So there’s the question I bring up in the podcast:
What about this matters to me?
On my morning mile this morning, I considered another question, too:
What about this does NOT matter to me? Or is even in contrast with what I’m focused on right now?
I am remembering some mental gymnastics I’d go through to justify a purchase (and they say we decide emotionally and justify rationally). At one point my justifications became so obvious – around the airplane I owned at the time – that I’d whip it out around almost anything:
It’s a SAFETY Feature!
Hahaha. Yeah, the new CD player in the van was a safety feature. Right.
I know I am more than capable of playing MYSELF. For external influences, going back to my core and asking how this matters to me can help me be grounded in the face of effective manipulation.
When it comes to me playing myself…
- How does this fit with what I know matters to me right now?
- How doesn’t it fit with that?
- Is there any violation of an agreement (with myself or others) that this would evoke?
I know… a lot of questions.
Here’s another reason I feel this is so crucial to emotional freedom…
If we’re going to change how we relate and cultivate We-Space that can be generous and supportive, we need to be conscious of underlying systems.
One of those systems is “media” (including social media, news media, advertising media, etc.) They create things for us to consume, they actively tweak and measure how to get us to take actions they want us to take (and they profit from), and we – as people in this culture – are exposed to this tens of thousands of times… often below the level of consciousness.
Made conscious, media manipulation (playing us) becomes less potent… and successful.
And if we are concurrently co-creating systems based on sustainability, generosity, respect, kindness, non-coercion, and wanting our customers to only make decisions that are clear and supportive – Win-Win Yes-Yes, well, that’s the world I want to live in.
That is easier if we’re not being played, or at least not being played without being aware of it and consenting to the game!