There are situations that demands BIG words, but wherever possible, we should make our message as layman/ easy as possible. Communication is about getting the point across, to get others to understand easily, not so much to impress or make it harder for people to understand. Paradigm is one such word which took me a while to “get it”.

Prior to this post, I was quoting this story, “Echoes of Life” and that inspired me to make a note on this: “Paradigm”. As mentioned before, this is a BIG word.

par·a·digm (păr‘ə-dīm‘, -dĭm‘)
n.

1. One that serves as a pattern or model.
2. A set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its grammatical categories: the paradigm of an irregular verb.
3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

[Middle English, example, from Late Latin paradīgma, from Greek paradeigma, from paradeiknunai, to compare : para-, alongside; see para–¹ + deiknunai, to show.]

from http://www.answers.com/topic/paradigm?cat=health

Paradigm, put simply, is the lens we used to see the world. If we were to wear a pair of red glasses, everything we see is red, or tinged with red tones. Likewise, if we see through a blue lens, everything appears blue or tinged with blue.

If we see the world as a sad place where suffering and lack are inevitable and necessary, we will see the gloom in everything, to confirm the view we already had inside us. Similarly, if we were to see the world as a place with infinite possibilities and amazing grace, that is what we will tend to find too. (Blue lens – and everything turns blue…)

With what lens do we look at the world? That is how the world will appear to us. Change our lens, or our “paradigm”, and the view changes with it.