Irrational Change: You Can’t Reason Your Way Out of Something You Didn’t Reason Into

One important lesson in psychology is that our minds are often way more irrational than we think they are. This has important implications for how we should approach any type of self improvement or self change.

“You cannot reason people out of something they were not reasoned into.”

Jonathan Swift

“Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” (CBT) is one of the most popular forms of therapy, and it’s shown to be effective for a wide-range of mental conditions and mental disorders. Being able to identify faulty logic, reframe negative beliefs, and learn to better accept your thoughts are all powerful tools for changing yourself.

But there are limitations to CBT, as it’s ultimately a “rational approach” to self change. And our minds aren’t always very rational.

Many times you can’t reason your way out of something that you didn’t reason your way into. You can say to yourself “Well, it’s irrational that I fear this situation” or “Well, it’s irrational that I have such low self-esteem” over and over again, but it won’t necessarily lead to a change in your mindset.

Simply pointing out that your beliefs or behaviors are “irrational” isn’t always enough to change them; and in these cases, we have to learn how to dig deeper and communicate with our minds on a fundamentally different level.

When it comes to self improvement, one of the most powerful tools we have is our imagination, creativity, and the use of symbols and rituals. These tools often allow us to communicate with our minds in a way beyond logic and rationality, which can be extremely transformational if we use them correctly.

While it’s ultimately up to you on how to use these tools for self-change, here are a few suggestions to get your mind thinking in the right direction. I consider all of these a part of “irrational change,” because they are ways to engage with your mind outside of pure logic, rationality, or evidence.

How “Irrational Change” Can Help You Build a New Mindset

Here are a few examples of how you can use this concept of “irrational change” to help you change your mindset and attitude at a deeper level.

• Practice small rituals – One of the first things I started exploring when it came to “irrational change” was how often people use small rituals to psyche themselves up and motivate themselves. My favorite examples include athletes who practice a ritual before shooting a basketball (such as kissing your necklace) or stepping up to the plate in baseball (like making a sign of the cross on the plate with your bat). Even everyday things like wearing a “lucky shirt” on a date or a job interview are interesting examples of how we add meaning to our lives in irrational, illogical ways to help get ourselves in the right mindset.
• Use symbolism – Symbolism is the crux of irrational change. We often build associations between certain people, objects, animals, or images that don’t make any rational sense in the world, but are nonetheless very real to our minds and psychology. Pay particular attention to your personal world of symbols, which could be based a variety of things including religious or cultural background, artworks that have resonated with you, or re-occuring dreams or nightmares that have a significant impact on you. Many times if you can learn the underlying meaning behind the symbols that influence you, you can use this knowledge to create your own rituals or exercises that play off of these symbols in a constructive way.
• Burn negative beliefs – One simple exercise I often recommend people is the burning negative beliefs exercise, where I instruct people to write down 5-7 negative beliefs they have on a piece of paper, then go outside and set the paper on fire – and watch it burn. “Fire” is often a symbol associated with transformation (In Greek Mythology, the Phoenix gets reborn again when it rises from the ashes), so it’s a common symbol to integrate into self improvement rituals. This is a great exercise to try if you want to give yourself a taste of the power of symbols and rituals for irrational self-change; many people tell me they feel an instant “release” whenever they do it.
• Hypnosis and visualization – Hypnosis is another powerful tool for suggesting things to your mind in an irrational way. You can take symbols and use them in a visualization to help change your mindset. A loving-kindness meditation is one popular example of this, where you visualize yourself sending positive intentions to loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and even enemies – and this can help shift your attitude toward the people in your life at an unconscious level. Hypnosis was one of the first tools I started using on myself when practicing self improvement, and owe a lot to it when it comes to changing my attitude and mindset at a deeper level. I also create my own self-hypnosis recordings, like “Obstacle Disintegration” and “Positivity Overflow.” Hypnosis is a tool that can be used in a variety of ways, especially to boost confidence and motivation, or reduce fears and anxieties.
• Make your own placebos – The “placebo effect” is when someone takes a sham pill that has no medicinal value, but because people have the expectation that it will help them, that expectation helps create the desired change. This is a wonderful example of the power of “irrational change.” And it’s an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the past, I’ve recommended that you create your own placebo pills, because studies show that even when people know they are taking a placebo pill, it can still be effective. Now that’s irrational; but hey, it can work! Placebos work at a similar level as hypnosis (because it’s the suggestion that helps create the effect), so learning how to create your own placebo effect can be a great way to change your mindset at a deeper level that doesn’t necessarily make logical or rational sense.
• Mind garden meditation – One of the more advanced exercises I recommend to people is the mind garden meditation. In this exercise, you establish a way of communicating with your “subconscious mind” by visualizing a garden with a variety of plants that each symbolize a different aspect of your life (“Health,” “Relationships,” “Work,” etc.) Once you set up this mind garden, you can revisit it whenever you like to see how things have grown and changed. If a plant isn’t doing well, that could be a way of your mind telling you that you need to focus more on that area of your life. Then you can visualize yourself feeding the plant fertilizer and water as a way of communicating back to your mind that “I’m going to do better” in this area of my life. This is not only an interesting way to evaluate your life, but also an effective way of sending your mind positive suggestions.

All of these are powerful examples of what I would call “irrational change.” They go beyond the rational approach of “talk therapy” models like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and allow you to play with your mind at a much deeper and transformational level.

Think of your mind as a mental playground. A big part of the “irrational change” approach is to experiment, play pretend, and not take yourself too seriously. If you get too skeptical or critical with these types of exercises, then you miss the point and diminish the potential benefits you can get from this type of approach.

Using your imagination and “playing pretend” is a big factor in what helps children learn, grow, and evolve. But it’s important that we can still practice these types of things as an adult as well, especially if we want to continue growing and improving as a person.

Take the ideas in this article and try to think of ways you can apply them to your own life. And best of all: be creative and develop your own ways of playing more with your mind and experimenting with “irrational change.” The truth is that the only limit to your self improvement is your own imagination.

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