- building up on the previous blogpost
- the inner chatter/narrative/story(ies) drive an overwhelming portion of your reality.
- often, the OPI (Other People's Opinions) becomes your inner reality
You have to be careful and vigilant
You need to learn how to discern
Operating from a mindset of disconnectedness and focusing purely on extraction with no regard whatsoever.
OPIs can be negative, corrosive and extremely toxic
Some examples:
There is something wrong with you
You are just like <this person>. (And that person has had a lifelong struggle.)
You are <something really bad>
Your business is never going to take off..
You are building castles in the sky
you read too many books...
when are you going to get a real job
The heavy identity politics layer
You are not one of us
Nobody in our circle has ever gotten a degree. Why you even trying?
I used to get upset when the toxic OPIs were lobbed at me. Now, on almost all the days, I know better.
'It's their stuff. I need to deal with my stuff.'
Also, I feel and I could be wrong, but if I could translate some of this stuff and if somehow the poison could be detached from it. Then the main reality seems to stem from
- a largely comfort driven reality
- unprocessed memory and trauma
- inability to integrate with the wider reality. a reality, which is now changing rapidly
- bad decisions in life and not taking ownership that one made bad decisions
- TWAs (spending time with time wasting agents and individually and collectively engaging in Time Wasting Activities)
- not reading books
- not focusing on personal development
- the list is longer, but these, I feel are the top/core set of issues
- also, it is my theory that there must be a memetic element to these set of behaviors. thoughts/emotions and habits are contagious. so if this contagion grows, then there are entire realities that emerge in order to actually perpetuate this way of being. like Mark Twain said, 'never argue with stupid people. they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
- and so, one must be extremely judicious and see things the way they are. because one's desire to want to fit in somewhere, desperately and badly could lead to some rather gnarly set of compromises to be made. and these compromises will then come at the expense of your health, your happiness and your destiny.
chasing some set of illusions so desperately. midas you could become.
And so, often:
- a bad response to a bad situation equals bad outcomes. so you need to get increasingly better towards setting boundaries
OPIs can get institutionalized and become memetic
Unfortunately, there are too many examples here.
- Unless we begin to change and adapt, we (as a species) will fall off a cliff.
- This is not a prediction that I am wedded to. This is what the data suggests (climate, water security, food security, AI security and more)
OPIs that lift you up and praise the effort
- Before discussing these OPIs, it is important, to think where these OPIs come from. I would think that they would come from someone who has done the inner work and is committed towards continually doing the inner work.
- So regardless of, the teachers have been from many backgrounds and as long as the student is willing to listen.
Discern
Some examples:
Let's go. Lift yourself up and try again
Give me one more pushup
Have you heard about an author by the name of 'Cal Newport' (or Ryan Holidy, or Dr. Dweck at that)
Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn made a huge difference in my life. Who are some of the leaders that you look up to and why? And what did you learn from them?
The pain you experienced must be transformed into a purpose
"If you want to be happy, be grateful." link to Brother David Steindl-Rast's Ted Talk is here
Overall, OPIs can be like a seed that evolves in your consciousness and helps reprogram it. Towards reason, science, ethics, temperance (self-restraint as there is an unlimited number of distractions in the reality)
OPIs can also create very harmful and damaging outcomes. And one of the saddest things in the world is when people start giving up on themselves and are then unwilling to change their mindset. The probability is very high that they will become something inside, that would result in them being unhappy seeing someone else happy or liberated.
You need to learn to discern.
I am curious, did you spot the otter?
Credits:
- Image generated by Antigravity by Google
- Blogpost generated Coach Adeel Khan. No AI (or intelligence that is independent of a substrate) edit for this one. Although, edits in a collaborative sense will only make things better.
- OPI is a topic I know a bit about, across all spectrums.
- We really need to control our story. We must be the change we wish to see in this world.
- May we forge the capacity to give a better future to the coming generations. Which will necessitate that we are focused on helping provide value to each other. To genuinely be focused to provide healing, without distorting the meaning of the word.