Hello Warriors,
Today, we’re going to talk about cognitive dissonance, its connection to ancestral trauma, how to decide when to embrace something as it is or take action to improve it and how to heal it.
What is Cognitive Dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we feel when our beliefs, values, or behaviours conflict. This tension motivates us to resolve the inconsistency by either changing our beliefs, justifying our actions, or ignoring the conflict.
For example, if you believe smoking is harmful but continue to smoke, the discomfort between your belief and behaviour creates cognitive dissonance. To reduce this, you might quit smoking, convince yourself the risks are exaggerated, or ignore the harm.
Cognitive dissonance plays a significant role in decision-making and attitude change, as we seek alignment between our thoughts and actions.
How Cognitive Dissonance Relates to Ancestral Trauma
Ancestral trauma refers to emotional and psychological wounds passed down through generations. These inherited beliefs and behaviors often conflict with our current desires for growth and healing, creating cognitive dissonance.
Here’s how they’re connected:
1. Inherited Beliefs vs. Personal Growth
If your ancestors experienced hardships like poverty or oppression, they may have developed beliefs rooted in scarcity or fear. These beliefs can be passed down, causing dissonance when you strive for abundance but subconsciously hold on to those limiting beliefs or inhered energy that run through you.
2. Emotional Responses and Survival Mechanisms
Ancestral trauma often creates emotional survival strategies like distrust or emotional repression. These can create tension when you desire close, trusting relationships but don't feel like vulnerability fits in all occasions.
Click on the previous article on how self-heal after trauma
3. Cultural or Generational Expectations
Cultural or familial expectations, often rooted in survival strategies from past trauma, can create dissonance. You may feel torn between following ancestral roles and living your own truth.
4. Healing Ancestral Trauma
Breaking free from inherited trauma often triggers cognitive dissonance because healing requires letting go of long-held beliefs or behaviours that are running through you. Even if you consciously want to heal, subconscious resistance can arise that helps you learn more about yourself and others and how everything operates when you consciously align.
Overcoming Cognitive Dissonance and Healing Ancestral Trauma
To heal both cognitive dissonance and ancestral trauma, follow these steps:
1. Acknowledge the Discomfort
Recognize cognitive dissonance as a sign of growth. As a test or lesson you are being trained to master, Change is tough, and confronting ancestral trauma can stir intense emotions, but it’s part of the healing process.
2. Self-Awareness and Reflection
Reflect on the patterns and beliefs passed down through your family. This helps you identify inherited trauma and distinguish it from your true desires and values.
3. Reframe the Narrative
Reframe your family’s story to see ancestral trauma as a source of wisdom and resilience rather than a limitation.
4. Embrace Compassion and Forgiveness
Forgive both your ancestors and yourself to release the burdens of inherited trauma by recognizing that you are them and they are you and you signed up to help heal whatever you are processing, learning growing and evolving as one.
5. Therapy and Healing Modalities
Work with a therapist or healer specializing in ancestral trauma to uncover and release harmful patterns.
6. Meditation, Visualization & Detoxing
Use these practices to connect with your ancestors, honor them, and heal old wounds.
When to Embrace Something as It Is or Take Action
Sometimes, we must decide whether to embrace something as it is or take action to improve it. Here are a few key factors to consider:
1. Current State vs. Desired Outcome
If the situation aligns with your goals, embrace it. If there’s a clear gap between where you are and where you want to be, improvement may be necessary.
2. Feedback
Pay attention to feedback, whether from others or yourself. If something feels off or could be better, consider making a change.
3. Sustainability
If the current situation feels comfortable and sustainable, embrace it. If it feels limiting, work on improving it.
4. Growth Mindset
If you see potential for growth, lean toward improvement. If the situation is already fulfilling, embrace it.
5. Circumstances
If you’re in a period of transition, embracing the current state might be necessary. However, if circumstances allow for change, taking action could be more appropriate.
To decide whether to embrace something or take action, trust your intuition, evaluate your goals, and assess the current situation. Embrace what aligns with your values and improve what has room for growth.
Healing cognitive dissonance between planning and taking action requires understanding the tension between your thoughts and behaviours, and then addressing the underlying causes. Here are steps to help bridge the gap between planning and action, reducing the discomfort of cognitive dissonance:
1. Acknowledge the Discrepancy
Recognize that you’re experiencing cognitive dissonance—the conflict between the desire to take action and the tendency to focus only on planning. Acknowledging this tension is the first step in addressing it.
