Most people who experience severe trauma (such as the death of a spouse or child) change their worldviews in somewhat predictable ways:
- focusing more on the now than the later
- worrying less about small things
- being more tolerant of others
- devoting more effort on interpersonal relationships
- changing careers, working less, and focusing less on money
- realizing that life is a gift
Should those of us who haven't experienced such trauma try to learn from their lessons? This approach only makes sense if we think that the trauma has enabled them to see reality more clearly. If we think such reprioritization is a coping mechanism, or if we think such reprioritization is only appropriate for those who have actually experienced trauma, then their lessons wouldn't apply to us. But one clue leads me to believe that this isn't the case, and that their lessons apply to everyone. If you ask older people what they most regret about how they lived their lives, what they would now like to change about how they had lived before, the most frequent responses are surprisingly similar to the list above. They'll say they spent far too much time on unimportant things, worried too much about things that weren't worth worrying about, were too driven by money, and didn't experience life deeply enough as it was passing them by. So I think in many cases the trauma has removed (rather than created) perceptual biases, and people who have undergone trauma can teach lessons that the rest of us can benefit from.