THE THIRD DEPTH
EXAMINE

WHAT'S THE CONTEXT?

What's beyond your line of vision? What surrounds your situation? What occurred yesterday? What happened in the past week? What will happen tomorrow, or a year from now? It's important to consider various frames of reference (in your life and in the lives of those you encounter) before making conclusions or assumptions on what is happening out of sight. Would a jury of your peers agree that the information you have is sufficient enough to draw the conclusion(s) you've made? Or might there be reasonable doubt due to missing context? The more pieces of information included in your analysis, the more sound the grounds of the argument will be. With a solid foundation of fact, the integrity of conclusions will be less likely to falter, shake, or come apart over time.

WHERE'S THE VIEWPOINT?

Where is your position? Where are you relative to the surrounding context? Are you behind, below, above, inside, or outside? Are you viewing from a past perspective, or ahead from a future perspective? Where is the point of view in which you can see actual facts? Do you need to move to another location to obtain a better view? Is your view being distorted, obstructed, magnified, or minimized? A person's view can be built up by praise, crumbled down by criticism, or filtered by an emotion (making the scene appear more gray or rosier than it otherwise would be). It's important to consider various points of view when obtaining information. Can you imagine what the situation would look like outside of the emotion? What about from another person's perspective, or from a different position in society? What do you think the viewpoint from your cells would be? Can you fact check any of this information with actual data? Are there any records, testimony, images, or video footage? Finding the view that will present the most accurate information is essential for everyone's mental well-being.

WHY CALIBRATE?

When setting your sights on a desired outcome, the probability that you can achieve it will increase as you strategically aim your vision. Calibration is about adjusting your aim according to the factual positions of all objects and entities in view (as opposed to the imagined or presumed positions). This requires setting goals based only on information that is backed-up by evidence. Using experiences directly viewed by yourself or a trusted external source can effectively guide your target efforts. As life is ever changing, reaching goals requires regular re-calibration. Adjustments need to be made as new objects come into view and when more accurate or updated information becomes available. If you take the time to form realistic goals based on the field of view as it is stands in each moment, you will be far more likely to achieve success. You can have precision in your application of information and take control of the outcome, or you can leave it up to chance and hope for the best. If you'd like to take the lead in where your life is heading, a calibration to the most accurate and up-to-date facts will guide your decisions and enable you to meet your goals most effectively.

HOW TO USE YOUR SCOPE

The scope is a tool that allows people to see beyond the environment they are encased within. If you find yourself pondering on the past, or analyzing to predict the future, this will indicate that you have stopped gazing outward with your natural eyes and have begun to engage your inner scope. Just as a microscope can examine much finer details than ordinary sight, the mind is able to re-view the past and find many more details than were originally noticed. And like a telescope that allows you to see way beyond what the naked eye can see, piecing together bits of information from across time allows a person to gain that "other worldly" greater view. The prefrontal cortex is a uniquely human biological feature, which defines us apart from other animals, and allows us to experience various perspectives. The more information you can gain from the details of the past and place them into an overall larger picture, the more enhanced your ability will be to predict what may be coming up over the horizon. But be mindful when using the inner scope as you can EITHER look out from your natural eyes at what's in front of you OR look in with your internal scope, but you can't do both simultaneously. Therefore, it should only be used in a controlled environment where you're not liable to walk off a cliff, get attacked by a bear, or be hit by a car.

WHEN PATHOLOGY DISTRACTS

If you continuously jump to conclusions, speculate, or make assumptions before taking the time to gather the necessary information to back up these claims, you might be projecting your attention outward too much and could use some time reflecting inward instead. Each person needs to spend time reviewing material to fully understand the nature of what is happening around him or her. Oftentimes distractions keep people from engaging in this necessary reflection period. If you find that you spend a lot of time viewing fictional media (TV shows, movies, novels) or are overly involved in other people's lives (gossip, living vicariously, idolizing), this might indicate that you are avoiding looking inward at your own life experiences. Similarly, if you spend the majority of your time fantasizing about the future, or attached to the past, you are likely trying to avoid facing what is right in front of you.

If any of the following conditions are present, this could indicate a 3rd Depth attention requirement: Low tolerance. Short temper. Liver problems. Muscle or tendon pain. Cloudy thinking. Eyestrain. Cognitive decline. Gallbladder dysfunction. Irregular blood distribution. Chaotic unplanned actions. Difficulty expanding. Indecision. Alcohol consumption. Toxicity. Parasitic infections. Anger. Hostility. Abuse. Cruelty to self or others.

WHO CAN HELP?

Depths Mystery's coaching services can remind you to take a look at what's going on around you before making assumptions or forming conclusions. It's very common to be distracted, lose track of things, and not have enough time to consider other perspectives. Scheduling a coaching session can provide the discipline needed to engage in these important re-views.

Society's experts who base their information on a body of collective knowledge are great resources to obtain accurate information. Statisticians or analysts can provide relevant data, and people who study or research, such as librarians or scholars, can usually point you in the right direction for important and reliable information.