“There is more in heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in your imagination.” -William Shakespeare
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Emotions distort our perceptions. This is a real problem since our perceptions are pretty subjective to start out with, if they get too distorted, they may not resemble what ‘really happened’ at all. Distorted perceptions can be like looking at fun house mirrors. Imagine you are looking at a fun house mirror. Something that makes up a larger portion of your entire body, like your torso, can look tiny, while something that makes up a smaller portion of your body, like your nose, can look huge. Imagine you didn’t know the mirror was distorted, and when you looked at it, you thought it was accurate. Then your view of yourself would be pretty inaccurate, wouldn’t it?
This is what it is like to perceive events through emotionally distorted perceptions. Something “big,” like knowing my parents love me, can look tiny, insignificant, or even be invisible. Something “small,” like I can’t have the car tonight can look huge and important. It can look so big that it becomes all I can see. I’d love to be able to tell you that adolescents are the only ones prone to such distortions, but I can’t.
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“Owing to the fact that all experience is a process, no point of view can ever be the last one.” – William James
