The Great American Divide

"Hillary is a murderous lying monster!"
"Trump is a narcissistic charlatan and predator!"

Does one of these exclamations resound firmly with you? Is the truth of it self-evident?

Humans have this curious psychological trait that shifts our perception of facts so heavily to our way of thinking that we must perform corrective measures to keep from keeling over.

To put our ship back in balance we must do something that on the surface seems rather odd: we must subject ideas that we agree with to *greater* scrutiny, diligence, and fact-checking than ideas that are contrary to our beliefs.

"Say what? Why? What is this insanity?"

This “insanity” is called confirmation bias. Isn’t it satisfying to find and read tirades such as those above that support our beliefs? Don’t we relish (and greedily drink from) reports from right- or left-leaning websites, opinion pieces from armchair political experts, or even viral memes when they support (confirm) our beliefs (biases)? And how do we respond to those ideas that fly in the face our beliefs?

“Crazy!” “Unsubstantiated!” “Stupid!” “Un-American!”

I’ve read post after post by Trump and Clinton supporters who are angry at and baffled by each other and yet say almost the exact same thing:

“I honestly don’t understand how any rational human being could support [Trump][Clinton]! Are those people hopelessly stupid or just mindless sheeple who have been sold a lie?”

While some of us might truly believe that the over 100 million or so Americans that disagree with us politically are mindless subhuman chumps, I suspect there is another more reasonable explanation for this astonishingly great American divide. You guessed it: confirmation bias.

The desire to feel supported and validated in our beliefs is normal and understandable, but it’s often not rational. And by “not rational” I mean that we come to many beliefs emotionally, not rationally, and then unconsciously cherry-pick facts to dress those unrefined emotions in a respectable suit of rationality. Rationalization ex post facto.

"When men wish to construct or support a theory, how they torture facts into their service!" John Mackay, Irish-American industrialist, 1852

I know of only one antidote to our tendency to uncritically accept those things that appear to confirm our beliefs. That is a simple awareness and admission that perhaps we are not the one clear mind in a sea of the deluded - that we just might be one of the more than seven billion people affected by confirmation bias.

If we can admit and accept this aspect of human nature, we can make a rational effort to look at both sides of an issue (or person, or political movement) as dispassionately and rationally as our three-pound meatloaf of nerve cells marinating in a vat of emotionally-charged chemicals will allow.

Sure, we may end up with the same conclusion or opinion that we had before, but one can hope, at the very least, that we can come out of this confirmation bias-balancing exercise with a little more tolerance, and maybe even some understanding, of those people with whom we disagree.

Who knows, I’ve even heard stories of a few rare individuals who have allowed facts and evidence to hoist the anchors of belief from the sea floor of emotions and gain the freedom to explore new lands in the world of ideas. One can hope.

Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of general psychology, 2(2), 175.

Your Emotions are a Titan, Your Mind a Flea

Tomorrow I will have been a vegan for 20 days, a third of my 60-day cholesterol experiment. There have been a few minor temptations so far, but it has been surprisingly easy.

That’s the power of emotional, visceral drive and intent versus intellectual intent alone. As important as our humanity (cerebral cortex) is, we must understand and befriend our animal nature if we hope to change deeply-ingrained habits. Attempting to change using only your mind usually creates a fight against yourself (intellect versus emotion) and ends in failure. (Hint: your emotions are a titan, your mind a flea.)

So get “everyone” onboard with your intentions. Agree on your goals with your mind, spirit, and body, and watch yourself kick some serious ass.

Setting and Achieving Goals

Do you fail to set goals or fail to see them through?

Three reasons people don't set and achieve goals come to mind:

1. Fear of failure.

2. Fear of change.
 
3. Fear of what others think.

See the common component? FEAR. The cure?

1. Build your confidence through a long series of many small successes. Don't try to jump from the bottom of the ladder to the top. Climb the rungs. Take each step. And remember, the definition of failure is not failing. It's giving up.

2. Although staying the same feels safe and it's easy, it's also the death of dreams, hope, and accomplishment. The human body and mind were created to MOVE. Life is action. Change is the caterpillar giving up everything and gaining the ability to fly.

3. Validate yourself first. When you really believe in what you're doing, the need for external validation and the effect of external negativity is reduced. Some people are threatened by success in others and thus criticize or insult them in an attempt to make themselves feel better about living in their world of forgotten dreams where everything is someone else's fault. Don't listen to them. You have everything you need to be who you want to be, and what you don't have, you can get. (More goals!)

