The perception of control we have is necessary for our well-being and living in the world. It is sort of a necessary fiction we tell ourselves. When you think of it philosophically there isn’t much control we truly have over anything. But perception is reality for our brains.
Perceived personal control
Perceived personal control is about the control you have about your life though. The capacity to bring about specific outcomes in our life.
- I determine most of what happens in my life
- My life is determined by my behaviour
- If I set my mind to something, I can achieve it
How do you rate these? How much control do you perceive your life to have? How so? How not? And why?
About what control you have about the direction and actions you can take in your life. If we feel we have no control at all in our lives. No power to change or do anything to affect anything at all in our lives that leads to hopelessness and despair. The more control we perceive to have the more adaptive we can be to adversity.
A place I know well. I felt I had no control over my chronic pain, no hope that I ever would because I felt there were no options, no treatments. I felt I had no power over having to work. No relief in the future. No potential in any decrease in pain or pain management.
When you have a good perception of control it can help you:
- Cope with negative emotions when the come up
- Engage in coping strategies. And when those do not work, utilize additional coping strategies. It creates a sense of hopefulness that generally leads to more positive coping strategies.
- Use our support system when we need it
If you have a high perception of your control over your surroundings, you’ll feel capable of influencing your environment and managing complicated situations. Instead, if you have low control over your surroundings, according to the psychological well-being questionnaire, you’ll have greater difficulty overcoming the adversities which arise in your day-to-day life.
A high perception of control
Can have a positive effect on:
- Positive self-concept
- Adjusting to job-related stress
- Healthy psychological functioning
- Adjusting and coping with physical health problems
It is all about our perception of control
To the extent that I am very aware that in the depths of my depression my perception of control over pain and stress was very low and this greatly impacted my coping skills, I agree. However, I am also aware with chronic illness and pain the reality of it is, control is limited and I also have to understand that as well. But, where I perceive I do have control, within my reaction to pain, coping strategies, and trying to improve my well-being – there I see the flexibility. And therefore I do perceive I, individually, have some control within the limitations of that which I have no control.
‘The importance of perceived control lies in its effects on subjective well-being. Perceived control enhances an individual’s assessment of the controllability of a situation to elicit the necessary coping strategy. A situation can be appraised as threatening if one perceives a lack of control over the situation and challenging if the individual perceives the stressor as controllable. A situation that is appraised as threatening is likely to be stressful because the person sees the confronting demands as exceeding his or her coping abilities and this perception creates stress with adverse effect on subjective well-being.’PMC
And certainly when I think pain exceeds my coping strategies- I think I lack the capacity to cope, my well-being decreases, hope dissipates and stress increases.
See part II next on my chronic illness thoughts for this subject
See also
reprint from brainlessblogger.net
Chronically Nikki 
Re “perception is reality for our brains”
Yes for our never learning brains as those of “advanced” humans…
Whoever promotes the meme “perception is reality” is wittingly or unwittingly, spreading destructive self-defeating propaganda.
The MISLEADING FAKE mantra of “perception is reality” is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans.
You can find the proof that perception is commonly NOT reality in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” …. http://www.CovidTruthBeKnown.com (or https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html)
The official narrative is… “trust official science” and “trust the authorities” but as with these and all other “official narratives” they want you to trust and believe …
“We’ll know our Disinformation Program is complete when everything the American public [and global public] believes is false.” —William Casey, a former CIA director=a leading psychopathic criminal of the genocidal US regime
““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. … The unity of compliance.” — Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist
“2 weeks to flatten the curve has turned into…3 shots to feed your family!” — Unknown
“Imagine a vaccine so safe you have to be threatened to take it.” — from a poster
If you have been injected with Covid jabs/bioweapons and are concerned, then verify what batch number you were injected with at https://howbadismybatch.com
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