How Inner Propaganda Works

Changing Minds with Owen Fitzpatrick

In this episode, we explore the phenomena I first mentioned in my TEDx talk… Inner Propaganda… and explain how it works and how we influence ourselves internally.

Propaganda - Information of a misleading nature designed to influence people

Attention - we focus on whatever maintains the narrative

Confirmation Bias - we convince ourselves we are correct

Beliefs - Ideas with the feeling of certainty attached

Mindset - A collection of beliefs that we have about a specific topic

Emotions - Affect that we interpret in a particular way

Moods - Emotions that last more than a few minutes

Thoughts - Ideas we generate inside our mind consciously or unconsciously

Internal multilogue - the conversations that happen inside our head between different voices

Core Beliefs - what we believe no matter what we feel

Emotional Beliefs - what we believe when we feel a particular emotion

Our Inner narrative - the story we tell ourselves about a situation

An Emotion leads to emotional beliefs and an inner narrative that interprets the experience we are having.

From the internal multilogue, the negative voices gain power and use negative thoughts and emotional beliefs and an inner narrative. try and convince us of a negative reality.

This reality can keep the emotion alive and lead to a mood and even a mood disorder.

To overcome the challenge posed by inner propaganda, we need to take back power in our own minds.

This means understanding the difference between core beliefs and emotional beliefs.

It means changing our inner narratives and choosing where we put our attention.