Perspective
What a lesson, in redefining our ideas and controlling our perspective, this life has been.
Our preconceived notions, titles, ideas, definitions, and thoughts railroad our otherwise fundamentally neutral experiences. Every experience, if completely free from all prejudice, is neutral in nature, with nearly unlimited potential.
Nothing is inherently “good” or “bad” in its nature.
Our emotions and attachments make this a difficult truth to accept. However, our reluctance to accept this truth, exists due to our false categorization of certain emotions. We create, consciously as well as subconsciously, categories to define emotions as either “good” or “bad”. This categorization, though understandable, is a falsehood that left unchecked can lead to many difficulties. Is sadness definitively “bad”? Is joy definitively “good”? How about joy in someone else’s suffering? Our hardline, black and white, definitions end up stifling us.
In most cases our defining of an experience as either good or bad, becomes a type of self fulling prophecy. The simple and usually subconscious labeling of our experiences often determines our reality and limits our growth.
Most, if not all, of our determining factors used to define our experiences are based on the emotions we associate with said experience. Example: getting fired from a job. Getting fired can be stressful, embarrassing, and emotionally frustrating. So in turn, we define the experience of getting fired as inherently negative. But most of us have experienced something similar, that led us to a completely better situation or job that never would have been possible without first being fired.
There are also numerous stories of what’s referred to as the curse of the lottery. This “curse” entails a lottery winner, who after an initial burst of “joy” soon falls into a pattern of depression and total self destructions. Destroying friendships, breaking family bonds, losing their freedom, and in some cases their lives. Many describe the experience of winning the lottery as the worst thing that has ever happened to them.
Now, do I believe that losing your job is good? Or that winning the lottery is bad? Absolutely not. That would be just another stifling and premature definition. Both are completely neutral, with the potential to become positive or negative. It’s all in our hands. It’s all about perspective. Our ability to truly and honestly control our perspective is, in my opinion, the key to almost every problem that we face today. It is the foundation which we can build a better life, world, and future upon.