I know what to write!
A good friend of mine, he's a new friend but a good one, told me that cognitive dissonance was important. That's funny, because one day I read in 1984 that that was a bad thing, and it stuck. But then I heard Tom Bilyeu mention that it's useful, or good, or something, to be able to hold two conflicting ideas in your head.
I think that's true now, because sometimes, or many times, those two conflicting ideas only seem conflicting, but might not be, as you begin to understand the ideas more, and realize that in fact they reconcile well. Or maybe they're two parts to a larger whole.
Cognitive Dissonance, Marisa Peer style: I am not a grumpy father. I accept my three year old son's whining and crying and screaming at kids. I don't scream at my son back when he screams at the top of his lungs because he spilled his milk. I don't do that. Cognitive dissonance: I understand that he is only three, that he is basically run almost exclusively by his limbic system. Cognitive dissonance: because I know that intellectually and have digested it viscerally (my prefrontal cortex said to the amygdala, "Hey guy, this stuff is real" and the amygdala said "Hey cool I got it," because of that excellent intra-brain communication (cognitive dissonance) I now no longer scream at my son when he screams in the car because we won't go to the Italian restaurant he wants to go to.
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