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

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

Denial is when you refuse to admit that something is your reality. You come up with excuses or refuse to acknowledge that thing. It can be a defense mechanism so you don’t feel guilt or anxiety or any “bad” emotions.

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

I learned that those things are perhaps learned behavior and we have to work hard to unlearn it.

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

Games, social media, and food. I think social media is the most powerful because sites such as TikTok use an algorithm to fit your interests and it increasingly makes us have a shorter attention span so we are sucked into an endless loop of scrolling through videos to find one that feeds us endorphins.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words? To put it short and sweet, to me denial means not not accepting the truth or facing reality.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious? I’ve learned a lot of things, but I think I’ve learned that it is ok to not have 100% control. When we just let life happen unexpected things can occur and sometimes it can be for good/for the better. No matter your religious beliefs, culture beliefs, etc. there is no denying the fact that none of us are perfect because we all have different views of what perfect looks like. Knowing that, I’ve discovered that when things don’t go the way I want them to I just have to accept the fact and try to move forward because I can’t control what I don’t have the ability to control. It is all about letting go of the things we can’t control.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is the act of not accepting things that are evident for the purpose of temporary relief and delusion that it does not exist, and thus, cannot harm me.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
They lurk there. Denying them does not make them go away, rather it neglects it. And we should know better that neglecting something makes it volatile instead of calming it down.

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

1.) the internet/gaming: the escape from reality is powerful, it isolates the subject and prevents them from having to use their attention on anything other than the graphics of the game or the attractiveness of the show before them.

2.) music: although this is a good coping mechanism, using loud lyrics or songs to drown out our thoughts is harmful, and hearing something louder than us, and our thoughts makes us gain a temporary sense of control

3.) food: comfort-eating, especially combined with 1.) is the easiest way to distract yourself. However, it's incredibly damaging.

@GlenM
How would you define denial in your own words?
- Denial according to me is not accepting the truth or fact and living in our own imaginary world where everything is 'perfect'. Where we feel safe.

What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
- I think the things that we operate outside of awareness/unconscious are the real us. These thoughts, opinions, emotions and behaviours are buried deep inside our unconscious mind, afraid of not getting accepted.

What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
- Internet- I think it is the biggest distraction, not just for me but for almost every person using it.
- Overthinking- This the most powerful distraction. It keeps us from doing anything productive in real life. We waste all these time overthinking about our future, that we didn't realise the future is the present now.
- Ego- Ego keeps us from learning and improving. Due to our toxic ego we push people and we end being lonely.

▪︎ How would you define denial in your own words?
~ Denial is not accepting or believing that something is true, refusing to be aware of the unpleasant truth.

▪︎ What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
~ We believe that we are completely aware but most of the things we feel, think and do actually happens outside of our awareness or the unconscious. I like how this was explained with an example of an iceberg, the upper part being the conscious mind and larger and the bottom part being the unconscious mind. Learning a behavior requires conscious awareness but once mastered it moves to the unconscious side making space for another important thing in the conscious mind.

▪︎ What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
~ Food, Social media, wealth.
Social media is the most powerful distraction according to me as there's no end to it, we keep scrolling, keep getting notifications, keep our mind distracted for a longer time without realizing, Social media is very vast and has immense impact on today's generation, is easily accessible to the larger population and makes it easier to connect and learn about various things which makes it the powerful distraction.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is refusing to acknowledge a situation that is unacceptable or anxiety-provoking to us in some way.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
things that operate in the unconscious represent patterns of behaviour that are natural to us, done without forethought. Most significant here is that these patterns can often be maladaptive and cause issues for us. They become relatively stable over time and resist change but always have the potential to be replaced by newer adaptive patterns.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
Online distractions, Social Media, and Wealth.
I think online distractions are the most powerful but it really depends on the individual. I think so because surfing the web and having easy access to all sorts of content can be very addictive and an easy means for distraction.

