Stop Letting The Culture Control The Way You Think

In a culture built on control; controlling the way we think and the decisions we make, there is hope if you want to break free manipulation and start to think for yourself!

Summary

In this video, I'll talk how control, competition and dualism has found it's way into most of our day to day activities and how if we're not aware of this it can limit our ability truly think for ourselves.

I share the importance of building a firm foundation and what I've discovered about the role of contemplative practices in finding peace and clarity.

I'll provide a simple 4 step strategy anyone can use to identify areas where they feel pressured to choose sides and how begin prioritizing their own voice and thoughts.

My hope is this video will serve as a catalyst for your decisions and determination to become free to think for yourself and overcome the pressure to conform to dualistic thinking.

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Takeaways

Build a firm foundation by regulating your soul and finding peace within yourself.

Recognize the pressure to conform to dualistic thinking and the need to choose sides.

Practice contemplative thinking and create space for solitude to find clarity and peace.

Prioritize your own voice and thoughts, and practice being true to yourself.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Gratitude
03:22 Building a Firm Foundation
08:05 Dualistic Thinking and Pressure to Choose Sides
26:18 Contemplative Practice and Solitude
28:27 Taking Action: Carving Out Time and Reflecting
37:44 Practicing Being Yourself
38:13 Conclusion and Encouragement

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Transcript

Treveal C.W. Lynch (00:00.878)
Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome once again into the I am the possible universe, the place where possibilities become perspective. I am Treveal CW Lynch, Mr. What What, and I am here to help you to regulate your soul and elevate your success. Today, we're going to be talking about the freedom to think, the freedom to think.

specifically the freedom to think for yourself. Now, before I get into this, I just wanted to pause for the calls as I always like to do. Thank you. Thank you so much for number one, being my cause. Secondly, thank you so much for sharing in this moment, in this space, in this place, for giving me your attention. I seek to serve and I wanna express my gratitude, my thanksgiving.

For you for who you are for what you are and for what you do. I just thank God for you And if you're giving me the next few minutes of your day Of your life, then I want to honor that and I want to start off by letting you know how much I honor that and how much I truly Appreciate that. So thank you so much. If this is your first time ever watching or listening then I Want to encourage you to subscribe if you're watching me on YouTube?

Then you know, please, you know hit that subscription button Hit that little bail so that you are notified each and every time I drop new Content each week and if you're listening on a podcast platform then I want to encourage you to also follow and to subscribe to the podcast so that you might receive a continuous flow of encouragement a continuous flow of

of inspiration and information that's going to help you to regulate at the soul and to elevate at your level of success, your kind of success, the kind of success that God created you to be and to experience. So let's get into this. I want to share a quick, I think it's like a paragraph, not even a whole lot. It's like, it's just one.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (02:27.534)
Well, let's just say two paragraphs. From a book that I'm reading, actually I'm reading it for the second time. I've already read it cover to cover, end to end. It's not a very thick book, right? If you're watching on YouTube, it's just a very thin book. So quick read in terms of pages. Not a quick read in terms of content. It is very dense. It is very...

You know, you read one page and you can sit on that one page for a week or two weeks, right? So, I mean, it's like that, right? But it is a book for those who desire a more contemplative way of living, a way of praying, and a way of relating to God. It has some gems, some jewels, some nuggets, man, of pure gold that can help you to better regulate, right? Because that's our foundation.

Right? We can't elevate unless we first learn to regulate, to get ourselves to a place where our foundation is firm and secure. Right? I always draw the analogy of if you were an architect or a building contractor, right? And you want to go out and build a skyscraper, right? Because all of us, when it comes to success, we want to experience as much success as possible. We want to grow as much as we can. We want to...

expand, we want to evolve, we want to level up, we want to do success on the grandest stage, on the highest level, right? At the highest level. So in order for us to build that skyscraper of success, we have to first lay a foundation, which is firm, right? And so this is going to help us. What I'm going to share today about learning to think and learning to think for yourself, free thought, free thinking.

