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I wanna talk a little about fears.
About anxiety, irrationality, and rationality.
Not Rationality with a capital R, but regular ol' logic kind of rationality.
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About anxiety, irrationality, and rationality.
Not Rationality with a capital R, but regular ol' logic kind of rationality.
1/
I was once practically immobilized by panic whenever I saw spiders- even on television.
A visual representation was all it took to make me start trembling, have trouble breathing.
It was debilitating.
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A visual representation was all it took to make me start trembling, have trouble breathing.
It was debilitating.
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This was fascinating to me, the extremity if it, so..
I thought about spiders.
Thought about why humans could have evolved such a response.
And it makes sense--
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I thought about spiders.
Thought about why humans could have evolved such a response.
And it makes sense--
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For humans who did not have access to the kind of medical care we have now.
How long has it been since things changed?
Not nearly long enough for our instincts to have caught up.
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How long has it been since things changed?
Not nearly long enough for our instincts to have caught up.
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The degree to which my daily life was impacted by that fear did not match up to the risk.
So I thought about that, every time I felt that fear.
It took time. Years, even, because I wasn't being dedicated or very conscious about this process.
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So I thought about that, every time I felt that fear.
It took time. Years, even, because I wasn't being dedicated or very conscious about this process.
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But I got over it. Completely.
I did the same with my disgust response to mold.
My parents would use our kitchen sponges to clean out the pet food dishes and those things gave me a *visceral* response to look at, to touch.
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I did the same with my disgust response to mold.
My parents would use our kitchen sponges to clean out the pet food dishes and those things gave me a *visceral* response to look at, to touch.
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This also fascinated me.
So I thought about mold. Thought about why humans might have evolved avoidance instincts to things like mold, dirt, rotting meat.
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So I thought about mold. Thought about why humans might have evolved avoidance instincts to things like mold, dirt, rotting meat.
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Again, makes sense when it was a necessity for survival.
But how many of you have accidentally taken a swig of spoiled milk? Eaten some cheese or bread, only to later spot the mold?
Again, times have changed.
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But how many of you have accidentally taken a swig of spoiled milk? Eaten some cheese or bread, only to later spot the mold?
Again, times have changed.
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The instincts we have now are holdovers from an ancient world, one that continues to change too rapidly for genetically transferred information to suffice.
We must take the driver's seat in our own brains.
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We must take the driver's seat in our own brains.
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Couching this stuff as anxiety, dismissing these kinds of fears as irrational, seems at best to be undervaluing the power of our own brains, and at worst actively harmful.
It is possible to change our brains, but only if we believe it is.
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It is possible to change our brains, but only if we believe it is.
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As long as we tell ourselves: 'that's just the way I am'
Then that's just the way we'll remain.
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Then that's just the way we'll remain.
10/10
