Mindful Voice Integration
Managing Moments on Life's Journey
What do we base our beliefs on?
The other day my new diesel Golf was hit from the back as I was waiting for a pedestrian to cross. The driver pulled over further up, I was already around the corner so arrived by his car some minutes later. By then he had allied himself with a man waiting at the bus stop, they both came towards me and said: ‘We actually think this was your fault, you were in the wrong.’
Now comes the bit that I am not particularly proud of….. I blew up to my full size and said with loud intensity: ‘Would you have liked me to run over the pedestrian? I have never heard of a traffic incident being the fault of the stationary car, hit from the back!’ Immediately they both backed down, the driver saying: ‘aah yes it was my fault, I was looking away at the time…..’ We exchanged cards……….. Mindfulness, coaching and mediation it says on mine…….. I was acutely aware of my powerful and bullying behaviour in the situation, and as I said, not proud!
Did they back down because they realised it would take too much to fight this madwoman? Or was it said with such conviction that they realised there was no point, in spite of minutes earlier believing otherwise?
It made me think about the whole issue around communicating forcefully and with conviction, regardless of what we say is correct or incorrect.
This is from The Health Report on Radio National:
"In the early 1970s a new procedure for treating choking victims burst on to the scene in the United States and soon it was famous around the world. The procedure was called the Heimlich manoeuvre, named after the man who created it—Dr Henry Heimlich. There is no scientific evidence that the technique works, and the literature is awash with reports of harm and this includes things such as fractured sternums, ruptured livers and other serious consequences of this Heimlich manoeuvre. In spite of this the Chief US Surgeon General, C Everett Coop took the unusual step of issuing a public health statement in which he urged the American Heart Association and the Red Cross to teach no other methods except the Heimlich manoeuvre."
How can medical practices become widely adopted despite an almost total lack of evidence, it seems charisma, power and public opinion can override science.
I have always thought that the only reason we think the French are so special is because they endlessly tell us that they make the best wine, the best food, the best fashion, the best lovers etc. Is it a fact that if something is expressed with authority and conviction then few of us would think of challenging?
In conversation about how beliefs have changed someone told me that her asthmatic sister in law was told by a doctor that the best thing for her would be to start smoking – this was in the seventies and she was dead within a couple of years.
You only have to look at all the ‘facts’ given to new mothers, it has changed significantly over the years and we always think, now we finally know, we were ignorant back then…. I wonder how many of these beliefs were based in research? And if they were; how much the research is worth if we wanted to prove a point we are emotionally attached to.
How many half-baked truths are we believing in, and how many are offered through the media, handed down through hearsay or family tradition?
Until next time
Warm regards,
Charlotte
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