Right? The ability to not be enslaved to someone else's thoughts and someone else's ideas and someone else's ways of doing things. Being able to really acknowledge what's, uh, what God put in you, what God's called you to created you for so that you might be extremely regulated at a soul level, that your soul is being fed and led by something that is giving you life. It's not draining you.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (04:50.168)
It's not tormenting you. It's not confusing you, but it's it's it's affirming you, right? And it's building and it's constructing the soul space that is necessary, which is the foundation of our lives and which we build from. OK, so today I am going to use this this book's passage or this book's

Paragraph as a launching pad to share what I want to share. Okay, and it's just a really quick strategy, right? I'm all about sharing strategies simple strategies that you know help us again To to to regulate at a soul level and to elevate at a success level. Okay so this this this paragraph is It starts off with the mind of Christ the mind of Christ. It says I

In contemplative practice, you refuse to identify with any one side while still maintaining your intelligence. I'm gonna say that one more time. In a contemplative practice, which is a just contemplative, let's just summarize it. It's well thought, long thought, long pondering, meditative, contemplative. You're giving and you're considering something.

from a still, quiet space, right? Many times you're in solitude, many times you're just pulling away, right? And I'm gonna get to some of that in just a moment. But a contemplative practice, or in contemplative practice, right? You refuse to identify with any one side while still maintaining your intelligence. That means...

You don't have to pick a side in order to be considered intelligent. You retain your wit, your brilliance, your intelligence. You maintain that. Now it says, you hold the creative tension in every seeming, seeming, it appears that way, every seeming conflict and go beyond words to pure open -ended experience.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (07:14.414)
which has the potential to unify many seeming contradictions. Notice how wordy political and academic discord is and how quiet monks and hermits are.

The next couple of paragraphs start to go into more of how we relate to God, but I wanted to utilize just that first paragraph because it illustrates something very, very specific. In contemplative practice, you refuse to identify with any one side while still maintaining your intelligence or thinking.

your ability to think, to process, to reason, to strategize, to calculate, to come up with an answer, to come up with a decision.

You know, we live in a very dualistic culture. Pick a side from birth. Pick a side. It's not a bad thing. These examples that I'm about to give you, inherently, they are not bad. I'm just using them as an example to show you how dualism or dualistic thinking, which is summarized by...

the the practice, the perspective, the the principle even that as humans we must choose a side and what tends to happen is it's an opposing side. See the minute you choose one side you're opposing the other. If you're not with me,

Treveal C.W. Lynch (09:21.358)
then you're against me. When the truth is, I can easily not be with you and not be against you. There is this thing called neutral. There is this thing called I don't care about that given thing. So I'm not gonna pick either side, but.

Our culture doesn't allow us, or at least it attempts to not allow us to live in this neutral zone, to exist in this contemplative state, to exist in this non -dualistic reality. Because everything in our society, I'm just gonna share a few examples that just kinda come to mind of...

how we are always being told to choose. Let's say for example, something as simple as iPhone versus Android. Right? Have you ever been in a room where someone is all about the iPhone, all about the Mac computer, right? All about Apple. And you have an Android user, a PC user. You ever see how they start to butt heads?

Right? Oh man, you still on that Android? Listen, I'll raise my hand. I've been guilty. Cause at first I was an Android user. I finally, after my pastor had given me a old version of his cell phone, which was a, you know, iPhone, I finally crossed over and I've never gone back. I just enjoy it more. I enjoy it more. But.

I'm not quote, against androids, but I have found myself poking and kind of teasing people who use androids, right? And so even though it can be fun and kind of humorous, it's still competition. It's still that side versus that side. Again, I know you're like, ah man, that's no big deal. Okay, let me give you another one.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (11:40.142)
It's around that time, right? It's getting close to the election season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go there. Red states, blue states. Republican, Democrat.

