Coloured Glasses

At a young age, we, some of us more than others, are fascinated by the coloured glasses we try on for the first time. When wearing them, we see everything as tinted with the same colour as the colour of the glasses’ lens. If the material is green, we see everything as shades of green. The same goes for any colour of course.

This is analogous to the reality of how we perceive the world. Some people see the negative in every single thing. Others see the positive in every single thing. The same glass is perceived as half full to one person, but half empty by another. One individual breaks down after an accident and says “I lost a leg” while another says “thank goodness I still have a leg intact.” After his idiotic and angry wife makes loud banging sounds with utensils and then throws water onto him in front of his students, Socrates laughs and says something to the effect of “look guys, rain does usually follow thunder.” This is the exemplary definition of a positive and light-hearted outlook on life!

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my years is that most of the time, if not all, it all depends on the perspective. Being a Psychology student and taking an intensely keen interest in humans’ cognitive processes, I am very receptive to the influence that the external world can have on the mind. Observing and studying certain people has, above all, helped me realize the spiralling effects of being constantly engrossed in negative thinking, of chronically wearing glasses with the lens of negativity. When the mind latches onto an idea, it is synonymous to a leech that latches onto the skin and sucks the blood out. It is a shame, and also a challenge, that this is a natural feature of the human condition. It’s natural that we tend to see the pessimistic rather than the optimistic, because optimistic requires more energy, more effort. However, it being a semi-natural tendency of our character is no excuse to spend years of our lives seeing the bad in people and situations. Like a domino effect, the mind ventures down the staircase into another chamber which opens the way for other, deeper dwelling staircases. This thinking has no progress.

One analogy I like to attach to this as a helpful explanation is that of a natural disaster. The first one that came to mind was an earthquake. In a similar way to how buildings are shaken up during an earthquake, constantly entertaining negative thoughts about others and the world can shake up the entire psyche. Albeit, if the foundation is strong and the building has a quake-proof design, it will survive. Similarly, it is possible to juggle negative thoughts if a robust foundation of intellectual understanding has been laid out. If this is not the case, the individual is sure to deteriorate psychologically, emotionally and as a likely result, physically.

Over time, constantly entertaining negativity in the mind turns permanent. When that happens, it’s no longer like just wearing glasses. It becomes more like wearing contact lenses, which, after a short while, the wearer seems oblivious to. They are no longer constantly aware that they are even wearing them. When negative thoughts, negative perspectives, take hold of the mind and the individual refuses to let them go or let anything positive in, they become immune to the idea of alternatives. The only thing they see, quite naturally given they may be unaware of their own negativity, is how things are bad or how they can go wrong. One socially destructive result of this – the inability to see anything from other people’s viewpoint. One individually destructive result of this – doubt. Repeatedly viewing the world through negative eyes and blocking out any flow of positive thinking, doubt grows in the mind of the individual like mould. This is almost guaranteed to spill into relationships with others. The psychological bridge which allows for this to happen is, one would suppose, possible to understand when we try to study the cognitive element of it all.

Negativity is a chain. The irony of it is that we are not only holding the key to the chain’s lock in our own hands, but we are sitting in one place and the lock isn’t even locked!

In the end, being born at point A does not mean you have to die at point A.