You are where you think you are, what you think you are.

Everything around you and what's happening around you is based on how you view it.

The quality of your life—of each and every one’s lives—is based on how you make it to be.

You think that your life isn't ideal for you, and someone else's life is—because you believe it to be so. You make a judgement of what's happening around you based on how you interpret things, and that judgement becomes a dogma.

Some people can be unhappy with their current situation, while some people can be fulfilled in the same situation—the only difference is their interpretation.

The mind is a very powerful thing. Mastering it requires time and conscious effort. But when you do, you'll be able to live your life in a way that the common day-to-day misfortunes won't bother you anymore.

In this letter, we'll be exploring the human mind and perception and how it all relates to creating our own individual's reality. Then, at the end, I'll share what I'm doing to expand my own perspective on the things around us.

Insights

Most "intellectual" people nowadays just repeat what has been previously said in history.

Most people are slowly losing the ability to think for themselves.

When you were a child, you used to come up with a lot of these.

• You realized that running too fast could lead to you stumbling down and getting hurt.

• Touching a boiling kettle pot leads to your fingers getting burned.

• Feeding your pet dog or cat or whatever pet you have keeps it alive.

These are insights you've had on your own, without any external influence.

As you grew up, you've lost the ability to generate these fresh, raw insights and started to parrot everyone else's insights about the world. You start saying what everyone else says, doing what everyone else does, thinking what everyone else thinks, and believing what everyone else believes.

The quality of your mind slowly degrades. This leads into the quality of your thinking to slowly degrade, which in turn leads into the quality of how you view reality to be nothing but negative.

Human Perception

Most people always look at things negatively.

Their minds are not expanded enough.

Their perspective and awareness on things are not developed enough to hear "the music".

Or rather, they can hear the music, but they're not listening to it. Instead—they conclude that it's noise because they'd rather validate the unfortunate circumstances that they've been dealt with.

They feel good when they blame every negative thing that's been happening in their life on everyone else except themselves. This "feel-good" feeling has them coming back for more.

This eventually gets them stuck in a negative loop cycle. They prefer to see every single thing that's negative in the world and not the positive ones.

You can have the same situation but have different outlooks. One positive, one negative. One keeps you happy, one keeps you sad.

Everything we see in life is just how we see it and how we make it to be.

Closing your mind, or rather, your ears from the music—is like closing your doors from the opportunities that might have the potential to change your life.

Lens Of Reality

Experience + judgement = reality.

Your judgement is influenced by your internal thinking and mindset.

We see reality individually through each of our own lenses.

The problem is—most people's judgement of their experiences is mainly negative because their internal thinking and mindset are not developed enough to have the ability to reframe situations.

People view their reality as if it's permanent because they judge positive experiences the same way they judge a negative experience—they run through all experiences through their negative lenses.

This has been a problem for a very long time but has become more prevalent today because of the uncontrolled access to the digital technologies we have today. The algorithm prioritizes more negative content because it provokes more emotional reactions which leads to more negativity.

People are getting validated and justified for having such a negative worldview. Their judgments keep getting reinforced by other people who are wearing the same negative lenses.

Negativity Bias

Humans are wired to pay more attention to negative experiences than positive ones.

If you let yourself be controlled by your natural, primal instincts when it comes to judging your reality—you’re playing a losing game.

It's why most people are so quick to complain about something they hate and too slow to be grateful about the things they have.

You can give a promotion to a person, and they'll think it's a part of the process and that they deserved it. But if you don't give a promotion to that same person, they'll think about all the things they've done for the company, the things they've sacrificed, and they'll say negative things and complain about the management.

Negative experiences are only negative when judged and viewed from a negative lens—and they can be reframed into a positive experience when judged and viewed from a positive lens. 

If you want to keep moving forward, unshackled by anxiety, overthinking, and negativity, you might want to remember this.

Shifting Your Worldview

Part 1 – Expand Your Perception

The transformation of your perspective requires willpower in the beginning. A lot of it.

But don't worry, I'm here to make the journey easier for you.

Here's what you should do:

1) Exploration & Experimentation

To hear the music, you must have the desire to expand your mind through exploration and experimentation.

Be willing to do a constant exploration of the unknown and experimentation on the knowledge and information you gained during your exploration.

2) Reflection

You need to set aside time to self-reflect on what and how things really are.

What you can control and how you can control it.

And sometimes you need external guidance to make you aware of these things.

3) Trial & Error

There is a starting point that is accessible to all.

The internet has given access to most guides that people can have access to.

And from there, it's just a matter of trial and error to find what works for you.

Part 2 – Positive Lens Of Reality

The ultimate goal is to have a reframe-able lens at any time.

How you view the world should always be open for change based on new experiences.

You should have the ability to judge an experience on what it is—not influenced by your previous negative experiences.

1) The Shift

Always remember that in life, there are two things you can do. You can either view it positively or you can view it negatively.

Both sides happen to everyone—the positive things that are happening to you right now, other people might have it better. The same can be said for the negative things that are happening to you right now, other people might have it worse.

Both sides are important, crucial, and necessary to have meaning in life. But it's also important that if you want to live without the shackles of anxiety and negativity—you must realize that one side keeps you happy, and the other side keeps you sad. 

You just gotta choose the side that aligns with what you want to be and where you want to be and most of the time it's the positive side.

2) Digital Consumption

What you see is what you think.

The number one factor of why most people in today's digital era are sad, lonely, hopeless, miserable, and depressed is because of what they consume on the internet.

24/7, they put themselves in an echo chamber of negative emotions.

• The movies they watch.

• The music they listen to.

• The books they read.

It has never been easier to have access to information when you need it, but make sure you're consuming the positive ones.

3) Environment & Community

But what become your thoughts?

It's your environment.

Similar to what you consume, you also think what you surround yourself with.

If you are in an environment where negativity is the standard, you're making it so much harder for yourself to see through a lens of positivity.

The constant complaints, reasons, and excuses drain you of your energy that you could've otherwise spent on purpose, goals, and ambitions.

This is hard for most people because a lot of the time, their environment is what they grew up with. Their family, relatives, friends, even spouses.

But if you want to make yourself better, you must realize that your environment is one of the prices you have to pay.

Instead—surround yourself with individuals who are on the same path as you. Individuals who are working hard every day to make themselves better. This will create a positive community where all of you can benefit and move towards your goals in a conducive way.

Being able to be free from a fixed lens, zooms you out and allows you to see reality in a much wider lens.

You'll be able to see things from different angles and expand your mind, and this will make you see opportunities in everything.

You'll stop being negative all the time, which causes you to be depressive and miserable because you think your life has no meaning or purpose.

This is how you'll find meaning and purpose.

Thank you for reading.

– James