My beloved daughter,
We are all too familiar with the cliché: “Experience is the best teacher,” but, how true is this statement? The question is: Is everything we experience, firsthand, the reality?
We are taught to question the stories and reports shared by others but to wholeheartedly succumb to the seeming truthfulness of our experiences. Which means if we see it with our own eyes; hear it with our own ears; feel it with our own hands, it’s most certainly the truth.
While this may seem logical, it is not always accurate.
We are in constant dialogue with ourselves; hence, our mindset has a great bearing on how we interpret and perceive real-life experiences. The stories we subconsciously tell ourselves don’t just change how we feel inside, they actually change what we see, what we hear, what we experience, and what we believe to be true.
This being the case, it stands as a fact that people can have the same experience but interpret it differently. Our perception varies from individual to individual, thus, each of us may enter a shared experience with a different story resounding through our mind, and that story becomes peculiar rather than universal.
Also, many of us experience life-altering events which colour our worldview;
- Those we hold dear may have betrayed us.
- Some of us have lost loved ones as a result of illness, accidents or other causes and are battling to come to terms with bereavement.
- Some of us may have been lost our jobs and this has impacted heavily on our lifestyles.
- Some of us have suffered discrimination because of our gender or race, et cetera.
These experiences narrow how we perceive events; we use old stories and past experiences to interpret the present. And while this approach sometimes works, other times, our past experiences are unrelated to the present.
My beloved, it is important to know that experience is not always the best teacher. As we journey through life, things happen to us – the good, the bad and the ugly. Be mindful of the spin you are giving to your current situation so you’ll have the right perspective. Learn to step forward, untethered to past experiences, with a present mind, taking cognizance of lessons learned from previous experiences where relevant.
Love you always,
Dad