Hmm. Now that's that's about as far as I'm gonna go with that because I don't want you to I don't want you to You know cancel me right? I don't want you to cut me off cuz I ain't on your side, right? But you know, hey, that's that's an example Because when the election happens, what do we do? every news channel brings up the American map and As the results start coming in it's red

And it's blue states and it's blue states and it's red states. Let me give you another one. Now, again, I'm just giving examples just to kind of illustrate and paint a picture for you. You know, 20 something years ago, my wife and I, we moved out here to Southern California from Ohio. We had gangs in Ohio. You know, we had, you know, this or that on this side and that side. And, you know, a lot of the big time gangs from New York and LA, Chicago, they, you know, migrated and, you know, set up camp.

in Ohio but I mean when we moved here truly like the origins of the Bloods and the Crips right? Red for the Bloods, blue for the Crips, you on that side, you're on that side, opposing sides.

I could go on all day with just giving you more and more examples of this versus that, the dualistic mind, the dualistic approach to life and to living. And one thing that I have learned, because I've read this book and I have implemented it and I have taken on a contemplative lifestyle. So I'm speaking from experience. I'm speaking from practice. I was very dualistic.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (13:46.126)
I was very argumentative. Yeah, I think that's how you say it, right? I loved to argue. I loved to pick sides and prove my point. I loved taking up for one side and downing another side. That was my background. And even after coming to the Lord, I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan, right? If you're watching right now, I got on a cowboy hat.

Right. And hey, it's like my team versus your team. Right. That's another big example that I didn't even bring up. Um, in sports, right. We pick sides. We, we, we become opponents and it can get heated sometimes and we can cross the line sometimes. So why am I bringing all of this up and how does it relate to your freedom to think and your freedom to, you know, think for yourself and how does this all tie into you being more regulated that you might be?

more elevated. Well, if you feel in your soul, in your heart, a certain way about a certain thing, but because you have not been made aware of the matrix, which is AKA this dualistic society, this dualistic culture, if you're not aware of that,

You can be very troubled in your heart. You can feel a lot of conflict. You can be torn. Because society is saying, choose, pick a side. Get on a side. When it's time to vote, I don't know about you, but has anyone ever asked you, hey, who you voting for? It can be a casual question, but if you feel that pressure rise up in your chest, who?

who I'm voting for. And you have to kind of be careful. Because if you say the wrong name according to them, then they got a problem with you. Or they got a comment. Or they got a look on their face. You voting for them? Oh man, they, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like they gonna give you a piece of their mind because you didn't pick the side that they were on.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (16:11.758)
This happens in our workspace. If there's a vote, and I'm just taking casual things, but just making an illustration of them. You know, sometimes we have our little quarterly lunches and then there may be, you know, we have to vote for a restaurant, right? Okay, so there's 10 people on your team. They're saying Chinese or Mexican, right? And six people raise their hand or, you know, whatever for like Chinese, let's just say.

but you really want Mexican, you know, and it's like, well, the majority rules and the majority wants to pressure you like, oh man, why do you want that? You should want this, ah, yada yada yada. Like again, I'm just throwing things out there, but guys, you, as I always encourage you, you name it, you frame it, you put it into your context. What I'm doing is giving you some flavor, giving you some examples to help draw and bring to mind how it relates to you personally, because the examples that I'm giving you,

maybe none of them actually relate directly to you, but they're starting to spark the imagination and you're starting to think right now like, yeah, I have felt the pressure of having to pick a side, choose a side. Especially like if you grew up in a home where maybe the parents split and there was a custody battle and it's like, oh, I gotta go with my mom or oh, I gotta go with my dad. And then the parents wanna like, you know.

tell you how bad the other one is. I don't know if you've ever experienced something like that. Oh, your mom is a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or when you're with your dad or when you're with your mom, oh, you know, your dad is no good. You know, he ain't taking care of business, you know, but whatever it is, it's like you're in the middle and society is always telling you pick a side, pick a side, pick a side. That's my point. And when you're always under the pressure to pick a side at,

at like every turn that can create conflict that can create a void of peace and it can rob you of your regulation. It can rob you of that because you're in this system that isn't really supporting your soul space and you haven't learned the language to identify what the problem is. You're feeling it, but you don't know how to name it. Right.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (18:36.526)
That's one of the first things that you learned in emotional intelligence, learning to name, to identify the emotion that you're feeling. Once you're able to name it, then you're able to change it. Once you learn how to name it, then you're able to address it or to unpack it, right? And so you may be going through this dualistic conflict living in this world where you want to think for yourself.

