Thought Experiments

I am grateful for the mind's ability to play with perspective to gain a different understanding of a situation. I am full of biases. Everyone is and often we are not even aware of them. For example, let's say I'm hypothetically (wink wink) watching a political debate between two candidates. Further, let's say that while I'm ultimately undecided, I still favor one over the other. During the course of responses and rebuttals, I find myself agreeing with most things one candidate says while I think most things that the other says are ridiculous. It's not even solely what the person says, but somehow what the person is. Something about the other person is unsettling, disingenuous, and unnatural.

This is about when I became aware of my bias. So I decided to try an experiment. Instead of seeing one person as my favored candidate and the other as questionable, I mentally flipped my conception of them. This turned my bias on its head and I suddenly began evaluating the candidates statements from a radically different point of view. How interesting! This simple thought experiment was garnering new insight despite nothing substantive changing about what was being said.

What else have my biases been filtering and altering on my behalf? How often have I misinterpreted a situation because I was unable or unwilling to see it from a perspective other than my own? Well, I have a feeling that like gratitude this is a skill that can be practiced. I have a feeling it can be and that becoming aware of this possibility is the first step. Now it's simply a matter of being willing to practice it. Thank you for the daily opportunities I am given to understand the world around me a little more.