2. Examine Your Beliefs and Fears
Reflect on the reasons you’re not taking action. Common causes include:
• Fear of failure: You might be afraid that your plan won’t work out, and taking action might expose your inadequacies.
• Perfectionism: The desire to plan everything perfectly before executing can cause paralysis.
• Lack of confidence: You may feel unsure if you’re capable of succeeding or if the plan is good enough.
• Overwhelm: The sheer size of the task or uncertainty about where to start can be paralyzing.
By understanding these underlying fears and limiting beliefs, you can begin to address them directly.
3. Shift Your Mindset Toward Action
• Start with small steps: Instead of focusing on the entire plan, break it down into small, manageable tasks that you can start immediately. Taking a small action reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed and builds momentum.
• Embrace imperfection: Understand that action doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s better to start imperfectly than to stay stuck in planning mode. Reframe mistakes as learning experiences.
• Focus on progress, not perfection: Replace the need for perfect plans with a focus on steady progress. This mindset shift reduces the pressure to have everything figured out and makes taking action feel more achievable.
4. Reevaluate Your Plan
• Sometimes, excessive planning can indicate that you’re trying to account for every possible outcome, which can create paralysis. Reevaluate your plan: Are you trying to cover all contingencies? Is it possible that the plan is simply too complex or unrealistic? Can you create one list with everything and then begin with prioritising the most important thing you can begin in the present that will help your next move?
• Consider simplifying or breaking down the plan further. Focus on the next logical step, rather than the whole journey, to make it less daunting and easier to take action.
5. Practice Self-Compassion
Guilt and self-judgment can exacerbate cognitive dissonance. Be kind to yourself if you’re not acting as quickly as you’d like. Understand that it’s normal to experience moments of hesitation, and self-compassion can help reduce the emotional burden. Treat yourself the way you would treat a friend facing similar struggles.
6. Commit to a Time Frame for Action
Set a clear, non-negotiable deadline for when you’ll take action. This commitment can break the cycle of endless planning. Even if it’s just 15 minutes of work, the act of doing something, no matter how small, helps close the gap between planning and execution.
7. Use Accountability
• Accountability partners: Share your plans with a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor. Knowing that someone else is expecting you to follow through can provide the motivation to act.
• Public commitment: Sometimes, publicly committing to a goal (on social media, at work, or within your community) creates external pressure to follow through, reducing the temptation to just plan.
8. Reflect on Past Successes
Revisit instances where you’ve taken action and succeeded, even if on a smaller scale. Remembering the positive outcomes that came from taking action can help reduce fear and boost your confidence to move forward.
9. Reframe Failure
Shift your perspective on failure. Instead of seeing it as something to be avoided, view failure as an inevitable part of learning and growth. Action, even if imperfect, is the key to progress. Each step you take, regardless of the outcome, provides valuable feedback and moves you closer to success.
10. Create a Routine of Regular Action
• Habit stacking: Integrate small tasks into your daily routine. For example, if your goal is to work on a project, set a specific time each day to work on it, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Routine action reduces the need for constant decision-making and combats procrastination.
• Consistent review: At the end of each week, review your progress and tweak your plan if needed. This reinforces the habit of action and gives you a sense of accomplishment.
11. Embrace the “90% Rule”
If you’re stuck in a cycle of excessive planning, try the “90% rule.” This is the idea that your plan doesn’t need to be perfect; as long as it’s 90% solid, it’s good enough to start. This helps overcome the tendency to endlessly tweak the plan.
Ultimately, healing cognitive dissonance between planning and action involves overcoming the fear of failure, focusing on small and manageable tasks, and recognizing that action—no matter how imperfect—is a crucial part of the learning process. By shifting your focus from perfection to progress, you’ll reduce the tension between thought and behavior, allowing you to take meaningful steps toward your goals.
Thank you for being here :)
Please Share, comment, like and follow if you resonate.
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andriana is the founder of Conscious Alignment & Co-Creator at Team Light Cyprus.
Her purpose and passion is giving people the tools, guidance & inspiration for creating an empowered version of self in all aspects of life. She is dedicated into assisting, healing & activating people by sharing her gifts through authenticity, simplicity & spiritual mastery Find out more at ww.consciousalignment.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment