Coffee With Hilary and Les from State of Mind Hypnosis and Training Centre
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Coffee With Hilary and Les from State of Mind Hypnosis and Training Centre
Navigating the Noise: Critical Thinking, Fear, and Giving Up the Need For An Opinion
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How often do you feel the pressure to have an opinion on everything, and does it ever feel overwhelming? Join Hilary and Les in a compelling coffee chat where we unpack the true essence of critical thinking and how it shapes our mental well-being. We address common misconceptions, emphasizing that it's perfectly okay to not have a viewpoint on every issue, which can significantly ease mental strain. By recognizing our own biases, we can better utilize our minds for greater happiness and peace.
In this episode, we also discuss the powerful role of fear in manipulation, urging you to question the motives behind fear-inducing messages. From the ethical dilemmas in business marketing to the commodification of free information, we navigate these complex topics with a critical eye. Lastly, explore the transformative power of hypnosis for personal growth, and learn how SOM Hypnosis can help you achieve your life goals. Tune in for these valuable insights, and thank you for being part of our State of Mind community.
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Welcome and thank you for joining us for Coffee with Hilary and Les. Brought to you by the State of Mind Hypnosis and Training Centre located in the heart of the Kawartha Lakes. This is our almost daily community podcast about the mind and how we all might change it in the most simple and helpful ways. Every day we sit staring at the lake and sipping our coffee, chatting about hypnosis and how to make those meaningful adjustments to our state of mind, because nothing's more important than your state of mind, because nothing's more important than your state of mind already already.
Speaker 2:My eyes are still up shot. We're thinking more about critical thinking.
Speaker 1:Critical thinking. Hillary has a mental block.
Speaker 2:I don't want to think about critical thinking. Yeah, I do. I'm making faces now, adam. I like I think I've never really thought about critical thinking before, so this is very new to me in lots of ways. Oh, my god, you know I'm not naive for the most part and you know I look for the truth or what seems to be the truth at the time. But yeah, I learned little bits of critical thinking over the years in school and university and college and stuff. So you know I have my favorite biases and fallacies and all the stuff on these papers that I'm shaking around. Just hang on.
Speaker 1:There's some really great websites on this stuff and, of course, there's some really great books too. But there was a group of guys who I'll try to make sure it goes into the notes they created they're very committed to critical thinking. Sometimes when I read their stuff, I think that they're not using their critical thinking, but the point is is that they're very committed to critical thinking and helping people get past just flaws in logic and mostly their biases. We have we all have biases things that we trust more than other things, and and that that's that's. Those sheets that you're looking at are just some simple summaries that they created in there. They've done pretty well and I think that they're valuable.
Speaker 1:If somebody wanted to spend some time and say you know, am I using my mind for my own highest, best purpose? Am I? You know? I think there's. There's times when we trick ourselves and you know those times are more frequent than we think there. There are times when we trick ourselves into doing and saying and and pursuing things that aren't necessarily helpful to us, and I think that you know the mind is this, this, this big, broad thing that has infinite potential, and it's really about how we use it that determines what we get out of it, and it has the potential to make you so powerful and effective and happy and loving and caring, and it also has the capacity to drive you down into the darkness.
Speaker 1:You know, I have an old friend who says you're going to ground right, You're going way down and you're not flying and soaring anymore. It has the capacity to trick us into thinking things that aren't true. It has the ability to get us angry and resentful and frustrated, and and dwelling in emotions that are really unpleasant, and it's all going on inside us, right?
Speaker 1:it's all going on inside our mind. So it's just another tool, another, another bunch of things to think about, to try to maximize your own happiness and your own sense of peace with what's going on around you. It really can affect how you interpret what's going on around you and it's the meaning of what's going on around me, and it's the meaning of what's going on around me that determines how I feel about it, how my emotions are, and emotions are the things that we probably complain about the most feeling down and feeling scared and feeling anxious and and not feeling safe and not feeling appreciated and not feeling loved.
Speaker 1:Right, so there are ways to use your thinking capacity to help you to feel better, and that's why I like the topic of critical thinking.
Speaker 2:But you don't like it so much you can be honest, it's okay well, like you asked me before we started the podcast today, I was. I guess I came to the table, like I said the other day, thinking that critical thinking was like in my life. It was used as like what's wrong with you, like don't live in a bubble, like do your research. I feel like to be a critical thinker. I'd have to be researching both sides of everything all day and, yeah, I feel smart enough that I can make up my own opinions now based on what I see around me. I mean, we all get sucked into media land and get drawn along and a lot of the time they want that right.
