Yesterday evening Varsha and her friends came running to me and told me to protect them. It was funny to see them huffing and puffing at the same time they seemed scared. Their explanation was that one of their friends had become angry with them and left their game and they saw her coming back with her Grandmother.
These children assumed that she had brought her Grandma to scold them and they all ran away.
The children started talking about how they had seen her scold other children etc. This discussion went on for sometime till the phone rang.
It was the same girl who had come with her Grandma. She explained that their post box in the lobby had been open, so she had called her Grandma to close it and it was not what they had imagined. And before she could explain it to them, they had all run away.
These children heaved a sigh of relief and found it funny that they had interpreted the whole situation in a wrong way. Even after this, there were one or two of them who refused to go by the explanation and still held on to the thought that the friend had brought her Grandma to scold them.
Looking at them I realised that there were so many times where I would be thinking something about someone and find many events which support my theory. Even when there is enough evidence against it.
In one of the workshops I attended, one participant shared that no one liked her. In one of the activities the facilitator was helping her out, when we were sharing our reflections, she suddenly stated her thoughts that the facilitator did not like her. When asked how she had come to that conclusion, she shared that she had noticed the facilitator was not looking at her at all when she spoke and would look at everyone else but her. When the facilitator sat with her with the activity she realised that her thinking may not be totally true. If the facilitator had not done what she did, the participant would have gone back with another experience and reinforcement of her thought that 'No one likes her'
We seem to be limited in the way we look at things. We start with a thought and then keep stacking every experience we have like one coin on the other on that thought .. reinforcing it and believing it to be true. When these thoughts help me to grow and look at things which foster hope, it would be beneficial, but when these thoughts limit me and not allow me to go further it can be detrimental.
One small step where we can start to avoid this happening would be to be aware of our thought and question it. Maybe then things will change a little :-)
These children assumed that she had brought her Grandma to scold them and they all ran away.
The children started talking about how they had seen her scold other children etc. This discussion went on for sometime till the phone rang.
It was the same girl who had come with her Grandma. She explained that their post box in the lobby had been open, so she had called her Grandma to close it and it was not what they had imagined. And before she could explain it to them, they had all run away.
These children heaved a sigh of relief and found it funny that they had interpreted the whole situation in a wrong way. Even after this, there were one or two of them who refused to go by the explanation and still held on to the thought that the friend had brought her Grandma to scold them.
Looking at them I realised that there were so many times where I would be thinking something about someone and find many events which support my theory. Even when there is enough evidence against it.
In one of the workshops I attended, one participant shared that no one liked her. In one of the activities the facilitator was helping her out, when we were sharing our reflections, she suddenly stated her thoughts that the facilitator did not like her. When asked how she had come to that conclusion, she shared that she had noticed the facilitator was not looking at her at all when she spoke and would look at everyone else but her. When the facilitator sat with her with the activity she realised that her thinking may not be totally true. If the facilitator had not done what she did, the participant would have gone back with another experience and reinforcement of her thought that 'No one likes her'
We seem to be limited in the way we look at things. We start with a thought and then keep stacking every experience we have like one coin on the other on that thought .. reinforcing it and believing it to be true. When these thoughts help me to grow and look at things which foster hope, it would be beneficial, but when these thoughts limit me and not allow me to go further it can be detrimental.
One small step where we can start to avoid this happening would be to be aware of our thought and question it. Maybe then things will change a little :-)
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