FEBRUARY 4, 2020

 When you look around your room, you may see a bed, a sofa, a window, a table, an AC, a clock, a door and many more things. If you were told to believe that whatever you see around you (that is the different things in the room) is the whole world, would you believe it? No. You won’t believe it because you know that what you see in the room is not the whole world. The world exists outside the window and behind the doors as well. This is what we all know. But, sometimes we don’t recognize that there are a lot of things outside the window and beyond the window. We don’t believe that the world exists outside the room, and we end up living all of our lives in those hypothetical rooms which never existed…

  When we are born, we are not aware of the stereotypes or the beliefs of the world, we are always open to learning new things and we are always curious. This is what we see in almost every child. You might see a baby fiddling around with a smartphone, but actually, they are not fiddling around. They are trying to find out how the phone works. They are trying to understand what is the logic behind the working of the phone. Children are naturally understanding – they observe the world around them and that develops their personality and mindset. If they see compassion, happiness, gratitude and understanding, these values will be embedded in them and they will be naturally confident, fun-loving, happy, understanding and they will have a broad perspective of the world and be open to new ideas. If they see fear, anger, anxiety, discontentment and misunderstanding or lack of understanding, they will be fearful and they will end up making their own little space where they will believe that this is what life is all about and they will have a narrow perspective. They will feel misunderstood or not understood as this is what they saw during their childhood and this can lead to the development of inferiority complex. 

   The title of this blog post says that “Our Perspective Makes Our World” and this is true. In the last paragraph, we discussed how children develop in different ways emotionally based on their surroundings. If a child grows in an environment which coincides with the second scenario, they will be under-confident, they will be short-sighted and they will feel misunderstood. The room which they create in their minds is not actually created by them but by what has been fed in them. Only one virus is needed to infect one cell and then it multiplies and multiplies and creates a viral infection. Even a single incident can cause a person to feel misunderstood and inferior, then they over-think on this and they feel that the world ends here. They don’t look beyond the window of that small room and don’t develop a broad perspective.

   Your perspective does shape your world. The person who has locked himself up in the hypothetical room is not actually facing reality but running away from it. The small room is not real, and if one’s life is based and is revolving around something hypothetical, then how can the person come face-to-face with reality? The real world is not something to be scared of – it is blissful and great. This is so because when you are coming across something real, you know there is a purpose behind the mere existence of that thing. Internet is real, this is not just because people believe it is real. It is real because it is serving a purpose. It is helping humanity grow and innovate further. The mere existence of technology and Internet is helping me to communicate with you all and share my feelings and thoughts with you all. When you view reality, you view a purpose that is being fulfilled.

   There are some very simple things that can be done to develop a broader and open perspective. First of all, you need to escape from the hypothetical room and come face to face with reality. The walls of the room may seem invincible and the door may seem too heavy to pull. But, there is a knob to the door, which means it can be opened. To open the door, you need to gain some strength and the strength will come from some very simple steps. You will need to look at the bigger picture. Imagine that you are looking at a table from the front. All you will see is a big chunk of wood. If you make a judgement that this is a simple wooden block, then you are wrong. This is because you have not kept your mind open here. You have used a narrow perspective. You are not viewing reality. A simple wooden block does not serve a purpose. If it does not serve a purpose then what is the use of keeping it? Why does it exist if it does not serve a purpose? If you ask yourself these questions while making judgements, you will develop a natural curiosity for knowing the “WHY”. When you are curious you will look around and try to understand the whole picture. If you go to the other side of the room, you will see that the wooden block is serving its purpose as a table. It contains drawers where one can store things. It contains a platform for the legs to rest. It also has a tabletop which helps one work comfortably and work on the path towards the fulfilment of one’s purpose. This is how you develop a broader perspective and escape the hypothetical room.

    The biggest barrier on your way to reaching the knob will be your procrastination and negativity. You will feel that there is no need to work up so much and to go in-depth and find out the purpose behind things. What will help you is your positive resilience. If you are willing to come out of that comfort zone and if you are resilient to come out of that fearful zone and if you want to face and experience the bliss of reality, then you will find out the purpose of different things and view the world through a bird’s eye.

   Another thing that you need to do is accept and think over new ideas and opinions, don’t just reject someone’s opinion without understanding it. When someone is telling you something you should listen carefully and understand. This is because if you are telling something to someone you want them to understand you. Others also expect the same from you. Understanding someone’s opinion or their ideas or their narration of an incident can help you find out somethings that might help you in your own life. You never know who has a great idea!

   You will also need to communicate with other people and talk to them. Talking to other people will help you increase your confidence and be more social. When you communicate with someone regarding your thinking and your ideas, they might be able to understand the idea well and help you out greatly. After you have explained them your side of the story, you need to understand their opinion and again ask yourself “WHY”. You will need to reflect upon the opinion and understand the purpose behind it as well. Ask some questions like, “Why did he give me this advice this way. If I had told him something slightly different what would his opinion have been?” Asking this kind of question will help you decide if you will implement that opinion or not.

     This way you will help yourself gain independence and escape that room. Once you gain the 360-degree perspective, you will view the reality, not the fearful illusion. Once you have a broader perspective, you will be able to create and shape your world the way you want to. You will be able to define success for yourself. You will enjoy the bliss of reality and embrace the power of truth…