Two weeks into the semester – I was trapped in a fog. Dark. Disorientating. Seemingly inescapable.

I was anxious. Anxious about the last year of the degree – the pressures of seemingly countless assessments. Anxious about upcoming placements – the unknown, the judgement, the expectations from tough supervisors. Anxious about my Honours thesis – the enormous task waiting for me.

Overwhelmed. A despairing fog clouded my vision. When your vision is clouded, you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I dreaded facing the next day. I dreaded facing the next week.

Then a reality check halted me. A spanner thrown into the unrelenting gears of my mind.

That Sunday night, my girlfriend Denise sent me a long message. She told me to reflect, and to change my perspective.

So I did.

I thought. I reflected. I journaled.

Waking up on the next Monday, the dark cloud had lifted off my mind.

. . .

Take a look around you. There is no single objective reality.

Everyone looks at reality through their own lens.

Think of a camera. Each camera lens distorts and produces a different shot. A different reality. General purpose lens. Wide angle lens. Fish eye lens. Superzoom lens. Different apertures. Different shutter speeds.  Different lighting. Different post-production.

Your lenses are your thought patterns, your desires, your fears, your aspirations, your worries, your attitude.

Everyone sees a different reality through their own lens.

Base reality doesn’t determine reality.

Each lens determines the reality we experience.

Everyone experiences a different reality.

. . .

The dark fog of negativity is contagious. It carries weight and inertia.

From that two week period – I know how easy it is to get lost in the fog.

How easy it is forget that it is just a lens issue, not a reality issue.

How easy it is to assume your lens is fixed and unchangeable.

But it can be changed. When you change your lens, the reality you experience is changed.

Sometimes you just need a reminder. A prompt to check your lens. A prompt to change your lens.

Sometimes, you just need to the right prompt to click with you. These are a few prompts that have clicked for me:

1) The genius of William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wrote:

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” – Hamlet, William Shakespeare.

Resistance comes only from your own mind. Resistance comes only from your own lens.

There is no resistance in reality. There is no fears, anxieties, worries in reality.

Aside from physical suffering, all suffering is self imposed. There is no inherent good or bad in reality. There is no difficult or easy in reality. There is no feeling or emotion in reality.

All interpretations are yours alone. Any resistance is only self imposed.

2) The wisdom of Mark Twain.

Mark Twain said:

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain.

How true.

Most of our experiences (our fears, our anxieties, our aspirations, our fantasies, our interpretations) are nothing but ephemeral thoughts.

It shows that our reality is not the base reality. The reality we live is in our own minds, more than the outside world.

3) A tiger named Mohini.

Tara Brach, a teach in Buddhist thinking and meditation, tells this story:

This is a story about a tiger named Mohini that was in captivity in a zoo, who was rescued from an animal sanctuary. Mohini had been confined to a 10-by-10-foot cage with a concrete floor for 5 or 10 years. They finally released her into this big pasture: With excitement and anticipation, they released Mohini into her new and expensive environment, but it was too late. The tiger immediately sought refuge in a corner of the compound , where she lived for the remainder of her life. She paced and paced in that corner until an area of 10-by-10-feet was worn bare of grass… Perhaps the biggest tragedy in our loves is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns.

Where in your life are you trapped in a cage created by your own mind, and not by reality?

4) The life principles of Tim Ferriss.

That Sunday night I was tossing and turning, both my mind and my body.

Then something clicked. A line I read a long time ago.

A life mantra from Tim Ferriss:

“What would this look like if it were easy?” – Tim Ferriss.

He expands:

“These days, more than any other question, I’m asking ‘What would this look like if it were easy?’ If I feel stressed, stretched thin, or overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’m overcomplicating something or failing to take the simple/easy path because I feel I should be trying “harder.”

It is the perfect prompt. A reminder that that there are many potential lenses to experience reality with. A reminder to visualise an easier reality.

It is a prompt to approach whatever is in front of you with ease. Not easy defined as not cognitively challenging. But easy defined as no resistance. No resistance, no conflict, no fears, no anxieties, no worries.

5) Flow like water.

Absorb the words from Bruce Lee:

When I think of easy, I think of the flow of water.

Water flowing down a river. Water flows around the rocks in its path. Water flows to the bend of the river.

Smooth. Cool. Effortless. Frictionless. Non-resistance.

Be the water that flows around whatever challenge lies ahead.

. . .

When you feel yourself in the fog, interrupt the cycle. Use the prompts. These are the prompts that worked for me.

Remember the words of William Shakespeare, of Mark Twain, of Tim Ferriss.

Be the tiger that breaks free of the limits of its own mind.

Be the water that just flows.

Know that the lenses aren’t fixed.  Know that the lenses are changeable.

Change your lens. Change your reality.