Mental Immunity
The air is teeming with bad ideas, and kind of like COVID, we intellectually know they’re there, even though we often behave like we’re breathing in bad-idea-free air. It seems close to impossible to not get infected with societal ideals, such as the mentality that all women are mothers or there’s something wrong with your body if it doesn’t look like X.
Ness Labs introduced me to the idea of mental immunity, and I love it because it’s empowering. Because there’s something you can do.
Mental immunity is a psychological theory that is also known as cognitive immunology. With origins dating back 70 years, this field of research is based on the premise that not only is there an immune system for the body, but an immune system for the mind as well.
It’s protection against fake news or damaging beliefs or peer pressure. I’d go even farther and say that someone with a healthy mental immune system doesn’t become infected by their own “what ifs” and the fake news we tell ourselves. Thought-provoking, right?
2 comments
I’ve always had a pretty good immunity to peer pressure. I think it was maybe conditioning from my sisters – if that route of picking on you didn’t work, maybe this one will! Between that conditioning and my very smart mouth, peer pressure has never really been a factor for me. My child, on the other hand, sometimes listens to the nonsense. I wish I had passed that trait on to her.
Oooh, yes, that’s a really good one. I’m in need of mental immunity, ie learning to stop worrying. I’ve developed some immunity, but it’s not foolproof yet. (Efficacy, maybe 50%?) I definitely need thicker skin – I really wish I didn’t care about what people think of me.