The Brain is Stupid
One of the biggest heartaches I experience is seeing how easily we as humans keep our perceptions and interpretations to the surface. Our mind is so busy that it has to simplify everything, and we fall for the illusion that the tip of the iceberg is all that’s worth navigating and appreciating. It takes intention and metacognition to address and go beyond the surface level.
My upbringing gave me a few skills that have their consequences, one of them being vigilance to emotional abuse. What that meant for my sanity was not to take someone’s words at face value and to make my own conclusions. It’s essential to consider other important factors, such as actions and intentions. Intention is huge for me, especially when the situation being considered concerns the safety and health of myself and others.
I have gotten into the habit of questioning the intentions of those who point the finger more than the issue they are pointing at. This is something that was well expressed by The School of Life’s Book on Confidence. There’s a chapter called questioning the system, and to summarise, we have the habit of assuming benevolence in others, none the wiser of the malevolent intention of someone we deemed to have authority. You would think the interviewer didn’t give you the job simply because you weren’t competent, because you assume they were being fair when the job was a shadow listing, yet the job was already given to someone the employer knew, but had to go through the protocol regardless.
We are such complex social and emotional beings, constantly adapting, that I find it delusional to simplify our very existence.
Ester's Eunoia 