You want to be free to have your own thoughts, your own opinions, your own ideas. But wherever you are, whether it's on your job, in your church, that's a big one. That's a huge one, right? You go to a church and you have this relationship with God and God has downloaded some things to you or God's speaking some things or you're reading some things in his word and you feel very...

naturally, right, convicted toward a certain thing or a certain belief about God. You have a certain dynamic to your relationship with God. But then when you go on Sunday morning, what's being taught, what's being preached, what's being pushed from the pulpit or small groups or from certain ministries or just other members, what's being pushed is in conflict with what

you know to be true for you. And now you're wrestling. And not all wrestling is negative or bad. I'm just saying that it, again, this is all about regulation. I'm all about helping you to regulate. And so step one is learning and becoming aware that A, your voice has value. That inner voice, that voice matters. That voice matters. That's your voice.

And for some of us, that inner voice has never emerged. It's never been given permission to be heard and to speak. It's been suppressed and depressed by a dualistic society that says that voice doesn't matter. Only the voices that you hear so loudly coming across media outlets and social media and, you know,

Treveal C.W. Lynch (20:56.27)
The various circles that you're in is like society says no, no, no what you think what you feel Doesn't matter Get on board with us pick one of these sides Choose one of these sides and as soon as you do Whatever side you do pick. Hi, you've just created some enemies because as soon as you pick that side you are Directly opposed to that side. That's how it works

And you just trying to live your life. And now you're caught up on every turn you make. You're the enemy of someone else. You feeling some type of way about someone else and someone else is feeling some type of way about you. And it's divide and conquer. It's divide and conquer. Dualism is divide and conquer. Let's get us butting heads. Let's get us opposing each other's ideas and thoughts. Let us get this. Let us start devaluing one another's thoughts and ideas for the sake.

of elevating our thoughts and ideas, customs, religions, traditions. That's how deep this little rabbit hole goes, man. So if you, you know, again, if you are feeling that pressure to pick a side right now in your life, to choose a side, I want you to know that you don't have to pick a side. You can pick your side. You can pick you.

And through a contemplative practice, just like it said in the book, you can refuse to identify with any one side. That's possible for you, right? That's why this is the place where possibilities become your perspective. That's possible. It's possible for you to break free of the matrix. It's possible for you. You can begin to see...

The possibility that peace and calm and resolution and regulation internally for you is possible. Yes. Yes. Now again, I encourage you to search your soul and identify where dualism has invaded your life, where you have felt pressured by other people to choose a side and pick a side.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (23:20.138)
It doesn't resonate anymore. It doesn't align. It doesn't serve is not pleasant. It's not pleasing. It's causing you trauma and Drama, it's causing you conflict and confusion You lack confidence and clarity because you are always trying to pick a side and While you are so busy and caught up in trying to pick a side You are losing more and more

of you. That's what it does. I'm a Republican. I'm a Democrat. Man, you, you. Stop it. Stop this. Are you a Republican? Are you a Democrat? Man, I'm me. That's what I is. I'm me. And if I choose to vote on any level, like, cause you know, it ain't just the president. It's like all these other candidates for all these other positions.

I might vote three or four people on the Republican side. I might vote three or four people on the Democrat side. You ain't about to dictate to me. You ain't about to tell me because I've dedicated my life to a side, to a party that half the time ain't really serving my best interest anyway. If we won't keep it a buck, you ain't, you know, what have you done for me lately while I'm so committed and dedicated to serving you and supporting you, right? And you

pocketing funds and you know, your bank account on 10 and mine still on one, right? Like, don't get me on that soapbox, right? So it's like this idea, man, where we are just troubled because we're always trying to fit in to this side or that side when God is calling you to his side. The side of love, the side of peace, the side of joy, the side of contentment, satisfaction.

The side of meaning and purpose, a non -dualistic side, a side that loves and embraces all, a side that cares about all, that sees value in all, but not so with our society, not so with humanity. Nope, pick a side. So I hope and pray that this has enlightened you, given you some, something to consider, to think about, something to...

