Be A Voice. Not An Echo.

'' Don't believe everything you read on the Internet just because there's a picture with a quote next to it.''

A constant I have found in many of the books I've read on psychology is that we blindly follow the crowd more than we realize or would be ready to admit.
I wish I had on paper all of the examples of experiments that precisely illustrate it. (the sad truth is that I actually do, but could not seem to find them in my 12 different notebooks)

There is a real power of group surrender.
We are many more times more likely to say as others say in a group, even if we know deep down that the answer they picked is not the right one.
The fear of standing alone with our own voice keeps us trapped.

As someone who's utterly obsessed by reading and studying the human mind, learning more about its shortcomings every day never stops to make me go like '' Woah!''

Just our innate negativity bias alone, is enough to get in our way more than it should.
It's a blessing we have come this far on the spectrum of the evolution of the human race, but it is a shame that it happened too quick for our minds to properly adjust.
This out of date instinct makes us fear things to protect ourselves, but to an extent where we cause to ourselves more harm than good by doing so.

On another note, there's just so many ways by which others affect us that pass right through our conscious awareness.
Whether it is to mimic others as they speak to us, being attracted to people with the same genetic makeup as ours, finding a partner that resembles our parent of the opposite sex, name it.

In a wonderful Ted Talk called '' Depression is a disease of civilization'' , Dr. Stephen Llardi said words that have stayed with me still to this day:

'' We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, socially isolated,
fast-food-laden, sleep-deprived, frenzied pace of modern life."

Nature can surely teach us a thing or two on that one. 🌄✨🔮

We are stuck in echo chambers.
Maybe the world is corrupt, but we only have our own selves to blame.
The confirmation bias is a dangerous one to fall for, yet most of us fall prey to its charm without being fully aware, if not aware at all.

Schools, on their part, teach us that there's only one kind of smart.
In my books, shoving a bunch of info down someone's throat, who does not even challenge what he's being taught... is not being smart.
It's rather called having one heck of a good memory.
Oh and being self-disciplined, I'll give you that.

We are surrounded by traps.
The distraction trap, the obedience trap, the media trap, the happiness trap.
How not to fall into one?
Not to mention that for some of us, these '' traps'' live inside our own homes.
And sometimes, these traps stem from our own toxic ways of interacting with ourselves as well as with others.

If you can't agree, just agree to listen, alright?
(Not sure how many follow this piece of wisdom)

Even when we're stuck, there's always a way to unstuck ourselves.
And the best part being that you don't even need to watch James Franco in 127 hours for it.
Ps (I'm giving myself a big tap on the shoulder cuz this is the first and probably last movie reference of all time I will ever make).
Pps (Yes I never watch movies. Avatar. Lord of the rings. Harry Potter. Inception. Star wars. Name it. Never saw any of them.)

But hey, the good news is that I'm not one bit sad about it!
Be a voice. Not an echo.

The best day of my life was the day I quit trying to fit in a world that did not fit me!🔮 💫✯