Superposition
Have you ever wondered where you'd be today if you had chosen differently? Maybe you'd be better off or maybe you'd be worse - you can never know for certain because all you have is the now.
In the now you are making choices that will dictate your future. Every choice you make is in a state of superposition, and once a choice is made all other potential realities collapse. In quantum mechanics superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until measured. From this concept Schrödinger's cat was born.
Schrödinger's cat was a thought experiment. To make it simpler to understand, imagine if a cat is (metaphorically) put into a box and given a 50/50 chance of survival because the sadist who put the cat in the box also arranged for it to be poisoned. If a coin lands on heads the cat dies. If it lands on tails the cat lives.
The coin is flipped, but you don't get to know the outcome. When the coin is in the air and before you look into the box, the cat is neither alive nor dead because it is both alive and dead. It is not until you open the box that you know for certain. Depending on if the cat is alive or dead, you can conclude how the coin landed. The measurement is equivalent to choice (you were to measure two options, heads or tails), whereas the observation is the outcome.
The flipping of this coin created two realities, and for a moment both realities existed (the measurement). The box is opened and you see the cat has died (the observation). If you are not a sadist, you feel bad. You didn't have much choice in the matter because your control was limited. You believed your options were limited. There was a third option, but you would have had to stand up to a sadist, which is too dangerous, confrontational and anxiety provoking for many. You were complacent or too afraid and allowed the cat to die. You chose not to choose the third option, and not choosing is a choice.
Rather, if you took control, you could have saved the cat's life. If you stood up against the sadist you likely would have prevented the cat from being placed in the box, and by doing so you created a third reality. Every choice is a door to a new world, and subsequently the multiverse theory was developed, suggesting that there are infinite realities/universes. In this third reality, you now own a cat (meow). The companionship a pet has to offer typically helps improve one's mental health (a positive observation of your choice).
If there are infinite realities/universes, don't you want to be living the one where you are happiest, confident, and successful? Happiness, confidence, and success are entirely subjective; measured by lived experience. In order to have a lived experience we must observe our lives, assess the now in contrast with our past, and compare ourselves to the rest of humanity.
When doing so, many of us experience thoughts and feelings that are observed through a negative lens. This is the lens of grief, jealousy, and despair. This negative lens largely shapes your world and the reality you live. If you choose the negative lens, you are more likely to manifest negativity in your life.
There is another way. I believe that therapy, no matter a person's problem, is about getting someone to abandon the negative lens when they recognize this is the lens they are peering through. It may well be all you know to look through the negative lens, but to see through the lens of hope, gratitude, and love will change your life for the better. You will manifest more positivity in your life, which will offer you more opportunities. Your choices will always be limited one way or another, but if you choose positivity you will begin to see additional options become available and doors open.
On that note, I introduce you to the double-slit experiment as narrated by Dr. Quantum (see video below). Electrons have mass and should not physically divide when shot at two slits. Rather, the electron should go through one or the other slit, but not both, creating a pattern of two lines on the wall behind the slits. In an excited state (superposition) electrons emit a photon when returning to their normal state. This photon, or beam of light, causes the electron to travel in a wave, as if it were no longer mass, resulting in an interference pattern on the wall.
What is not easily explained is what happens when there is an observer in the room taking measurements. Having an observer causes the wave function to collapse, resulting in a typical pattern of two lines instead of an interference pattern. Why does having an observer physically change the result of the experiment?
Considering the implications of the double-split experiment, how exactly does being an observer have an impact on reality in a greater sense? It's as if our observations (and choices) create reality as we know it, and we are each in the driver's seat of our own lives. If you can control how you observe something, whether through a positive or negative lens, then you can control your reality.