"I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet."-Mahatma Gandhi

"Your mind is your temple, keep it beautiful and free." Bob Dylan

We are conditioned from early childhood to seek the approval of others—teachers, family, peers etc. Social media amplifies approval-seeking behavior which often leads people to crave external validation and distrust their own judgment. To become a fully functioning adult, we have to unbrainwash ourselves and liberate our minds from these mental albatrosses. Liberating the mind starts with improving our awareness of our thoughts and emotions. The more aware we are of our thoughts and emotions, the better we can manage our thoughts and emotions.

One of the keys to managing our thoughts is preventing others from dominating them. To prevent others from controlling our thoughts and emotions, we have to recognize and acknowledge our own mental autonomy. Happiness and peace of mind come from within. Ultimately, we must control our own thoughts and never let other people’s words or actions dictate how we think or feel. Never let anyone get into your head. Your mind belongs to you and only you. Onward and upward.

“Falsehoods, spin and legends can be tweaked and tested and changed to exactly match the dreams and desires of the people they’re aimed at. This is why manipulative stories are so much stickier than what really happened. What reality has in its favor is that it’s generally resilient. Gravity doesn’t care who believes in it. It’s still here.” Seth Godin

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." John Adams

Stories are powerful and often easier to remember than facts, which is why narratives tend to persuade other people more so than facts. Despite their power to persuade, stories, narratives and myths are often inaccurate, incomplete and misleading. Social media is rife with misinformation and false narratives that prey on people’s fears, misunderstandings and emotions while contradicting basic observable facts.

A fact is something that is concrete and objective---observable using one or all of our five senses. Facts can be checked, verified or disproven and therefore can act as a counterweight to propaganda and help us make better decisions. It’s wiser to start with facts as a foundation and then build stories and narratives that illuminate those facts rather than trying to reverse engineer facts to fit the narrative you’d prefer to see or hear. Onward and upward.