Blind spots

‘WE ALL HAVE MOMENTS when the curtains part and we see no longer “through a glass darkly,” but instead with utter clarity and conviction, something that is unmistakably true or real. It can happen when you’re sweeping the kitchen floor, when you’re thinking about what you will eat for dinner, or while you’re wondering whether your niece is going to heal well from surgery’ Kelly Boys

Gaps in our knowledge, natural cognitive biases, unvisited wounded places, even our gut instincts when they are hacked by previous experience, emotions and core beliefs born in less than optimal childhoods or collective experience, all contribute to the creation of our blind spots that serve as filters and to a great extent define our experience, our choices and roads taken, and ultimately, our suffering and happiness below our conscious awareness. In her book The Blind Spot Effect, Kelly Boys defines blinds spots as ‘unconscious impulses, fueled by emotions and beliefs, that create habit-building patterns in relationship to ourselves and others’. She suggests that ‘blind spots start wars and break up families…..  foster disconnection and isolation at home and at work……  hold us back or force us into places we never wanted to be’ and that ‘seeing blind spots is like a treasure hunt — but not a witch hunt. If we approach the subject with curiosity and affection rather than shaming ourselves, we can discover some immensely valuable truths’. A metaphor to describe the damage that blind spots can cause could be that of a prestigious museum with a sophisticated security system to guard against invaders and theft of its most valued objects and works of art. The blind spots in the security scanning system are the weak links in the system that ultimately allow the robbery to occur often in broad day light (at least in films) Read more….