Speaker 1:That's what we're trying to do Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But you know, when I hear, like what we said the other day, cats and dogs being eaten, I don't, uh, I don't go down that rabbit hole and believe it to be true.
Speaker 1:Um, so, um, so, yeah, well, I think so, so let's use this as the first reframe of the day, One of the things that, like I think you hit the nail on the head when you said I feel like I could be researching all day long so that I could be sure that my opinion is valid.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you would only do that because you've made an assumption that you should have an opinion on it. Yeah, but you would only do that because you've made an assumption that you should have an opinion on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean it all comes down to? Does this all even matter? There you go. So I really need an opinion on everything.
Speaker 1:That's it. So there's your first reframe. I don't need to have an opinion on everything. I don't need to have an opinion on everything. I don't need to have an opinion on everything. I am free not to have an opinion on lots of things, right? First of all, opinions are really sometimes pointless things because, by their very definition, what they mean is I don't know. But this is the conclusion I've come to based on the limited information I have. And and you're right, if I want even that opinion to be meaningful, I've got to go and do all kinds of research. And I've got to research both sides. If I really want to understand, I have to listen to both sides. And the first question is do I care? I don't live in Springfield, I'm not concerned about the US's immigration policy. I don't need to have an opinion on that. So I'm not going to explore to try to figure out if it's true. But one thing I'm not going to do I'm not going to take somebody else's opinion and make it my own.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to just adopt somebody else who's talking, talking, talking and wants to generate. I know they want. You know, in the US they're so focused on and it's happening in Canada now too. I can't say the US, I think it's everywhere now in politics they're focused more on trying to hate the other side than they are on trying to convince you that they know what they're going to do. And they don't. They don't know what they're going to do, they don't know what's going to happen. They don't know what their policies are going to be. They don't want you to vote for them because oh, look at my really great policy. They want you to vote for them because you hate the other side. So it's easier to generate hatred for people, clickbait hatred. This is the stuff that's driving our information world right, and so if I can look at that and say there's nothing, I'm gonna read today.
Speaker 1:That's going to be completely true there's nothing and no one today that I can completely trust.
Speaker 1:so what I have to do is not be baited into everything. I have to pick what I care about. I have to decide that I don't need an opinion on everything. I'm quite happy to say I don't have an opinion on that and I'm not really concerned with that and I don't see how it relates to my life today. I don't see how it's something I need to engage in today, right now. Sorry, if I really need to embrace this idea, I'll go do my research and I'll try to be fair in my research.
Speaker 1:So really, what critical thinking I think starts with is knowing the difference between facts and opinions, knowing that an opinion is just somebody's temporary conclusion based on a limited set of facts. Conclusion based on a limited set of facts that they're probably voicing their opinion to me because they want to influence what I think. I don't have to let that in. I don't have to have an opinion on this. I don't have to know all about what's going on in Springfield. I don't. I can just say, oh well, I can see why other people are concerned with that. I'm not going to be today. So I think the first part of critical thinking is just pulling up that block that says I don't have to have an opinion on this.
Speaker 1:I know that opinions are not meaningful things unless you're fighting, unless you're fighting, and if you want to be fully engaged in a fight, then I guess you better do your research and you better have really quality opinions. Um, but you don't have to be fighting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you don't have to be.
Speaker 1:You can smile and not. You can giggle at the funny stuff that comes up on Tik TOK. You can. You can pass over the silly memes that come up in your feed. You can notice how ai is shaping your clickbait to get you to click, to get you to stay there, right?
