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Psychological reactance- How you react when your beloved thing is taken away!

 


Have you ever wondered how Romeo and Juliet could fall so much in love? Same for Heer and Ranjha, Sassi and Punnu, and other folklore of love. These stories of unbridled love ending in tragedies instead of the divine union have common undercurrents. Their romances were not acceptable to society, particularly their families.

Now think of a situation where these guys didn’t have any resistance or interference from their parents or society. Do you think their love would have kindled to the limits of madness? They would have probably got married and then daily life issues that every married couple faces would have been theirs too. It would not even have been a story worth mentioning.

Recent experiments show that increased parental interferences and pressures lead to couples acknowledging the greater number of negative traits in their partner apart from becoming more critical but with a caveat, they actually fell more in love. When they are forced to ignore each other, it makes their feelings stronger and more intense. When parents weakened their interference, the feelings waned away.

So, how much should the parents interfere? Probably to a point where the Psychological reactance of their wards does not rise too much.

At the time the lockdown was imposed, videos were floating around the internet where people had filled their homes with truckloads of grocery and food items. People worried that the food items may just vanish from stores and that it was better to have as much as they can now. The thought of future scarcity forced them to accumulate as much as they could. In a similar event in Miami, US the state banned all cleaning products with phosphate. As a result, people hoarded such products through smuggling and getting them from other states themselves.

These 2 scenarios can be explained by the fact that if something becomes less available, we have an increased desire to have it as our freedom to have the thing becomes limited.

Another example is Censorship. Currently, a controversy storm is brewing over the movie called “The Kerala Story”. It got banned in a few states and as a result, it got the publicity it needed. It grossed good sales at the Box office. The same goes for the movie named Pathaan which was boycotted on social media. It ended up grossing a lot of money. Anything that gets forbidden kindles the desire to have it.

Coca-Cola in 1985 launched its New Coke disbanding the running formulations. They claimed it was better in taste and had a new packing. The change resulted in a national storm in the U.S. Old Coke lovers associations were formed which were willing to resort to legal, legislative, and petition methods to get their loved product back. One of the vociferous proponents, on two occasions, had himself rated the taste of New Coke better than old Coke when samples, without showing which one is which, were given to him. Coca-Cola did its research but overlooked the important principle of scarcity and the ruckus that the taking away of old Coke would create. The US had Coke as a part of its tradition. Taking away something made them like it much more and fight to bring it back.

Homework for life

Acting against laziness makes you happy. Today was the birthday of a senior from another office. Had the intention in the morning to go and wish in the office. Procrastinated it to the point where I thought of not going. Started looking for excuses. All negative chatter began such as I am an introvert, it doesn’t matter if you wish, what if the senior thought of it as cheesy, what if it is not the actual birthday blah blah blah… If while leaving home in the morning for the office, I had the intention then I should fulfill it. I have avoided socializing on far too many occasions in life by now. It was time to own up. I walked out of the office. Went to the office of the senior on a different floor. Wished her and nothing that I had thought actually existed. Act on what you feel is right. Laziness kills many good things in life.

Exercise

Strength: Stretching Day.

Felt a little uneasy with the shoulder so decided to take it easy and open up the body instead.

Did Foam roll on the posterior chain. Rocking Frog stretches. New twist lunges.

Rehab: McGill Big 3 (1 set each). Lock Big 3 (1 set each).

Cardio:  Running (Zone 2-3 Training)

35 mins for the Day. 

35 mins completed for the week. (Last week 91 mins.) 

Target 180 mins for the week.

Anything I like to share/ Habit Tracker

Clean for 123 days.

Pic of the Day


 

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