Treveal C.W. Lynch (25:49.102)
Honda that has brought some awareness for you, right, in this area. So the two things that I covered, and then I want to leave you with a CTA. So again, let me kind of recap the things that I covered today was number one, being aware of the dualistic society in which we live in, dualism, summarized, pick a side. And whoever you pick, you are automatically positioned to oppose the other side. All right?

time out for that crap. The other thing that I brought you into an awareness of if you didn't already know it, this thing called contemplative prayer lifestyle, contemplative prayer lifestyle, or to contemplate all of it when it's like summarized, is this ability to be able to pull away from the noise and the clutter.

pull away from the chatter, to pull away from all of these conflicting voices and to steal yourself sitting quietly, peacefully in a space of solitude. Now that's not to say that you can't do this in a crowded room. I'm just giving you best case. I'm giving you how you might want to start off. A place of solitude, a place of, of yeah, solitude.

silence and stillness. I was thinking about my three S's whenever I teach that. Silence, solitude and stillness. This was demonstrated through Mark chapter one, verse 35. Jesus gets up while it was very early in the morning, left the house and went to a solitary place where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him and when they found him, they exclaimed, everyone was looking for you. And Jesus said, let us go from here.

to the nearby towns and villages that I may preach there also, for this is why I've come.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (27:51.438)
Jesus lived a contemplative life. He knew how to get up before the sun, before the people, before the noise, before the demand, and he knew how to get away.

I want to encourage you to do the same. If you don't have peace, if you're not regulated in your soul, remembering that that's the foundation for the elevation of your success.

You're not going to be able to build very high if your foundation isn't firm. You're going to be unstable and rocky and shaky and the building is going to collapse. So let's save yourself that pain and that experience by building a firm foundation through contemplation. Okay? Here's my CTA and then I'm going get up out of here. This week, take pen and pad as we always do.

Good old pen and pad. Let's put the cell phones down for a minute. Go to the 99 cent store or Dollar Tree or Target, wherever your cheapest things is. Come on, get the cheap, come on. Ain't gonna cost you much. I'm not trying to get in your pockets. Buy you a notebook, a spiral notebook and a pen. Cost you maybe a max five bucks. And I want you to carve out some time for yourself. Yeah, carve out some time.

You know, let's make you and let's make your voice a priority. Because you were created for a purpose and this world needs you. And you need you. All right? So let's carve some time out. Let's put pen to pad and let's start to think. I want you to list out three places where you feel the pressure of dualism. Where you feel, where you witness, where you are exposed to dualistic thinking. Dualistic pressure.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (29:53.134)
the dualistic demand, right? I want you to list out three places where you experienced that the most. And then I want you to begin to ask yourself, am I free to be me in these spaces? You're feeling the pressure, you're feeling, you're experiencing the pressure to try to make you choose. And I want you to ask yourself, am I free?

to be me in these spaces, right? In these places with these faces, right? Right, because it's always tied to another person, right? But just wanted to rhyme a little bit, right? So ask yourself that question and then wait for the answer. And then I want you to begin to ask yourself the next question of if I was free, what would I think? What would I do?

What would I choose?

By asking yourself the question, you give your mind something to work with. The mind is fashioned in such a way that it wants to support and it wants to provide answers to your questions and it wants to support your most dominant belief. But you gotta first start with the question. You gotta first start with what are you thinking? What are you, right? What's the thoughts? What's your opinion? What does your inner voice say?

And then the mind can begin to support that. So question number one, where am I feeling the pressure? Number two, am I currently free to be me in this space, in this place with this face? And then number three, if I had it my way, if there was no pressure, if there was no pressure, then what would I think? What would I say? How would I view this? How would I move in this space? And then number four,

Treveal C.W. Lynch (31:57.006)
I want you to write down one way that you can begin to move the way you want to move. Think the way you want to think. Just one way. Just one way with this awareness. Right? For example, if it was the political climate, maybe at your job, right? And I know we ain't supposed to be talking politics on the job, but let's say that you do have some coffee break room conversations about politics.

