I saw the above picture on Pinterest last night and immediately felt its truth...because what you know and what you feel are often two vastly different things and can cause lots of inner turmoil.
You might know very well, for example, that someone in your life doesn't like you, yet you still have feelings for them anyway, feelings that you can't seem to get past. You want to make peace with this person and if that doesn't work, conquer your own emotions, the things that are making this your problem and no one else's.
Is it even possible to change how someone sees you? Sometimes, I think the more you want someone to like you, the more you try...the worse it gets. I also think if someone has made up their mind not to like, there's no changing the situation. But I don't see any harm in trying, as long any attempts made are with reason and restraint...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/09/16/how-to-win-over-someone-who-doesnt-like-you/
"I mean, don't you ever get sick of yourself?" he asked Claire. "Doesn't it sometimes seem ridiculous that we have to live our entire lives in one consciousness, and there's no escape? Even when we dream, we dream about ourselves. Doesn't that just seem outrageous?"
I think of this quote, which perhaps because of its stark honesty has always stayed in my mind, whenever I want to escape from my own thinking.
That's why books and music and people are so important in this world. Even though reading or listening to music can be solitary activities, they still can get you to leave your own mind and venture out into a much less scary world than what's in your head.
As Joseph Conrad once wrote in an essay about Henry James:
...the demand of the individual to the artist is, in effect, the cry, "Take me out of myself!"
I couldn't agree more!
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