We all have learned things from the accumulated knowledge of others, and we all have seen others' opinions that, once we have heard them out, have convinced us that those opinions are correct and we agree with them. In and of itself, those things are not a problem or a hindrance. Learning from others can be a desirable thing.ServantofJustice wrote:Just to say when I am in a 'before sleep' state I noticed today that I basically experienced the things that were going through my head as if they were louder/magnified.
So that might show the origins of where it's coming from.
A different person suggested that because I have been taught to not attach my own awareness to forming opinions, I could be copying opinions/perceptions on things from the metaphorical 'lens' of many others out there.
But I wouldn't know how true. Sometimes I do feel that the 'knowledge' I hold and such was basically the collective perceptions of many certain people, accumulated into a hive.
If your opinion of something is not approved, you can take the opinion of another person about that maybe by experiencing them or other ways. Then when asked about the subject claim it as your own if you decide to pick a certain one out of many others because its more comfortable to use? "This opinion sounds nice/accurate, I might adopt it as my own"
It's when we do these things because we believe our own thoughts, knowledge, opinions, reasoning, are inferior, always wrong, inherently bad or foolish, lacking any value, etc., that it's a problem. The problem lies not in the adopting of others' ideas, but in the unceasing doubt and denigration of our own ideas' worth and validity. We have to be able to assess our own ideas and knowledge accurately, in order to be able to assess the ideas and knowledge of others accurately. That's how we'll know the difference between beneficial things to adopt and undesirable things to reject.
I think we can all agree that the person whose attitude is, "I am always right, and I refuse to accept contradicting information that disproves my ideas" has an unhealthy approach to life. However, the opposite extreme, "I am never right, so every time I see the least bit of contradiction of my ideas, I will accept that the contradiction is correct and my ideas were wrong" is harmful, too. The former person harms everyone else with their arrogance, but the latter one harms themselves with their self-doubt, and dare I say self-hatred.
The latter person can also readily supply their own contradictions from within when none come from outside sources. "I think XXXX. Or maybe YYYY. Then again, ZZZZ." It's a process that can leave the person moving in random directions instead of picking a course and sticking with it. The aimless wandering can then lead to their putting themselves down for having no direction in their lives, therefore they must be wrong at everything, therefore they can't possibly pick the right direction, therefore more aimless wandering... it can become a self-perpetuating cycle, only breakable when it is recognized for what it is, and torn out by the roots with conscious action.
Seeking outside guidance is the way to expedite the excision of this kind of thinking, and (equally important!) the building of more constructive thought patterns to replace the undesirable patterns.