Stop Letting Algorithms Live Rent-Free In Your Head w/ Ravinder Taylor

What if most of your choices begin before you know you’ve made them? We dig into the mind’s hidden machinery with a guest who pivoted from microbiology to mind training after a single hypnosis lecture reframed how past experiences can script present pain. From a striking case of chronic pain resolving after hypnotherapy to the research showing subconscious activity seconds before conscious choice, we explore how awareness turns passengers into pilots.

We get practical fast. Awe isn’t just poetic—it measurably reduces stress and boosts immune function. Faith and optimism correlate with longer life and better relationships, but optimism can also be trained through small questions that interrupt worst-case spirals. We share easy tools you can use today: diaphragmatic breathing to lower blood pressure, third-person self-talk to steady emotions, and even a goofy smile that nudges endorphins in your favor. Nature becomes a practice when you pause to actually see the sky, the curve of a tree, or the stars that remind you you’re not alone.

Then we look at the systems around us. Placebo effects vary across countries, revealing how culture gets under the skin. Media diets and algorithms tilt attention toward outrage, so we offer a clean-news habit: strip loaded adjectives, slow down into system two thinking, and decide for yourself. You don’t need a PhD to reclaim your mind; you need a few better inputs, repeated often. Along the way, we tie science to spirituality, showing how community, service, and meaning give resilience real traction.

By the end, you’ll have a toolkit for reprogramming autopilot—curating what you consume, practicing awe on purpose, calming your body in under a minute, and choosing connection over isolation. If this conversation helps you notice even one hidden script and rewrite it, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more grounded mind tools, and leave a review telling us which practice you’ll try first.

Transcript

Setting The Theme: Mind And Meaning

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Good to have you back on Mind Force. I'm your host, Nate Shear. Today's main themes: the power of the mind, practical spirituality, and the automatic nature of our being. Today's conversation sits at the crossroads of mind, meaning, and awareness. Not theory for theory's sake, real life, real patterns, real change. Today we'll bring a grounded way of talking about the mind, spirituality, you can live out on a Tuesday afternoon. We'll be giving you practical tips and the hidden programs running most of our lives without much permission. This episode invites you to notice what's automatic and decide what actually deserves your attention. Well, let's start with you. Who are you beneath the roles and the titles?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

That's an interesting way to put the question. You're right, I don't believe in roles and titles. I am on a a life's journey, believe in working every day to become the best version of myself. As I said, I haven't thought about the question as as you put it, but that really does sum up who I who I am. It's like my life is all about this journey. It's becoming more aware of why I do what I do, make sure that the choices I make are my choices and how to make them in the best way possible. And for all of that, you know, that was how I got so involved in the whole area of mind training, because you have to understand the psychology behind everything in order to take manual controls over some of these things. So it's a passion of mine.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Absolutely. I had a coworker in his signature block, he used to say, trying to suck a little less each day. I think that's a pretty good motto. Just try to get a little bit better. So what would you say personal experiences have pulled you towards this line of work?

A Hypnosis Story That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Personal experiences. I would say the the big thing, the big event that uh changed the entire direction of my life was my degree's in microbiology. I used to work in the Path Lab, and one day all of these flyers appeared all over the hospital that was talking about a presentation that was being hosted by the hospital, and this presentation was on hypnosis. Now, up until that point, I'd always thought hypnosis was something people did on stage to make other people look silly and to get the audience to laugh. I didn't take it seriously at all. But we attended this presentation, it had a huge audience, the auditorium was jam-packed full. But there was one story in particular that grabbed my attention, and in this, uh the lecturer who was an anesthesiologist, he did hypnotherapy on the side, but he had a client come to him, and this client had had a pain in her arm for about a decade. This was a long time ago, so I'm, you know, remembering back. But she had had the pain in her arm for about a decade. She had seen all the experts, all the professionals, they hadn't been able to help her at all. Under hypnosis, they went back to the traumatic event that caused it. And and th that there was you know a traumatic event. It was something emotional, it was something that she hadn't forgotten consciously, but it wasn't it wasn't significant to her by this point. Well, after the hypnotherapy session, she went home and the following day she called the hypnot hypnotherapist back and said that the pain had gone. The pain had actually gone immediately, but she hadn't believed it, so she had waited to call him. So it was this whole idea that past experiences, things that we may have forgotten about, things that we may have dismissed and thought weren't important, how they can have an effect on us today. From that lecture, I went on and did a three-year course in hypnosis and psychotherapy. There I met my husband, and I've spent the last 30 plus years researching how the mind works and how we can assist it in working for us instead of against us.

