I had a giggle to myself the other day when a family member insisted on having their juice poured into the blue glass instead of the clear one as they were convinced that the blue one was bigger and held more. Both glasses are the same height and the same circumference at the top. The difference is that the blue one is straight up and down and the clear one bulges out for about a third of the way down and then is quite a bit narrower at the bottom, so it FEELS smaller when you pick it up. Of course, the blue one is coloured which also makes it LOOK a little more substantial.
I readily complied with the request as it seemed quite reasonable and it didn’t make any difference to me which they drank from. But today when I went to get a glass of water for myself I began to wonder how much more the blue glass actually holds. So I filled it to the brim and poured the water into the clear glass. And, guess what? They hold exactly the same amount - not a drop more; not a drop less!
This made me think about how we look at barriers that stand in the way of our hopes and dreams and think they are so substantial that we will never be able to move them or get under, over, or around them. But our perception is coloured by our past experiences, our conditioning about our own abilities, or our beliefs about ourselves and what we can do. Those barriers LOOK like they are more substantial than they really are.
It’s also easy to FEEL that we aren’t up to dealing with problems or difficulties that crop up unwanted in our lives. We tend to think they are huge and that nothing will be enough to overcome them, or that they are so big that there will never be a time that we are free of them. Again, it is a matter of perception. Our feelings and thoughts aren’t a realistic evaluation of our circumstances.
