Perception

Let me begin with a small story.

By mistake, a boy kept his teacher’s book in his school bag and brought home. Next day, when teacher asked the class about her missing book, he couldn’t utter a word! He was scared.

He was fearful till the time the teacher assured the class that she won’t be angry and she’ll give away a big sticker! He quickly raised his hand and accepted his mistake. Teacher praised him for telling the truth and made everyone do scout-clapping for him. On the same day he shared his experience in his ‘My Day’ notebook. Next day, when teacher checked his ‘My Day’, she writes a note - ‘Always Speak Truth’.

When the boy’s mother found out about the incident she made her child understood the learning from this incident. – Firstly, he should have checked the thing before keeping it in his bag. Secondly, mistakes happen, and for that he shouldn’t be scared of anyone; instead he should have accepted his mistake in the first place. And lastly, she said “Teacher is expecting you to be truthful always.” She made her own perception on reading the teacher’s comment!

“No Mumma, it’s not like that!” The boy was not agreeing with the last point of his mother. And he added, “By this note my teacher wants to say that - I Always Speak Truth”. He was sure about his teacher’s point of view.

The mother was aware about her child’s truthful nature, but she wanted her child to be truthful with everyone and somehow, she made a different perception for the teacher’s point of view. She thought the teacher was trying to state ‘comment’ instead of ‘Praise’. But the boy was very clear about it and made a Complete Positive Perception for his teacher’s note! Wow! 

A simple comment conveyed two different perceptions, to the two different people of the two different ages. One perception was Partial Positive and the other was Complete Positive. The mother could have also built a complete positive perception and it would have ended by praising her child by saying, “See, your teacher is very happy with you because you always speak truth.” But she missed the chance. 

Her partial positive perception (which is also called partial negative) could have made the child sadden, even after being truthful. But the child took both the teacher and his mother’s point of view positively. Maybe that’s the reason, why the wise people always suggest - ‘To think like a child’. 

Such incidents happen every day with everyone in this world. And we, the so-called ‘Grownups’ seize it with our own perception. Most of the time, we don’t crosscheck the injected negativity in our perception. Our own perception fills bitterness in our mind and that bitterness builds up a great wall of differences and ends up with hatred towards the other.

In some cases, we are always sure about the negativity of the other person (it might be the end result of the wall, built up by one of them between the two), and we build negative perception amid the past experiences. But in most cases, we barely know the other person and we build negative perception without checking them separately. And in all the instances, by building great wall of negativity around us we end up with loneliness or we get accompanied with miserable people. And ultimately it ruins our own life. 

There is one saying in Gujarati language: ‘દ્રિષ્ટિ એવી સૃષ્ટિ’

Meaning: Creation is similar to the Vision.

Thus, in order to destroy the prison of negativity, we’ll have to change our own perception. We’ll have to habituate ourselves to build a complete positive perception in all incidents we participate. Initially, it may seem difficult but we all are capable for it, because we all have gone through our childhood. The change in our own perception can build the bridge of amity between the two… ad 

Thank you so much dear Reader, for spending your valuable time. Please share this post to your connections, and be a part of Positive Change. Keep Reading…

Your Friend Always

Amee Darji

PS: I’m grateful to God for making my child a Positive Thinker.