The Small Mind

Most people are judgmental — to a more or lesser extent.

But why is that?

At the root of being judgmental is judgment. Judgment is defined as "an opinion or decision based on careful thought" — that's a necessary and unique tool for the human race. It's what differentiates us from animals.

But the world we live in today is a world of overstimulation and infinite choices. Options get fired at us faster and faster, so we don't even have time to form "an opinion or decision based on careful thought". And as a result our opinions go unchallenged. This is how we lock ourselves into a certain mode of thinking, feeling and looking at the world.

So what's the alternative? The alternative is to question our identity, our ego and the identity of others. That allows us to see the many roles that we all take on: the role of the mother, husband, boss, friend... And if you really drill into them, you can't help but see that each of them comes with unfulfillable expectations: "My boss sucks, my mother should have done this when I was little, my friend let me down, I am not a good husband...".

We drown in our own narratives.

But when we manage to peel off all those layers, what remains is this: human beings. That is when we can see life through a lens of universal values instead of small minded personal preferences. And then, the war stops that we have been fighting with ourselves.