Come Alive in Your Own World #15

One time in my early childhood, I heard my mother say to someone, “Oh, Donald just lives in his own world.” I heard this as a criticism and not as a compliment. Now, 80+ years later, I believe everyone lives ‘In their own world,’ at least perception-wise. This is a necessity, not a choice because we receive a million bits of information in our mind/brain every second and can only decipher around 100, so even if we are an identical twin, we will perceive a different kind of world than our twin.

We finally realize that that is a gift, not a curse, if we learn how to communicate with joy, compassion, cooperation, and positive thinking! For centuries, we have gone to war and killed people because they perceived the world differently from us because we falsely believed they, whoever they are, were wrong. We did not realize, or refused to learn, that another way of thinking could enhance our world – and perhaps the entire world. In human history, we have often murdered creative and enlightened mystics for their ‘wrong’ way of thinking. Think of Jesus, prophets, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many others in our own time.

We need to change the way we teach history and human development so that we fully utilize the gift of fact that everyone perceives the world differently - we do 'live' in different worlds. Isn't it amazing and wonderful?

In my years of marriage counseling I often encountered this phenomenon: each one thought the other partner should perceive the  world exactly as he or she does, that is, "If you love me." Of course, the solution is to learn how your partner 'sees' things and clearly see your own views, and learn from one another and grow with one another and live happily ever after.

So now, I want to listen to others, even those I believe are totally ‘wrong’. And I want to dismiss them only after a thorough study and/or realizing that this other opinion is too authoritarian or destructive. And so study and celebrate and...

Nurture your heart, and don’t eat the menu.