Living a small life? Change perception..........

"Our understanding is correlative to our perception." (Robert Delaunay)

A definition of perception: "the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted." (Google)

In conversation with a friend, the term "living a small life" was used. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"What do you mean when you say you are living a small life?"

"Oh, you wouldn't understand, you are living such a large life", my friend answered.

"Please try anyway, try to explain what you mean, I would really like to try to understand", I replied.

"Well, a small life for me, is a life of predictability, clear guide lines that are followed, no major dramas, one day pretty much looks the same as the next day."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, there are good aspects to living a small life. It is definitely less stressful than having to deal with uncertainty and unpredictability all the time", she continued.

So, a small life= a predictable, stable, and "drama-less" life, and a large life= an unpredictable, uncertain, and drama-filled life?

(What about a medium-sized life? A life that has predictability but also the occasional dramas and uncertainties?)

Could it be that when my friend used the term a large life she may perhaps have been referring to people who try a lot of different things, people who take risks, people who follow their dreams, people who chose the "road less travelled", people who freely (but probably not without pockets of doubt) jump into the "unknown"? Is it possible to live a large life without having to face any number of challenges, risks, or uncertainties? I wondered.

Perhaps what one person may view as risky, another may view as possibility, what one person may view as uncertainties, another may view as opportunities, what one person may view as challenges, another may view as openings. Perceptions......

Some of us may gaze at the stars on a clear bright night and see mystery and beauty, some of us may see exploding balls of gas, some of us may hear birds singing early in the morning and feel uplifted, some of us may feel mostly annoyed, some of us may smell the fresh sea-breeze and feel invigorated, some of us may not smell it at all.....perceptions.

As you perceive it, so will it be.........

If we perceive ourselves to be living small lives, but we would rather live large ones, then perhaps a good starting point may be to ask ourselves what we could do/change to make our lives "larger" (as defined by you) ?

If on the other hand we perceive ourselves to be living large lives, but would rather live smaller lives, then perhaps a good starting point may be to ask ourselves what we could do/change to make our lives "smaller" (as defined by you) ?

In the car on the way to a seminar with a friend, I asked him how big he thought the universe is.  He remained quiet for quite some time and then he answered: "Big? Hmmm....don't think that the term "big" works for the universe. Compared to what?  A finite universe has a finite size that can be measured; this would be the case in a closed spherical universe. But an infinite universe has no size by definition." (Think he got this from Wikipedia)

"Wow", I answered, stumped.

"If you mean, what is my perception of the universe, then my answer is that I don't know. Just entertaining the notion of something endless, limitless, infinite, makes my head spin. Although, it also fills me with awe and a desire to know more."

(His answer stayed with me all through the seminar. It piqued my own interest, so much so, that on the way home from the seminar I stopped at my local library and took out fair few books on the subject.)

Can the terms big or small really be applied to a life? The lives we live, perhaps they are our own "universe's"? Perhaps not endless or infinite, but perhaps full of limitless possibilities?

As you perceive it, so will it be........

 

"Old Newtonian physics claimed that things have an objective reality separate from our perception of them. Quantum physics, and particularly Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, reveal that, as our perception of an object changes, the object itself literally changes." (Marianne Williamson)