Why Share Mental Health Tools

SPEAKER_02 5:03

That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming out. Uh, one of the things on the show, I really want to dispel rumors and get information out. I think for the longest time we haven't talked enough about mental health, and that's kind of the reason I started the show, losing my grandma as a kid, so kind of honoring her, but also just getting out good information. I had a previous guest that actually talked about hypnotherapy, and honestly, like you said, I kind of thought it was turning people into chickens, you know, and that's to be slightly funny, but then also like it's just not widely understood, you know. You have the bouncing light and using your eye movements, and there's so many different things that are out there that can help people. So it's awesome that you bring some of these stories that people, you know, might not be familiar with. And so hopefully some of the listeners can hear and and get out there and and try and get some help in in various ways. There's so many different things out there. Well, the last question in the introduction is what makes you feel alive right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

I would say it's the feeling of connection, it is the spirituality that runs in the back of my life that is my guiding force. It's like having a guide within me that constantly tells me if I'm going off track or if I'm doing the right thing. So yeah, it is definitely spirituality, which is really interesting because mind training is very much about the science of self-empowerment. I came away from spirituality in the book, although when you read the book you will find spirituality pokes its head out in a number of different places. But yeah, definitely spirituality, the feeling that that I'm supposed to help others. I think I think that's what it comes down to. There is this guiding force within me that says I'm supposed to help others, and in order to do that, I need to help myself, I need to learn more, I need to listen to other people. And help make the world a better place. That sounds very lofty, I'm aware, but I think if we all have we all have that goal, then slowly we we can get there.

Connection As Daily Practice

SPEAKER_02 7:18

And I think it's so true. I just had my last guest ask me like what I thought was the most powerful thing. And I've heard about journaling and meditation and deep breathing. I mean, the list is so long of techniques. I'm over 90 episodes, so a bunch of different techniques. But at the core, I think they're all connection. You have a little quiet time, you have these things so you can be better, you can hold doors for people, help people cross the street. You're doing these tiny things of kindness, but it all comes down to connection. I think that's it. Like you can't, you know, go to the food bank and help somebody and not feel a little bit better when you leave. If you're leaving still feeling sour, then I think there's probably other issues going on. You're gonna feel better if you help people. So yeah, I think that's an awesome reminder. Anyone listening, lofty goal or not, like if we just make the world a little bit better, a little bit of kindness, I mean, things will be a lot better. Well, a warm-up question I have for you is what's one belief you held very strongly years ago that you no longer see the same way?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

You are asking difficult questions, Nate.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

That's the fun part.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

I would actually say it's again how I came into this field. There was this belief I had that I am the way that I am, this is how God made me, nature made me, my genes made me, this is who I am, there isn't anything I can do about it, and that is totally false to fact. There are so many ways that I can live more consciously and actually create the life that I wish. So that that would be the biggest thing, that there isn't anything I can do about it. I have all my all of my faults, all of my flaws. But there is. We can change them all, but the most important far part is to believe that you have you have the ability. When you believe you have the ability, then you will go out there and search for the tools that work the best for you.

The Belief We Can Change

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah, that's another, I think, super important reminder. I wanted to touch on it earlier, but you touched on it again. But like when I think of God, I think of rainbows and things like that. And it's interesting because I think a lot of times, like you said, we see science and God on different ends. And it's weird that they're on different sides because I think the craziness of a rainbow or how detailed our DNA is or these different things is confirmation of a higher power. You know, it's not odds with it. And so, and I think me being I'm active duty military, and so we have like the four pillars, which I think is another good reminder, another way to look at it is we have mental, physical, spiritual, social, and you need all those to be a well-rounded human. It's not like you're super fit and then you have no friends and you have no, you know, calling to a higher power, or you know, you're missing one of those. You need all four of those. You need the friends to help back you up. You need to work out and feel good, you need spirituality and whatever form that looks like for you. But we have those pillars, and sometimes people think they're kind of cheesy, but that's true. Your foundation will kind of crumble if you don't have all four. So I'm glad we have them. I wish people looked at them more on a positive note. We kind of poke and I guess that's just what we do. We kind of poke and make fun, but I think the four pillars are is is well rounded. Well, before we get too far, I wanted to flip the mic and see if you had a question for me.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I'm always fascinated by other people's spiritual journeys. So I would be asking you about your Christian faith. Were you always Christian? Were you brought up that way? Have you ever questioned it? And how did you come through that process?

