Just recently, I spoke with a colleague at work about a town we both live in. She said she didn’t like to walk around as there are strange people and even the town seems odd to her when walking down the main road. To some extent and from some point of view, one could agree to that using some objective criteria. But I never thought of it that way. How is that possible?
I often walk down these streets. Even though I could look at what she was speaking about and notice strange pepole that probably are in our town but I guess in many others as well or even maybe each town has their strange people – instead, I look at beautiful mountains above our town. I notice we have sort of okay sidewalks and roads, they could be worse after all! I like the sidelines and houses with trees along. The best thing is after climbing a little bit up the hill when I turn around and see the mountains in the distance that close the valley from the other side. It is a really beautiful place. That is how I see it.
But who is right? Her or me? I didn’t argue with her because she is right. And I am right too. How is that possible?
#6 / When it comes to evaluating positives and negatives, there is no such thing as objective reality. All we see around us is highly subjective. In positive psychology, they say if all of the circumstances in our lives are known, only 10% of your long-term happiness level can be estimated. 90% of your long-term happiness is determined by how your mind is set up and used to perceiving the world. And that can be influenced. For example by consciously noticing all the beautiful things around us. Just notice the beautiful mountains and not the strange people.