The Conundrum of Human Behaviour

The conundrum of human behaviour.  It can be playful, rewarding, hurtful, encouraging, and comforting. Can it be judged by what you see at first sight?  I don't think so.  Sometimes you need to interact for a while to find out the truth.  Sometimes, people will use their social skills to manipulate or use desirable or undesirable qualities to achieve a conscious or unconscious goal that may be hurtful or helpful to others.  Moreover, others will seek out vulnerable qualities to take advantage of another person to achieve their own goal.  Do you remain on guard or trust completely.  Do you work with your head or your heart only.  I'd say both.  

If you have a mind that looks for patterns and consistencies, sometimes a person will thwart what you assumed.  They will do something completely the opposite to what you expected.  The evidence before you suddenly changed.  Or is it what you only wanted to see, and the evidence before you no longer supports what you perceived?  Remember, that perception is filtered from your belief system.  What about if you are value driven, do you change your values or change what is around you or just accept without judgement?  It's a conundrum, surely.  

Carl Rogers used person centred therapy on a client who he found out told a lie the whole time because the client realised he could get away with it.  He took advantage of the situation. The therapy was to provide unconditional positive regard conditions in the treatment room.  To accept fully what the client had said, without judgement.  Whereas in contemporary counselling, the therapist will look for inconsistencies to challenge the client so they will be aware of their words and actions.  The strategy is to help them grow out of a dysfunctional pattern and create conditions for change. Carl Rogers' technique is today mainly used to build a rapport with the client and as part of the treatment, not the treatment itself.  

In the end, every day is a learning experience.  The test is to use each experience as a chance to grow yourself.  To realise that you cannot change others and that if they did indeed choose to use your vulnerabilities as a chance to manipulate you, that you have learned from the experience and to grow from it.  It is also a chance to realise that yesterday no longer exists, but was part of your wonderful experience. Today is a gift and to be open enough to learn from what you have been presented with and tomorrow is a day you will never know, as they say a mystery.  

Therefore human behaviour is a conundrum, but I'm guessing that it is meant to be.  That it enables life to be a classroom, where we learn from each other.  To accept others fully, to not be so judgemental but to learn that there is the good, the bad, and that each will bring out what we need to be challenged in order to grow into a better person. 

I just want to add, that for those who have Autism, ADHD or are highly intelligent that human behaviour is more of a challenge because you find shifting perspective a challenge, you continually look for patterns and that you think more with your head than emotionally.  You also notice detail more, highly sensitive and the outside world can be exhausting. But if you learn the skills, learn more about yourself and how to manage what you find too difficult sometimes, such as change, you can become a master at learning about differences and that when something unexpected thwarts you that feeling completely uncomfortable is part of the growth process.  Just be okay with it and continue to grow.  It would be easier living in a bubble and to only use your mind, but life experience will teach you more than a book, a classroom or the internet. Sometimes it will hurt, sometimes it will be joyful, but staying the same won't help either.