There is a facet of our existence that all humans share, it determines what they perceive as truth as well as shapes it. Some of us may call this thought, some may call it feeling but it is actually something between the two. A cohesive framer of both feeling and thought that people often times seem to ignore as a conceptualized point of view remaining only within internal thought processes. I speak of perspective. No mater how you look at it, perspective (and its existential counter-part “perception”) is what shapes the reality we live in. For instance, if you view earth as a single organism, this will definitively shape how you do things on earth as a part of it. You may be less inclined to litter, treat others as you would treat yourself (as they would be under this framework), or hold special significance to the feeling of love, a primary unifying force on earth. The simple holding of a perspective shapes actions, thoughts, and feelings towards others and yourself.
Some of the above may seem extremely obvious so let us attempt to move beyond the everyday. Within the context I described perspective can be seen not as a stance, or point of view, but as a tool for ones own everyday life. There are beings on this planet that do it everyday without realizing it through their belief systems. A belief system is a perspective often times infused with physical and factual backing to justify its existence. We see people that believe things that shape their reality and their actions (as stated above) but we also see people using their belief systems to do damage to themselves. This could possibly be because they are not conscious of the effect their perspective is having on their overall existence as a human being.
Perspective is a needed facet of our existence and when it is ignored as an active part of our engagement to the reality that connects us all it’s not unlike ignoring thoughts or emotions. What can happen is we find ourselves not knowing why we do things, reacting in ways we do not wish to react, and entering into states of being that we do not wish to be in. Here is a simple test assuming that emotion, thought, and perspective are all essential to the human complex. Think about thought independent of any emotion or perspective (which means do not label thought as helpful, good, bad, or otherwise). Now what do you feel about feeling independent of perspective? What do you think about feeling independent of perspective? You may not be able to do much because you are attempting to use these functions of the human being independent of their connective force (perspective). Let’s now try this with perspective being independent of both thought and feeling theoretically. What is your perspective on perspective? What is your perspective on thought? What is your perspective on feeling? Hey! We can answer these questions! This could mean to us that perspective is actually the primary tool we use in discerning and shaping our reality, even our internal reality!
So now that we’ve established perspective as a primary aspect of our overall experience on this planet, as a tool, we can move on to try to see how we can utilize this tool in our everyday lives. It was stated before that people seem to often times be unconscious of how their perspective is shaping their overall existence, this is crucial. Perspective can be used in productive or counter-productive ways, as will be demonstrated later on in this article. A feeling is neither positive nor negative; despite what people often times will say and believe. Feelings are neutral and your perspective on them is what creates them to positive and/or negative. If you are feeling down, are you sad or are you experiencing life from a different perspective through the vehicle of emotion? Emotions can tie directly into your perspective and shape your reality for you. Someone who is depressed may often times feel detached or hopeless. Hopelessness and detachment are perspectives on the internal and external reality withheld by the individual; they are not “facts.” Two people can listen to a song. One person can become happy because of the perspective they have on that song, and another can become depressed, does not make the song a happy song or a sad song? It is neutral and shaped by the individual as positive or negative based on past experiences and understanding held by the individual. We can stretch this ideal to the internal human being. Emotions are not negative or positive but instead exist in the same context as the neutral song. Emotions and the events that trigger them are simply key components of an internal guidance system. Emotions are communicators and when humans become entrenched in their shaping of emotions they are unable to see past the initial “positive or negative” realizations and into the existential learning opportunities these emotions hold.
Now that we can see the internal effects of perspective, let us shift to the external. An event is neither positive of negative as well it is simply a learning lesson. People will often say things such as “how can you view genocide as positive?” Genocide isn’t positive, but it is not negative either. Attempt to detach yourself from emotional attachment to human life for a moment as this concept is explained. There is genocide occurring in our world today and there is little to nothing being done to stop it. Now let's theoretically take all the beings who have passed away in past genocides and ask them if it has served humanity to focus on the negativity of their having died, or if it serves humanity to view their passing as a learning lesson for humanity (learning is always positive correct?) so we may take measures to stop future occurrences. Without moving into the moral aspects too much it could be safe to say that past genocidal events can be shaped as learning opportunities for the future generations to never allow this to happen again, an opportunity that few have obviously taken due to the re-occurrence and allowance of such events. While this subject may be controversial take a moment to ask yourself what parts of you are accepting or rejecting this philosophy. Is it your emotional complex’s uneasiness towards there being no definitive right or wrong? Is it your conceptual understanding of positive or negative? Or could it possibly be the fear that if this view were taken by all, there would be external chaos. The point lies in the fact that viewing any event as negative does not particularly help the individual emotionally or conceptually, where as viewing every event as a learning opportunity for humanity always will. Thus realizing no event is definitively negative can give you two choices, positive or its true state, neutrality. Humanity has the opportunity to transcend dualistic thinking and view everything; themselves, external events, past and future occurrences, and general experiential life as neither positive or negative and in doing so realize that they have the choice as to how to shape their reality (as positive learning or negative learning).
The point that all this is leading us up to is as follows. You may not be responsible for how you feel, but you are responsible for what it means. Your perspective is a tool for shaping what everything around you and within you is to you. There will be some who claim external factors play a role but when all is said and done they do not. A teacher can scream at two students and one will cry, the other will laugh. It is the internal states of these students that determine their reaction; the teacher is a control in the experiment. Both students can even be feeling the same way, but one can choose to react on those feeling and the other can simply have the perspective that feeling such emotions is laughable. The perspective determines the result. This is exciting because we realize our betterment is completely within our means to facilitate. By simply obtaining a different perspective on what our emotions mean, events mean, and past experiences mean we can begin to shape our realities collectively into a more “positive” state. We have the choice, is this positive? Or is this negative? Remember that the power to bring that choice to fruition is within your perspective and thus within your ability to immediately manifest.
Nick Steele is a 20 year old who’s hometown is Sanford, Maine. After going through many life altering and mind opening experiences with Bipolar Mania Nick has decided to begin writing a book that has yet to be completed. Nick is an avid supporter of the reformation of human consciousness to further humanity in an evolutionary context and is open to talk to anyone at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .