Real Life Book Review

Reality is Not What it Seems, by Italian Physicist, Carlo Rovelli

Reality is Not What it Seems

by Italian Physicist, Carlo Rovelli might not seem like a book you’d expect a life coach to be diving into… but stop and think about your life for a minute.

Reality isn’t what I thought it was…

Haven’t you run right up against that thought a few hundred times in your life?

I have!

Sometimes (read always) I think that being human means that I’m going to have to continually revise my ideas. Most of the time that’s something I love doing.

Sometimes……., well sometimes it’s a real pain the the ass.

Readjusting my understanding of the world leads to all sorts of shake-ups and to be honest, I’m just not always up for that.

Sometimes I want to continue coasting along thinking my same old thoughts and living my same old life without a lot of stress. I enjoy the flow and the ease that comes with just doing my thing, thinking my thoughts and being the way I have always been.

And then something comes along to shake up my reality and I have to wake up, see what’s really happening and adjust.

“We live our lives inside our own snowglobe. Mostly it’s calm but holy cow! Look out when the globe gets shaken up! Snow flies everywhere and the whole world can feel like it’s been turned upside-down”!

Sometimes it’s simple- the flat tyre on the car as I’m heading out to hike with a friend. In a matter of moments the tyre was changed and we were on our way.

Sometimes it’s not so simple- the moment I realised that I had been working in the totally wrong job for me, or that I really wasn’t happy in a relationship. Then the “adjustment” is a much bigger deal and can throw everything in my being into temporary overload as I figure out that the snow globe of my life just got shaken up big time.

So what does all this have to do with a book on Quantum physics, and why should you care?

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna dive into all the mathematics involved, just the key ideas (as I understand them). And if I get it wrong then one of you kind readers will no doubt let me know….

Underneath the heady term “Quantum mechanics”, are three really interesting concepts and they relate very directly to how we live and how we can understand reality, (meaning our lives) in a whole new way.

- We live in and are fields of energy and we also have a granular structure. (Think of yourself as being made up of all those swirling snowflakes inside the globe, you are the snowman made of individual snowflakes that adhere together and shift along with the fields of energy both outside you and within you).

- Nothing about life or us is set in stone, until we decide to do or believe or act in a certain way. (This is the inherent indeterminacy of life. By our actions we choose what happens, and by our continual choices we create what is most likely to happen next).

For example, I can choose to spend all my $$ each month on coffee and cake, but that will leave me feeling pretty crappy and broke at the end of the month. I chose what I was doing, but the consequences are what I create as the most likely outcomes of my choices.

- Everything is seen and experienced in relation to everything else. (We don’t live in a vacuum, and we experience everything in relation to other things).

Consider not only how we think about “hard facts” like distances between two cities (a relationship of one to the other), but also how we live our very lives in relationship to others, to the world around us. It can be dizzying when you think about all the ways that you might be comparing (relating) yourself to and in the world.

Back to reality and us living our lives.

What happens when you start to view the world not as a place where everything is “real” and immovable, but as a place where, quite literally, anything is possible and everything is in a kind of flux.

There is a fluidity to this way of understanding reality and that might, if we are willing….

…Might allow us to be more flexible with ourselves.

When you see the world as a field of possibility you allow more space for yourself to make new choices in this moment, and this one, and this one, and this one…

With every choice you can change the outcome of your life. You can shift direction and create something different.

“You don’t get to new places by following established tracks”. — Carlo Rovelli

So think about what you have been doing up until this moment. What has it gotten you? What have you created for yourself and what would you like to change to create something different tomorrow?

It’s heady stuff, I know…. And change can be scary- that’s what has helped keep us humans live for centuries… we stick with the known and we know we’ll live another day (or at least we think so), but….

What if…?

What if a new way of thinking gets you an answer you’ve been seeking?

What if a new way of feeling brings you more happiness?

What if a new way of acting increases your accomplishments?

What if a new way of be-ing makes your life altogether more interesting and joyous?

What would that be like?

What would you create for yourself if you saw reality as a field of opportunity and relationships? What would you do or be or feel if you dive in deep to a truly flexible attitude?

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