Rid yourself of Cognitive Dissonance as I am trying to do.

Namaste

In the end, it’s all about self-development, while we can help others along the way information that comes in the form of aid or guidance has to resonate with people before they can become receptive to it. This may mean that they have not yet reached a frequency in which they can capture the information or that the information is useless (most likely from me).

We only hear what we want to hear, and when we hear something that contradicts our beliefs we still bend it so that complies with our understanding, or expend less energy and simply ignore it. This is ‘cognitive dissonance’ (sounds nice off the tongue). Festinger’s (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance states that each individual has a strong motivation to acquire information that supports consistency in their held beliefs, and in doing so can evoke maladaptive and irrational behaviours as defense mechanisms,

We have programmed and hardwired a skewed perception of the world and our reality and therefore when we are exposed to information that contradicts and undermines our perceptions (quite often) our adrenaline starts pumping away and our defense mechanism kick in, because who are we if we have no assurance of our own beliefs that we know as truth. We go on the attack and flail out, popping all new and potentially contradictory information like bubbles, simply because we lack the courage and open-mindedness to formulate new hypotheses and truths.

Through this dynamic, ever-evolving ecosystem called earth, our perceptions must keep up and continue to evolve as we are exposed to new insights and ideas, especially during this technological age which is growing at an exponential rate. It should be stated that perfectly valid and empirical belief system at a certain time period may not hold the equivalent validity 20 years later, perhaps even 2 years, 2 months or 2 days. We must be receptive to all new information, however, that doesn’t mean to say that you should abandon your critical/analytical filter (keep that securely attached).

The concluding point is to maintain a degree of fluidity with your own set of beliefs, never seek to crystallise them as you could face disappointment and find yourself acting in irrationally and come to regret it (as I have). Even the truth can change over time. Be like water.

Thanks for reading

None of the artwork presented here belongs to me, I have acquired them from tumblr. If anyone know any of them please let me know!

Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.