Course 3: PL 102 - Denial & Distractions (Discussion 3)
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There is a lot to unpack in Chapter 2 and 3. Denial and distraction keep us unaware and stuck in patterns that are not particularly good for us as individuals or communities. In this discussion and others, I'm mostly interested in what you think and the type of ideas that we collectively surface as a group. And a quick note that there are no bad or wrong answers here - the important thing is to share ideas and learn together. ÃÂ
Please read chapters 2 and 3 and then answer the following questions:
1. How would you define denial in your own words? ÃÂ
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
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1. Denial is when you are not ready to accept the reality, even knowing that the goal you are looking for is not achievable
2. We all know the solutions of our problem. People don't come here for solutions, they are here for empathy. At times we just want to be heard. So being open minded and open to different perspectives is really important.
3. The world we live in is a world of information. The access we have today to even other's personal lives is insane. And social media is a thing where we compare ourselves with others. It's making people depress as well. It has the ability to influence and make things look to be something it is not. And everyone is in pursuit to influence people in their given domain. So its really a distraction. We buy things we don't need, we follow trends we don't believe and we are in a world where intangible number of followers means more than an impact
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is the repression of undesirable thoughts and emotions into your unconscious mind. This is usually done after a traumatic experience, when a person does not want to accept and process what truly happened during that experience.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
Any actions or feelings that operate outside of our unconscious minds are not automatic, and we are still consciously thinking about them and learning from them. We cannot control these things directly, but it is important to learn how we react towards them.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
I believe the top 3 distraction systems are food, social media, and video games. In my opinion, the food distraction system is the most powerful, since many people feel gravitated towards food as a way to cope with stressful situations. By eating food that they enjoy, especially junk food, their brains get extremely active for a short time, inducing pleasure. However, food companies include different flavor additives and colors to increase the “pleasure” factor that is received with the goal of gaining profit, without taking into consideration a person’s health.
@GlenM
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is not accepting reality as it is. Living in one’s own world and running away from reality so as to feel comfortable and relieved is denial.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
They go to the unconscious because we have mastered that particular skill or ability.
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, according to me, are celebrity news sites, social media, and food.
The most powerful is social media. It has been shown to have the most harmful effects on our mind.
@GlenM
Hey I am really loving the book and have no
words to express how beautifully and easily the book has described most of the
traumatic situations of a human live. I would definitely be sharing it with all
my friends.
Below are my responses for discussion 3:-
1.
How would you define denial in
your own words?
In my words, denial is ignorance. We often ignore what we don’t want to happen
or are scared to think of the possible result and accept it. We tend to ignore
and believe the fake reality that we believed to happen. We dive deep in a
self-created belief to escape facing the harsh reality.
2.
What is the most important
thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the
unconscious?
I learnt that things that we are aware of are the things that we are learning
and need to practice. Once we have practiced enough, we absorb those skills and
it goes to the unconscious section of our brain.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
Though distraction can come in any shape and sizes, though according to me the top 3 distraction systems are Food, Social Media/Internet and Wealth.
The most powerful among all are social media/ Internet distraction system as it is everywhere around us and in the present era people are living in whole different virtual world. Soon they start feeling it so real that it leads them to depression and many other psychological and mental un-wellness and is the mother of every other distractions as even if you have a distraction of food, wealth, games, it can provide you all in an ample amount without any effort.
@Ashvillium
I think wealth was a great one to highlight in your post. It's one many people ignore. I think it's just too easy to become focused on wealth when everything around us is something we have to buy. But we don't need to have everything to be happy.
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
I would define denial as purposely or subconsciously ignoring certain truths. This could be about your life or about society as a whole. Purposely denying something can help people to feel safer about their situation, and more secure in their life. For example, people may choose to deny the truth about an unhealthy relationship, because for them it is part of their comfort zone. To take steps to leave that relationship, no matter how harmful it is, would be difficult and stressful and leave a lot of uncertainty. People may subconsciously deny things such as idealizing people of authority as heroes. For example, we may feel as though the people running the country know a lot more than normal people, or have some amazing skill that allows them to know the right decision. This helps us feel more secure that our country and society are stable and safe.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
I learned that the things that happen outside of our awareness can often have a very big impact on our subconscious behaviour. For example, as children, we are not aware of what is seen as right or wrong, yet subconsciously over time, we begin to alter how we behave and react in certain situations in order to be accepted as part of society, or by the ones we care about. A young child may often react by crying or getting angry at situations other people may see as unnecessary. Because of this, their parents will tell them off, or do something to discourage their behaviour. Over time, not crying becomes a learned response, and the child acts in a way the parent prefers to gain security from them.
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 3 distraction systems would be different for everyone, as everyone has different distractions and different goals in life.