Now set those goals and reach for your dreams. You may not achieve them all, or even many, and that is fine! You're moving, you're investing in yourself, and you're LIVING. (Successful people fail a LOT. That's because they try a lot of things.)

So don't be afraid of failure, change, or the opinions of others. This is your life to live and your shoes to walk in. Your life situation *might* be beyond your control, but your attitude isn't. So go for what you want. It's yours. And there is only one thing that can stop you: fear. (Don't let it.)

Purium 10-Day Transformation Cleanse Redux

I am doing the Purium 10-Day Transformation Cleanse again later this month, and this time, my friend Lisa and I are writing an eBook about our experiences on the cleanse. When I start the cleanse, I will post some of my updates here.

The eBook is called The Purium Success Guide, and we will not only share our experiences on the cleanse, but also tips and tricks and support and information to guide you through your own cleanse. 

The eBook will be available for the Kindle (initially, and later as in other formats) later in March.

If you would like to do the cleanse yourself, order your own 10-Day Transformation Cleanse kit at

MyPuriumGift
(http://mypuriumgift.com/spiritshock)

and enter my Gift Card Code

SPIRITSHOCK 

to get $50 off your order!

If you try the code and it rejects the code, simply shoot me an email at purium@spiritshock.com or try again in a few hours because it means that I need to buy more gift cards to cover the expense.

Thank you, good luck on your wellness journey, and stay tuned for more information about the forthcoming book!

The Problem with New Information

It's not hard to understand why we are scared of new knowledge. Everything we learn adds new brush strokes to the canvas of our life. And sometimes these new colors and shapes begin to change the picture on that canvas.

If we're overly-attached to our old and static views, the new additions may seem to be ruining that perfectly good and serviceable picture. And because we are comforted by the familiar - even a familiar that no longer serves us or even hurts us - this emerging picture may disturb us.

But let us challenge ourselves to not get our security from digging in our heels against an ever-moving, evolving world, but from our ability to adapt and change in the face of new information.

Baggy Skin After Weight Loss

On a weight-loss forum I sometimes visit, a young mother of three was really worried about the loose skin that can come with significant weight loss.

Her fear is actually quite founded, so it's important to keep three factors in mind: the speed with which the weight is lost, how much total weight is lost, and your age.

Skin elasticity simply cannot keep up with significant weight loss (100+ pounds) in a short amount of time, such as when people have weight-loss surgery. Many people who do have surgery to lose weight remain unhappy with the "skin suit" they are left with and thus require body contouring surgery to feel better about themselves. And even then, there are often scars. That isn't great news, but the basic problem is that if you lose weight too fast, it may not be possible for your skin to go back to the way it was before the weight gain.

Further, as we age, our skin becomes less elastic, which limits how well our skin adjusts to significant weight loss. By the time we are approaching 50 or so, our skin may have lost most of its elasticity, and thus regardless of what else we do, if we lose a lot of weight fat, there will be a lot of excess skin that cannot adjust to the change.

Assuming your skin is healthy, it should be able to adjust as your body changes when weight loss isn't too dramatically fast. So how can you help keep your skin elastic and give it time to adjust to your new body?

• Lose weight slowly.
• Exercise, which can create a layer of muscle under the skin.
• Use moisturizer that contains collagen and vitamin E to promote elasticity and new skin-cell growth.

And don't forget to drink lots of water, which you should be doing anyway, to keep the skin hydrated and elastic.

Depression and Obesity - Are they Linked?

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 1 in 10 adults in the United States are suffering from depression and more than 3 in 10 are obese.

And according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, nearly half of all depressed people are obese.

The data from the National Center for Health Statistics doesn't answer the question of why, however.

I think the answer lies is what depression does to people:

• Depression makes you care less about the things you would normally care about, and that includes what you eat and exercise. 
• Depression causes you to lose hope, and without hope you can't have goals, including weight-loss and exercise goals.
• Depression saps your energy, and you need energy to exercise.
• Depression lowers your self-worth, and if you don't think well of yourself, investing in yourself through diet and exercise seems pointless.
• Depression causes you pain, and sweets and other treats can make you feel better if only for a moment.
• Depression can make you feel empty, and you may eat too much in a misguided attempt to fill your emotional space.
• Depression medication can have weight-gain as a side-effect.

So which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does obesity lead to depression or depression to obesity? I would wager that both are true, but if your depression is serious, the depression needs to be addressed before you have the mental or physical fortitude to work on your weight issues.

If you think you're depressed, talk to a mental health counselor or heath professional.

Here's a link to the Depression Health Center on WebMD: Depression Health Center