Judgmental patterns drive us like slaves. They are deeply embedded in our minds without us even noticing. Depending on our country or culture, we adhere to different stereotypes and believe we are wise enough not to get influenced by those obviously over-simplistic thoughts: “the French complain so much and get nothing done; Germans are rule-driven and stakhanovist; Americans are loud and superficial; Chinese are ruthless and hard-workers”… and on and on. Before any encounter we already imagined what to expect and not.

Stereotypes can be of great help though! They structure our vision of the world, help us make sense of the unknown and guide our perceptions in new experiences. Without them, we would live like headless chickens. Relying on our experience, common wisdom, traditions or learned rules – consciously or unconsciously – help us apprehend the world and relate incoming experiences to past learnings.

The problems start when we stop experiencing the world. We put everyone and everything in neatly classified boxes thinking that:
1) We can trust our ability to judge right from wrong in situations and individuals,
2) Keeping boxes won’t influence our thinking and behaviours,
3) We can easily replace and complete old boxes with new different ones.

Unfortunately, our patterns don’t remain empty shells that we can reshuffle and reform as we please. We start clinging to them increasingly  and they get reinforced as:
- We repeatedly experience them as “right”
- (Many) people we know and trust share our point of view

When that happens, we start seeing them as “Truth” and discard new different visions. We get rusty and closed. The more complete our vision of the world, the harder to recreate new ones. We build intricate structured perceptions, which justify each other, and at some point, without even realizing, we have stopped thinking and altered our behaviour towards people and situations. Companies brake innovation because the good old way of doing business is the best; employers rate People as their first asset but don’t give them the tools to be creative and autonomous; Politicians reassure voters by finger-pointing to immigrants as the source of unemployment and insecurity…

Re-question your canvas and open-up to complexity

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week” (G.B.Shaw)

The world is far richer than what we reduce it to. We can free our minds from its patterns if we spot them each time they pop-up before they automate our behaviour. We can observe our thinking, welcome new possibilities in our mind. Question and stop assuming. Our boxes do offer security and simplify the world for us but they also lock us into pre-conceived ideas and stop our creative thinking. Next time you see yourself fall in a pattern, try to hold it there, say “I’ve spot you” and ask yourself how differently you could think. Clean out the old boxes and new ideas will come. Be prepared to think again!

Judgmental patterns drive us like slaves. They are deeply embedded in our minds without us even noticing. Depending on our country or culture, we adhere to different stereotypes and believe we are wise enough not to get influenced by those obviously over-simplistic thoughts: “the French complain so much and get nothing done; Germans are rule-driven and stakhanovist; Americans are loud and superficial; Chinese are ruthless and hard-workers”… and on and on. Before any encounter we already imagined what to expect and not.

Stereotypes can be of great help though! They structure our vision of the world, help us make sense of the unknown and guide our perceptions in new experiences. Without them, we would live like headless chickens. Relying on our experience, common wisdom, traditions or learned rules – consciously or unconsciously – help us apprehend the world and relate incoming experiences to past learnings.

The problems start when we stop experiencing the world. We put everyone and everything in neatly classified boxes thinking that:
1) We can trust our ability to judge right from wrong in situations and individuals,
2) Keeping boxes won’t influence our thinking and behaviours,
3) We can easily replace and complete old boxes with new different ones.

Unfortunately, our patterns don’t remain empty shells that we can reshuffle and reform as we please. We start clinging to them increasingly  and they get reinforced as:
- We repeatedly experience them as “right”
- (Many) people we know and trust share our point of view

When that happens, we start seeing them as “Truth” and discard new different visions. We get rusty and closed. The more complete our vision of the world, the harder to recreate new ones. We build intricate structured perceptions, which justify each other, and at some point, without even realizing, we have stopped thinking and altered our behaviour towards people and situations. Companies brake innovation because the good old way of doing business is the best; employers rate People as their first asset but don’t give them the tools to be creative and autonomous; Politicians reassure voters by finger-pointing to immigrants as the source of unemployment and insecurity…

Re-question your canvas and open-up to complexity

“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week” (G.B.Shaw)

The world is far richer than what we reduce it to. We can free our minds from its patterns if we spot them each time they pop-up before they automate our behaviour. We can observe our thinking, welcome new possibilities in our mind. Question and stop assuming. Our boxes do offer security and simplify the world for us but they also lock us into pre-conceived ideas and stop our creative thinking. Next time you see yourself fall in a pattern, try to hold it there, say “I’ve spot you” and ask yourself how differently you could think. Clean out the old boxes and new ideas will come. Be prepared to think again!

“Ibant Obscuri sola sub Nocte per Umbram”…

Who does the darkness cover, us or the night’s shadow? Who are we? Is the infinite night lonely or is it us who are wandering in shadows?

It was an early October late night and I was walking home from the Alesia metro station in Paris through the back streets along the abandoned railway line. It was one of these in-between nights where the strength of the wind meets the sweet bitterness of the darkness; where the vanishing summer fights the upcoming coldness; where the smell of the fresh grass mixes with the drying tree leaves; when the deep sky promises protection through the moonlight and the steady starlight.

The wind blew the fallen chestnut leaves up in a whirling dance and I heard (or so it seemed) the roll of a wheel chair riding towards me. In this magical atmosphere, I was imagining an old witch speeding upon me, laughing frantically, her head stretched up and totally lit by the moonlight; a bony grey face anchored in a toothless smile and lifeless deep black eyes. As the sound hit my ears, my body shivered with this thought and I contemplated Death for an instant: standing on my side a meter away, a shadow, immense and immobile was holding an imposing posture of confidence and emptiness. My time had not come yet, so I thought, and I rejected the old witch into oblivion. In a switch of the mind the Vision  had vanished away and I continued my walk under the powerful clear sky.

Whether the night had cast its motherly protection over me or my confidence prevented an anticipated dance with death is just a matter of mindset. None of this happened really and all of it is always here with us. Walk and darkness will turn into Light. I finally reached the warm lightness of my home and the beautiful stylistic figure had played its magic.