While taking a class in Philosophy, there was a story I was introduced to that my professor mentioned was their favorite.

It’s not a parable or a folktale, rather, a story about false beliefs and what we assume to be reality.

There was once a group of people born chained inside a dark cave. All they were able to do was look at a stone wall in front of them. Behind them, a fire burns. Between the fire and those trapped in the cave, people walk by carrying objects—statues, tools, animals. So you can image the type of shadows being casted on the wall.

Those shadows are the prisoner’s entire world.

They give them names.
They argue about them.
They build beliefs about them.

It’s simply their reality.

One day, a prisoner was freed and was allowed to leave the cave. Upon walking out the cave entrance, the light started to hurt his eyes and he began to resist. But as his eyes adjusted, the saw the sun. Real trees. Real people. Real color.

He realized the shadows were never his world. They were just a representation of it.

When he returns to tell the others, they laugh at him.

They say he’s gone blind or confused. To finish off by telling him, “This wall is all there is.”

And so, the free man left.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was about friends and family not understanding your perspective on life. And though it might be similar, the idea is actually about overthinking.

Most of what you stress about are shadows:

• Imagined conversations

• Hypothetical futures

• Replayed moments

• Worst-case scenarios

They feel real because you’ve stared at them for so long.

But they’re not life. They’re just projections. And stepping out of the cave you’re in is the move you have to take in order to realize your mind is just showing you shadows, not truth.

So the hardest part of breaking out of overthinking isn’t just thinking positive. It’s letting go of the wall you’ve learned to call reality for so long.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m now reading Hamlet by Shakespeare. A tragedy about the Prince of Denmark seeking revenge for his father’s murder.

Quote Of The Week - “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Friedrich Nietzsche