About

Started in 2020, The Big Small is created as a resource and community for open minded, growth seeking individuals. Focused on helping you create and live a more conscious life by illuminating your subconsciously held perspectives on everyday life topics and challenges.

Why?

Because we each have our own unique and valid perspectives on life’s various topics, and by learning about and being exposed to different and contrasting perspectives two things happen:

1.  We come to understand ourselves and our own currently held perspectives better.

2.  With this understanding, you are empowered to consciously choose to keep your current perspective or to change your mind and choose another perspective that is maybe more aligned with you

But why does this matter?

Because the perspectives you hold are unimaginably powerful, they have a direct affect on how you experience reality!

Not only that but most of the perspectives we hold are not our own! That is we did not choose them consciously, instead we adopted them subconsciously from our friends, family and environment, without questioning them.

By becoming deliberately aware of your currently held perspectives and than making a intentional decision to alter them, you can consciously create the life experiences you choose. You can become the author of your own life story, no longer reacting to circumstances but proactively directing the narrative.

How does this work?

Belief ==> Perspective ==> Perception ==>  Experience

Beliefs (mental definitions, trust, repeated thoughts, knowing, hope)

Peter grew up poor, he picked up beliefs from his parents such as “there isn’t enough”, he had trust in this belief, as he saw it in his parents reality. So he didn’t doubt this belief, in fact he created more supporting (secondary) beliefs that reaffirmed the core primary belief that “there isn’t enough”. Some of these secondary beliefs were “people are wasteful, that’s why things run out” and “the amount of resources are finite”. Olivia also grew up economically poor, however she grew up in a kind and positive tight knit community, where she saw  her parents and those around her slowly raise themselves to working middle class. Olivia picked up the primary belief “there is plenty”, she too didn’t doubt this as she saw it demonstrated around her by the attitude of her community and parents, in fact she developed secondary beliefs such as “there are unlimited  resources” and “abundance comes in many forms not just money” such as helpful neighbours, supportive friends and a rich imagination.

Perspective (point of view, outlook, grouping of your beliefs, expectations)

For Peter, the combination of those beliefs currently forms a pessimistic perspective of life in general. Whereas for Olivia, her beliefs currently form an optimistic perspective of life in general.

Perception (what you see, YOUR unique awareness, point of focus)

Both Peter and Olivia notices the proverbial glass, and of course Peter being a pessimist perceives the glass as half empty (as a result of his subconsciously held beliefs). Olivia perceives the very same glass as half full (again as a direct result of her deeply held beliefs).

Experience (your felt reality, your internalisation, from exposure to life created from your beliefs)

Peter creates a life experience where he encounters many half empty and used paper cups after he’s just finished running a marathon and the cooler bottle is now empty because of all the wasteful people! Olivia creates a life experience where she encounters many half filled glasses as people are so full they don’t finish their drinks and there is a waiter walking around asking if anyone wants more.

Although this is an overly simplistic illustration and description of how your perspective (group of beliefs) work to create your reality, I hope it conveys how powerful perspectives are and how your life is literally created from the beliefs behind them. And now a quick illustration showing why working with perspectives and beliefs is the most efficient way to change your life.

 

When you Experience something, you are living in the feeling of what has already manifested in physical reality, therefore it’s the hardest place to work to make a change. It’s like cutting down Mature Trees, it’s hard work! This stage is however good for gaining clarity on what you prefer and what you don’t, and also acts as a reflective mirror, to put you in touch with unconscious beliefs and perspectives you may be holding.

Perception isn’t much better, as a place to create change from. You’ve already given what you are seeing a contextual meaning (such as this is bad because… or this is good because…). And the meaning comes from your currently held perspective. Its commonly said that “seeing is believing”, when in fact the opposite is true “believing is seeing”…Henry Ford summed it up perfectly when he said “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right”. That’s because events are mostly neutral, we give them meaning based on our perspective. And so it’s a self fulfilling prophecy, you will see proof of what you expect and believe to find. 

Perspective is an easier level to make a change from, what we mean here is that you’ve already seen the glass as half empty (and the empty cooler bottle!), but you stop and make a choice to focus on being grateful and appreciative that you at least some paper cups are half full of water as opposed to nothing to drink! Instead of unconsciously buying into what you are seeing as objective reality, you are changing your mind in the moment, changing your perspective to view the situation through a different outlook. Perspectives are just a collection of beliefs relating to the situation at hand. It forms a lens to view the world from, which gives the neutral situation a tint of meaning. 

There is a old Taoist story about a poor farmer and his horse. One day his horse runs away, when hearing this the towns people come to show their sympathy expressing how sad it is, to which the farmer replies “maybe”. A few days later the horse returns and brings with it other wild horses, upon hearing the news the town’s come by to express how lucky the farmer was to gain so many horses, to which the farmer replies “maybe”. As the farmer’s son works on taming the new wild horses, he falls off one, and breaks his leg, again the town’s come by to express their sympathy for this unfortunate accident, how terrible they say, to which the farmer replies “maybe”. The day after the country goes to war and military officials go through the town conscripting all able bodies, as the farmers son had broken his leg, he was spared, again the towns people came over to congratulate the farmer, on this obviously good news. To which the farmer replied… you guessed it…”maybe”. This story highlights the neutrality of situations, and shows how it’s our perspective which colours them with meaning.  So it’s your perspective that creates perception, how you look at something… creates how you see it.

Beliefs are the easiest level to work with because you are working at the Seed level, they are the most granular level to work from. For example to create a change in perspective, instead of changing your whole outlook you can just tweak it by changing a singular belief from the bunch of beliefs that form that perspective. The issue however comes from the fact that most beliefs are held at an unconscious level, impressions you picked up from those around you and your environment as you grew up. Because of this we begin our work at the perspective level as they are more tangible, and they help bring awareness to our deeply held beliefs and definitions of how OUR reality works.  

From Mature Trees (Experience) comes more of the same Seeds (beliefs), making this a loop in that what we experience reaffirms our beliefs, which shapes our perspective, further focusing us on certain perceptions, creating more of the same experiences, and so our life keeps going perpetually the same.

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when one thing goes wrong after another? For example you wake up and stub your toe and start cursing and go into a foul mood, then burn your toast, miss the bus, arrive late to work and miss the report deadline, then have to work late to make up for it, come home with a ringing headache. Conversely have you experienced a time when everything is just flowing and things keep getting better? For example you wake up and stub your toe, but right away you take a few deep breaths, laugh and make light of how clumsy you are, and put the event out of your mind, you then enjoy your morning workout and smoothie and head to work early, your boss tells you they are promoting you to management as the company is growing and it can do with more positive leaders, you finish all your work early and come home, having missed all the traffic, and your feeling grateful, for a most productive and fulfilled day.

I wonder if either of the people who stubbed their toe noticed the connection with how that first neutral event and their reaction to it based on their perspectives literally shaped their day?  Most people spend their time changing or fixing things after they have manifested into reality, not seeing the connection that they were the creators behind the experience they now find themselves in, via their beliefs.

So to wrap up the mission of The Big Small is to help you remember and recognize just how powerful a creator you are, by reminding you how the creation process works, so you may witness it in action in your own life.
And once you’ve seen this magical power in action, then to provide you with the ongoing tools by way of contrasting perspectives, so that you may become consciously aware of all the beliefs/definitions you hold. So you can then choose to keep the beliefs that support you, and drop the ones that no longer make sense, which ultimately leads to creating and experiencing a life full of purpose, passion, excitement and never ending fulfilment.