whether it is about making a product that is simplest in terms of its user interface, or providing a service that as far as possible does not require the customer to lift his/her finger, or present an argument that is simple for anybody of any level to appreciate, or simplifying our lifestyle or our rules in living in this busy and complex world, it all takes a great feat of mustering effort, lots of energy, a serious bout of creativity, an enormous amount of resources, big deal of time and money, and much hard work in trial and error. And this is how I always like to put it -- "Simplicity is not the same as being simplistic".

Inspiration & Paradox 28: Standing is more tiring than walking.

I recently came across a fact -- standing is more tiring than walking.

This paradox leads me to think about our life -- that when we choose to move on in life, when there is progress and achievement in what we do, we find refreshment, liberation in our spirit and great purpose and meaning in our living. The effect is an energising one. However, when we stay put in one place and become complacent and all, we can only ourselves in a state of stagnation and inertness, which will bring us a sense of lethargy and idleness in everything we do.

Inspiration & Paradox 27: Contradictory Phrases

Here are some interesting paradoxical statements:

Fight For Peace.

Do Not Read This Sentence.

God, Give Me Patience Right Now!