Not another article on reality...

Reality is the world as we see it, experience it and understand it. We take information from our five senses and create an image that reflects that input in an understandable or recognisable format.

That is our reality.

What we need to know, is that reality can change in the blink of an eye - literally. A single event, action or conversation can change a massive part of our perception of the world.

In a moment everything changed - sounds like a line from a dramatic movie, but in fact it can happen in exactly that way.

The first reaction may be shock, an inability to comprehend but so many other emotions can come into play in rapid succession, so fast that we cant process each one so that we end up with a mass of jumbled and incomplete thoughts.  This is the danger point, we need to recognise that if we do not resolve those feelings and thoughts, they are likely to take on a life of their own growing and mutating, causing all kinds of problems that stop us dealing with the issue that generated them.

Developing a capacity to come to a standstill as everything seemingly swirls around us, is perhaps easier said than done, but that first action is essential. We may feel as though we are in a strange land with no map so rather than blundering around in darkness, we need to stop and just allow everything to be as it is. We cannot change or adapt until we know more of what we are facing. The temptation is to dash off and either make snap decisions or to search (often the internet) for answers.

What is essential, is to reach that standstill point first and to recognise just how important that brief point of stillness is.

There is always a way forward, but sometimes not the one that first comes to mind. We need to enable ourselves to stop and look all the way round us, to see where we get help, advice, support, to notice alternative paths, that in the flurry of activity we might easily overlook.

We live in a frantic world, we try to be like computers producing instant answers and results. We are humans, more sophisticated than any computer and therefore able to realise that simple processing of information only provides part of a plan. Consideration, balancing, comparing, evaluating and employing that totally human “sixth sense” is what helps us to do that right thing.

The fact that we move, in some respects, slower than computers, is actually a benefit; it means that we are able to be creative, imaginative and innovative, we can develop new ways of acting, being and feeling so that we deal effectively with whatever comes along.

We need to recognise that all the activity in our minds has physical effects in our bodies and that those too need to be acknowledged, understood and managed.

There will be days when we are able to cope and take certain courses of action or deal with feelings and other days where because of stress or tiredness, we feel disinclined to look at certain aspects. That is acceptable, sometimes we need a day off in order to come back to that still point and check that we are going the right way.

If you need help finding that still point or navigating your feelings, therapy can assist. It can increase your feeling of being back in control - it is worth a thought!