“The truth you believe in, may not necessarily be a fact.”
As humans, we love to predict a lot of situations which could have serious implications on our personal and inter-personal relationships. By doing so, we’re only creating good fiction for our minds to fill out the missing information. This is not something bad, as our brain is known to make patterns by connecting an experience or an instance and concluding a result to the present situation. We can thank the hunter-gathering society for this, that being our ancestors who have handed down these traits to us.
A game of guess:
Political correctness in today’s world has made us only surface level polite to people and not kind or empathetic, with the term “offensive” brewing in the air it has almost become impossible for people to clear the air sometimes, leaving most people in a guessing game, thus creating a story leading to an array of misunderstandings.
More room for stereotypes:
“Assumptions” are the root cause of stereotypes which begin with personalized interactions and social media. As people we must always remember that most headlines made today are very much a “click bait” intended to garner more “TRP”, highlighting a certain race, color, religion or sex of any person, who has negative interactions with the society.This is put up on social media handles for millions to watch and scrutinize, causing people to have pre-assumed notions about certain sects of the society or situations before understanding or experiencing them. These interactions keep people in a narrow mindset with the inability to learn about various cultures or develop deep-rooted friendships.
Dealing with an always guessing mind:
- Always have an “informed opinion,” not an “influenced one.”
- Identify times when you are playing “I think I know what it is” with your head.
- If you feel uncomfortable about asking the person what they meant, try asking small questions here and there about the topic that person just spoke about, this would give you much clear idea about what they meant (first impression is only the start of an impression and not the last or best one).
- Don’t always expect the other person to be bad, having pre-assumed notions about somebody is normal but giving them a chance to see who they are is also normal.
- Respond mindfully and not reactively, this one would alone avoid a lot of blunders and misunderstandings.
- Empathize with the person in front of you, they might just be going through a bad day.
- Sometimes it’s ok to ask the person what they meant for your own sanity.
Lastly, as most of us do not live in a monochrome world, a trait like “assumption” would never cease to exist, hence let’s be mindful and untangle ourselves a bit more by reducing its side effects and using our time productively.
