Introduction
The human brain is a melange of a multitude of elements finely woven together with emotions and surrounding factors that sharpen the perspective of an individual. Considering the fact that we live in a world full of lessons and blessings. Where there is white to every black, there is light to every dark, there is joy to every sorrow…. all things mesmerizing from life’s luggage to borrow.
“Some people see the glass half full. Others see it as half empty. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.” ― George Carlin. Almost every one of us has read this famous quote, but what we understand by this is a good question to ponder. “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin, and seeing things is determined by the perspective we have.
Does perspective matter while accomplishing a task? Will it help shape the actions behind the task? This is a question I will dissect and put a spotlight on in the following sections.
Mundane insights around
Our thoughts shape our reality as our brain captures the stimulating emotions and turns them into a live action, based on the grasp of our surroundings. For example, this world has been called like the mirage seen by the deer. Mirage is the sun’s rays reflecting on the hot desert sand creating an illusion of water for the deer. It thinks there is water ahead of it and runs to quench its thirst. But the more it runs towards the water, the more the mirage fades away. Its dull intellect cannot recognize that it is running after an illusion. The unfortunate deer keeps chasing the illusory water and dies of exhaustion on the desert sand. This is how overthinking, negative thoughts, demotivation, lack of self-confidence, self-doubt and vice versa create an illusion of sadness, and we run after that illusory sadness which makes us believe the quench of our happiness is not satisfied. But no matter how much we try, happiness keeps fading further away from us. Here channelizing your thoughts is the key to building a perspective to stop being delusional and initiate actions.
To share my personal experience, one fine morning I was getting ready for work. Further in my parking lot, I saw a beautiful butterfly sitting on a flower. At first glance, what is the thought we get in mind when looking at the butterfly is… “How beautiful wings does this creature have…” But what we tend to ignore is the inspiring and motivating journey of metamorphosis from becoming a caterpillar to a butterfly transformation.
People often say, “You Changed!” but the ask is “Aren’t we all supposed to?” Shaping your perspective in a way where you cannot only see the good in things but also take inspiration from them to become an upgraded version of yourself is crucial.
Throwing some more insights on the above thought with another insightful metaphor. The Boiling frog- metaphor illustrates that when you put a frog in a vessel of cold water and start heating the vessel the frog will start adjusting its body temperature accordingly to the temperature of boiling water. While wasting all its body energy to adjust to the water temperature until it realizes it’s too late to jump out of the vessel and he could have saved his life; Eventually dying in the vessel due to boiling water.
(FACT – In contrast to the Metaphor used to illustrate symbolic meaning, frogs are extremely sensitive to temperature change. Frogs have a physiological response to temperature changes. As the water temperature rises, they become uncomfortable and will try to leave the environment if they can. In reality, they won’t remain in an extremely hot water.)
The metaphor tries to symbolize how we tend to ignore small and gradual negative changes and thoughts in the environment leading to a big and unwanted change in the perspective. We can relate to this Boiling frog – a metaphor to the power of thoughts. They say it all starts with a Thought, whenever we are thinking or telling our mind to believe in something, our unconscious mind starts believing it eventually turning it into a reality by directing our actions. If we feed our mind with negative thoughts, it will start thinking in the negative direction gradually changing and making us a negative person. There are a lot of self-help books that point to this. To provide an extended outlook on this, you could check out ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear pointing towards small changes in thinking and behavior leading to significant changes. Similarly, ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne popularizes the concept of the Law of Attraction. On the other hand, ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ by Carol S. Dweck discusses fixed vs growth mindset.
As George R.R. Martin quotes, “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone.” The habit of reading books is a great way to introduce new ideas, concepts, and perspectives to the mind.
Another perspective we could adopt from nature is that as a snake grows it needs to shed its old skin to accommodate its larger size. In the same way, to accumulate new thoughts we have to expand the dimensions of our mind. We also need to expand our perspective by being flexible, ready for change and embracing adaptability.
Speaking about habits is something your body knows to do better than your mind and your mind is shaped by your thoughts. We all have heard about creating habits to help achieve our goals and following them, but the real implementation behind it is training your mind to start believing, where your unconscious mind starts working in the direction of implementing those thoughts into actions.
Maybe…give this a thought and you might start believing it!!!
What makes us humans?
It’s okay to slow down, it’s okay to break down… What’s not okay, is to not grow and just be lying around.
Here is another perspective we could adapt and implement from nature to reshape our thoughts at our lowest. While there are a plethora of examples, we can now understand the concept of ‘Diapause.’ Some insects enter a state of dormancy or reduced metabolic activity called diapause to survive adverse conditions. This can be seen as a form of giving up active life processes until conditions improve. A good example is many species of beetles enter diapause during winter to avoid harsh conditions and emerge in spring. They emerge again to restart, the same way we can pause for a while and remerge. In terms of thoughts, if we are not able to organize our thoughts to work in our favor we should slow down and look around in nature to get that energy to emerge again as new and come back with a fresh perspective.
Conclusion
I would say stop thinking positively when our expectation of reality exceeds our experience of reality.
In summary, the manifestation of our thoughts leads to actions, shooting us to our destined path. Here are some famous quotes that help you shape this article into a perspective.
[There is scientific research supporting the below quotes which can be found here.]
“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
The quote “The mind is everything. What you think, you become” is attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is more commonly known as Buddha.
“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” ― Lao Tzu
“Sometimes a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light.” – Dan Brown
There is not one way to rebuild perspective, some like blue, and some like grey…whatever works for you, grab it and start along life’s play. hope this helps you make your day…