Faith, Science, And The Four Pillars

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah, absolutely. So I was raised in a Christian household. My mom and me kind of had an interesting upbringing with my dad, having problems with anger and other issues. And so it's kind of me and my mom against the world. Then she found my stepdad, and he has since passed away. But me and my mom have always had a pretty deep connection, and things were like that from the beginning. I went off to college being young and uh making poor decisions and kind of drifted away. But I think there's something about having a family and having kids that really makes you stop and pause and re-evaluate like what's important, what you want to see the little ones grow up as. So I've been really fortunate in the last years, I don't know how many years, but five, six years to dive deeper. Like I'm right now reading through the Bible. I did that last year, but I think just continuing to work on it, get a little bit better, raise the kids, have Bible study with them, learn in the community and things like that. So long story to was always drifted off the path and back to where I am, and I feel comfortable at where I'm at now. Learning in community, serving on kids' church, giving back and feeling the full ability and feeling very confident. I know there's a lot of different religions and whatnot, but I think more research and things like that, having a God that came down to earth as Jesus and wants a personal relationship is just super powerful to me. So that's the one and the reason I choose that one. I feel like some of different religions have a God that's high in the sky and disconnected. And to me, the one that's more personable and makes the most sense and has more historical backing with the Bible and other things like that. It's probably way more than you wanted, but that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Host’s Faith Journey And Community

SPEAKER_00 12:50

I think that's fascinating. That is great. It's so common these days, in particular, when kids go off to college. I think the the educational system almost teaches atheism today. You know, they have a different God, and that God is science. And so if it's not scientifically proven, then it doesn't count. So the fact that you manage to go through university and then come back to your faith. And there are loads and loads of benefits to that as well for your for your health, for your family, for the quality of your relationships. There was a book that I read recently, the title is How God Works. And I don't remember the name of the author. It it's a really good book, but what he was basically looking at is looking at the different r religious practices and then demonstrating the science behind it about why it works. And it's like what he's saying is these religions have developed over such long periods, and they may not have had the scientific information, but they looked out at the world and saw what works. So having a religious background, going to church, being part of community, that is so well documented as being good for you that I've heard that in California, I believe, they actually try to create secular churches in order to replicate the benefits that people get. But the one thing that they miss is going to be that faith. That faith. An example that I give, you know, imagine you're a child in school and perhaps you're sick or you're hurt and you've been taken to the nurse and you're waiting for your parents to come. Now the nurse is very kind. The nurse is taking care of you, doing everything to soothe you and whatever, but it doesn't compare to when your parents arrive and take and that to me, what faith is like, when you have that that absolute faith that God, a higher power, whatever you want to call it, it doesn't matter. But that adds a whole different element to that sense of inner peace that you have.

Rituals, Health, And The Role Of Faith

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think when you know there's assistance from outside, we're going through a lot of troubles and tribulations in this life. If you think it's like you against the world, I mean that's that's that's tough. That's hard to get around. But if you know that, you know, someone else is in your corner helping you out, I mean, things seem a little bit better. Even the difficult things will be a little bit smoother. Yeah, the science thing for me, one of my favorites is Frank Turrok. That's how he pronounces his name. But he talks about how the axis of the earth is at a very specific thing, the temperature of the earth, the you know, amount of oxygen on the earth are all very specific. If they were all off a tiny bit, we would not exist. There's no way we would exist. We'd burn up, we'd die, we'd choke, a whole bunch of different things. So his favorite quote or my favorite quote of his is if you had a box of alphabet cereal and it was knocked over and you came down in the morning and it spelled out words, would you think, oh, that just randomly fill spelled out like that? Or would you think a intelligent higher being placed them in a certain order? You would immediately think a kid or whoever, you know, spelled words out. You would never think it randomly fell into that. So that's one of my favorites. Like, oh yeah, just the world just, you know, fell out like that and we just became humans like that. It's like, it doesn't make any sense to me anyway. Like, I think even Joe Rogan says it like, I gotta go with God on this one. Like it just doesn't make sense. It's gotta be an intelligent being of some kind. So well, we got a little off track, but we'll jump into your three pillars. So the first one you submitted was the power of the mind. So I love to kind of dispel uh myths like we were talking about earlier. So, what do most people misunderstand about mental health or mental control versus mental awareness?

