Dennis Sanchez: A successful Latino entrepreneur and real estate investor, organizer for a group of 4k+ Latino Professionals called NYC Latino Professionals. Grew up a NJ resident for 30+ years to lower middle class Peruvian parents. His focus is leadership development and guiding people to reach their full potential. He is a freelance writer for several publications.
How Our Emotions Rule Our Beliefs and Our Reality
December 2019
In the book “Start with Why”, by Simon Sinek, Sinek describes how to successfully brand and market a product. His main message can be summarized in one quote, “There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it, or you can inspire it.” According to an article in the US National Library of Medicine, “The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory”, emotional experiences/stimuli appear to be remembered vividly and accurately, with great resilience over time. Napoleon Hill, in his masterpiece “Think and Grow Rich”, taught that 6 of the 10 key mind stimuli are the emotions of Sexual Transmutation, Love, Desire, Relationships with Others, Mutual Suffering and Fear. How you feel or how you are made to feel, is a strong component to what you believe to be true.
In Sinek’s “Start with Why”, he also describes how we make decisions using the Limbic part of our brain and, according to Wikipedia, Emotional life is largely housed in the limbic system of our brain. Simply stated, our beliefs and decisions are made emotionally. Sinek also explains that the Neocortex part of our brain, is the part that helps us rationalize what we feel emotionally. Further in Sinek’s book he explains how companies that have focused on the “Facts” and have not triggered the emotions, “the WHY” of their audience, usually fail.
Now that we know that our reality is mostly controlled by our emotions, can we honestly say that we are not being manipulated by mainstream media, our family, friends, neighbors, culture, circumstances, etc?
Sun Tzu stated, “It is the unemotional, reserved, calm, detached warrior who wins, not the hothead seeking vengeance and not the ambitious seeker of fortune.” In other words, whoever has control of their emotions and is not controlled by them is the true victor. Are you in control of your reality or is your reality being ingrained in you?
Tony Robbins teaches that, “Our Beliefs Shape Our Reality”. If our beliefs are ruled by our emotions, then how are we shaping our reality?
All these great teachers, and many more, lecture that if we don’t manipulate our own brains then outside influences will do it for us. We must be very careful with influences that focus on fear-based motivation or who focus solely on hate propaganda.
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RED PILL vs BLUE PILL
November 2019
In a scene in the movie ,The Matrix, Morpheus gives Neo a choice to take the red or the blue pill. The red pill symbolizing the reality of life, while the blue pill symbolizing the continued living of an illusion. What does this “really” mean?
Why is this metaphor so popular, especially in these times? Currently there seems to be a constant battle in politics between the 45th president, Donald Trump, and the Democrats, but why? If you are a Democrat you have your “facts” while the Republicans and Conservatives have theirs, but who is telling the truth? Which side is “blue pill” addicted?
Another question, “how do you take the red pill?” It’s very challenging to know whether we are on the red or the blue pill, since we have been living for so long with our own biases and judgments that were gradually developed since our childhood, while consuming media that support our beliefs. Naturally, if we are Republican, we will enjoy watching Fox News, and if we are Democrats, we will favor CNBC, CNN, etc. The line in the sand is drawn vividly with each side, but who is telling the truth? It can be very daunting at times if you are new to politics, and if you are knee deep you have your reasons, but did any side ever become curious as to why the opposition chose their allegiance?
Each side will assume the opposition is crazy, but what are the opinions of those that switched sides? Now that is someone interesting to interview! Why was that individual partisan in the past and currently siding with the “enemy?” Did they take the dreadful “Red Pill?”
The reality is that neither side is wrong nor right and fighting each other is frustrating and tiresome. What we need to realize is that we are all humans with a mind of our own and opinions backed by our own facts. Whether we like it or not we are all biased to our own opinions and beliefs. The truth could stare us in the face, and we would miss it because we are set on our own truths. What we believe is our fact, even if it isn’t fact.
What I believe it means to take the “Red Pill”, is to take the leap of faith and immerse ourselves into the world of the opposition and truly understand them. Not only immerse ourselves but shut our own biases and forget our own opinions about the topic. Most importantly, discover why each side decided and is so adamant about their perspective. Simple, Not Easy!
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