We create our own reality and live in our own microcosm of mini-planets

(From my original Blogspot)

How many times are you told that you create your own reality? I hear it all of the time. We are responsible for our inner world; and that inner world has far more bearing on our day to day happiness than anything else.

However, you create your inner world partially by what things you choose to put in your very immediate environment. Those things would be people, music, books, shows, and locational environments. You can choose to place yourself in the environment of a park, or a dark room. You can choose to read a gossipy magazine or a classic novel. You can choose to talk about the gossipy magazine with gossipy people, or you can choose to talk about the classic novel with classic novel readers.

There is both beauty and ugliness available to us. We are the only ones to blame if we choose ugliness. It is kind of like there are limitless mini-planets on this earth, and we choose which one we dwell in. This is true on the most individual level (e.g. in your own head as described above), or on the level of slightly larger contexts, as described below.

I am struck with the idea of mini-planets lately every time I enter someone's home, or a business. As soon as you walk in the door, you enter not just a place, but a feeling. The people in that building, the decor, the scents, the kind of activities being conducted, the language being used -- all of this creates a miniature planet where all that really matters is what is happening right there.

I suppose that is partly why someone would prefer to shop at a more expensive store rather than a discount shop. They just have no desire to travel to a planet that is so unpleasant. I suppose that is why families have so much influence on their members: they are the only permanent dwellers in their private planet. They may receive visitors, but only they have permanent citizenship.