Fine-Tuning The Universe And Design

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Mental control over mental wellness. Again, it comes down to how much control you actually have and how it is possible to go back in your mind. As I said earlier, the the story about the woman who had a pain in her arm. Lots of our pains today are caused by things that happened in the past. So when you understand development, Eric Erickson talks about the eight stages of development, and I I cover that in mind training as well. But it can be a great outline to look at. So if you're having problems, for me, I had great feelings of inadequacy. I felt less than everyone else as I was growing up. I felt inferior. But looking at Ericsson's eight stages of development, I go back to when I was in a primary school. That's where your sense of self begins to come into play. And I realized then that I was brought up in England. In my area, in my school, there were only a couple of brown families. So there was very much a time when the Brits in particular thought they had it, they had it right. Their way was the only right way. And so I had this my entire childhood. Everything that I did that was different. Oh, you do it that way, do you? It was always looking down at me. That's that's how I felt. When once I saw that, I had the ability to step out of that. So having this awareness of where some of these things come from, and you do have the ability to go back and look. And all of these, all of these things get imprinted in your subconscious mind. We have a negativity bias. So, you know, perhaps I got praised a fair bit at school as well. But those aren't the things I'm going to remember. I'm going to think about all of those put downs. That those are the things that hurt the most. So having the ability to go back and look at these things again and to actually make changes so that we don't carry those complexes from the past into our future. Because those are the things that will hold us back. That is where self-sabotage comes from. If you don't think that you deserve good things, you're going to push them away. You won't see them when they appear in front of you. When you believe that you're capable of doing something, you will truly try your best to do it.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Oh yeah. I love the if you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're probably right. I think that's super powerful. Well, out of curiosity, since I'm calling from the UK, where are you calling from?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I'm in Spokane, Washington. In Washington State, so I'm on the west coast.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Isn't that hilarious? So you grew up in the UK, and I'm calling from the UK, and I grew up in Vancouver, Washington, so we are in opposite spots right now. That's kind of funny.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

What part of the UK are you in?

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Two hours northeast of London, so Bury St. Edmunds, I guess, is the biggest small town. So yeah, up here, yeah. It's kind of interesting. Well, I was curious how do thoughts quietly influence behavior before we ever notice the decision being made.

Pillar One: Power Of The Mind

Developmental Roots Of Self-Sabotage

Subconscious Decisions And Free Will

SPEAKER_00 20:54

That that's a really good question. The fact is, most of our choices are created by our subconscious minds. There's been research that shows there's activity in the subconscious mind up to seven seconds before you make a choice, which amazed me. Absolutely. I mean, I ch I checked these numbers. I I I dug into into this research really well. But what they were doing, they were doing experiments like, you know, are you going to press this button with your right hand or your left hand? So so the choices were very, very simple. But technicians looking at the equipment could predict what you would choose up to seven seconds before you thought that you made the choice. So this idea that our choices are made in our subconscious mind, a great deal of that is used in this idea that there isn't any such thing as free will. That's one aspect of it. But when you realize that the choices are being made by your subconscious mind, then you have the ability to start programming your subconscious mind yourself. We intake information all the time, Nate. Here's a really interesting example that I came across. I was looking at the placebo effect. Now, the placebo effect is when you can have a positive reaction to Drug or a medication that isn't related to it. So you can, you know, they give you a placebo, they give you a lump of sugar and tell you that it's medicine. And, you know, w we're all aware of that. And in experiments and drug trials, they're always checking against the placebo effect. But one of the things that I encountered that really highlights the influence of enculturation so deeply was the fact that, if I get this the right way around, the placebo response for hypertension in Germany is particularly low. But when it comes to gastric ulcers, in Brazil it is really low, it's higher in Europe, and it's highest in Germany. Now what is there in our enculturation process? That's everything. That's our environment, our peers, the society that we live in. What is there in that process that will change the placebo response for an entire for the population of entire country? You know, that is absolutely amazing. So when you look at that, you become aware of all the ways that you can intake information. For me, a big part of that is the entertainment that we choose. How many people choose entertainment that is the end of the world, doom and gloom, bad guys, you know, the Hallmark type TV is not the most popular. You know, those feel-good things aren't the most popular. But all of these things have an influence. So for females, you know, I used to watch lifetime movies, and oftentimes they're about he did me wrong. You know, it's about the the the bad guy. And when you when you watch that kind of entertainment, then that's what you look out for. And so then you suspect potential partners of not being as honest, not being as as good. And so you push positive relationships away. You you don't trust them. So I think the entertainment we cons consume has a huge role in the kinds of people that we are, the kinds of lives that we experience. And it's not only entertainment, you can take that to politics as well. I'm not gonna go down the politics, because but there is a great deal of doom and gloom in there, and I much prefer to think that all of us basically want the same things. You know, we want to live in good societies, we want to live in societies that help each other. We just may have different ways to achieve that. That's all.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Yeah, that's interesting. I just saw a thing with Tony Robbins. He was on a podcast and he had his guest, actually, I think he was the guest, but he had him look around and look at the whole room, and he's like, Look for something red. And then he looked around and then he's like, Tell me what was brown. And he couldn't think of anything because, like you said, you're focused on the red. So if you just intake all the red, like he could name 10 or 15 different red things around, but he needed to identify the brown. He's like, I can't think of anything because all you're doing is ingesting the one thing that you were told to ingest. So that was pretty powerful, pretty easy in a very short amount of time to show. He's like, I I can't think of the other thing. But good examples. Well, we'll move into your second pillar, which is practical spirituality. So many people struggle with spirituality feeling abstract. How do you make it practical?

