52 Ways To Think Differently

1. Authentic Authorship

A place to begin in thinking differently lies in this belief, “Experience is experience, and anything, we think or say about the experience is a story. There is truth in the story that we tell with our thoughts and words. But, the story is finite and never the complete picture or the whole, absolute truth. The story (our words and thoughts) are never the experience.

The concepts that we use in our thinking are constructs. A simple understanding of this is that they are created. Basically, we make them up. As a people, a culture and a society, we generally make contracts and agreements that some of these thoughts, concepts, stories are reality and some are fiction. Though all perceptions reflect a point of view or perspective, we by consensus hold some to be more absolute. In this we frequently forget that we choose the way we think the “facts” we use in the same way we created poetry. When we ignore the choice of the way we think then we lose our full ability to author the “stories” we use to describe and cope with our experiences in the most adaptable and creative ways.

This doesn’t mean that everything is just our own imagination. There is much in common between what individuals experience. There exists a reality outside our own thoughts and “story”. We commonly organize them and share these patterns as “laws of physics”, “facts”, “scripture”, etc.

Yet, by practicing the awareness of accepting and owning as completely as possible that we “author” our own perceptions and interpretations we position ourselves to be in choice around the different ways that we experience our lives. This can be the beginning of “thinking differently”.

How do you think differently about this ?

52 Ways To Think Differently

This Blog is a response to those who have encouraged me to begin sharing through writing again. At times I am hesitant to write because I think that I am in some ways talking about the same things repeatedly. Yet, with a smile I have frequently remarked that though comedians say, “Stop me if you have heard this one.”, you never hear a singer say, “Stop me if you’ve heard this song.” So, in following in the tradition that “Whatever is expressed is impressed”,  I will attempt to write without the inhibition that I am saying things that have already been said before. Though I may need to in some ways ignore the strange look on my sweetheart wife’s face when she realizes that I am telling the same story or joke for what must seem like the “one millionth” time. It is also an acknowledgement that there are patterns in our Universe which need to be continually "sung".

I write and teach best when in dialogue. I truly enjoy conversations. So, I wholeheartedly encourage you to share your comments, thoughts and dialogue your questions in response to the words here.                    

David Mueller