Life Philosophy

Philosophy of Life Term Paper
The main task of philosophy of life is to think deeply about concepts concerning life, death, and nature. For example, we are all going to die sooner or later, but what does this mean to us exactly? Surprisingly, this is an extremely hard question to answer. It is closely connected to many more questions and when you think you have found the answer you are left with another few hundred questions.
a. What are my values and beliefs? I grew up with my great-grandparents in a very Christian home with people who followed the church loosely. I had a strong foundation of morals and values thanks to the church but thanks to the people in my home growing up, I was able to see the dark-side of the light. I went to church on Sundays and would see my aunts and uncles get wasted from Monday to Saturday and the cycle was never ending. I would hear sermons given about the demons that masquerade the ones we love through drugs and alcohol but I got to live the demons right at the front door, in the house, and on the floor. I am now an adult and have been able to see the world as it is through my eyes, I heavily believe that everyone is human and should be treated as such. I value family, honor, and respect for your fellow man and woman, boys and girls, and especially our elderly communities. I say especially our elderly communities, because they laid the ground foundation for our future and they deserve so much more than is given to them.

b. Where am I headed? My inner compass is pointing me down the path, which will be well traveled, I plan to stay the course and continue my academia as far as I possibly can. I hope to obtain my AA here at our Urban Oasis, Los Angeles City College and transfer out to a four-year institution like Cal State Dominguez Hills where I will obtain my Bachelors in psychology. After the completion of those mini-goals, I plan to enter a Masters program at a University near home so that I may continue to help with the raising of my daughter and future daughter. Finally, I hope to accomplish a fete that very few people from my area have and that is obtaining my PhD in Psychology and in Human Service Work.
I have created a great social network here at City College and I believe that these people have become the shoulder I can lean on and the wall I can bounce my ideas off, professors and students alike. I see myself as a person with more meaning now than I had before I became a father and husband. I love the feeling of being depended on and the feeling of accomplishment, when I make people light up after I have helped them. Whether, it is a task with one-step or one with one-hundred steps I get the same great feeling every time.

c. Who am I? I am a physical body and an emotional and psychological human being. The two together make me a person. Being a person means that I have virtues and flaws, gifts and needs, possibilities and defeats. I am good, but I am capable of evil. I am neither an angel nor a monster. Being a person means that I am a social animal, needing connection, recognition and acceptance from others, while simultaneously knowing me as isolated and solitary, with many experiences, which are never fully shareable with others. However, I also realize that this condition is a universal experience, and this enables the emergence of empathy and compassion for others as it affords glimpses of understanding and solicitude, mutuality and intimacy.
Being a person means that I am like all other persons, but also unique. It also means that I can never provide a genuinely definitive answer to life’s questions. However, I am more than a person; I am a husband and a father, a grandson and a son, a lover and a sinner, as well as a friend and a foe.

d. What have I discovered about myself in this course? Psych 03, personality and social development has helped my development and has created a more well rounded me. I for the life of me could not focus on certain tasks or even get motivated to do things on time until Dr. Blum’s lecture on “becoming the man/woman you want to be” it helped me realize that my procrastination was affecting my ability to obtain my short-term goals which in turn were affecting my long-term goals. I have also taken notice that if I ever want to be a self-actualized person I must work from the ground up ala Abraham Maslow.
However, while doing some extra research I found that after a person becomes “self-actualized” the person has another level called “peek experience” at which point the person continues to fluctuate through the hierarchy of needs, of course without falling into the bottom half of the pyramid unless circumstances start you off at the bottom. I realized that during Dr. Blum’s lecture on the subject he had referred to this process quite a few times. It only makes sense because although I have not self-actualized I have continued to move up and down through the hierarchy of needs.
I owe most of my positivity towards the second half of my semester to chapter 5, stress management. I had high levels of stress at every turn whether it is school, work, and or home I had no real way of dealing with it. The lecture combined with the book gave me an avenue which I never knew I had, I was able to detect what my major stressors where and how to deal with them. I continue to use my stress techniques daily and have conquered the negativity that they brought into my world.
Although I completely understood the chapter on body and wellness, I have yet to become a healthier decision maker. That day after the lecture, I went home and stared a planner that would help in changing my eating habits as well as my exercise habits. I was able to stick to it for about two, two and a half weeks and fell right back into my eating habits. I will go at it another round and hope to stay the course this time around.

e. How do I relate to others? I relate to others as individuals as each person has his or her own way of being. I mostly relate to people through my life experiences, how well I may know the person, and whether or not the person is truly genuine when conversing with me about a certain topic.
I am not afraid to deal directly with emotion whether it is my own or others. I allow myself to feel and give expression to what I feel. In my relationships, I act rather than react by going out and contacting others without waiting to be contacted. I express that I am for others even if I do not necessarily approve of what they do all the time. I do not hide behind roles or facades. I let others know where I stand. I am not vague when I speak to others. I do not beat around the bush in that I deal with concrete experience and behavior. I deal openly and directly with others. I know where I stand with others and they know where they stand with me. I see the world through the eyes of others by listening to cues, both verbal and nonverbal, and I respond to these cues. I challenge others with responsibly and with care. I do not use confrontation to punish. I let others know the person inside, but I am not exhibitionistic. I am open without being a secret-reveler or secret-searcher. I examine my life style and behaviors and want others to help me to do so. I am open to change.
With my partner who I adore I have been able to be fully open with and relate with her very well. She puts me in that place where I am fully taken care of emotionally and physically. She makes me think of and feel just like Johnny Mathis’s “wonderful, wonderful” every time I see her. The reason I mention her here on my paper is that we went over the topic of love and feeling loved in class and how comfortable we are with that love. Therefore, I spoke to her about the assignment, she gave me her thoughts on the “philosophy of life”, and I can say I thoroughly enjoyed that conversation with her. Especially the part about death and dying, we spoke on it and felt similarly, about what life would be like is either of us was gone tomorrow.
Which brings me full circle, we don’t have the answer to life’s great mysteries and we can only theorize what awaits us on the other side and whether or not people are inherently good or evil or whether we are born a certain way or ‘tabla raza’ (blank slate).