Placebo, Culture, And Conditioning

Media Diets And What We Notice

SPEAKER_00 26:09

I will put things into practice wherever I can. Practical spirituality is taking time to experience awe. From your own stories, you actually said that when you look at rainbows, of course, that inspires a feeling of a higher power. But taking time to experience awe has been shown to reduce stress, increase the immune response, create happier, you know, better well-being. So one of the things that I will do, I'd like to go out for walks, and I will take time. It doesn't take a great deal of time. It's not like it like it takes effort, but I will think about what it is I'm seeing out there. The the clouds, the cloud formation, the blue sky, the weeds that are growing through a crack, the beautiful trees. I love trees. I'm a bit of a tree hugger, I have to confess. But when I see a tree that is actually beautifully shaped, I take a moment to appreciate that and to have the awe. And and that that is definitely, you know, practical. There is the optimism. Optimistic people live longer, they have a much reduced risk of, I mean, it comes up to like a 52% reduced chance of dying of an infectious disease for optimistic people. Now, when you have faith, it's a lot easier to be optimistic because you know that someone is taking care of you. But the practical side of that is, you know, some people are just born more pessimistic, but you can change it. That comes back to what I said before. You are not necessarily just the person that you think you are, you know, based on genes. You can change that. So when you see all the benefits of being optimistic, you can make practical changes in your life. So you have those thoughts, oh my god, I'm gonna get fired, blah, blah, blah, you know, and you you go down that kind of spiral, or everyone hates me, I'm the least popular person here. If you can say, hang on, what if that's not true? What if that isn't that isn't the case at all? Oftentimes the things that we fear actually don't happen. When I was young, I was about 17 and I was going through religious phase in my life. But I was all I was young, I was 17, I was very passionate about everything, and everything was all so urgent that you know, if people didn't agree with me, it was the end of the world. If they didn't do the right thing, it was the end of the world. And a friend said to me, Why are you worrying about this stuff? Hand it to God. At that time in my life, I had the ability to visualize really clearly. Now, I don't believe, you know, a God that is up there out of reach to me, it is personal, but I could picture in my mind this being in front of me, and I could see myself taking my troubles, my worries, and putting in their lap. Now I put that into practice. I did this for a few months, and I discovered that most of the things that I worried about didn't come to pass anyway. Those that did come to pass, well, I hadn't spent the last couple of months worrying about them. So I had hadn't wasted that time in worrying about them. I could deal with them when they actually arose. So that to me is, you know, a huge part. So looking at the positive side is not being Pollyanna, but it does have real, real benefits attached to it. I did also decide after this three or four month experiment that I did that life was a bit dull when you aren't attached to certain things. You have to care about the world. So I so today I I I care deeply about the world. I will do what I can, but then I also understand that there is a time to let go and let God, you know, you do the best that you can, you put it out there, and then you allow it to happen.

