Book Excerpt: Working With Worldview
Do our experiences shape our worldviews or do our worldviews shape our experiences?
Published: 3/19/2021
by Nick Oredson​​
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“What is not brought to consciousness, comes to us as fate”
-C.G. Jung
Introduction
It is widely accepted that many of our basic worldviews are established very early in our development - usually in the first 3 years - and then serve as the dominant lens through which we experience the world from then on. Once our worldviews are established, there is a very common unconscious bias that can lead us to ignore and forget events that do not support our worldviews and pay close attention to events that support them. The result is that our worldviews can be directly shaping our experience of reality in a way that is outside of our conscious awareness. This chapter provides a framework for examining our worldviews, investigating their origins, and suggestions for adopting new ones.
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"Once our worldviews are established,
there is a very common unconscious
bias that can lead us to ignore and
forget events that do not support our
worldviews and pay close attention
to events that support them."
Notes of Caution and Hope
This work can be challenging. The idea that we might be unconsciously shaping our life experience to fit our worldviews can be very disorienting at first. Also, our worldviews are often carefully curated during the course of our lives and can easily be intertwined with our identity and questioning them or considering making changes can seem dangerous. Getting past the discomfort of questioning our worldviews is often worth it however, because they can sometimes be extremely negative, and holding us back in some profound ways. Opening up the possibility of modifying our worldviews brings with it the potential to open up a great deal of space in our lives and create an entirely different world to live in.
The Exercise
Take about 15-20 minutes and write out a roughly 1 paragraph account of an event in your life or a current situation in your life that is challenging. Once you have finished your paragraph, read through the list of contrasting worldviews listed below and see if any of them are operating in your story. As you do this, pay close attention to the details about any assumptions you made or conclusions you reached about yourself, the world, or other people within the context of the story.
List of Contrasting Worldviews
My decisions don’t matter - OR - My decisions really matter
My needs, wants and desires do not matter - OR - My needs, wants and desires really matter
People are fundamentally bad - OR - People are fundamentally good
I approach people with suspicion - OR - I approach people with trust
I am here to compete with others - OR - I am here to cooperate with others
There is no place for me on this world - OR - There is a place for me on this world
I do not have love and support from others - OR - I have love and support from others
I am primarily resentful of my experience of life - OR - I am primarily grateful for my experience of life
After going through the above list with your story in mind, check to see if you find a worldview (or worldviews) that connect with your story. If you find one write a second version of the story through the lens of the opposing worldview. As an alternative, pick one (or more) of the sets of opposing world views and write a one paragraph version of the story as seen through the different lenses. Read the two versions over side by side and see what comes up for you. If you have someone you can work with, read each of the versions to a friend and invite some feedback. This can be a very useful exercise to do with any challenge that you are facing and often provides helpful insights.
Example Story
I am having a lot of conflict at work with my boss and my coworkers. No matter what I do, there are some concepts that they just cannot seem to get it through their heads. Also, there is a lot of backbiting and politics going on all the time, people just seem so nasty deep down – always going behind my back to complain or try to sabotage my projects. It just seems like a jungle and I have to always be on my guard – I don’t know who to trust. I would like to be happier at my job, but what does that matter? The world is what it is.
Possible negative worldviews at play in the above story:
My decisions don’t matter
My needs, wants and desires to not matter
People are fundamentally bad
I approach people with suspicion
I am here to compete with others
There is no place for me on this world
I do not have love and support from others
I am primarily resentful of my experience of life
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Possible alternative worldviews to use in retelling the above story:
My decisions really matter
My needs, wants and desires really matter
People are fundamentally good
I approach people with trust
I am here to cooperate with others
There is a place for me on this world
I have love and support from others
I am primarily grateful for my experience of life
Retelling of the Story with some of the alternative worldviews
I am having a lot of conflict at work with my boss and my coworkers. I have tried a wide variety of different communication strategies but none have worked yet, I am committed to improving my communication skills until I get better results. Also, there is a lot of backbiting and politics going on all the time. I am curious if perhaps I am contributing to this toxic climate in some ways that I am not aware of – I am going to keep reading up on how to be more effective with office politics and disarm and diffuse these kinds of dynamics rather than contribute to them. At the moment, I don’t feel like I can really trust anyone at my job, but I am going to keep developing my own internal integrity and hope that has a positive effect on the situation. I would like to be happier at my job so I am going to take the time to describe exactly the kind of job and the job environment that I want.
Important points about the retelling
The most important point about the above retelling of the story is that the basic facts and details of the story are identical. The retelling changes the interpretation of the facts and the different choices being made in relationship to the facts. One of the places that worldview can cloud our experience of reality is through blurring the line between the facts of a situation, and our judgments about those facts. The actual facts of a situation are often much less limiting than our judgments tell us they are, and separating out facts from judgments is often a very useful process. Examining our judgments opens up the possibility for reaching different conclusions which in turn opens up the possibility of making different choices. All of this taken together can greatly broaden our view of the world.
Notes on the chapter: Shadow, Worldview and Life Story
If you are working with the Shadow and Life Story in chapter 8, consider incorporating the material from this chapter into your process. As you review your life story, keep the worldview themes listed below in mind and see if any of them are embedded in the stories that you tell. If you notice that any of the negative themes are in your stories, consider how the story might be told differently through a different view of the world. Write both versions down next to each other and see which one feels more accurate, energizing or useful. You can experiment reading both versions to someone you trust and inviting feedback. Which version seems more accurate? Which version seems more you? Which version feels more compassionate? Which version feels more energizing?. Adding the this dimension to our life story work often provides helpful insights.
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Comments? Questions? I would love to hear from you!
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