dailydatewithgod

It sounds funny to hear about groupthink. It is easily brushed aside as not something that occurs because we simply believe we could not get wrapped up in it.  We are individuals and free thinkers.  However, if the information we are using to formulate our thinking is coming from particular sources and others are not accessible, we are likely to get swept up in thinking like others think.  Groupthink runs the spectrum from harmless to dangerous and therefore must be kept in check.  On one level it is just easier to go along than to question something, or so we think.  Maybe that is the prevalent societal thought: “Don’t rock the boat.”  One of my favorites is: “Everybody else sees it this way.” Yet, how many people throughout history are the ones who woke us up to a new way of being because they questioned what was prevalent in our society?  Most history makers are the ones who do not accept the prevalence of a particular thought or idea.  They chose to ask questions about the prevalence of a particular way of being and operating in the world.  Often they are balked at and disregarded as silly and rebellious.  In some cases, they are seen as immature and needing to learn a lesson.  We can each do something even more valuable than question groupthink. We can start by questioning what we think.  We have so many thoughts which go through our mind and we attach our sense of self from them.  So many of the prevalent ones fly under the radar and we do not realize we are operating within them.  If we open up our hearts to observe the most prevalent ones we can often get at the root of what is causing us to behave in a manner we find baffling about ourselves.  Underlying the prevalent thoughts is the opportunity to look at what is working in our lives and if it is lined up the truth of us at our core. Groupthink which we chide on a societal level is only a magnification of the process of going along with the prevalent thoughts inside our own heads about who we are.  Questioning the prevalent thoughts with the compassion of the heart is the beginning of creating individual thinking which works regardless of whether it is prevalent or not.