Pillar Two: Practical Spirituality

SPEAKER_02 30:49

It's so much easier said than done, but I always, you know, tell my wife why I worry about it twice. And it wasn't until more recently I saw there was a study where they put somebody in the CAT scan, MRI, whatever it was, and then watch the parts of their brain light up. And if you're thinking about an argument, it's the exact same part of your body. You go through the exact same stress as if you're thinking about the argument and if you're actually having the argument. So you're going through the turmoil, the physical stress twice for no re like if it's gonna be difficult, you might as well just make it difficult once. I think that's you know, obviously easier said than done. I'm in like, you know, leadership management position at work. So I mean, I'm constantly thinking through of what I should say and prepping for meetings and things like that. So part of me does stress twice. I call it preparation, but I would love to let go of a little bit more of those things. But yeah, why why stress twice? It's it's kind of pointless. And I think to go back to what you were talking about earlier, everyone has a different place and a different way to connect. I was uh stationed in Guamps, a remote island in the middle of the Pacific, and I had never felt more connected to God than I did out there. The stars are brighter than I've ever been because there's not as much light pollution from cities and things like that, because you're on an island that's like two miles wide, and so you just get the brightest stars. And I did a bunch of scuba diving, so at a hundred feet down, just seeing the colors, the creatures, the creations that are there, you can't hear as much because your ears are full of water, so it's quiet, it's peaceful. And so I think you know, there's a time for church and there's a time for community, but there's like certain times and places where like that for me, the nature and science, like I said earlier, like reconfirms it. It doesn't separate me. I've never felt more connected at a hundred feet under the water. What do you think about that?

Awe, Optimism, And Letting Go

Nature As A Doorway To The Sacred

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Absolutely. Love watching the stars. I I take time out to experience awe. And it gives me that great feeling inside that that I'm connected, that the world is a beautiful place. You know, you can look out at the world and see all the beauty, or you can look out in the world and see all the ugly. I think the more you focus on the beautiful side, the more you reflect that back. It's about be the change that you want to see in the world. So yes, experiencing all of these things. One of the things that I I encountered, if you've read Sapulsi's book Determined, he argues very, very well. You mean he's absolutely brilliant, but he gives all the evidence for why free will does not exist. And it all makes perfect sense because everything does have a precursor. You know, we do have our genes, we do have our past experiences, we are fortunate or unfortunate in where we were born, the time that we're born in. So so he's absolutely correct with all of that. But as I read his book, I also just as you can find that feeling of connection looking at the stars. I found God in Sapolsky's book. Now he would probably be horrified if he heard me heard me say this. But there was one, I think there was an example he was talking about, I think it was neurons in a Petri dish. And when it was two-dimensional, they just moved about random. But when it was three-dimensional, they started to connect together to form structures. And it's like, oh, there's there's something, there's something deeper in this. But to take the free will idea a whole step further, you know, I was talking earlier about our subconscious mind creates our decisions, our choices are made in our subconscious mind. But if you take control of that and you start to make changes in your own life, when you understand the psychology behind what you do and you learn how to make the changes, then you become part of somebody else's experience. So someone looks at you, they see where you came from, they see what a pessimist that you used to be, and they see the change, and now you're more optimistic, and everything is working out better for you. So with the optim optimistic people are more financially successful, healthier, have better relationships, live longer. When other people see that, you become part of their experience. And to me, there's a great deal of spirituality in that. You can have an influence on the world without hammering on everybody and forcing everyone to believe the way you do. Just make the changes for yourself and it will reflect out in the world and make changes out there.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Yeah, lead by example. It reminds me of one of my favorite guest speakers. I saw Mark Sandberg. He wrote a book called The Fred Factor. I love that book. Have it in my office at work. But he talks about a guy that works at Solastic, the book company, and he's talking to him and he's a forklift driver. And so the guy very easily could say, I'm just a forklift driver. Because I think a lot of us do that. We say, We're just whatever. But he asks this guy what he does, and without skipping a beat, he says, I deliver the ability for kids to read. And then you're like, the connection to others. He's making kids read. He sees the larger picture, he sees the connection. And so I thought that was so powerful. I think a lot of us want to minimize. Like, I just drive the forklift in the warehouse. I'm kind of I'm boring and it's not a great job. But he said, deliver the ability for kids to read. I was like, that's that's true connection, right there. Well, we'll transition into your final pillar, which is the automatic nature of our being. So, what do you mean when you say much of our life is automated?

