The mental map that we hold influences our thinking and affects the path that we take to find meaning in life. Life can be meaningful and complete if we are willing to change our mental map and see things from other people’s perspectives.
Our actions and decisions affect others. We should always take action and decision based on a complete perspective of a situation. There is no absolute right or wrong. It all boils down to the mental map that we hold.
One day whilst travelling on a MRT train, I overheard a young wife questioning her husband over a trivial issue. The young wife said to her husband, “Last week, when we visited your mum she told me that she was around our vicinity shopping for some household items. Why didn’t she come and visit us since she was near our house?” The husband replied, “May be she didn’t know that we were at home.” The wife was not happy with the response and refuted, “She can call us, right! I think your mum doesn’t like me!” That response put her husband into a defensive position and soon a tiff followed.
I believe the couple did not have a good sleep that night. All that have happened are the imagination of the young wife as she was living in her own mental map and her own perception about her mother-in-law. May be the real reason would be that the mother-in-law does not want to intrude into their privacy and want to give them some quality time together. If the wife views the situation from a positive perspective and willing to embrace it, I believe she would be a much happier person. This incident teaches us not to act based on our own perspective. Instead, seek to embrace the complete perspective of the situation and based our action on it
John Milton, a poet, wrote “A mind not to be chang’d by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself, Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
No comments:
Post a Comment