The Story of ‘Blind Men and the Elephant’ originated in the Indian subcontinent. According to folklore a group of blind men never having seen or known an elephant, set out to learn what it’s like!
Each blind man touches a part of the elephant and shares with excitement. One touches the back of the elephant and says “it’s like a huge wall”. The second at its feet says, “ it’s like a tree trunk!” The third one touches its sharp tusk and screams, “it’s like a fine sharp arrow!! ”
The men squabble and argue based on their limited exposure to the animal based on their touch and more importantly their imagination!
Staying confined to their individual perceptions, they were unable to acknowledge the elephant in its entirety.
Their debate was put to rest when a sighted man witnessing this walked up to them to explain that each one of them was right in their inference, however they were only sharing a part of the truth. They were not wrong but limited in their perception and that the whole truth was much bigger than their individual perception of what felt true to them!
The story of ‘Blind men and the elephant‘ illustrates how our limited perceptions colour our beliefs and behaviour and that we interpret life situations based on this!
Everything we experience filters through our individual lens of perception and this shapes our unique personalities, influencing our response and the ability to cope with life challenges.
The interesting dichotomy of the human race is that while each one of us is unique, we are united in our limitation to experience life from our singular perspective.
By acknowledging this fact and thus our limitation, we allow a multitude of possibilities to open up for us. And seeing through this kaleidoscope, we broaden our scope of experience and interpretation. Allowing us to view our situation and struggle in a different light, and create a shift towards wellbeing as is done at sessions in Mind body medicine!