#concrete thinking

Here we are. It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National (Global) Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Abstracting the Concrete Maria L. Berg 2021 This year, I will be looking at the A-Z of Depth. Here is a chart I made of the meanings of Depth, Deep, and Deepen: As you can see, depth has many meanings. Some of its meanings are concrete…

Emotions and feelings are inherently abstract. Relying solely on this abstract level when approaching problem-solving can create a challenge. Without a focus on specific details, grasping the problem comprehensively becomes difficult, impacting the effectiveness of its execution. Merely relying on emotions in practice often results in inconsistent quality and widely varying outcomes, leading to unstable results. Conversely, making problems more concrete offers a wealth of details. By meticulously considering and mastering each specific detail, success finds a solid foundation, thus facilitating easier achievement of goals.

Therefore, sudden lapses in recalling certain details may stem from excessive nervousness or overlooking these specifics during practice sessions. When competition demands meticulous attention to these details, neglecting them in preparation can make it arduous to swiftly recall them during the actual event, potentially leading to forgetfulness.

Hence, it’s crucial to devote more attention to these intricate details during practice. This ensures a better showcase of these elements during competitions, making them a pivotal factor in achieving victory.

There are a few things that you can do to help prevent forgetting details during a competition:

Practice under pressure. One of the best ways to prepare for the pressure of a competition is to practice under similar conditions. This could involve practicing in front of an audience or practicing with a timer.

Get a good night’s sleep. Getting enough sleep will help you stay alert and focused on the day of the competition.

Eat a healthy breakfast. Eating a healthy breakfast will give you the energy you need to perform at your best.

Take deep breaths. If you start to feel stressed or anxious, take a few deep breaths to calm yourself down.

Focus on the task at hand. When you are competing, it is important to focus on the task at hand and not let your mind wander.

Visualize yourself succeeding. Visualizing yourself performing well in the competition can help boost your confidence and reduce anxiety.

  shakir2.wordpress.com

Lying is one of the greatest sins in Islam. Text and the corpus juris are quite explicit about this. Evils of lying are more dreadful than the evils of adultery. In one of the Ahadith lying is equated with committing adultery with one’s own mother. 

“Only they forge the lie who do not believe in Allah’s communications, and these are the liars.” (Q,16:105) 

“Surely Allah does not guide him aright…

Concrete Thinking: How it Develops in Childhood

The process by which human beings elaborate and mentally relate ideas about what surrounds us is quite complex. It starts from our early years and progresses according to a series of determined stages and characteristics.

Among other things, this process allows us to develop two ways of thinking: one based on the physical objects of the world, which we call concrete thought; and the other…

Well, it’s funny to me, anyway lol!

Back in 2012, my mom had major surgery and was out of commission for awhile, so I was in charge of washing dishes and helping her get stuff down to cook dinner. Basically I was her hands and feet for everything but the actual cooking and washing the cooking pots / utensils part. (They were very hot and she didn’t want me to hurt myself touching them.) She went to wash the pots and pans after cooking and remarked that the water I filled the sink with was barely warm.

I’m extremely heat sensitive, so to me the water was hot. I said as much and mom told me the water has to be really hot so the dishes get disinfected as well as clean. I was making up for that by being very thorough with the scrubbing, since friction builds up heat that kills germs too. But it was mom advice and I told myself to follow that to the letter. Since that was the last time she needed me to be her hands and feet, it would be awhile before the situation came up again.

And that was today.

Mom was late getting dinner started because she had a dentist emergency (broken tooth, she’s fine). I wanted to help, so I fed Monroe, started the water on as hot as it’ll go and filled up the dishes side of the kitchen sink. I threw in the soap and did mom’s trick of bending forward until my eyes were level with the counter and shut the water off as soon as the dish soap foam appeared above the lip of the sink.

The water wasn’t quite scalding hot, but it’s much hotter than the showers I take. My mom has zero problems touching water this hot, so I know this is a skin / sensory issues for me. I ran some cold water to take the bite out of it. Then I had to reach in fast to grab things, wash them, rinse and put them in the dish rack. It hurt so bad that I was shrieking. I reached in real fast, grabbed and yanked, but I don’t have great coordination all the time. Sometimes I reached, pulled and THEN closed my fingers, so I kept missing my grabs, dropping stuff back in the water or not reaching in far enough to grab anything. I shrieked in pain each time I had to plunge my hand into that inferno and I started to feel the pain all up my arm. I alternated hands, but my left hand is about as useful as an octopus doing ballet when I need to be fast with it. (I’m right handed.)

But fifteen minutes later, crying in pain, I looked over at the dish rack full of clean cereal bowls, spoons and butter knives from lunchtime and told myself I did a good job.

I have first degree burns on my knuckles. I held my hands under the cold water until they stopped hurting and I stopped crying. They sting like a very faint sunburn and look slightly red, but that’s it.

I told mom about it when she got home and she said I was supposed to run warm water that’s comfortable to me to wash the breakfast / lunch stuff, then run it hot so it’ll sit and be cooler once it’s time to wash up after dinner.

“But you said it has to be hot,” I told her.

Mom said back, “Yeah, but you don’t handle hot water as well as I do. It’s okay to let it sit and cool a little bit first since you scrub things for a long time before you rinse.”

I just facepalmed and went, “Autism brain strikes again.”

I took her instructions from 2012 literally because she said hot water.

She did appreciate that I tried to help, so there’s that. I still think it was worth it to give her a break.

This is why I wouldn’t be safe cooking anything more complicated than a grilled cheese sandwich. I can do the mac ‘n cheese with hot dogs if mom writes the instructions down. But I could really misinterpret an instruction and hurt myself or ruin the food. It’s safer if someone else does that.

#reality and #relativism can be like oil and water. You can shake them, but they separate.

I am not an artist, which perhaps makes me appreciate those who are, like my bloggish buddy at A Time To Share and her husband.  Our baby girl is an artist, as is one of our sons-in-law, and all three of my siblings and our dad.  Even Bob has taken up the pen and pencil! 

But me?  Nope.  I must have been like a flat rock that went skipping over that part of the gene pool.  I can sort of draw a…

Daily prompt source

This is an interesting prompt.  What is my reason to believe?  More importantly I am wondering if the question is just too vague.  The rationale might depend on the missing “believe what?”  For example it…