Build Your Own Soap Box

"One channel is the Stress Channel and the other is the Peace Channel. We really do have a choice about what we listen to. The Peace Channel can only be heard when we are present in the moment, when we are in the now. To tune in to the Peace Channel, all we have to do is be, experience, notice, and naturally respond to what is arising in the moment. To tune into the Stress Channel, we just have to start believing our thoughts again. [...] Eliminating stress is just a matter of tuning out the negative and tuning in the positive and just being, experiencing, and dancing to that music instead of the mind's chatter." Gina Lake 

Group think sessions, as I mentioned in a previous post, are not something that I willing or even regularly attend.

My tendency is to be a rebel. 

Not without a cause but for the one and only cause that has ever really mattered to me. That is to be myself. This independent streak has been noticeable in me since I was eight or so years of age. Fully aware that I can think for myself, my mission was to do the things that my heart was propelling me to do.

Talk. I love to talk. Any subject that attracted my attention would get its deserved exploration then I would share my findings. Literally, I created my own 'soap box' in our backyard and would stand there and share my thoughts with the Julie Mango tree. Incidentally, those are my favourite type of mangoes!

Wikipedia provides this definition of groupthinking:

"Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences." 

Simply stated, to groupthink is to "hold the party line."

That has its benefits but the risk of myopia and rigidity of opinion and approach is too great for my liking. As well, to hold the "line," it must be fed to everyone in the group and therein lies my challenge.

As a society, we are constantly fed a line. Invariably, that line is grounded in fear and "othering" of people, places and things different to our particular group. The diet, necessary to keep us in tow, is fed by the media and other entities of influence such as religious organizations, political parties and even educational institutions.

Silence and getting with the programme, drinking the kool aid, behaving and dressing as everyone else and, most important, speaking according to the script are some of the 'rules' to be observed.

Conspiracy theories are not my thing, however, there is enough evidence throughout history to show how countries, communities and small groups of people have been "brainwashed." One of the most horrific examples is Hitler's Germany.

Yet there is always a renegade, a rebel who refuses to drink the beverage. That individual, the Anne Franks of our world, choose to see things differently, focus on "what is possible," rather than on what is.

My suggestion is not necessarily to switch off all televisions, radios etc. While a total black out of the negativity and sensationalism of our media would greatly enhance the reclamation effort, we have a more power-filled tool.

Choice.

Choose for yourself how you will view your life and how you want it to unfold from this point onwards. Let that choice guide you if, when and how to withdraw from the group.

Then, build your own soap box and speak Your Truth from it - even if you are the only one listening. Really, how many more listeners do you need? There is power in one - it is called, I believe, the butterfly effect.

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Blessings!

Photo Source: sodahead.com