Perception
Does perception affect our reality?
What exactly is reality?
According to lexico.com, one of the meanings of reality is;
“A thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one’s mind.”
Indeed, this meaning is fascinating, as perception also begins in the mind, specifically the brain. This explanation implies that what starts as a vision or notion of the mind can become your reality. So how you view or perceive something can affect your validity.
The debate of whether reality is real or just our own minds’ perceptions has raged on for years in both the scientific and spiritual communities. With science, there is a search for proof and evidence. Spirituality needs no explanation.
Generally speaking, though, a reality in itself is thought of as something that is proven to exist.
Is our reality always accurate? They perceived the world as flat at one time, and this was their reality until they discovered it to be a false reality. History, such as this, proves that perception plays a huge role in what we see as real!
As science uncovers more and more, the two are beginning to merge!
Processing information into our brains using the senses to establish what we perceive as reality!
When you use the senses to determine what is real, this is a form of perception. When you see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and even imagine things, you are using perceptions to determine reality.
The cerebral cortex plays a crucial role in how we perceive reality and information coming into the brain. It processes information coming into the mind from the outside world.
Take, for instance, visual perception.
You are gazing at a beautiful open field. In this field, there are red poppies and yellow daisies. There are also a few huge boulders scattered around, and tall green grasses are swaying gently in the breeze.
Where do you think you are, based on the picture I just created in your mind?
You do not see the scene in real life, but you can picture it clearly in your mind.
More than likely, you can imagine it because of memory in the brain. If you have never seen a red poppy, you may have a hard time visualizing this flower, so your perception of what it is may look different from what a poppy looks like in real life.
This scene visualization is a basic example of how perception can alter what reality to you is. You may picture a mountain field, and someone else may imagine a garden by the sea. Both may be correct, so both may be actual reality.
You are using the perception of others to impact your reality!
How often do you think about the opinions, ideas, and thoughts of others when making a decision?
What took place the last time you attempted to make an impression on someone? Did you look at yourself and try and imagine how they would see you?
Unfortunately, how we see ourselves is not how others see us. What we wish to convey may not be understood in the same way we are sending out the information.
For many, it is no concern, but if you are attempting to influence others in any way, it is essential.
Simply put, the words you use or actions you take do not matter if you do not think of how the other person will receive those words or actions. Not an easy task to do.
For those of you wishing to be influencers, a salesman (or saleswoman), coaches, teachers, and an array of many other fields of work, please pay attention to the perception others have of you, and how they see you.
View yourself in their eyes, looking from the outside in at yourself, seeing yourself for the first time.
What is it that you notice first? What immediately draws your attention, and why? Is this a positive quality you see, or a negative quality? What can you do to enhance the positive or minimize the negative?
I guarantee successful people are already doing this! They are using perception to their advantage!
Bringing awareness to how others perceive you may be the difference between getting that promotion, making that difference to someone, and standing out in a positive way to create change.
I did not realize how differently people viewed my actions and how varied it was until I did what is called a Perception GAP analysis at a corporation I worked for!
Generally, I will not write about my own experiences that much, but it is the only way to explain what an eye-opener other’s perceptions of you are!
First, let me explain what happened during this Perception Gap analysis. A series of the same questions about me are given to coworkers to answer anonymously.
I did not know who put what answers or who were participants. I also answered the questions as to how I saw myself.
Let me tell you when I received the completed analysis of how I saw myself versus how my coworkers saw me was a huge reality check!
The craziest part was the coworkers themselves did not see me in the same way as each other — their perceptions were different from mine and each other.
My mentor later explained that the reason all the answers were so varied is that their thoughts, visions, and expectations played a role. The fact that they were also anonymous allowed them to be completely honest and open, if not a little brutal!!! So, how they saw me was based in part by how they processed information into their brains, their memories, and experiences playing a role.
You are changing your reality by changing your perceptions!
We come to the ultimate question of can we change our reality by changing our perceptions?
Looking at things differently, bringing your attention to small details that you overlooked will start to shift what you see as reality.
Let’s return to our poppy field once again.
When I initially described the poppy field, boulders, and breeze, what was the first thing that came to your mind? What did you imagine?
Take a look at the scene below, noticing every detail of the picture. How different is this scene from the one you created in your mind without seeing it visually?
Does this mean the scene is not real, or the one you created in your mind was not real?
How different would it be standing in the middle of this field physically and experiencing the sites, sounds, and smells?
Each time the scene appears to you, it can create a new reality in your brain based on how your brain is processing information at the time. Memories, experiences, thinking, habits, and the receiving sensory circuits all play a part.
Depending on where you place your focus, the perception of what you see and the feelings it evokes may change the reality to you.
Perceptual habits can be useful.
A habit is something done without thought. It reacts in a familiar or ingrained way to a situation or stimulus. Just like regular bad habits, we can develop bad perceptual habits.
A bad perceptual habit may cause you to distort reality based on information responses you have developed over time.
What can we do to create good perceptual habits?
Habits that will help us see a more precise and unbiased reality. Developing good habits of perception will become useful in creating the life you want versus the experience you assume is stuck with you.
Pay attention to the ten things below to start creating good perceptual habits right now!
- Minute details and small stimuli of the senses, often overlooked.
- Know your motives or what motivates you
- Outlining your expectations
- Consequences, both desired and undesired consequences
- The organization, of thoughts, actions, outcomes
- Your automatic responses to emotional triggers
- Your thoughts, what comes to mind immediately, and then after a time
- Your actions, both instinctual reactions and deliberate measures you take.
- Open your mind to theories other than your own
- Notice when you begin to have unconscious perceptions based on former situations
I hope this brought some insight and valuable knowledge into how much of a role perception does play in affecting your reality!
Remember to keep an open mind, open heart, and genuine perception!
