Flip the Switch
If you’ve heard me use the phrase before “When you change the way you see the world, you change the world”, there’s a good chance that the image that comes to mind is one of massive change; of a grandiose shift the likes of turning around climate change, or stamping out AIDS; or on a more personal level, battling cancer.
And it’s true; it’s my intention that we “see” ways to tackle those larger problems, but where the real magic happens in terms of change is in the day to day.
Let me give you an example.
The other day I was cycling (hand cycling) between Canmore and Banff here in the Canadian Rockies when ahead of me I saw a plastic bag blowing about in the wind.
My first reaction?
Who the &#$* throws a plastic bag out the car window?
What the &@*$ is wrong with people?
Nice relaxing bike ride; out the window it went to be replaced by anger, resentment; disappointment.
For a second. Then things got interesting.
The wind got hold of the bag, lifting it up to the point where as I rode underneath, it was probably fifteen feet in the air. Kind of like the plastic bag in the movie American Beauty…
Immediately, and I mean immediately; I though of that scene; thought of how if we want to, we can find beauty in the simplest things. Of how I was riding through one of the most stunning landscapes on Earth, and how my day had been ruined momentarily by a floating plastic bag…
It completely turned my mood around imagining that scene, as if I had simply flipped a switch in my head…
Herein lies the challenge, and the opportunity.
We can all do that.
We can all turn things around almost instantly, but we have to aware; we have to be aware that we have that choice in what we see.
The trick is to catch yourself. To catch yourself before you start to lose it. To catch yourself before you start to react in the same old way.
And then to question:
How am I seeing this?
Is this all there is to see?
Am I missing something?
As Ricky Fitt’s says in that classic scene: “Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world..” So often though, we just can’t see it. Click here to watch the clip for those that haven’t seen it.
Caymans Update
We still have space available on our diving trip to the Cayman Islands this May. Click Here to View the Details
Archived Comments
4 Comments
Hugh Culver says:
Good one – things like plastic trash can be all it takes to (test us) lose it.
Krabbers says:
I look at them as Air breathing jelly fish
Warren Macdonald says:
What a great visual!
Sreekanta Banerjee says:
In most cases when we observe an incident, we instantly conclude based on our bias. At that point all other possibilities are stunted. If we just try and observe more and conclude less, higher spectrum of possibilities may present themselves, and the cosmos may appear truly colourful!
Acceptance. Responsibility. Action.
Three words to help boost your resilience.