What is Crowd Mentality?
Crowd, or herd mentality is the opposite of self validation. Crowd mentality is an interesting phenomenon that can be demonstrated in the following scenario: The hurricane is on its way. Even though the storm is still far away, there seems to be an uncertainty lingering in the air. Where will it come ashore? Will it make landfall? If so then when? Should we evacuate? If so what should we take?
There are a thousand looming questions and seemingly very few answers. The media has gone into its usual frenzy in which they are assuring certain destruction. The world could fall down. This hurricane is going to blow an entire city off the face of the earth. It is the media’s goal to have people watch their news….despite the effect it may have on the lives of those it touches.
Something inside of you knows that there is no danger. There is a part of you that is aware the storm will not affect you. Somewhere deep inside you have a knowing, a calm, that tells you everything will be just fine. What is that knowing? Should you listen or ignore it? Is it nonsense? Is it illogical? Will you reason it away with your logical mind?
Intuition – Your Higher Inner-Self Communicating with You
This is just one scenario in which our inner sense of being communicates with us. Our inner being has a duty to protect us and to guide us, to know all that which our logical mind cannot know. This part of us is constantly sending us signals in the form of synchronicities, urges, gut feelings or randomly occurring thoughts. Maybe it was that urge to turn right at the last light to avoid the accident you found ahead, or it could have been that knowing that you shouldn’t eat the chicken that made you sick. Perhaps it was that warning that the person you were speaking to, although charming, was not a good person. All of these things you knew, but you chose not to listen…..why?
In the case of the hurricane expressed above it is obvious that you have two choices….stay or go. You know the right thing to do, that is, before that little voice says, “well what if you stay and you make the wrong decision? Isn’t it better to err on the safe side? Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?”
The Voice of Doubt – Self Invalidation
This is the voice of doubt. The opposite of self validation. It is the voice of negative logic. This might be the same voice you heard from your parents. It could be the same voice that they heard from their parents. And now you hear it constantly in your head. “Well everybody else is eating the chicken. It is a chicken restaurant. I don’t want to seem the oddball out,” and, “well he seems like a nice person. He dresses nice and he says very nice things to me. He even bought my dinner and opened the door for me. What a gentleman. My gut must just be off today.”
The truth is that your gut feeling is never off. Your gut feeling is your inner being speaking to you. Your gut feeling is your inner guidance guiding you. Call it intuition, a hunch, instinct….call it whatever you’d like – just call it right. Because it is always right. It cannot be wrong.
As children, parents and authorities told us how to be. We looked to our parents to help us to know who to be. Think back to the amount of times you were told not to cry, or that your decision was wrong, or that things just don’t work that way. The more often you were told you were wrong, the more reinforced the belief that the things you think, say and feel are not correct. The more often you were invalidated the less valid you feel.
The Subconscious and Brainwave States
As many people know 95% of our reaction to the world comes from our subconscious mind. This is the portion of our mind that acts as our programming….our hard drive if you will. This means that we are not actually consciously reacting to the outside world. Stored programs cause us to react. Most of our programs are stored from age 0 to 8. During this time the brain is operating in what is called a theta wave brain state. 
In the theta wave state, as a child, your subconscious was like a sponge, soaking up every detail around you so that you could be programmed with the basic tools for life. After age 8 the brain moves to a more conscious state during the waking hours. Beta wave brain state is the conscious state, where we are in full reactive mode to the outside world. It is our waking, conscious state in which we are normally operating with the other 5% of our capacity as human beings. Alpha is the state between beta and theta, where we are suggestible or in a slight inward state. Watching television is a good example of an alpha wave brain state. Theta is just below alpha, in which meditation occurs. If you go below theta you are in delta, which is sleep.
Who Knows Best…..?
So if our programming includes invalidation in the theta wave state, it may be difficult for us to validate ourselves and therefore, it may not be easy for us to follow our own intuition. And if you can’t trust or validate yourself, then how can you love yourself? And if you aren’t right, then why not rely on everyone outside of you? They must know more than you do, right?
Wrong. We are all made of the same stuff. Everyone has what it takes to be valid to ourselves and to others. We all have the ability to rise in life and to listen to our inner voice….many of us just choose not to, whether it be a conscious or unconscious choice. When we make the choice to take our power back, we can begin to feel what it feels like to validate ourselves. We can understand the sheer joy of looking inside, finding an answer, and knowing that is correct. When we base our decisions on what other people think we are giving our energy and our individuality away, in other words, we are invalidating ourselves and moving further away from our own truth, which is the only truth that really matters!
Take Your Power Back
By taking our power back, instead of giving it away outside of us, we have more energy with which to work. When we have more energy we have more in-fluence….more forward momentum due to the face that we are moving in the flow and things are more fluid. In other words, we can use our energy to support and validate ourselves, instead of others, thereby becoming exactly what we were intended to be as an individual. In this way we are contributing to the greater good of mankind. How can we contribute the best that we are when we are consistently doing our best impression of someone else?
How to Validate Yourself
The next question you will be asking yourself is how to validate youreself. Well, a good way to begin is to start small, in other words, validate little things. Use your intuition to decide which line to get into at the supermarket or which parking lot row to park in, or use it to pick a new toothpaste. It is especially rewarding when the choice does not make “sense” at all, but you choose it anyway. When you succeed, congratulate yourself on your ability to validate your own decisions and express your gratitude to the creator within.
Eventually you will be comfortable moving on to bigger decisions, and noticing yourself feeling calmer in what would have previously been a stressful situation. You will even notice yourself getting into fewer and fewer stressful situations. Eventually you will find yourself living a completely different, better and more free life. Isn’t it time to give the world the gift of who you are instead of the reflection of those around you?
For more information on hypnotherapy and how it can help you to validate you please contact me for your free 30 minute consultation.
