The expression ‘rose coloured glasses’ is usually associated with a joyful optimism, of seeing everything - or something in particular - in an attractive, desirable, and pleasurable light. However, rather than simply being an optimistic viewpoint is it more to do with denial of reality or a defence mechanism hiding a truth?
Denial (or any defence mechanism) may be fostered through learned behaviour by experiences of a fearful past. These lessons of the past have fostered selective forgetting. Thus causing the fears to be buried in denial.
To fly from reality we may put on these rose coloured glasses of defence using fantasy, repression, rationalisation, minimisation, distortion, regression or denial. Perhaps it would be more apt to call these the cracked glasses of deceit, rather than a tinted rose coloured variety.
Genuine self awareness, forgiveness and spiritual insight may be required to remove this unhelpful defence mechanism rather than the foolish self deception of an unrealistic optimism.
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