The idea of bewilderment has several uses. The first meaning included in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) refers to the decomposition or disarrangement of the components of a machine or a body.
The most common use of the concept, however, is linked to the confusion or daze that a person experiences when they cannot understand something or when they do not know how to act .
For example: “There is confusion among the investigators since they cannot find any firm clue to advance in the resolution of the case,” “The president's statements generated confusion in the financial market,” “The local team 's confusion was taken advantage of by its rival.” ” .
Suppose a woman meets a friend on the street. When he approaches to greet her, he is surprised by the other party's indifferent and distant attitude . Even her friend speaks to her with some aggression. This causes confusion in the woman since she cannot understand the reaction of her interlocutor.
Many times confusion occurs when faced with an unexpected event . A man receives a phone call from abroad, informing him that his mother - who was on vacation - suffered an accident, is hospitalized and must undergo surgery . The subject does not know what to do: Should he travel immediately? Would I have to contact the embassy for help? Or call the hospital directly? Confusion prevents you from resolving quickly.
Precisely, one of the basic questions we ask ourselves in a situation like this is "What do I do now?" . It is a kind of prayer that we raise to the universe itself or to the divine entity in which we believe, asking them to enlighten us with the answer to know how to act, in which direction to move, because we are not prepared to face such a disconcerting and We feel like we won't be able to get over it.
It should be noted that there are people who are specially trained to act in situations of confusion . In the event of a terrorist attack, to cite one case, police officers, nurses and doctors have an action protocol to provide urgent assistance.
All human beings are susceptible to confusion, because no one is assured of stability throughout their life. On the contrary, the combination of free will with what we call chance manages to give unexpected results more than once, and when our certainties turn into doubts we come to feel bewildered.
Another way of understanding this concept is as a state of despair, which in each case can occur with a different degree of intensity, arising from one of hope : in a matter of seconds we can make this transition if we encounter a situation that opposes what we expected, or if we receive bad news that places us in a position of great vulnerability and helplessness.
In addition to the two meanings mentioned above, the RAE dictionary also proposes three others for the term bewilderment , which speak of "a state of perplexity and disorientation", "a lack of economy and government" and "the absence of measure and mode." in words or actions. All of this matches the examples and explanations presented so far, which describe bewilderment as a state in which we do not know where to go, what to do, because structures seem to crumble in front of us.
Of course, the most appropriate attitude in the face of a state of confusion is introspection, the search for the reasons that have made us feel this way. Many times we believe that life is testing us arbitrarily, but in reality it is we who have caused the problem, and only through reflection and inner search can we learn from our mistakes so as not to make them again.