The world is not against you! You're against yourself! Why?

Well, it's simple: it's because you continue to live in these illusions that are keeping you trapped into thinking that everything and everyone is against you.

Wake up to reality and understand that this is not the case.

The first step is to realize that this is not your fault. Nobody has taught you these things. It's this society that has made it seem normal. School doesn't teach you this.

You have to realize that you're the problem and the solution.

First become aware that these illusions are causing you all sorts of problems like:

• Disconnection from reality: Having unrealistic expectations in relationships and life goals. Sorry to break it to you, but this is life, and it's a cruel one that doesn't match the fantasy that you create in your head.

• Poor decision-making: If you're living in these illusions you are not fully aware. This means you're not aware of reality—how are you supposed to find the real solutions? 

  You might think you've found it but in reality, it's a part of it but overall you've failed to address the real problem. Your poor decision-making will lead to you having the inability to adapt to challenges and this will hinder your personal growth.

• Lack of self-awareness: These illusions are making you create a false sense of self. This is preventing you from recognizing your weaknesses and strengths, THIS IS STUNTING YOUR GROWTH!

• Social isolation: Living in these illusions causes you to be isolated to feel lonely like nobody understands you, but that's not true, the reason you feel like this is that you can't form deep, meaningful connections due to your distorted perceptions and inability to fully engage with reality.

All of those things only lead to you having all sorts of problems like anxiety, depression, and disillusionment.

This causes you to be more vulnerable to all sorts of disappointments when these illusions are shattered, leading to you having the same problems I previously mentioned

The root of all of these minor illusions are 3 and you have to become aware of them!

By becoming aware of them, you can break free from these things that are holding you back from truly being free and happy.

I'll show you what these illusions are and how they trap you in a cell, keeping you in a bubble that makes you feel so miserable.

Let's explore them and learn how to break free from the chains holding you back.

We Think We Know Other People

1. We only know what other people tell us!

We assume just because somebody tells us their thoughts, motivations, struggles, and things they like or don't like—we know them.

Everyone has layers of experiences, emotions, and inner battles that they don't want anyone to know.

They tell us only the surface and will never tell us the full story!

2. Confirmation bias!

Confirmation bias distorts our ability to truly understand and see others by filtering out what doesn't align with our belief system.

This means that everything someone tells us is filtered twice first by them and then by us.

And so you'll never get the right information.

3. We often see what we want to see!

Due to our confirmation bias, our mind filter reality through our desires, beliefs, and expectations.

This means that we shape reality to fit our preferences—this creates an illusion of us thinking that we know them.

Reality? No, that's just an illusion our mind has created that aligns with our belief system.

4. Associations:

We make false associations of people based on their:

• Status

• Actions

• Appearances

Because of this, we create an image of them thinking that just because we know these things we know them too.

The reality is that the image we create in our heads is not the truth and it will never encompass a person's individuality or potential.

We Think We Know Ourselves

1. We don't even know how we sound or look!

Have you ever recorded yourself?

What was your reaction?

Probably something like this "That's not me!, Is that me?!, That's not my voice!, or Is that how I sound?!"

2. The Unconscious Mind:

According to Professor Gerald Zaltman from Harvard Business School—around 95% of our decisions are made unconsciously.

This means that most of the decisions (cognitive processes) are made unconsciously without us even knowing and we think it's us with our conscious minds that make them.

Do you know what this means?

This means that since most of our thinking and decision-making is controlled by the unconscious mind, those decisions are made based on our belief system.

This means that our decisions are made based on the patterns and things we have learned throughout our entire lives.

And Guess what? We believe we're acting out of free will or rationally.

This makes 100% sense think about it—Do you ever stop to think about how to walk, eat, or talk?

No, right. We don't consciously think about the complex muscle movements required to move; our brain automatically coordinates them based on learned patterns.

If you were to think about how you move it would probably disrupt your natural movement and potentially cause you to stumble or walk awkwardly.

3. We create a false self-image!

We humans tend to go after pleasure and avoid pain and discomfort at all costs.

This causes us to deceive ourselves to protect our true self-image essentially creating a false one and we do all of this to avoid any pain and discomfort.