Speaker 1:I think what makes critical thinking so hard today is that, without really realizing it, we're just consuming so much. Let's just call it all information. Let's just call it all information. The stuff that's true, the stuff that's false, the stuff that's hilarious, the stuff that's infuriating. It's just all information. It's information. Can't's just all information. It's information. Can't know whether or not it's true, can't know whether or not it's real. You know, can't even look at a video and be sure that that's actually that person doing that thing anymore, right, you just can't know. So it becomes more of a. How do I deal with all this information? Yeah, well, you know, I get drawn into it because I like having my phone in my hand and whenever there's nothing else to do, I seem to turn to my phone and there's another piece of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like when we look out into the media right now, when we look out into the world, that I'm always sort of going to come back to and I try my best. I'm not always good at it, but I try to come back to the idea of when you're looking at like you talk about clickbait stuff, we talk about the media, anything that is out there, and we're looking at it and it and it causes fear, I always I try to critically think if I want to give it that word, those words about that stuff, right, why would they want to be generating fear in me? Um, and so that's for me something that stands out, that I go okay, no, I don't even want to engage in that. Um. So I tell my clients, I tell people on podcasts, on YouTube and stuff, like, don't try your best not to go towards the fear. Love, stay in the peace, stay in the even if the comedy brings peace to you.
Speaker 1:You know, I would say to not be driven towards the fear and to question why they're trying to put fear into you. That's huge and it creates a real problem, because for some people, the fears that are created are real and they think that it's naive or foolish to ignore them, so to say. I'm just gonna, you know, put on an old Jim Carrey movie and laugh instead of being aware of what's going on in the world. I think, from a mental health perspective, it's probably a very good choice, because I think that it's. You know, this is Les's opinion. Feel free to ignore it. Feel free to ignore it that most of media exists for the purpose of selling something. It is the platform for advertising Advertising everything from products and services to politicians and political parties, to managing public opinion on large-scale issues. It's important to just accept right off the top that there is nothing more motivating than fear. So if I want you to spend some money, cast a ballot, speak out against somebody.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go out of my way to make you afraid.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What happens is that what we're afraid of, we hate and hatred, is judgment.
Speaker 1:So the process is really interesting, because first I make you afraid and then I get you to judge, and when I can get you to judge something negatively, you have no conscience anymore. You have no conscience, you have no limits to what you will do. If I can make you afraid of somebody on the other side of the world today, it's all about the Chinese. If I can make you afraid of the Chinese, then I can make you hate the Chinese, and if I can make you hate the Chinese, then I can get you to act against them. And let me, as government or business, act against them Right, and in other parts of the world it's the Americans Right, and in other parts of the world it's the Americans Right. If I can get you to fear the Americans, then I can get you to hate the Americans, and then I can get you to agree to convincing people to buy or to do or to think certain things. Fear is an enormous tool. So every time something presents to, you and this would be fantastic.
Speaker 1:Critical thinking, this would be enormous use of critical thinking To recognize the instant something triggers in you a fear. Then to ask who's sending me this message and what is it that they're wanting me to do? To do, say or think something, because those are really the only options To do, say or think something, because those are really the only options to do, say or think. What is it that they're wanting me to do, say or think? Just stopping the the process right there can allow you to begin to see through it yeah right there are.
Speaker 1:There exist on this planet a whole world of people that want to control others. Some come to it from completely innocent perspectives, like mothers and fathers who just want their kids to be afraid of certain things so they don't go getting themselves in trouble because the parents have such fear for their kids. And in many respects, you know, teaching your child not to play with knives because you can get hurt is a valuable lesson. Right is a valuable lesson right. Teaching young children from different parts of the world to be afraid of other people from different parts of the world is a wholly different thing. And if we're just aware that somebody is benefiting from this communication because they don't give stuff away for free in this world. So if they're communicating information to you for free, it's because they want something from you. They want you to do, say or think something. That level of critical thinking right there that says I'm not letting this in, I'm not going to buy into this, that level of critical thinking will change the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this goes all the way down to even things that I've been taught in business, not through college but through hypnosis. Business is hit on people's pain points and that really doesn't. I don't. I have a really hard time with that and maybe that's why I have a hard time getting. I do not like bringing up people's pain points. I don't like saying you know, are you having a shit day, like, are you hurting? Are you? You know, think about your hurt? I and we can help, but it is everywhere and it is the thing that's. That's um sold um in, because I've taken um, I've taken those little master classes that teach you how to get so many clients a year and you'll make this much money, and I wind up dropping out because I can't get on board with the pain points or the cold selling. Yeah, I'm sure it comes up in my, in my marketing a little bit in ways, but I don't. I can't seem to um spell it out the way that others do.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's another important use of critical thinking. This is why we are all going to benefit if all of us Begin a process of critical thinking learning to think before we allow information to come in. Learning to ask questions like says who? Who's saying this and why are they saying it? You know what's going on. Now is there's paywalls right To get access to information? Now there's paywalls right, which implies to me a higher level of credibility.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, when I have to pay to get access to news right, it means they're not making money or as much money on the advertising. When people are throwing information at me, when stuff is showing up in my feed and people are offering me free this and free that, free masterclass or free, it's just advertising. It's just advertising. It's just an attempt to get you to engage in a process that will end in you buying right. Everything on your phone that comes to you for free is just clickbait. It's just trying to get you. You know it's that old saying. It's a worthwhile old saying. I think you know if it's free, then you are the product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if the information or entertainment is free, then you are the product. Information or entertainment is free, then you are the product. Tiktok makes its money from advertising and those advertisements, you'll notice, start popping up more and more between the TikToks as you scroll. How do they get the advertisement to you, to get you to not shut off your TikTok? So as long as I flick to the next one flick to the next one, they have the chance to advertise to me. And every time an ad shows up in my TikTok feed, somebody pays TikTok. It doesn't matter if I watched it, it doesn't matter if I did anything with it, it doesn't matter if I just tried to flip right through it. As soon as it turns up, there's a cost. And if I click on that advertisement, if it's created in a way that stimulates my fear or stimulates my greed, I'm gonna click on it, and then they get paid even more right. This is the way it works.
