Plato’s Allegory of the Cave – Alex Gendler
I grew-up in what would be considered a ‘typical family’, with mother, father, son and daughter. We experienced a ‘typical’ life with some happy times celebrating birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and holiday weekend gatherings. We also experienced some unhappy times caused by stress, anxiety, depression and some angry fights. This was my reality and over time the anxiety and depression grew worse. Then one day the suffering from unhappiness and depression became so bad that I wanted to escaped to ‘find a better way’. I started this new journey by seeking the help of a professional therapist. At first I found this journey very difficult because of my rigid thinking patterns and my stubbornness to change, but over time I began to recognize that my negative thought patterns were influenced by my friends and family, the news media, the entertainment media, and society in general. I started to see the possibility of a new reality by continuing CBT therapy and reading books by Dr Wayne Dyer and other self-help authors. Then the moment of enlightenment occurred and I understood what Shakespeare meant in Hamlet when he wrote “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. . . . but THINKING makes it so! As an example, I can think rain is good because it waters my plants or I can think rain is bad because it prevents me from going outside. It all depends on my thoughts and they create my emotions.
This is when I started living in a new reality of ‘being the observer of my thoughts’. Whenever I observed that I was thinking negative thoughts, I interrupted those thoughts and forced myself to think more positive thoughts. After living in this new reality for some time, my thinking patterns were conditioned such that more positive thoughts have now become my dominate thought pattern, my new reality. Living in this new reality of less stress and anxiety and more happiness and contentment, I became grateful for having moved out of the negative thought cave that I had lived in for so long. With time, I recognized just how fortunate I was to be living in this new reality while it seemed almost everyone else was living back in a reality of unhappiness, stress and anxiety. My gratitude became so strong that I felt compelled to share the new reality of ‘being the observer of your thoughts’ with anyone who would listen. I wanted to share this new reality with the world, so I created a website, Happiness-Success.com so that others could learn how to reduce their stress and anxiety and increase their happiness. However, most people think my ideas about ‘conditioning your thoughts to be more positive’ are weird and make fun of me for ‘having a Pollyanna attitude’ and they mock me when I try to encourage them to ‘think more positive’. But I’m hoping with time, others will leave the cave of negative conditioned thought patterns and find a new reality by ‘being the observer of your thoughts’. So, now you know why I’m living Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Tell me, have you learned to observe your thoughts?
“Thou shalt know; Self-chosen are the woes that fall on men – How wretched, for they see not good so near, Nor harken to its voice. – few only know the pathway to deliverance from ill.” From the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It is part of a chorus in his tragedy “Antigone.”