I can’t believe it’s been 7 months since my last post.. I guess you can’t force creativity and inspiration, but anyway, here I am with yet another spiel that’s going to inadvertently blow your mind.

I think this metaphor stemmed from my own attitude to life at the moment – I was comparing how I once thought about everything; being so involved in every little aspect of my life that didn’t matter. I wasted so much of my energy on meaningless things that didn’t contribute to my personal growth; but only stunted it. But now, lately, I’ve been seeing the bigger picture, and I’m starting to see how much of that picture I’ve missed just by not focusing correctly.

So here’s the metaphor you’ve all been desperately waiting for:

When we’re looking at life, we’re looking through a camera lens. Some of us are only focusing on specific things, zooming in on the cherry blossoms stemming from the tree or looking at the building shadowing the footpath. But others are zoomed out; seeing the whole pan of the picture – we can see the skyline of the buildings, the trees clustered together, people’s silhouettes only just recognisable. Both views are good, both views are necessary, but you can’t only live in one setting. Zoomed in you’re missing out on the extensiveness of the landscape and the associations that one object has with another, you only focus on one thing, not noticing that there’s so much more around you, but zoomed out you’re not noticing the detail, you’re not experiencing the full effect of specific things, the colours and the shapes. To use your camera professionally you need to capture a variety of shots: zoomed in, and zoomed out, to fully understand the picture.

So if that wasn’t blatantly obvious to you, the zoomed in mode is when people focus solely on things like studying, or love, or work – any minor part of their life while failing to devote their attention to other aspects of their being. The zoomed out mode is when a person is, in a way, withdrawn, they’re seeing everything – couples walking on the street, the stormy weather, their family, but they’re not deeply involved in any of that. They understand what they want and possibly need but they’re too detached to make any changes. Neither of these “settings” is perfect, you need a variety of both to succeed. You need to be able to focus on specific things while also being able to withdraw yourself, evaluate your needs and refocus on something else. This is how you achieve your balance.

So that’s all the enlightening I have for today, friends. I hope I’ve given you another way to perceive this strange world. Honestly, it just felt good to let my fingers tap away at the keyboard, hoping someone would mildly relate to whatever it is you can call these thoughts.

Have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to be a bit more flexible with your zooming.