Free Will Debates And Quiet Influence

Identity, Purpose, And Everyday Impact

Pillar Three: Life On Autopilot

SPEAKER_00 37:05

It is, and we have to work if you don't make conscious efforts to protect against some of these things, then yes, you are you are going to be be puppeted. So much research has been done on, say, compliance principles. So amongst the research that I've encountered, there was this idea that if you're in a restaurant and the waitress is wearing red, she will get higher tips. And it doesn't matter if the patron is male or female, a waitress wearing red will get the higher tips. They've also they've done research where just having a bottle of hand sanitizer on the table. If you're doing a questionnaire that is looking at your political leanings, having a bottle of hand sanitizer on the table will lean you more conservative. So there is a great deal that goes on in our minds, in society, where we act totally on automatic. And a great deal of research has been done to figure out how to get you. You know, that's what marketing is all about. The marketing, the advertisers, the media. We're aware today of the algorithms that Facebook will use and they will pump the stuff at you to get you angrier, to get you more more heated up so that you stop thinking. So the more you learn about how this stuff gets in, the more you can control for it. So but thing is, you don't have to become brain scientists, you don't have to have a PhD in social sciences to understand this stuff. You just have to be aware that it exists and there are all of these ways, because that helps you go into the system two thinking that Kahneman talks about. So system one is that automatic thinking. You act, you know, you respond automatically. System two, you slow down and you actually think about stuff. So when you're watching something on the TV, maybe it's politics that becomes the easiest example, stop and think, how are they choosing their words? Are they trying to rile me up? Are they trying to move the arguments in this way or that way? When you just put that skeptical cap on, then it will stop some of these triggering events happening so automatically. You you won't get pushed around. Here's an example perhaps that that will make it clearer. When I was younger, I think I was about 16, and my brother had been to see The Exorcist in the theatre and it scared him silly. But I I was too young to go, so when it came out on cassette, he brought it home so that he wanted to watch me watching The Exorcist because he wanted to watch me freaking out. Now I knew what he wanted to see, so I put my thinking cap on. So I watched the entire movie, and it I mean it is very well done. But rather than being sucked into the movie, I'm thinking, I wonder how they did those special effects. That's cool. Now I don't know anything about special effects and the kinds of makeup that they do, but I know that they do them. So I was able to watch this entire movie without that fear building up within me. And so when it comes to these compliance principles that advertisers will use, the media uses, politician uses, if you are aware of them, and I go through a great deal of them in mind training, when you're aware of them, it just becomes easy to take that little step back, put on that skeptical hat. And then that gives you the ability to see through things. One of the things that I pay close attention to these days is adjectives. When a reporter is talking about a story, if they are throwing in their adjectives, the disgusting comments someone made. Well that's not reporting, because you've already influenced it with the word disgusting. Or on the other side, when they say that the beautiful presentation he gave was so uplifting and blah blah blah. No, they're putting their spin on. They're not just reporting the story. They are influencing. So I will look at articles, look at I try to do my own research, you know, politics is such a mess today, but I will look at it and I will read a paper and if it's if it's full of all of these adjectives, I will automatically take them out to try to get to the real story that is underneath it. I don't want someone trying to push me into saying, well, this person is bad because they made a disgusting comment. I'm gonna say, well, what's the comment so I can make my judgment myself? And conversely, I don't want it going the other way as well. So adjectives is a big place where you can be pushed without you being aware of it. It becomes automatic. But when you're aware of these techniques, you can guard against it and take back control of your own mind and your own ideas, and in the process work to program your own subconscious mind in a way that works for you and not according to the puppeteering of you know big corporations.

Compliance Triggers And System Two

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Yeah, that's good. I like that. It's a good reminder for everyone listening. It kind of reminds me of I've heard the five senses, I think, is a technique. If you start to get riled up or a panic attack, you focus on something in the room, and then you try to focus on what it sounds like, what it I guess not tastes like because you wouldn't be eating it, but you got try to go through your five senses to try to hone in or you eat a piece of candy and you try to work through the five senses of your body to kind of re-engage and figure out like where am I? Not as much on the the verbs or ad adjectives, but what you're talking about earlier kind of reset, like where am I, and kind of get centered again. That's that's interesting. Have you heard the five senses? Is that what it's called?