And maybe that's one of your things that you wrote down, right? Maybe that's one of your three. And you feel pressure, because they always talking about who you voting for, let's just say, for example. And then you say to yourself, nope, I don't feel free. I feel under pressure that, and I'm scared to tell them. I've been telling them that I'm just undecided. I'm still weighing my options. I'm still thinking about it. But the truth is you know who you want to vote for or you've decided not to vote. So.

Like you've come to a decision, but you're scared to tell them that you've come to that decision because you're afraid of the repercussions. Cause that's what dualistic, you know, thinking and the dualistic demand does. It, it, it puts you under pressure and then it punishes you, right? Based upon what you choose. Cause it doesn't want you to be free to be, you know, yourself. You have to fit into the box. You have to, you have to pick a side, right? You have to, you have to conform. Can't be free, conform.

So anyway, you know that you feel that way, right? And now you're saying to yourself, okay, if I had it my way, what would I do when I walked into that coffee break room? Like if I was totally free, no fear, imagine, envision, who would I be? And then now obviously because we live in this matrix, there are consequences to anything, whether it's positive or negative.

whatever you choose and whatever you decide, there are gonna be consequences. People may say things, people may come at you. But this isn't about avoiding conflict. The goal of this exercise and the goal of what I just shared is not about avoiding conflict. It's about being okay with the conflict because you're after something more valuable. This is about your freedom to think for yourself. The freedom to allow your voice to be valued.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (34:21.974)
Beginning with you. So there may be conflict. There may be a price to pay. There may be some things that may, that may, you know, there may be a rippling effect. Now you do have to use wisdom to know, you know, to what degree that you step into this. Cause if it's about your warfare, if it's about your dollars, if it's about your job, I'm not telling nobody to be so bold and courageous that you go in there and tell your boss off. Please don't hear that. Please don't hear nothing that's going to derail your life.

I think you're smart enough to already know that. I'm just saying, don't take it, you know, there is some wisdom to this on how you step into it. Okay? Like you got bills to pay, you got miles to feed, right? Like I'm not telling you to go radical, but what I am, you know, what I am encouraging you to do is to consider baby steps, simple, easy ways that you can begin to step into that. And maybe using the example that I just gave you, maybe the way that you might do that is,

the next time you walk into that coffee break room, I just made that up, coffee break room, I don't even know how you say it, but into that break room, then maybe you allowing your voice to be valued and you stepping into this newness and you stepping into being you and you breaking free of the dualism, right? Maybe it's simply you saying, I'm gonna keep that decision to myself.

because maybe you've never done that. Maybe you've just been trying to push them off and push them off and push them off. Avoid them. Oh, you see them in there talking about it? I'm gonna go the other way. You've been avoiding or you've been suppressing and you've been trying to maneuver your way around it instead of stepping into your voice, right? Being free to think for yourself. Because our thoughts are going to ultimately lead to some sort of behavior and action.

So now that you're free to think for yourself, maybe you're saying to yourself, you know what, the next time they ask me, I'ma just respond in a way that is very dignified, respectful, but very empowering for me. I'm gonna tell them that's my decision. And I choose to keep that information to myself. Don't ask me again.

Treveal C.W. Lynch (36:44.302)
You didn't lie. You didn't suppress. You didn't conform. You didn't avoid. Nope. You stood up for yourself and you allowed you to be and you were regulated within. And however they respond to that, ain't no policies against honesty. Like ain't no policies against you saying, I don't, you know, I choose not to share with you that information because you don't have to, right?

And you accomplish practicing being you. You practiced allowing your voice to be valued. You practice breaking the chains and the shackles of dualism. You practice stepping into yourself. And the more you do that, the more radical you may become.

But the more you do anything, the better you become at it and the more it becomes home for you. And I hope and pray that this place and space of regulation in your soul lays that foundation so that you might experience that elevation in the success that you are and the success that you are to experience in this world. I hope and pray that this has all made sense.

I love you guys and praying for you guys. I believe in you guys. Travell C .W. Lynch, Mr. What What here to share strategies that are going to help you to regulate your soul and elevate your success. Until next time, you guys be encouraged.