Embrace your filters

You know when you hear those corny phrases: “you’re unique in your own way”, “you're special” or perhaps even “you are different to everyone else in the world”.

Well if you were anything like me then you might of disregarded this as ironic nonsense as of course everyone is different in some way therefore we are all unique. Thus we are all collectively the same!

Well I thought this for many years and felt a little unimportant as a singular figure within the six/seven billion people that are currently populating our world.

Then last year something happened to me. I was introduced to the idea of “filters”. Filters are as I now see them as the most uplifting, awe-inspiring and simply brilliant way of appreciating difference in life.

A neuroscientist and wonderful author Daniel Siegel is highlighting more and more evidence to suggest that the nurturing environment we exist in, shapes our own reality. I hand on heart see this everywhere I go. Everyone I meet, every interaction I have, I see people’s mind’s shaping reality as we speak and I see my own doing the very same. This in a sense is what I am referring to as filtering. You have experienced how ever many days on this planet adding on layer after layer of filters after encountering positive, negative or even neutral situations. One really does live and learn more than we could even consciously be aware of every single moment of the day and night we continue to exist.

If you think about it, you are heaving around tons of already formed decisions on how you should behave/act or simply be wherever you go. Continuously adding to it. Even now you are using previously acquired knowledge to estimate whether or not you should continue reading this text. Right this second you are using filters.

I wanted to write this to remind you how, no matter what your external descriptions of success, you have accumulated an unfathomably large database of knowledge that you can tap into with a response time second to none. This is for everyone to remember but for those of you who have times of self-doubt on what you are bringing to the table (be it an interview, an exam, a performance review or even a conversation with friends). You are the only living entity with such a combination of filters and with that you have the right to show your true understanding of the world. No one has ever seen life in your perspective and that is why you have unique experience that is priceless.

Share it, be bold and stand up for yourself.