Language Cues And Media Hygiene

Grounding, Breath, And Resetting

SPEAKER_00 43:46

I've not heard of that technique. That's going to be a variation on mindfulness when you start paying attention to the the details that are around you. So the the temperature of the room, the quiet outside, maybe the airplane going outside. But you just become aware of the now. When you are in the now, then you're not worrying about the future and you have the ability to calm your system down. I like to focus on what my body's doing right now. So if I'm fine that I'm breathing too fast or I'm feeling uptight, I will take a couple of diaphragmatic breaths. Diaphragmatic breaths, you know, when you actually feel your diaphragm expand, that has been shown to reduce blood pressure pretty quickly. In fact, I did an experiment on myself. I've always had great blood pressure, but I went through some trauma. My brother passed away during COVID, and you know, that was really stressful. And then some people behave really badly when someone passes away because there's grabbing money. And it it was ugly, it was ugly and it was stressful. And I found my blood pressure creeping up. So then I was taking my blood pressure and I took it and it was higher than my norm, because my norm was always excellent up until that point. So I incorporated some of the techniques that I talk about in mind training. What they found was if you smile, put on a pretend smile, an artificial smile, your brain will automatically produce endorphins. Even if you put a pencil between your teeth. I thought that was the most ridiculous thing when I first heard about it. I dug in, the research is really solid there. So when I was having this issue with higher blood pressure than I wanted, I took my blood pressure, I got the numbers. I then took three diaphragmatic breaths. So breathing, you know, just put your hand under your rib cage and actually feel that stretch. You know, you do it nice and slow and even and then release it. I took three or four diaphragmatic breaths, I put a silly smile on my face. Fortunately, I was at home, there wasn't anyone to watch me looking silly, and then I took my blood pressure again and it had dropped 30 in less than a minute. And then it would creep back up again, and then I would do them again. But think about it, Nate. If you take these moments throughout the course of the day, if you you know, just like three or four times during the course of the day, take a few moments to experience or to do some diaphragmatic breathing, to smile at yourself, to tell yourself it's okay, Ravinda, you've got this. You know, there there is science behind that too, call talking to yourself and using your own name. But if you do this a few times a day, that your body has the ability to reset and it discovers where its baseline should be, not where it is when you're constantly stressed throughout the day. So these techniques are really simple, really easy, but they can have profound results.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

Absolutely. The mind is a powerful thing, especially when we just slow down. Well, I'd like to bring it all together. You had three wonderful pillars today. So, where does the awareness of the mind, living spirituality, and automatic behavior intersect?

SPEAKER_00 47:38

I think it becomes a whole package. For me, it's going to be in the spiritual part of it. I wish to be the best version of myself possible. So I look at all of these automatic behaviors. I wish to be the best part of myself. So I look at my past to see how I'm holding myself back. And I wish to be a positive contribution in the world. So I'm constantly looking at how I can achieve that. So to me, the central point is going to be the spirituality. I define that as being the best version of myself. I suppose you can, you know, perhaps you're not a spiritual person, but I I don't think it's possible to move through the world, just as you said. And when you take the time to appreciate or to appreciate the stars, to appreciate the trees or the fresh breeze on your face, then it's very difficult not to think about the spiritual part of it. And I believe very much in oneness. We are we are herd animals, we function better together, we create great societies by working together. So if you can help your next door neighbor, it doesn't have to be, you know, with any expectation of, you know, receiving anything back. It feels good. It feels good, Nate, and that's good for your mind, body, and soul.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

Absolutely. We are social creatures at our core. We're supposed to eat together, hunt and gather together. I mean, all that. Back to caveman. We're supposed to do stuff together. Absolutely. Well, thank you for the clarity and calm you brought into this conversation. Before we wrap up, where can people connect with you and follow your work?

SPEAKER_00 49:24

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram. You can visit my website. That is simply ravindataylor.com. I love hearing from people. I think life is a journey and we're constantly learning from each other. So if you read mind training, do reach out to me and tell me what you think about it. Tell me where I I could do better. Tell me what areas that you know I didn't cover deeply enough, and I will go research them and then I will incorporate that into my teachings as I go forward.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

Always good to get some feedback. So to everyone listening, thanks for spending part of your day with us here. Start paying attention to what runs automatically. That might be what real freedom can start. I love you all. See ya.