When you see the Moon rising above the horizon, that is low in the sky, does it not look much larger than when it is high above the horizon?

Of course it does as we have all seen a large more yellowish moon rising above the horizon and a smaller, whiter and brighter moons appear high in the sky.

But of course this is an illusion, we know the Moon itself has not changed in actual size.

Yet the illusion goes far deeper still. The Moon only looks bigger near the horizon because you have the horizon and perhaps other objects, like tree or a hill or house etc, whereby your brain can compare its size.

And so the Moon looks bigger on the horizon and much smaller high in the night sky by itself where the brain has nothing to comparably judge it s size to.

Remember that the very phenomenon of vision occurs in the total darkness inside the human brain and nothing is seen truly and totally objectively. The brain must interpret the data stream.

If you were to take a pencil and place your thumb on the pencil as you held it up to a ‘large’ Moon on the horizon and then later when the Moon was smaller and brighter high above the horizon, you would discover that the ‘pencil measures’ were identical.

Now what has all this got to do with self-defense?

First I will remind you that when I started this newsletter I would talk about more than just self-defense. Yet the concept of ‘comparative illusions’ involves some important self-defense concepts as well as a lot of essential self-discovery concepts.

A classic Buddhist saying can roughly be translated to mean, ” All enlightenment comes from seeing through the many illusions of life”.

If a big, angry man confronts you, then what is it that makes him seem ‘big’? Is it his height? Is it the size of his head? Is it the size of his neck or arms?

Many, many years ago as a ‘bouncer’ in very large and ‘active’ New Mexico bar I had to see through the illusion of the “bigness’ of some of the people who challenged or attacked me.

At first a very large guy looming over me and saying that he was going to beat my face into ‘raspberry jam’ intimidated me and I experienced fear.

But I quickly saw that this fear ‘did not serve me’. Any display of fear by me seemed to encourage the ‘big guy’ to push further or to actually attack me.

Consequently, I let go of the ‘irrational part’ of this fear, that is the part that did not serve me, and held on to the ‘rational part’ that did serve me and then I turned it into something else.

For example, I would not internalize his verbal threat, that is if he said he was going to beat my face into raspberry jam, I did not picture what that would look like in my ‘mind’s eye’ at all. I would not be of ‘re-active mind’ and so no fear showed on my face or body posture.

This in itself often gave the big guy pause, his frog brain was asking; ‘what’s wrong with this picture’? Everybody else he intimidated like this had shown fear. He wondered what was he missing here?

But as I said, I held onto the rational fear and turned it into something else. I turned into strategy and then tactics. If he was a real monster of a guy then I would not be thinking in terms of striking techniques on him as that would not accomplish much due to his size.

Instead, my mind would engage the ‘spirit of throwing’ techniques, from the judo or Aikido. Though I did not even know it was ‘Aikido’ back then. I would imagine his angle of attack and decide what post or wall or bar edge I would pitch him headfirst into.

Not being of reactive mind I had a relaxed focus that made the fluid execution of these techniques possible. I felt perceptually ready for any attack he might initiate. Sometimes the ‘big guy’ would sense this too and then I would see that, like the moon on the horizon, he was not so big.

If that occurred and the bully paused, then I would be nice, and I would give him an easy and honorable exit. I might even joke with him then. Most often I would just let him stay in the bar too.

Good people our attitude determines our perceptions. If we have a positive attitude and a positive self-image, then we can perceive ourselves doing things that in the absence of this correct attitude we might otherwise not be able to accomplish.

Others will perceive us as well chiefly by how they perceive our attitude. Everything we do essential flows from our own internal self-image. Consider that please, if we think we are incompetent, then we will always be right about that won’t we?

If our attitude is that of a victim, then we will quickly find someone willing to victimize us.

A person who had developed positive self-image never has the attitude of a victim and thus is not at all easily victimized. A person with strong self-image has a natural feeling of competence.

Now consider this thought, “All cruelty comes only from weakness, all compassion and charity and humanity can only come from strength”.

I am speaking of internal strength here, not the physical alone. One might well call it a spiritual strength. Do how see ‘compassion’ and ‘positive self-image’ are natural companions?

Consequently, if we want to make ourselves better more compassionate and happier people, we have to make ourselves stronger people. That is stronger in our physical health and stronger in our mental health.

We need to see through the grand illusion of ‘immortality’ or unlimited time. As has been said, this is not ” a dress rehearsal for life” this is life. If you are not happy in your life you must change something to be more happy.

But personal change means we must ‘take the initiative’ and this always comes easier for the person who has accepted their unconditional self-worth.

Despite almost anything that might befall a person with that attitude of ‘unconditional self-worth’, they will persevere they will not see any failure as their being a failure themselves.

Unconditional self-worth means that you know that you ‘count’.

Ultimately, unconditional self-worth means your feeling of self-worth is not conditional on anything, not you job, your love life, your weight, the car you drive, where you live, the color of our skin or how your eyes slant.

Nothing on this Earth will serve you better than developing that internal acceptance of your own inalienable self-worth as an individual.

Above all it allows you to see the self-worth of others. I have spent most of my life in creating the circumstances and program where people face their fears and transcend them. This quite justifiably improves their own self-image and consequently makes them stronger and thus more compassionate and more patient people.

Author Bio: Peyton Quinn is the author of The Science and Art of Love and Romance ISBN Peyton Quinn is the author of The Science and Art of Love and Romance ISBN-13: 978-1442177482 and the best seller Freedom From Fear ISBN-13: 978-0975999608 available on Amazon.Com