Ignore

Learning to ignore people is the greatest superpower you can have

Imagine you are sitting in a meeting and someone in your midst utters something that is entirely wrong.

How long would you be able to sit silently enduring nonsense?

Let alone a fact, what if someone is mispronouncing something in an obviously wrong way.

How long would you be able to take it?

Why do we all feel the urge to correct people? Why can’t we endure something wrong without flinching?

Superiority complex? Now really!

Photo by Sangga Rima Roman Selia on Unsplash

There is a truth and reality that we hold dear to ourselves and when we come across people spouting stuff that is untrue it rankles at the reality that we have built for ourselves. This is often hard to digest.

“A religious war is like killing someone over who has the better imaginary friend.” Larry Beinhart

When our reality is disrupted - not the real reality but the one in our minds - we feel this intense need to defend it whether it may be necessary or not.

This disruption is what causes us to engage in shouting matches on Twitter to try and prove ourselves right.

The closer a person is to you, the more this disruption grates at you. When your parents or your spouse utters right-wing crap or left-wing crap depending on your inclination it becomes impossible not to want to correct them because it confronts your reality at such a close quarter.

Source: XKCD

They say that at a molecular level, every atom is 99% empty. Only 1% represents the atoms and the bonds between them. I am looking at my table now and it does not seem like 99% emptiness.

Reality is nothing, it is just an experience that we are having. A way in which our senses are interpreting the world around us. Even your reality is not really real.

Ignoring is the greatest superpower that one can have. It is also perhaps the most underutilised power.