Be more objective - subjective blinkers hold you back

Modern western culture encourages subjectivity. The focus is always on the personal, the emotional. A reporter interviewing a witness to some dramatic incident will not ask them to 'be objective'. They will be asked: 'Tell us how you feel!' Feelings, of course, are completely subjective.

While it's a good thing to be able to express your real feelings, and not feel obliged to repress or hide them, focusing purely on subjective responses can bring problems when you really want to know what's going on.

What happens when you are not objective

When you are highly emotionally aroused about something, whether in a good way or a bad way, you will find it difficult to think clearly. This is because emotions 'hijack' your neo-cortex, the 'thinking' part of your brain, and make you rely more on the amygdala, the 'emotional' part of your brain.

'Emotional thinking' is characterised by a black-and-white, all-or-nothing approach. There is no room for subtlety. It is often accompanied by a very powerful feeling of conviction - the sense that 'this is absolutely right' - that brooks no argument.

Emotional subjective thinking has its place

There are times when this 'emotional' approach is useful. It is essentially a life-saving mechanism. In situations of immediate threat and danger, where you have to take action at a moment's notice, it's easy to see that a powerful sense of absolute certainty that drives you into action can make the difference between life and death.

Better to jump aside and discover later that it was only a stick than to pause to consider the likelihood of this being a stick or a snake and getting bitten while you were thinking about it.

When it would be more useful to be objective

Human psychological and emotional evolution has not caught up with the pace of social change in our world. For most people in western society, the 'threats' we face come not from external physical dangers but from interactions within our own social groups, our own families, our own workplaces. However, the feeling of threat triggers emotional subjective responses. But now our reactions can become counterproductive.

Complex situations need objectivity

In the complex situations that are characteristic of social groups, the ability to see the bigger picture and not get swept away by emotion is crucial. If you can stay calm, and help others to calm down, it becomes much easier to analyse situations of every sort clearly, and determine options rationally rather than emotionally.

This means that the decisions you make are likely to be much better, more effective decisions.

How to master the waves of subjectivity and become more objective

Be more objective is a hypnotic session with two objectives (pun intended). It aims to make it easier to resist the social pressure towards increased subjectivity. And it will also make the practise of calming yourself down in the face of emotional arousal a natural response.

After you have listened to Be more objective a few times, you will notice both a general calming in your feelings about all sorts of things happening around you and a specific improvement in your ability to handle stressful or complex situations.

And you can be sure that whatever response a situation seems to call for from you, whether subjective or objective, you will be able to react appropriately and with confidence.

Download Be more objective and make yourself master of your emotions