The Water Glass Effect
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I recently came across an old video of a professor sharing a powerful lesson with his classroom of students.
He holds up a glass of water and asks the students how heavy it is.
The students answer with a variety of figures:
8 ounces. 12 ounces. 16 ounces.
The professor shakes his head:
The absolute weight of the glass doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold onto it.
If I hold it for a minute, nothing happens. If I hold it for an hour, my arm will begin to ache. If I hold it all day long, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed.
Well, the weight of the glass hasn't changed, but the longer I hold onto it, the heavier it becomes.
The students lean in, and the professor continues with the deeper lesson:
The stresses and the worries of life are like this glass of water.
If you think about them for a little while, there's no problem. Think about it for a little bit longer, it begins to hurt. If you think about them all day long, you'll feel paralyzed, incapable of doing anything.
Always remember: Put the glass down.
I call this phenomenon the Water Glass Effect:
Most of the burden we feel in life comes not from the weight of what we're holding, but from how long we choose to hold it.
Pause to think about this in your own life:
- It's not the weight of the argument itself that bears down on you. It's the weight of replaying it again and again.
- It's not the weight of the mistake itself that cripples you. It's the weight of revisiting it again and again.
- It's not the weight of the regret itself that stops you. It's the weight of ruminating over it again and again.
Stress, anxiety, fears, and tension. They all get heavier with time. And the harder you squeeze the glass, the faster it happens.
As you hold onto them, they compound the weight of their burden on you.
It's similar to the Buddhist story of the poison arrow:
Imagine someone is struck by a poisoned arrow. A doctor is called to remove the arrow, but the man stops him.
"Not so fast! Before you remove it, I want to know who shot me. What town or village does he come from? What kind of wood was his bow made from? Was it a crossbow or a longbow?"
While he asks the questions, the poison takes hold and he dies.
It's not the arrow or the weight of the water glass that kills you, it's ruminating too much on the nature of it that will.
So, take a moment today to notice what water glass you may still be holding.
What has your arm trembling under its increasing weight?
The burden is not from the weight of what you're holding, but from how long you choose to hold it.
Put the glass down.
