The Sudden Appearance of Hope

by Claire North

“All thought is feedback,” I said at last, and now her eyes were fixed on me, through me, I had her full attention, so intense I wondered if she would ever forget me, if she could ever forget this moment. “Faced with mounting stress, the body enters an alarmed state. Capillaries dilate, heart beats faster, breathing increases, skin flushes, muscles tense. With each social rejection, pathways are reinforced in the brain which links social rejection with physiological anxiety. Thus reinforced, you are more likely to experience a physical reaction to even slight social discomfort, thus making you more uncomfortable, thus reinforcing the physical and so on and so on. All thought is feedback: sometimes that feedback can be too loud. That’s what I think, anyway.”

“The point is thought. Patterns of behaviour, patterns of thinking, breaking boundaries, creating new pathways – I’m sorry, I thought you understood this, when you said—”

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth.’”