My version of watching TV is watching TED talks. Once in a while I’ll come across a talk that really makes me scratch the back of my head. In other words a talk I must share with you all. The talk I want to share with you is by Heather Lanier and she talked about the way we categorize events in our lives. Her thoughts about it really changes the game. Instead of categorizing situations as good or bad she has added a new way of thinking about situations. Well, she has either added a new category or has eliminated all the other ones. It really depends on how you look at it.
🎥Video. ← Be inspired by her.
‘’Good or Bad, hard to say.’’
-The Farmer
What a novel way of judging a situation. Or better said the lack of judging a situation. I fully agree with her when she said that when we say a situation is good or bad that then becomes the only way we can see the situation. Whatever happens next gets attached to the way we have judged the situation being either good or bad. The next situations don’t get the chance to be judged objectively as far as that was possible to begin with.
She also got me thinking about the fact that sometimes something terrible happens but it then propels you towards something great. I mean there are so many stories out there that started the worst ways possible but got turned around. For example, April 2016 I was also sick which gave me a huge feeling of now or never to start writing. By the next month (May 9th 2016) I set up My Story Of I. I honestly think I would’ve spent a lot more time doubting had I not gotten that rush feeling of now or never. So me being sick in April 2016 was ”Good or Bad, hard to say”.
I love how she doesn’t just say this about the so called bad things that happen. In that sense it would be more of a coping mechanism instead of a way to go about life. As she said even when she got the job she wanted, which normally would be categorized as a good thing, she still said; ‘’Good or Bad, hard to say’’. I find this suits the balance of life better. When you’re honest and really think of it you never really know whether something is good or bad. I’d say time will reveal this, but who knows really?
In the beginning of the talk she says good and bad are incomplete stories that we tell ourselves. She says she learns more when she approaches the situation openly with curiosity and wonder. Which I cannot possibly agree with more. The more I wonder the more depth and/or different sides I start seeing of a situation. When wondering you often have no choice but to let go of the main story since you want to explore side stories. Not only that, it makes you question aspects or believes that you’ve had for who knows how long.
To me this new way of judging or not judging a situation creates a path for a new form of thinking to manifest. Through wondering and writing I have adjusted many of my thought patterns. Better yet I have parted ways with some that were potentially very harmful. So yes, perhaps from the get go a situation may seem inherently good or bad but really who is to know? This is still life. The only predictable aspect it has is that it is unpredictable. Life is fluid to put it in her words.
I wonder is this the or a way to release ourselves from a dogma that seemed so useful up until this point.
Love,
DCPR.
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