We tend to downplay everything our flaws, we justify our poor decisions, and we reconstruct narratives to make ourselves feel better, even if they aren't slightly accurate.

Here are some examples:

• Someone who feels anger might misinterpret it as frustration or deny it altogether, failing to address the root cause.

• Someone who thinks that he's disciplined and constantly procrastinates justifies this as taking a "break" or "temporary lapse" rather than a habit.

• Someone who levels themselves as "independent" But the reality is that they do it because they fear rejection and they do it by avoiding close relationships.

We Think We Know & Understand The World

1. We get our information outside of us:

Let me ask you a question.

When you need any information, where or to whom do you go to get that information?

The answer? We go to outside sources to get that information, and worse, most of the time, we believe it without doing any more research; we just accept it as the truth.

The problem with getting our information from others or outside sources is that they have their own agendas.

They lie and won't tell you the whole truth. I mean just look at the news.

Let's take CNN, for example, I heard somebody say that CNN stands for "Constant Negative News" and this is 100% true, I mean all they do is show all this negative news to the world.

Most of the time they just exaggerate it and guess what the world has always been like this we just think it isn't because we live in this small bubble.

Thinking that the world is all happy and nice, no it's an evil world we live in and if we focus just on all negative and exaggerative truth we will become crazy.

2. We see through our biases!

Again because of our confirmation bias, we filter and remove those things that don't align with our beliefs.

Our biases distort reality to fit with the one that we've created in our heads.

We always prioritize information that aligns with our belief system and ignore all the other that contradicts it.

I'm going to prove this to you by giving you an example, have you ever noticed that when you want to buy something you start seeing it more frequently and you see this as a sign for you to buy it?

Let's say you want to buy a red Honda car and you've been obsessing over this car, and you start to notice that you're seeing it more often everywhere you and you think this is your sign to buy it.

Let me give some bad news it's not your sign those cars have always been there, but since you weren't interested you decided to ignore them, when you begin to be interested that's when you started to notice them.

Another example is that if a person believes that the world is dangerous, this person may focus on only negative news to reinforce their belief.

I'm not saying that the world isn't dangerous it is, but it's also beautiful, and if you focus only on fear you won't be able to see its beauty.

3. We are a sample of ONE!

We believe what we tell ourselves!

This is really bad because we are a sample of one and one is not good statistically.

This means our understanding of the world is only what we perceive leaving us blind to countless things that are happening around us.

What we perceive is only a small, super small, and super super small portion of what's happening around us.

And worse all of our experiences are shaped by our:

• Belief system

• Cultural norms

• Societal values

• Historical narratives

These things influence and limit our perspective on how we see the world.

They are like a pair of glasses and through them is how we see the world.

For example, the concepts of "beauty" and "success" might be different based on where you live. In a community located in Africa, they think that a man's beauty and status are defined based on how fat you are—The more fat the better.

The reality is that the universe is vast and complex with countless mysteries that are beyond our comprehension.

No matter how much we study and learn we will never learn everything that there's to learn.

How To Get Rid of These Illusions

The first step in getting rid of these illusions is to be aware that they exist.

The second step is accepting them and being able to recognize that we don't see things "as they are", but "as we are."

So friends don't judge others based on how you see them, because you will never know somebody based on their looks, status, or actions.

Instead, please get to know them, but remember that you'll never fully know someone.

Always question your beliefs, motivations, and emotions.

If we want to get closer to the truth, we must embrace humility, while seeking continuous learning, and remaining open to change because the universe is vast and unknown—we will never fully know it.

We have to be willing to see things as they are—not just as we want them. We achieve that when we step outside of our mental filters and approach life with curiosity, humility, and willingness.

Only then will we have Real Freedom.

The END

Remember to approach life with curiosity and a desire to learn. Always being open to learning and changing—always keeping in mind that We Are a sample one and no matter how smart we may think we are we will never truly know and understand this universe.

That's all I have for you this week! Please subscribe, share, like, and follow me on X where I post more insights. Stay tuned, as I’ll be writing about a variety of topics to help you become healthier and wiser.

Thank you,

-Oscar.

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