Perception

I see the world a certain way. My opinion of myself, the things I come into contact with, the sensory inputs are all based on my perception. It is a matter of what we grasp based on our senses. But what if the things we gain from our senses are wrong? What if the way we view things are solely based on emotionally charged opinions of the past, and ego driven assumptions?

What I mean is, years ago the way I was, that person, was full of anger, hurt, betrayal, and rejection. I was fueled by the input from my past. It told me who I was. That was my perception. I couldn’t understand what I could of possibly done wrong to be treated the way I was. My mentality was one of a victim. I believed the world owed me. I believed my past owed me. I took zero responsibility for the world I created, and because of this bitterness was my home. I look back on that person and I thank god for the opportunity of who I am now. That skewed way of viewing the world caused more and more pain. The negativity it created caused more of the same negativity in return. It was a maddening cycle of victim mentality, and my heart was always reliving that pain over and over. I felt trapped by my past, by who I was, and I hated it. It was a bottomless pit of self hate, and low self worth. But this was all just a perception. This was my view of the world, and views change. Just like if you went to visit a new area of the world, the mountains are different, but they are still mountains.

How do you change your perception?

It requires work. To change the way things are you must take 100% responsibility for everything. We are taught that it’s 50% my fault and 50% their fault. You are not 50% of a person. By giving away that 50% you are placing yourself in a constant state of victim mentality. They did this, this person did that. However, doing this leads your perception to a state of being closed minded. You are asking why are they doing this to me, instead of why am I doing this to myself. Why am I giving away my power to others? By doing this you lower your self worth, and you hide who you truly are. That is what the ego reminds you of. This state of being that you will be cast aside or rejected all because you once were. So it keeps you down in this state because its safe.

That is what I did for so long, blamed others for their actions in my life. I wasn’t doing anything. Re-read that. I wasn’t doing anything and because of that nothing changed. I was not allowing myself to be the change I wanted to see, because I did nothing except pity party. I allowed others words, actions, feelings to tell me who I was. I wanted constant approval from my family, and because of this I told myself I didn’t matter. I had to achieve their acceptance. I cast aside bits of myself for it.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started opening up to healing. I began to transform my perception by owning my past, owning myself, and accepting 100%. I worked with therapists, read self help books, talked about things, and even blew up on everyone. I opened myself up to have emotions, to feel those emotions, and understand where they were coming from. It wasn’t easy. There were so many times I wanted to go back to that victim mentality. Claim my crown of shit and stay there amongst the crap. I began to see the demons and started to make friends with them. I let them push me to be better. I let them fuel me to change. I was reclaiming myself and changing the way I perceived everything. Because of this, I opened up so much that I started to forgive. I started to use kindness. I started to use empathy. It was amazing that changing my view of me, me me, why me, fueled compassion for others.

To change your perception is to walk in others shoes. To play devils advocate so that you can see two sides of a coin. To change perception is to be open to others opinions. It is taking 100% responsibility for the way you feel, think, and view the world.

Were there times where you looked at some event or person in your life and were unable to see anything but what they did to you? Do you constantly put other’s actions, feelings, and words before yourself? Are there times where you gave others your power, and then wonder why you are hurt? Do you see a news article and think the other side is dumb because it doesn’t follow your same view? Try not to think of it as what people are doing to you, but what are they doing for you. There are lessons in everything that happens. Those lessons lead you to awareness, to being 100% in charge of you. They open you up to the possibilities that there is so much more out there and you know a fraction of it. Are you so afraid of change that you would deny yourself growth? Embrace it, because it could change the way you view things. Isn’t that what its about? To see things and know your place in them?

So how does this apply to habits?

If you believe you can’t do something then you won’t do it. If you know you can then you can. Perception is a belief in something. When you view it that way then so shall it be. Have you ever doubted yourself and because of that you weren’t able to perform? Have you looked at something and said “wow I suck at this, I can never do it?” Then you can’t do it?

That is what perception is, taking 100% of your belief and enforcing it as truth. Do you want to keep believing you can’t? Or are you ready to start owning 100% of your life and believing you can?