We do make a case, don't we? We all do. Every one of us makes a strong case in our mind against some ‘thing’ we believe should be different. And we are sure we are right.
We use the ‘facts' we gather from others who share our stance, as well as the ‘evidence' we have collected from our own life experience, to verify to ourselves that what we believe is true. For this is the way the mind works. The mind takes a stand and then goes about the business of proving itself right in the stand it has taken.
This is how we create our own personal reality (often otherwise known as our “own mind-made hell.”)
And, well … I don't know; maybe we ARE right in our assumptions regarding this “thing,” whatever it is … but if we are to do fair research, we must ask ourselves a very important question, the answer to which clearly points out the effect on our experiment of our own biased belief.
The question we must ask ourselves is this; “How is MY presence & participation in this evidence-gathering experiment affecting my findings?”
“How does my own unconscious bias & the feelings that arise naturally from believing it lead to reactions that inevitably end up supporting it? How does my mental stance affect the creditability of my findings?”
The effect our own beliefs/biases have on what we ‘see’ in the world is especially relevant to the outcomes we experience when we come to understand that we literally believe a ‘thing’ (ism, idea, concept, opinion, etc) into being.
We tend to forget that we feel and play the role of whatever part the mind assigns us; we forget that our default reaction when the mind BELIEVES something is for our feelings and behavioral reactions to line up with what we believe.
In other words, we feel and act as if what we tell ourselves is true and when we tell ourselves that others should see this ‘thing’ the way we do, think the way we do, and respond like we think they should, we act in ways that go along with those presumptions, and through our interaction based on these biases, we invite others to respond in ways that will tend to prove us right. In other words, we find the evidence we are looking for – every time – and we don’t even see our part in the mix!
For a less biased ‘research project,’ notice what it is that you feel most passionately about. Look at the part of you that feels compelled to defend your opinion. Who or what are you defending it to or against? What do you think should be different. Find the bias or underlying belief behind it all & then ask yourself, “What part do I play in proving this ‘thing’ to be true? What is the emotional, mental, and physical harvest of that belief?”
Question your biases as a way to step back from your subsequent feelings and default reactions, especially if they are unhappy ones, and then measure as a true witness the truth of your previous biases.
You might be pleasantly surprised to find that without the conviction that some unhappy ‘thing’ is true, we are suddenly freed from having to feel, to act, and to thereby prove, that it is true!
Blessings,
Lynne