Today, I want to tell you about flicking people off the edge of the world. It’s fabulous, trust me.
Here’s the deal. When we feel overwhelmed, intimidated or overshadowed in some way by someone or something, the way that we perceive them in our mind’s eye gives them a lot of power. Our tools of perception mean that we focus on visual, auditory and kinesthetic elements (and until we become conscious of this, we are largely unaware that we are profiling people and situations in this way).
For instance, if I am concerned about someone, my mental construction of them gives them a lot of power. Visually, they are large, close and bright. If I was to close my eyes and imagine them, they would feel immediate to me, and the outline of them would be sharp and clear.
It may be in internal conversations, their voice is loud, pointed and powerful.
And when I think about them, I get a very clear sense of how I feel that supports the perceived hierarchy of power I’ve created between us.
Everything we feel has to do with perception. What we often forget, is that playing with how it is we perceive someone or something can lessen the power they have over us.
Which brings me back to flicking people off the edge of the world.
Whenever I find myself in an out-of-kilter position, in my mind I imagine the person in question and I shrink them down until they are very, very small. Perhaps the size of a jellybean.
If there is sound attached to my visual, I give them a squeaky voice. Something that makes me snort my tea out of my nose, or at the very least, I can’t take seriously.
As if that isn’t enough, then, I imagine myself sitting on a big flat sphere (like a massive dinner plate) that represents the world (albeit a flat one). I move my little person jellybean to the edge and then, well…. Yup. I flick them off the edge of the world.
It’s surprisingly satisfying. I recommend you try it.
The thing is, all feeling we have, all power plays we create are mental constructs. We perceive a person or situation in a certain way, we feed into that dynamic and the dance continues.
Will flicking someone off the edge of the world solve all your problems? Probably not. But at the very least it reminds you that you are in charge of the meaning you attach to things and how you view the situation. And what’s more, having a bit of a laugh loosens the shackles we often buckle around ourselves and allows you to view the situation with a fresh set of jellybean flatearther eyes.
Onwards.
❤️ Jane
