The awareness of perspective
Awareness is important in our daily lives. To be aware is to be conscious in the moment so that the mind can process as much possible detail in order to help us understand our surroundings and our position within. Some people live in a state of constant awareness and these people generally tend to be successful and more capable of surviving traumatic events while others tend to wallow in the safety of overprotective imaginations.
I am not a psychologist or any form of mental health care provider. I have a small organization that is dedicated to helping military veterans (and anyone who has suffered from trauma) manage their stress and the symptoms of their PTSD through art. In no way do I see myself as a professional but I do have the perspective of one who has been working (with myself and others) and at least smart enough to pay attention to behavior patterns and read (and hopefully understand) the printed material on the subject that is available when I have questions.
In the beginning of my struggle with PTSD I was, and in some cases still am, very quick to react to a situation. Whether it is something said, done, read, or overheard I would launch into angry tirades over perceived personal attacks or stew angrily over the words and actions of others, especially where politics are involved. I have my opinions and beliefs like everyone else, but I do not discuss them as a rule and I intend to stick to that rule in here. That being said, people have a talent for stirring up such unmitigated vitriol over issues that they barely understand and arguing with these people is as effective as driving your car at high speed wearing a blind fold. I could not understand how easy it was for people to make such wild claims without knowing (or accepting) all of the facts. While struggling with this aggravation I stumbled across a lecture series for Psychology 101 taught by Professor Jeremy Wolfe at MIT.
Albert Einstein once made a statement that said, roughly paraphrased, knowledge of complex concepts does not make you smart. What makes you smart is the ability to understand complex concepts in such a way that you are able to relay that concept to the average person in such a way that they understand it as well. Einstein spent the rest of his life living by this principle and Jeremy Wolfe seems to have followed in his footsteps. The lecture take place over the course of an academic year and starts with the basics and proceeds at a good pace through to the more intermediate concepts of this field of study. If you have an interest in psychology I urge you to check it out.
In the opening class he goes through a basic introduction to the class and starts talking about perspective. We, as a species, are physiologically similar but not identical. Even though we have the same basic body there are numerous variations from person to person so that no person is truly identical to another. Among the plethora of examples I am going to focus on the eyes. Many of us have the same shape or color of eye but no two eyes share the same pattern of the iris (the colored part). Now, deeper inside the eye there is a lot more going on. ” The eye has been called the most complex organ in our body”.
I will let you dig further into the eye on your own, but the point I am trying to make is that your eyes are connected to your brain. Whatever we see is processed by the brain and the brain tells us what we are seeing, where it is, where we are in relation to it, how it is impacting us, what we should do about it, and then gets the body moving in that direction. Our nose, ears, taste buds, and skin comprise the rest of our sensory organs and act on us individually and in several combinations. In the eyes are little rods and cones that perceive light and send signals to the brain. In one very early experiment Prof. Wolfe shows a series of black and white lines and some saw those lines as straight up as completely vertical while others saw the same lines leaning slightly to the left or the right. It is unclear as to whether the effect was a result of one or more factors (i.e lighting, position, location in the classroom, etc) but what is clear is that the same object was perceived differently in the same place at the same time by the same group of people.
We are bombarded with stimulus every day. We see, hear, smell, taste, and feel innumerable times per day and our brain is tasked with processing, interpreting, and disseminating the information so that we can understand and act accordingly within our environment. This is a survival instinct that has served humanity well over our history, but with the advent of technology and society’s growing addiction to technology and entertainment it is an instinct in decline. More people are retreating into the deep recesses of their minds and yielding to their imaginations. The signals that are being interpreted by the brain are turned into dreams of flying on a broom, fighting Orcs, seduction by wealthy billionaires, or any other fanciful escape from their boring reality of the common life. Television and Movies have shown such fantastic worlds that people would rather be a part of than their own and the amount of chatter on these and other such topics on social media are proof of where the majority of the attention and priorities are assigned.
The longer we dwell within our imaginations dreaming about fantasy the harder it is for us to pay attention to reality. We drift slowly down the slope until we hit such darkness and personal isolation that it becomes difficult to understand what the real world looks like anymore. Real life becomes a disappointment when you realize that you will never be invited to attend Hogwarts, fight for the Alliance, or Captain and Star ship on an intergalactic adventure. That disappointment can evolve into bitterness and anger and very quickly deteriorate into outwardly disruptive and sociopathic behavior.
Knowing this about yourself is one thing. Understanding this about others is the real victory. The hardest part of any conversation is knowing the motivation behind the statements and actions of the others involved and how theirs differs from ours. When I take the time to know and understand the people I meet it makes it much easier for me to listen to them objectively and engage with them fairly. Because I am no longer waiting for my moment to launch a full scale broadside attack I do not keep myself in a constant state of battle preparedness. I am able to keep myself calm more often (not always, but close) and able to enjoy the people that come into my life, whether we agree on everything or not.
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