Stereotyping: what a dangerous habit!

The Danger of Stereotyping

Good morning, folks! I am Jin with Morning Mindfulness Podcast. Hope you are having a terrific day! Let’s breathe and smile.

I remember my shock when I first came to the US in 1995. I expected to see totally different America! Well, what do you expect? My image was a mix of New York and Chicago based action movies and Jim Beam Whiskey commercial. Oh yeah!

That was funny, and it was actually mutual. My American friends had their own stereotypes about our country, and they did not expect to hear what the heard. And no, I was not hunting bears in my city with the spear. And I don’t drink Vodka. Never even tried.

So that was just fun. But it may be more insulting though. Living in a midwest I noticed a trend among local people to consider foreigners slightly stupid, to say the least, because many of them didn’t speak good english. How surprised the local people were, when the foreigners could perform the Math at the level that some locals could not even comprehend. But we can live through that. All right.

However this habit may become much more dangerous when we start doing it to ourselves. Like I am too old or too young, too short, too tall, too slow, too whatever. This stereotyping is practically destroying our life.

Moreover, even positive, constructive stereotyping can be as damaging as negative. How? Easy! We can set a bar very high, because this is how it should be in our mind. And if we don’t reach the certain level within designated time, our self esteem may suffer. In fact it can be alienating and even depressing to the person because he or she didn’t measure up. Think about that.

Thanks for stopping by.

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PEACE!
Jin

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