Speaker 1:The purpose of getting everybody to create their tiktoks is, and why it's so easy for anybody to become a tiktok artist, a content creator, is because that's the content that gets you to sit and watch the ads. So we'll get the whole world making content for us so that we can shove ads in there and make money and we don't care what the content is. We don't care if it's true, we don't care if it's foolish, we don't care if it's hurtful, we don't care as long as it's not something that somebody's going to complain about. We're going to let that content go because that helps us sell advertising Right. And if we just approach our phone that way, like this is a big thing. This works with a lot of my clients. If you just approach your phone from the idea that if there's something on my phone that I use, that I use for free, it's there to sell advertising. It's using my interests, it's using my commitment to being entertained, my desire to be entertained.
Speaker 1:It's using all of that to sell me something. So for a lot of people it's a big, big moment when they say my phone is using me. I don't use my phone. I hold my phone in my hand a lot more than I want to. Most people notice that. Most people will tell you that I'm on my phone more than I should be. Most people will say that and that's because the phone is using them and again this is critical thinking, this is just factual right.
Speaker 1:Why does TikTok exist? It exists to make money, otherwise it wouldn't exist. How does it make money? It makes money through advertising. How does it make money in advertising? It gets people to look at the phone more than they would, more than they maybe should, more than they actually want to, because they don't have a positive alternative in their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the value of critical thinking yeah, no, I think it's very important. The more we talk about this, the more I start thinking, oh yeah, that's an example. That's an example. I guess I just never really attached those words critical thinking, to those things, so I just thought it was just something I did, right.
Speaker 1:Why am I being told this? And if it's trying to stimulate my base instincts, my base emotions, it's using me, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that was really interesting. Interesting, I like the phone talk. Maybe we should next time talk about phone addictions.
Speaker 1:Well, it's really, it's really part of critical thinking.
Speaker 1:I'll try to put that website in the notes so people can see that there are lots of resources out there to help you recognize in yourself the way you think, the logic that you have, the assumptions that you make, and really you know that's what we do in hypnosis. What we do in hypnosis is help you find the errors in your subconscious mind's thinking, that interpretation and meaning of things that isn't true, that causes negative emotions, um yeah. So hey, you know what? I don't have to have an opinion on everything and I don't have to be engaged in every discussion. Just because it matters a lot to you doesn't mean it has to matter a lot to me, and I don't have to engage in fear.
Speaker 1:I don't need to be afraid of everything. I can use my own mind to determine what's really a danger to me and what isn't a danger to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All right, good talk, we'll see you later. We hope you enjoyed today's podcast and that maybe it helped even a little. If you have any questions, we would love you to send them along in an email to info at psalmhypnosiscom. Thank you for being part of the State of Mind community. For more information about hypnosis and the various online or in-person services we provide, please visit our website, wwwpsalmhypnosiscom. The link will be in the notes below. While you are there, why don't you book a free one-hour journey, meeting with Hillary or less, to learn more about what hypnosis is and how you might use it to make your life what you want it to be? Bye for now. Talk to you tomorrow.
