The Power of Perception

There’s always someone you know- a spouse, friend, coworker, or neighbor- who just seems to always have it together and be in control. Especially, it seems when you are the most frazzled. They are organized, calm, and focused. You have to wonder how they do it. They have achieved the Holy Grail of the Millennium- inner harmony. The good news is that it is easier to achieve than you think and that you are closer to it than you may believe.

If you sat down and had a heart to heart with that same person who seems to have it all together, they would probably reveal the same anxiety and pressure to “do it all” as you. They may even look at you and ask themselves why they can’t be more like you! But what’s more likely is that they simply believe that they can. I know that seems hard to swallow, but let me tell you why it may be the truth.

So much of our life and how we view it is perception- how we perceive our life to be, not how it really is and especially how it might be seen by others. In that way, we create our reality. If we see ourselves as overwhelmed or stressed, then we have made ourselves overwhelmed and stressed because that’s how we will color every experience we have.

Change the color of your perception and you will change the way you experience your life. It’s a simplistic concept, but a very real one. Let’s see how it works...

How many times have you taken something minor or simple and overanalyzed it to the point that it became, in your mind, a huge ordeal? Later you found out that it really was minor or simple and if you hadn’t built it up, it would have remained what it was and would have been dealt with and easily disposed of. Like when you overhear two people talking and they shut up when you enter the room. You could take that as evidence they were talking about you and let your imagination and insecurities fill in the rest. Or, you could just see that as they were discussing something that needed to be private between the two of them and nothing more. They could be discussing anything, but you are the one who makes it about you in your mind.

Once you assume it’s about you, and it “has to be bad” because they shut up when you came in (and didn’t one of them look at you funny, from what you remember?). So, you start acting defensive and snippy because you are upset that people are saying bad things about you. This attitude raises a few eyebrows and causes you to tick some people off. Then, guess what, you have just guaranteed that people are talking badly about you. They are all wondering what made you be such a disagreeable grump and don’t feel like dealing with you. And this is all because you made it so by taking an innocent situation and putting a negative connotation to it.

Next time, instead of “making a mountain a mountain out of a molehill”, see the molehill as not a mountain or, better yet, see the molehill as just a molehill. Don’t make more out of a situation than there really is. You control how you perceive things and it is in your control how you choose to let that perception color your experiences and how you react. If you choose to see yourself as anxious and out of control, guess what? That’s exactly what you’ll be and you will respond in a way that will only magnify those feelings. It’s time to ask yourself what kind of world you want to live in and to create it, starting in your mind.