We're All In Our Own World

Something I’ve always known to be true, but am understanding at a different level, is how much we’re all in our own world. Let me take you through it on a regular Thursday night:

I had just injured my shoulder playing soccer and was occupied with what that meant… How fast is it going to heal? I won’t be able to sleep well, how will that affect my work? Do I need to change my weekend plans? I was so immersed in the details of my life.

Earlier in the day I was talking to a friend of mine and he was going through some sadness… Missing a stronger sense of purpose in his work, slipping back into old habits, knowing he’s isolating to protect himself even though it’s not what’s best for him. Stuck in thoughts that were consuming.

Another friend was out on a date… I could only imagine how he was navigating the dynamics of getting to know someone, reading into the subtleties of the words and expressions in their conversation, feeling his heart race while trying not to get too excited about it. The emotions gripping him in the present.

And my wife, training at gymnastics… Overcoming a foot injury and testing her boundaries, wondering if it’s too soon to try something more advanced, focused on the technique of each skill. It requires her to be there and only there.

We’re just 4 people living our life on an ordinary Thursday night. We were going about our own lives, living in our own world. To us, it’s everything. But to everyone else, it’s nothing. And that’s because it’s exactly what’s happening in everyone’s head at all times. 

We are always trapped in our own perspective. Anything we see externally must pass through our own internal lens. What we express is a product of what we’re feeling, and it’s taken in turn as a stimulus received by the next person, and so goes the chain.

So my encouragement to you today is to take a moment to respond and not react. Someone puts you off a bit, what might they be going through? You feel off yourself, what can you do to process that before letting it out?

We’re all in our own world yet we share one too. It’s about time we became more conscious and cocreate it together.

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