I must admit, I do not think this is very impressive for an opening post but it is what I have and what I give to you.
Your perception of your world, your worldview or frame of reference, colours every aspect of your life. It determines how you react to other people and how you behave in certain situations. None of the above should be earth shattering news. Extensive psychological studies have been done on this topic. I will not list them nor will I claim I have I read them. Psychological analysis is not my intention, although the psychological content is high
How do I perceive the world around me and how does that affect my life as a whole? To answer this question it was necessary to make an attempt to analyze my own behaviour and those of others as objectively as possible but as you will realize objectivity is not only impossible but counter-productive to this exercise. If you do not know the colours of your own filters, it is impossible to identify the filters of others.
As a bit of background information, this is not an idea that I came up with last month or even last year. It is a concept I have juggled with, consciously and subconsciously since my early teens.
The thought process started with the following question: How do other people perceive me? I want to make it clear though, this was not in order to seek validation or acceptance through others. Quite frankly I couldn’t care less what they think of me but I am however still interested in the answer to the question. Call it academic interest if you like.
The reason for this question stems from the fact that I believe I know myself very well. I believe there is nothing about myself that I hide from myself. Unfortunately I cannot prove this to myself. Only through interaction with others can it be proved or disproved, but even that is not what bothers me. My question is this: Can they see the things that I know about myself? Am I living my life so true to myself that their perception of me comes close to my perception of myself?
I believe this question applies to every one of us although I also believe few people can be bothered to find the answer. In attempt to discover the answer I tried to take on other people’s perspective, tried to determine in what colours they see me. Needless to say I have only had limited success. In order for there to be any success at all you have to know the other person very well. There aren’t that many people who I am that close with.
That is not to say I did not learn anything. Identifying differences in worldviews can be quite enlightening in terms of the inner workings of your own and other people’s minds. Reactions can be predicted to a certain extent. Even failure to predict a certain reaction can be insightful.
So now that I sound like an asocial pseudo-scientific experimenter I feel it is important to say that gaining insight into the thought processes of others is something that came to me in my teens. It has become a second nature to the extent that I am not even aware that I am doing it. It is only in hindsight that I review situations and draw conclusions. How would I have acted in reverse rolls? Why would I have acted that way? What are my underlying motivations? Are they valid? In this I learn more of my own worldview and the worldview of others intrigue me even more.
Are some worldviews better than others? I think some worldviews make it easier to live life while others make it more difficult. Something to remember is that another person’s reality is not something you have any influence over. You can not make someone else see things differently if their reality does not allow things to be different. The only reality you can have control over is your own. It is not easy to change your reality but control over your reality can increase with time.
I believe my own worldview has become an amorphous concept that changes and adapts as necessary. How do I see the world? It differs from day to day. The parts that seem good and the parts that help, tend to be more solid. I try to keep the negative parts of my worldview fluid. It is difficult to change any part of your worldview that has already solidified. Once you believe it is true, it becomes true for you. It is a trap that I would not like to fall into, again.
I would really like to go into some of the worldviews that I have come across but I am not a full fledged psychologist (nor will I probably ever be) and describing them will take more thought on my part. Perhaps another time ;)
