Perspective & Reality: 2. Experience is shaped by our perceptions

Learn how experience is shaped by our perceptions on reality; endless possibilities

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Learn the key to managing your experiences:

— Solution 1: Conscious awareness (understand that we often go on autopilot)

— Solution 2: Conscious intention (visualised desired outcomes to situations)

— Solution 3: Conscious choice & action (agency vs. stagnation)

Choice: auto behavior vs. conscious thoughts

1. Choice

Setting an intention involves conscious choices. While we may not have complete control over situations and events, we do have the choice to decide how we want to react to create our own reality.

When we approach life with positivity and a definitive intention, things can change for the

better. We all have choices. So, fostering a constructive state of mind and taking appropriate

actions are both within your power, and beneficial to your life.

The key is to to remain open to different solutions and options instead of going into auto-pilot

mode (auto behaviour). The healthy state of having a multi-faceted perspective comes into

play as mentioned before.

2. Action

Sitting around doing nothing leads to nothing. By the same token, trying to do everything all

at the same time can lead to a chaotic overload. Develop the patience and endurance to

take one small step at a time. It is persistent actions that lead to sustainable growth.

Divide and conquer bigger tasks. Mentally break the task down into manageable steps and

imagine working towards your end goal progressively. This is the beauty and power of daily

baby steps.

Lateral Thinking and De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

1. Lateral thinking

With a background in medicine, psychology and philosophy, the Maltese thinker and writer

Edward de Bono is a famous proponent of ‘lateral thinking’, having himself coined the term

itself.

A simple way to understand lateral thinking is to contrast it with ‘vertical logic’. Vertical logic

is used by de Bono to refer to the traditional step by step use of logic and reasoning to solve

a problem. However, lateral thinking in contrast is indirect, uses creativity, and does not use

a traditional step by step logical approach. In fact, lateral thinking may even use ideas that

would be impossible to arrive at using logical reasoning alone.

A simple and famous folkloric example of lateral thinking cited by de Bono is the story of the

Judgment of Solomon: Two mothers lived in the same household, but one of them had recently lost her baby. The two mothers came before King Solomon of Israel, contesting motherhood over the surviving child.

King Solomon immediately called for his sword, declaring his judgment that the baby would be cut in two, with each mother receiving half the corpse. Whilst one mother did not contest the ruling, the second begged the king: “Give the baby to her! Just don’t kill him!” The king declared the second woman the true mother, as a mother would give up her baby if it were necessary to save its life.

In the story above showing lateral thinking, King Solomon tricked the mothers into revealing

their true feelings by fallaciously offering an objectively fair compromise where each mother

would have received half the baby. The thinking involved multiple processes used in a

holistic and creative way.

2. Six Thinking Hats

De Bono created the Six Thinking Hats method, which is a system for collaborative group

discussion using six different metaphorically coloured hats, with each hat representing 6

different ways the human brain can use to think:

1. Managing Blue – What is the subject? what are we thinking about? what is the goal?

Can look at the big picture.

2. Information White – Considering purely what information is available, what are the

facts?

3. Emotions Red – Intuitive or instinctive gut reactions or statements of emotional

feeling (but not any justification).

4. Discernment Black – Logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and

conservative. Practical, realistic.

5. Optimistic Response Yellow – Logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony.

Sees the brighter, sunny side of situations.

6. Creativity Green – Statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a

thought goes. Thinks creatively, outside the box.

This can be used in group work, with each person in the group metaphorically putting on a

different hat for the group to discuss and solve a problem collaboratively. However, you can use it as an individual exercise to both understand and consciously manage your experiences and perceptions.

Each of the 6 hats isolates a very narrow way of thinking, that by itself would be difficult, uncomfortable, or undesirable to solely operate on. However, by thinking about a situation or problem using a wide range of isolated thinking methods, not only will you develop a better understanding of each type of thinking, but you will also understand an experience more fully and in different ways, empowering you to make wiser and more conscious decisions.

Here is an easy sequence to using the Six Thinking Hats:

1. Managing Blue – What is the big picture? What is the end goal?

2. Information White – What are the facts, based purely on the available information?

3. Emotions Red – What is your instinctive gut reaction or feeling? (Note - you don’t need

any justification for this step)

4. Discernment Black – What are some logical reasons to be cautious or conservative?

5. Optimistic Response Yellow – What are the benefits and/or what is the sunny side of the

situation?

6. Creativity Green – What are some of your crazy or unusual thoughts about the

situation?

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