Course 3: PL 102 - Denial & Distractions (Discussion 3)

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is when you refuse to accept that something is true.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

They are things that we need to focus on until the task becomes an automatic thing.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

-online distraction. -school. -accomplishments.

I believe accomplishments is the most powerful distraction system. This is because everyone is fixated on achieving things to make themselves seem better, I do it too. I think it links with school as well, we all always try to be the best because when we achieve things we open up more doors and opportunities for ourselves, however sometimes this can be a bad thing because we spend so much time trying to achieve things that we never stop and take a moment to ourselves to actually look at how much weve achieved.

@GlenM

How would you define denial in your own words?

For me, denial is a behavioral response that can be adaptive in some situations but in others, it keeps you from making positive changes in your life. It is fueled by distraction.

What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

I have learned that things that operate out of our awareness can have a significant impact on our well-being and it can also be learned behavior.

What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Social Media – Social Media sites have a large impact on our lives every day and I believe it is the most powerful distraction system. People most often share only the positive things happening in their lives. We need to acknowledge that it does not mean these people do not have problems and they are living a perfect life –they selectively chose what to show to the environment and nobody wants to show they are struggling. We can usually choose what we will see on social media according to the people we follow. Lots of teenagers and adults have problems with their self-image because of social media. Therefore, it is important to recognize when we feel negative emotions such as jealously or serious self-esteem issues resulting from this in order to eliminate the source. We can also look at people that we follow as a reminder that helps us work hard on ourselves to accomplish our goals as well.

Wealth- I can see many people around me working the whole day and accumulating money without any purpose. Lots of them spend a fortune on buying things that they do not need and at the same time they are forgetting that there are more important things in life. This can be especially harmful in cases of workaholics in my opinion as they often miss out on their children growing up and it can also lead to problems in marriage.

Online addictions - People increasingly spend more time engaging in it and invest more of their lives in them than is healthy. Furthermore, it can have various side effects.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?
1. I would define denial as something that does not meet our acceptable standards and to survive/cope we generate our own sense of altered sense of reality that is personally acceptable.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

2. An important thing I learnt is things outside our awareness or unconsciousness is a learned skill and takes time to process and becomes a part of the unconscious part of the brain from the consciousness.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

3. Top 3 distractions- 1. food

2. Social media.

3. Employement.

Social media is the most powerful distraction system because it is carefully studied and created to make it more addictive by the scientists. The reward system of the social media increases dopamine which makes it very difficult to control internet. The brain constantly seeks it as a form of approval by seeking more rewards from the social media which requires us to spend more time on it.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is when we deny certain truths or aspects about ourselves and/or others around us, or certain events that have happened in our lives.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

What I learned about things that happen outside of the awareness is that they too act as triggers to our behaviors and perceptions. They're the underlying precipitating factors to our visible issues. For instance, anger can be trigger by depression, anxiety, and a mixture of other feelings and characteristics.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

I, too, believe the top three distraction systems are food, the online world, and social media. The most powerful one to me is social media. Social media is the most powerful because it can have major pull in influencing the other two distractions. Social media does a good job at telling us what to look like, what to or not to eat, and what to do with your life. Social media is usually used on screens, which is where television, video games, and the news are also used. So social media also ties to those as well causing a repeating cycle of stimulation. For instance, a person might switch around from going on Instagram on their phone to playing video games on their television, just to go back to their phone again. And they'll repeat the cycle.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words? I would define denial as the inability to accept an idea or situation that is actively occurring.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious? I think it's really important to understand that our unconscious mind works in ways we don't understand. There is so much more to us than we even realize and our mind protects in ways we may never understand.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why? I think the top three distraction systems are food, wealth and online distractions. I think online distractions can be the most powerful because there is such a variety of opportunities on the Internet. You can either distract yourself with something positive, like 7 Cups, or something more negative, like gambling.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is a very big, strong feeling that people experience usually when bad things happen to them or in their life which they are not willing to accept actually happened. It's like living in a world where bad things do not or have not happened to them. It's like an internal protective shield keeping us safe from acknowledging all the terrible things happening in the world like sickness, death etc.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Often these are things outside our knowledge or awareness so we can't do much about it, but we can learn to control our emotions and reactions towards them. It is something we learn and undertake in our behavior.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Social Media - Best distraction for people from real life problems, once engaged in the never-ending content of social media a person can forget everything and stay distracted for the longest time.

Food - Binge eating is the best phrase for a distration system, once a person starts eating and stuffing their face, that;s enough to satisfy them for the longest time and keep them away from dealing with the problems.

Family/Friends - Our parents, siblings and all our friends can be our biggest distracters unknowlingly they can engage us in ways that help us avoid things for the longest time.

The most powerful one I believe is Social Media atleast in the year 2020, so many things are controlled by the people over social media which puts a curtain over real life problems temporarily or even permanently for some. It's easy to hide behind an online persona and forget the things we have to deal with. It's like the best distraction.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is when the brain pushes information away and pretends it doesnt exist or it is not important so that a person can decrease negative emotional states that may be caused by particular information.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

I think the most important thing I learned about unconscious denial is that it is our responsibility as a society to bring awareness to the things that we are unconsciously in denial of. We cant depend on the heroes and people with more power and strength than us to do it. We have to bring the awareness to the forefront by taking a stand for what is important.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Accomplishments- I think this is the most powerful distraction because it encompasses so many of the other systems (including my number 2 answer). People will work hard to achieve and accomplish, everyone has an innate desire to please their caregivers, and some develop a desire to please anyone and everyone. Accomplishing things drives almost everything. What accomplishments drive someone may be different from person to person, so this is important to keep in mind.

School/Employment- I said this at number 2 because much of our livelihood depends on school/employment. School is compulsory in a lot of places (specifically speaking the united states). And employment is necessary to have the financial means to have basic needs met. They take up a lot of time and a lot of our lives.

Food- this made my top three because food is something that impacts EVERYONE. EIther you have food or you dont have food. If you have food you get distracted by wanting certain foods, if you dont have food you get distracted by needing food. Its a necessity to living that impacts everyone.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is a feeling or behaviour of non acceptance of things.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Things that are always present within or surrounding us. Being conscious about it can help us be aware about them.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Top distraction systems are : Social Media, Video games, Studies. I feel social media is the most powerful as we live in a mordent age and almost everyone has a smart phone and we often engage in social media or anything on internet. We send hours on it and feel like its seconds forgetting things that actually hold value to us.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial can be complicated, but it is more likely to be when you deny your real feelings. For example, you think you don't look nice, however, you'll have to cheat yourself about that, so that you can be more confident.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

I learned that this could happen all the time, inside all the people. However, this can be changed. For example, people have an unconscious bias towards different races, we just have to figure it out in ourselves, and we seek a solution to solve it.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Games on phone- this one is the most powerful because you'll need to invest a certain time in it, and it is so easy just to open the phone and start the game. Everyone needs the power of imagination, and this is what games provide, a dream world! Who will refuse that instead of studying~

Mom-It is also distracting when your mom come in and serve you snacks or ask you to have meal downstairs. That really interrupts and it is hard to find a solution for it.

Sound-Different noises really makes you distracted.

Denial is the action or belief that something cannot be true even if it might be.

The most important thing I learned that people can have unconscious biases that may need to be fixed.

Top 3 distraction systems are: phones (texting, games, notifications), interesting surroundings, nearby people calling for attention.

The most powerful for me is people since I am a very social person I get pulled into conversations very easily, and I always try to stop what I am doing to help others with a question or concern they might have, but that ends up breaking my flow of work sometimes.