Folks, we are emerging into a time of what some are calling “The Great Unlearning.”
The majority of society is functioning on just repeating the ways things have been done in the previous generations, but just because tons of people have done things a certain way doesn’t mean that that way is the best. We have “learned” ways of behavior that are often not that great.
With the onslaught of the Information Age that we are currently living in, it is so important to discern what is real and what is fake. With AI, “fake news,” social media personas, fake zoom backgrounds, etc. taking center stage, it’s very hard to know what is real these days. Anyone could make up a fake identity and a fake location and live a completely fake online presence. It’s really fascinating, and scary. But the positive side of this is that we are being forced into more discernment of what is true or not, what is good for us and what isn’t.
In the past, learning was mostly relegated to formal education and following along with what we were told was the right thing to do based on what previous generations said. Unlearning is the process of letting go of old habits, beliefs, and ideas that no longer serve us. You see, most people will literally just ingest whatever they are fed. For many years, if something was in an encyclopedia or on the nightly news, we deemed it as real. If our parents said, “You have to live your life like this,” then that is what we took to be truth.
The Information Age and the Age of Artificial Intelligence is challenging these old ways of being. Ideally, we stop just ingesting what is in front of us and we take a moment and decide whether it is something that we actually want to take into our systems. There are many beliefs and ways of being that have been viewed as “normal” that are actually really harmful. It is imperative that we start really paying attention to and deciding what’s good for us. This is no different than choosing to eat organic versus fast food. We must be equally as choosy with our beliefs, and do mental and emotional detoxes to clear ourselves of those too.
“The Great Unlearning” refers to this exact process of removing and releasing thoughts, behaviors, and ways of being that we were taught but that are not in alignment with us anymore—and I dare say many of them were never in alignment with us, but we didn’t know any better. Now that we are evolving into more conscious and discerning beings, it is imperative that we weed our internal gardens.
Some quick examples of things you may want to unlearn:
- That you need others to approve of what you’re doing
- That it’s not okay to express your feelings
- That it’s wrong to speak kindly about yourself
- That you have to work hard to make money
- That you must be a certain way to be valuable
The list goes on! What would you add? Write to us and tell us some things you think we should unlearn as a society! n
