We live in a time of extreme cognitive dissonance. Some days I feel like I’ve walked through a portal into a twilight zone. How about you?
Cognitive dissonance occurs when two or more ideas or beliefs being held in our minds at the same time are in conflict. From the dictionary:
“Cognitive dissonance (noun) Psychology: The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
Right now the world we believed in and many of our value systems are coming into acute question. Our inward belief systems no longer match the outward reality. Our minds are frantically scrambling to resolve the dissonance.
This can be extremely unsettling and stressful to process. There are articles out there on the Internet about how to resolve cognitive dissonance, this is just one, by Verwell Mind: Cognitive Dissonance and How to Resolve It
On a positive note, consider that cognitive dissonance may be a very important process that we need to experience right now. It can lead to questioning beliefs and systems that have not been serving us well.
Consider also that the resolution for this dissonance may well be found not only in our heads, but also within our hearts. This is a crisis of not only physical reality, but also of spirit.
And as an important end note: If ever there was a time to not block our personal discomfort with external events, this is it. Our world is a mess, and our cognitive dissonance demands acknowledgement and processing. It’s time to be really observant, think for ourselves, and practice critical thinking.
Photos courtesy Activedia, Pixabay
Dissonance in Our Minds © Susan L Hart 2021
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