Ever found yourself in a disagreement with someone else over whether the dishwasher has been loaded correctly, or whether the
heating needs to be turned up or down?
These kind of disagreements may seem small and in the great scheme of things, unimportant, but the premise behind them can grow into something much
bigger.
There are two issues, firstly is it so important to be ‘right’, and is what you find yourself disagreeing about a fact or just your experience?
It can be very difficult to separate your subjective experience from an objective truth, and easy to make assumptions based on our own perceptions.
Taking the heating example, is it too hot? Or is it just yourself that is feeling too hot? The dishwasher stacking — is it just your own perception that the plates are better stacked at the back? Or is it a fact?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce the level of conflict in our lives? This is possible by working on keeping an open mind and recognising that most of our experiences are temporary rather than factual. For example, it's not that the room is too hot, it's just you are feeling too hot right now … a temporary experience, and it's an assumption made based on an individual, personal
perception.
So next time you are loading the dishwasher, or someone is doing it for you, see if you can be open-minded enough to let it go and recognise that your perception of how it ‘should’ be loaded
is different to someone else’s but that's ok, and recognise that you don’t always have to be ‘right’ — it's just your subjective experience.
