Mind games

Newly appointed National Director for Miss Universe Philippines Ariella Arida recently shared a little piece of wisdom with this writer, talking about her appointment and the journey that took her to where she is today.

“It’s all about energy,” she told this columnist.

Just some months back, Ariella never imagined she would go through any mental health issues. It never crossed her mind as a situation she would personally go through even after seeing the new crop of pageant hopefuls tending to crack under social media pressure.

But the normally optimistic beauty queen found herself feeling down, slowly losing the drive to pursue her dreams. The trigger was something we did not discuss, but she told me it was only after she realized she had to get out of her funk — when she decided she wanted to get back into her groove — that the job as national director of the MUPh fell into her lap.

Her mantra when she was a novice pageant contender was “you are who you imagine you are.” And she manifested her dreams, becoming a leading force in the organization while pursuing her other passions in life.

Her remark brings me back to earth somewhat — assessing the kind of thoughts I have allowed myself to harbor. Really, what we think about so often festers or flourishes. If we imagine a government that cheats us, for example; if we rant about it often enough that we believe it is gospel truth, then we get budget allocation issues to the tune of “blank items.”

The collective consciousness can be a dangerous thing. Society today — so easily influenced by social media and fake news (with the yet unchartered minefield that is artificial intelligence increasingly in the picture) — can be brought to think of anything a certain way. We could get a barrage of propaganda defying everything we ever believed, and pretty soon, it would be the norm.

For instance, have you recovered yet from the verbal vomit we have had the displeasure of hearing in the past weeks? The year 2024 turned into 2025 and we are still seeing fresh ammunition aimed at the Marcos administration from the disunited team that had the Vice President Sara Duterte facing impeachment.

Her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was recently in the news spilling the beans on the national budget’s “blank items” brouhaha. Why it should take the former chief executive to point out these alleged inconsistencies or questionable items is not such a wonder. The political gloves are off — the campaign season is on.

Henceforth, we can expect some of the old strategies taking over our line of vision, but maybe we should also watch out for some surprising twists and turns. The Donald Trump presidency has already snapped us out of complacency. Elon Musk and his newly gained powers in the US government shows us that Disruptors are in the house, and with the way collective thoughts go, we may pretty much expect our own kind of nasty surprises on the political front.

Be careful what you think, Ariella says.