You Watch, I Drive!

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Travels in Istanbul - "You Watch, I Drive!"

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”

Steve Maraboli

"Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing."

Anonymous

I'd finally arrived in Istanbul late at night. My sister had arranged for a driver to pick me up at the airport.

My sister has lived in Istanbul for 5 months and does not have a car. Generally to get to Istanbul from the outlying suburb she lives in requires a long walk to the subway, a long ride to the docks, a ferry ride across the Bosporus to Kadakoy and then a tram ride to go anywhere else in the city.

So for my first jaunt in Istanbul late at night I thought it would be better to hire a driver. Very little signage is in English, very few people speak it and she lives very far away from the airport.

She said my driver spoke English and at first he did. But after the greeting and a few short sentences that was it.

At first everything seemed fine but then he started stopping at every cross street and looking around at the different buildings. After the 5th or 6th time he stopped at a crossroad I asked if he had the number of my sister's Turkish friend to call for better directions. At first he ignored me, but after the second time I mentioned it he turned to me and said "You watch, I drive".

I immediately got it and said nothing more. But it made me think, and I realized I was holding on too tight to knowing. I was trying to control the outcome by trying to influence the driver.

Yes it was important to get to my destination, but I knew I would eventually get there.  It just might take longer, and maybe I would get a chance to "watch" a little more.

But it really struck home as I realized I was not staying within my control zone, meaning within my own mind and body.

I continued to watch myself over the next few days.  I noticed that I was continually trying to "control" my progress on the various transportation legs by visualizing the next the steps I would be taking, trying to anticipate what was next.

Where would I stand to avoid the crush of the crowd onto the ferry, what cabin would I get on in the subway, etc.

I had to remind myself that it didn't matter where I stood in the line, it didn't matter what the crowd was doing, none of it really mattered. All that mattered was that I was in Turkey getting ready to visit some of the most fascinating historical sites in the world. Some of the places I'd always dreamed of visiting.

So right then I decided - I am here, I am living a dream and I will just sit back and watch from here on out.

www.stevengriggs.com

Is Seeing Believing?

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Is Seeing Believing?

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“Seeing is believing. I will believe in God only if I see him: but are all things seen or heard or tasted, as real as they seem?”

Sri Sathva Sai Baba

“You must understand that seeing is believing but also know that believing is seeing.”

Denis Waitley

Did you know that we can only see about 10% of the matter (luminous matter) that exists in our world?  That means that the other 90% of what is out there is invisible to us (dark matter).

Did you also know that our eyes really aren't “seeing” ? Of course are eyes are seeing but it isn't that simple.

Our brain is decoding the information sent to it by the eyes and in some instances it is making up what it thinks it sees based upon prior information and expectations or assumptions.

In other words there is a lot of interpreting going on.  It is not always a direct translation of what you are looking at. Sometimes there is an incomplete picture being transmitted and our brain must fill in the blanks.

Our brain decides what we are seeing.

It is estimated that the brain makes up or creates 30-40% of the information that it uses to fill in the blanks.

Another interesting insight is that our brain is not actually analyzing the picture it receives from the eyes. It is analyzing the light it is receiving.

This is called the Visible Spectrum and it is the only band of electromagnetic spectrum (light) visible to the human eye.

The only colors we can see are the 7 colors of the rainbow and each has its own frequency, ranging from 390 nanometers to 700 nm. This Visible Spectrum falls in between ultraviolet and infrared. Some animals such as bees can see infra-red.

So our mind is detecting and analyzing the electromagnetic radiation frequencies of the colors it is seeing.  This information is transmitted through the eye into the retina where the chemical rhodopsin converts it into electrical impulses. These impulses are then analyzed and interpreted by the brain.

The reason I am explaining this is because in all this translation and interpretation our brains can sometimes get it wrong.

What you think you are seeing may not be exactly what is there.

In fact research has shown that a person may see things differently depending upon their state of mind and their emotional support network.

Dr. Kent D. Harber, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University at Newark has a theory he calls ‘The Resources and Perception Model (RPM)”. 

According to Dr. Harber:

“People who have fewer social resources, such as friends and family, literally see challenging objects and events in a more exaggerated way than do people who feel emotionally supported."

“Those with fewer friends, with lower self-esteem and with less opportunity to disclose their emotions tend to visually amplify threats," Dr. Harber said. "Their perceptions are exaggerated, and disturbing things appear higher, closer, of greater duration or more intense than they actually are.” (my emphasis)

“Those who are isolated, who often lack self-worth, or who are in other ways bereft of resources might live in a more threatening world where mole hills look like mountains.” (my emphasis)

Knowing this, can you look back and see times when your outlook might have been affected by your situation? Maybe when you were going through a rough patch…..?

I know I can relate to this phenomenon. During certain periods of my life when I was going through emotional or personal challenges I think I saw and felt the effects of this.

To see if this negative viewpoint was real or imagined I used to check on myself by thinking of something I really loved, something that was a constant thing I always responded positively to.

If IT felt bad then I knew the feelings I was having had to be temporary, they weren't real. 

So I would let it go and not buy into it.

The next time things seem to be a little darker or a little bigger and maybe a bit scarier, remember that your mind may be influenced by your current situation.

What you are believing may not really be what you are seeing.

www.stevengriggs.com