In my earlier post on Truth, I argued that we should always value truth in our lives if we desire happiness. I thought it migh be useful to share a few exercises that can help bring your life into alignment with the truth. So, In no particular order…
1. Experiment
In so many areas of human endeavor, we can get conflicting advice. Ranging from what we should eat to what kinds of ads we should put on our websites. One way to find out which piece of advice to follow is to read all the research and arguments on both sides, and do whichever one makes the best arguments. The problem with this approach is that usually there are ‘experts’ on both sides of the argument who assuredly know a lot more about the topic than you do. What if the guys giving the correct advice are just worse at presenting it? What if they don’t care as much? A far easier way to be sure that you end up doing the correct thing in the long run is to experiment with it in your life. The first time I was exposed to this idea was in Steve Pavlina’s article on 30 day trials. It makes so much sense that it was a little embarrassing to not have thought of it before. Now I’ve got another blog where I write about the trials I do on myself.
If you aren’t sure which diet to follow to lose weight, you could read up on them for a month before deciding, or you could just pick one and go with it for 30 days and see what happens. If you don’t like it you can drop it and try something else, but if it works for you, then you have far more evidence than you’d ever get from any book.
2. Debate
In my life, one of the greatest tools I’ve used for coming closer to the truth is debate. I often come up with ideas, and the first thing I try to do is take them to someone else. Usually a debate ensues, where I try to defend the idea, sometimes even after I am convinced it’s wrong. The great thing about this is that it gives me an immediate sounding board to throw ideas at. Sometimes they hold up well, and other times there is a problem with it that I hadn’t noticed. The end outcome is that my worldview ends up being much more consistent than it would have been otherwise. And an inconsistent worldview aotomatically means that at least one of my beliefs isn’t true.
So, find someone who is willing to debate with you, either in person or online. There are plenty of online forums built specifically for this purpose, so it shouldn’t be that hard. Then begin debating with them. But it’s important to remember that debating only does us any good if we are actually willing to change our minds. If someone is able to show you that two of your beliefs clash, then you need to get rid of one of them.
3. Play Devil’s Advocate
This one is related to number 2. The difference is, instead of debating about something you believe you take the side of something you disagree with. Try your very best to convince someone else of this opinion. This can be helpful because it forces you to learn the best arguments for the opposing position. If you don’t even know the arguments against your position, how can you be sure it is the truth? There is another benefit that can be gained from this too; it helps to get out of the mindset that equates our ego with our beliefs, so we’ll be more open to new ideas when we hear them.
4. Get Rid of a Secret
Try to think of something that you don’t tell people about. I’m sure you con think of at least one thing about yourself that you haven’t shared with someone close to you, right? Well my suggestion in this case is pretty simple… Tell them. There are two possible outcomes of this experiment; Either the relationship grows closer and more trusting, or they will judge you for whatever it is you tell them. On the surface, the second possibility seems bad, but I disagree. If someone judges you based on who you are, then either they are right, in which case you have a problem that needs to be dealt with, or they are judging you wrongly, in which case I’d argue that they weren’t the greatest friend to begin with. Either way you’ve learned something.
A 30 day experiment I’m considering is to tell absolutely no untruths at all, I expect that if I did this, I’d have fewer “friends” but the friendships that remained would be much stronger.
5. Read
There is something you don’t know as much about as you’d like. Well, the simplest way to fix that problem is to get your butt to the library and get a book. The internet is also bursting with information on just about any topic you can imagine. Just read something.
Also, please please please don’t limit your reading to people you agree with. If you never hear anything that opposes what you believe, then your incorrect beliefs will never get corrected, and if you are human, you’ve got incorrect beliefs. If you are a Christian, read Ebon Musings, and if you are an atheist, read Mere Christianity.
6. Journal
Keeping a journal, or really any way of taking time out of your day to reflect, can be enormously valuable. It can help to clarify in your mind what really happened during the day. Did you do what you planned? Why or why not? Did you enjoy yourself? Did you live according to your values? Did you do anything you regret? Or anything you are proud of? And most importantly, what emotions were you feeling?
Our emotions are our mind’s immediate response to an occurrence. If I didn’t do any of the things I planned to do today, then the best way to find out why is to pay attention to the emotions I felt whenever I thought about it. They are important clues to what is going on in my subconscious. Negative emotions mean that there is something in my life that needs fixing, and positive emotions mean that everything is going pretty good at the moment as far as my subconscious is concerned. Either way, it is good to know what’s happening.
7. Record Your Dreams
Another pathway into our subconcious is our dreams. Recently I had a dream that was full of images that were very closely related to what was going on in my life at the time. I felt that it was important enough that I decided to record it. Since then I’ve been remembering more and more of my dreams, and while they are less obvious, analyzing them can bring me useful insights. Recording your dreams on a daily basis seems to help you remember them better and more often. The key is to do it as soon as you wake up, because the memories start to fade away almost instantly. Every morning write down everything you remember from your dreams, if all you remember is a color or a phrase, then write it down. Eventually your subconcious seems to get the hint and you’ll start to remember more and more.
I hope this was helpful for you, I’m going to try and start doing all of these things more often now myself.