I think for me, my top three would be my grades, accomplishments and wealth. For me, my grades are the most powerful at the moment because I feel like they dictate my success in the future, even if that isn’t true. The main route for the career path I want to go into needs very high grades, so that becomes a big distraction from everything else when I think about the future. Even though I know there are always alternative routes to take, at school, there is often a culture that puts so much pressure on people to achieve good grades, and people who do that are seen as successful, even if this is not the case once school ends. It is also a powerful distraction because school is not something I can escape, so I am faced with these distractions every day and it is harder to separate myself from them.
@GlenM
1. Denial for me is a protective shield that refuses the truth, but it can also be very damaging if used for a long time.
2. Our brain tries to adapt everything new that we learn, once we have the needed knowledge our brain starts working on its own, the same with our behavior, what we need to do is accept the scary parts of ourselves no matter how scary they turn out to be.
3. Social media, Food, online games.
Social media is very powerful, I belive because it has the strength to change someones mindset, also because it is based on human psychology.
@GlenM
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
In my own words, denial is when you don’t acknowledge something to be true or declare to yourself or to others that something is not true.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
We focus on novel tasks using our conscious awareness. However, once that task has been mastered. It is moved into the unconscious so that you can focus on learning more complex tasks.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
Top 3 distractions:
Food
Online distractions
Social media
Out of these, social media is the most powerful distraction system because you’ll ALWAYS be receiving notifications from social media, which is already distracting enough. What’s even worse is that once you go on these social media sites, you are logged onto a feed where you can scroll endlessly. By scrolling endlessly, your brain is constantly being given dopamine, the feel-good hormone, and because of this you can’t stop scrolling. Social media sites are very well advanced now that they will show you content you enjoy, based on your previous search history, previous shows you’ve watched, etc.
@GlenM
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial, I believe, is a type of defense mechanism wherein the person refuses to accept reality.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
Such things could be learned behavior.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
1. Food/Snacks
2. Devices/Social Medias
3. Games
All three of them are powerful.
@Textingpals
You're right, social media is really addicting. It's so hard to ignore the numbers as it gives some form of validation, which works in combination with denial to keep you focused on the wrong things. It's important to structure the way we use social media to be more fulfilling rather than empty. I often use my social media to follow study social media personas who offer tips and notes, as well as track my life progress.
@GlenM
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is a mental state where one refuses to acknowledge the existence or occurrence of a usually traumatic/stressful incident. It is a condition that doesn't appear to be harmful upon first glance but gradually eats away at the pieces that makes us us if we continue to let it manifest.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
It can be a learned, damaging system that gradually destroys us from the inside. Without being aware of the consequences, these things can slowly and silently cause more harm than anticipated subconsciously.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
Taking up a lot of professional commitments - By distracting ourselves with work, we get the false sense of productivity and boost our short-term reward center only to burn ourselves out more. Using work as a distraction can also be both physically and mentally draining and in the long run affect our daily routines entirely.
Social media/entertainment - Similar to work, entertainment on the Internet is undeniably one of the top distraction systems. As opposed to burning ourselves out, wasting our time on social media can cause us to fall into an addiction loop where we slowly lose ourselves to the influence of social media on our lives. Toxicity and negativity that are prevalent on those platforms can also gradually harm our self-esteem as well as mental health. In the long run, we become a parasite that feeds on what social media has to offer so much that when deprived of it, we become uncertain about how to live life the way it originally is.
Food - Binge eating. That's the only thing it takes to take one's mind off a stressful situation or issue. Eating releases dopamine into the body system, making us feel better temporarily. However, what we never anticipate is the sudden drop in dopamine levels that can make us particularly susceptible to falling prey to depression and the effects of chronic stress. Eating covers up the problem, but in the long run, it really only contributes to the accumulation of stressors and triggers.
I think all of them are equally powerful, which is why they're the top ones I chose to put down here. If I really had to choose, I'd say work and social media because they're equally 'effective' distraction systems for different kinds of people.
@xinyii11
I completely agree with food being a big distraction system. I've heard of so many people eating to relieve stress, and I am also guilty of this. It's unfortunate because the comfort food people often turn to are not healthy or nutritious, which makes us feel more stressed and foggy. Feeling foggy makes it hard to do tasks related to the stress that we are feeling.
@GlenM
1. How would you define denial in your own words?
Denial is a defence system in our body that protects us from things that are scary and threatening. Denial is a wall we put up to prevent these feelings, whether it be denying we are feeling them, or denying that there is an issue.
2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?
They still exist. Even if we suppress parts of who we really are, we will always have them. Sometimes we can promote behaviours that further mask these real parts because of problems in formation from formative years.
3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?
I personally believe the adult entertainment industry is the most powerful, followed by video games and food. The reason I think the adult entertainment industry is the most distracting is because of the feelings associated. Now there are so many ways the industry uses human feelings to make people feel like they have a connection to the people in the industry, such as streams and acting. The hormones and chemicals released by partaking in this industry make it the most addicting and is especially dangerous for people in vulnerable social-emotional states.