@GlenM


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

Denial is something that we do not want to accept, it is something very difficult to assume, I think it is denying what in reality is like a mirage that takes us away from reality, we do not realize reality


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

I believe that it is always difficult and that we should not begin to recognize it, although it is a difficult task for us I believe that acceptance is the first step to be able to heal

3. What do you think are the 3 main distraction systems? Which of these is the most powerful and why?

I think that social networks are the first distraction, especially for young people, since we know that there are many influencers and celebrities who use various resources such as operations, photoshop, and a lot of makeup, and obviously it is good that they do it because each one is the owner of his own life. but I have seen that many of his followers begin to feel bad about their body for those same reasons, and spend many hours comparing themselves with various celebrities and getting depressed for not having an "ideal" body, social networks sometimes take a long time, we stay hours without being able to stop.

I think video games in children, adolescents and adults have become very normal, as I say is fine for a while but not all day, I think those things separate us a lot from reality.

And I also say all this for myself, because when I was about 14 years old I had these two very big problems, and when I grew up I realized that I had wasted a lot of time in online games and social networks ... now I prefer to live with my family and friends

@GlenM

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

Denial gets rid of anger and anxiety as a defense mechanism. It temporailry avoids unpleasant thoughts and feelings to be more present, hence it has its pros and its cons.

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

That they maybe repressed and we may experience them when we let our minds wander, in our dreams, and they sometimes burst into our conscious life and cause us to behave or make decisions in ways that seem out of character.

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

1. Social Media

2. Accomplishments

3. Food

As someone from a South Asian Country, i can pretty much relate to the accomplishment distraction system. We are always looking for the “next big thing”, we want to dig deeper and get more out of all the opportunities. And personally, whenever I face any problems, even I look for more of these “big things” instead of facing my problems upfront.

Although, social media is the most powerful one overall.

@GlenM

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

Denial is where people refuse to accept reality. While this is useful in some occasions, long term denial can lead to harmful or rather confusing situations. Denial is not bad as long as you find a balance with reality and denial itself.

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

As the book mentioned, learning to drive is the best scenario that can be pointed out here. Though people are nervous and scared of driving the first time, the second round becomes a bit less nervous and gradually the third and fourth become a lot less nervous until finally it comes natural. The unconscious is an interesting part as it allows people to become experts in what they do and also to diminish the nervousness they may feel at certain things in life.

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

1- Online distractions: For many, it starts with a simple visit to a web page to get out of boredom. As you move along seeing or finding more things, you get attached to the web site which makes it a distraction from actually doing something worthwhile.

2- Social Media: Many people have been attached to social media in search of fame, gossip, making friends, etc. Whereas over attachments lead people to neglect the real people in their life and what actually matters.

3- School grades: The distraction with this is that it mostly focuses on grades whereas schooling / studying should be about learning something new. It should allow students to identify their potential and thrive in what they are good at. By no means it conveys the message that grades are bad. It is good, however it has to be communicated in the correct way. Instead of stressing on the grades it could have been on the things one learns and grades would be like the cherry on top of a cake :)

I think all these are powerful distractions. However, social media as I think is one step ahead considering the fact that even the younger generation are now interacting with it and if not properly addressed it could lead them into complicated problems in the future.

@GlenM

Hello everyone 👋👋👋👋

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

Denial is when you are trying to protect yourself by refusing or denying yourself to accept the truth or the reality about something that's going on in your life. Finding ways to justify their behaviour, blaming others or outside forces or avoid thinking about the problem.

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

It can be a learned behaviour. We cannot control things that are outside of our awareness or the unconscious but we can certainly focus on our reactions and attitudes towards them.

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

The top 3 distraction systems are

1. Food - The aroma (smells), taste and presentation of food is clearly seen as a distraction in our homes and as well as in the public setting, for example, takeaways, restaurants, street food etc.
2. Internet/Social media - It can be emotionally, mentally and physically draining and exhausting to stay popular or follow up with recent trends.
3. Wealth/Accomplishments - Being focused on success and stability can be significant for our personal development and growth. However, there is more to life than being rich, popular, higher status in society etc.