How do I deal with disillusionment?

Have you been in a situation where you expected life to turn out a certain way, only to be shocked by a turn of events you would never have predicted in your wildest imagination? Maybe you have hoped for an outcome in your career or relationship only to be deeply disappointed. When we experience these challenges to out perception of reality, we often become disillusioned. Without correct processing, disillusionment can easily slide into despair and cynicism.
Disillusionment is a common feeling we all experience at various stage of our lives as a negative emotion we want to avoid. In fact, disillusionment is an invitation to come out of your false view of reality and grow into a more sophisticated and “truer” understanding of what life is. The very word disillusionment is a clue to its invitation, dis-illusion-ment, a process of losing the illusion you were living under.
This is called the process of awakening or growing up. Before we can truly see, we must first admit we are blind. This is only possible when we come to the understanding that the way we think life works is actually a figment of our imagination. This challenge to our world view feels like disillusionment.
To understand this, we need to realise that all we think of as “reality”, is actually a narrative we tell ourselves about the sensory information our five senses are relaying to our brains. The brain is a sophisticated organ but because it is totally uncased in your skull it is completely unaware of what is actually going on outside. Reality is what is going on outside, it’s massively complicated and totally beyond your ability to comprehend. Our limited processing power is unable to process even a tiny fraction of the information being poured out by reality every Nano-second. Because of this we have to pick and choose what we take in, this image , that sound, this sensation, and faze out all the others. Our brain is constantly filtering out information, it has to or we wouldn’t be able to function. In New Zealand there is a volcanic region that smells like rotten eggs, when you arrive your senses are assaulted by the terrible smell. It’s so bad you think to yourself, how can people live here with this awful odour all the time. The thing is the locals don’t even smell it! They have totally adapted to it because their brains have learnt to ignore that particular set of sensory data.
Little by little these bits and pieces of information are placed together and we form a narrative about it, a story that seems to fit the data we are receiving at any moment. This story we tell ourselves is then compared to past experiences, conformed to our identity and coloured by our emotions. We all form mythologies about the past, narratives about now and eschatologist about the future. These stories are all helpful to make sense of the data input but they are at best, flawed versions of what is really going on.
When we come across a mentally ill person we say they have lost the plot, all stories have plots and when we lose our plot we find ourselves unable to deal with life. Disillusionment is a falling away of the veil of personal perception and a realisation that we don’t actually understand life as well as we thought.
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[@midnightcat6116]

Such an amazing discourse!! I’m so glad youtube recommended your channel. I’m wondering if there was no music in the background, would it be shared with more folks? ❤ Much peace

[@RickMichaels-if5eq]

This word stood out to me when I heard Sam Kinison in an interview speak about his experience with a failed ministry and marriage ending in divorce. When he said Disillusion, I had a moment of clarity because it describes what I’m going through right now similar to his experience.

[@takyiyakvsi]

Thank you, James. This is a very inspiring talk! I can relate to what you say very much.

[@waynepayne864]

this helped a little bit.

[@hubertneeson2986]

Great concept James. Really makes you think about where you are and how to interpret the space you are in.

[@Toast-M1]

Hi, this is a great video but for me the music is too loud; it might even sound obnoxious if we're in a bad headspace (hence why some may be watching the video in the first place). Thanks for the good advice.