I have a story from my recent trip to Bangladesh, that I feel perfectly shows why we have so many misunderstandings in this world.

We were driving to the village in a tuk tuk one day. I was mainly looking out on my side of it, and the other person with me was looking out of the other side.

About an hour into the ride I thought "Oh! Let me see how things are on the other side. Haven't looked there at all!" And then I remember the feeling I got as soon as I turned around. I was so surprised. It was TOTALLY different!

My side was all village houses, very busy with farming etc, n hers? All peaceful, a stream etc.

I was like wow....if anyone asks us about the ride, we will have two TOTALLY different stories! But it was the same ride, the same road... Moral of the story? When you get into an argument, as heated as it may be, try your hardest to look through the other person's eyes...you might be stunned at how differently you've both interpreted a situation... Relationships are the single most important part of life - with the self, others, platonic, family, romantic - i feel it's the core cause of the majority of mental health issues.

And reconciliation...the biggest healer, but the scariest thing to do... We must change the narrative. Freedom of speech is pushed so much, but does it REALLY mean "whatever we want?" How about social responsibility?

From 2018, let's all intentionally choose not to be the cause of another person's pain. Let's not do the things we wouldn't want done to us. We can have different opinions, we can want different things, but let's not bulldoze over others or put them down to make our point.

Remember the person...not the circumstance... See the village AND the stream. And who knows...you might even be pleasantly surprised!

perspective #throughanotherseyes #empathy #understanding

kindness #nodiscrimination #misunderstanding #reconciliation #noego #nopride #selflessness #onlyhuman #weallmakemistakes #heart #peace #blog #thoughtoftheday