Everything you experience is filtered through your own perceptions, beliefs, and expectations. You might have the same experience as another person, but you will each see it in very different ways. Why? Because your life experiences up to this point have caused you to believe certain things about yourself, other people, and the world around you.
Most of your existing beliefs are formed by your life experiences and the conclusions you drew from them. For example, if you were mistreated or betrayed by someone at an early age, you may have developed the belief that everyone is out to take advantage of you. The next time you encounter a situation that feels that way, that early belief will be triggered. And then you will see your present situation through the lens of unfairness. I’ve talked a lot about this lens in a previous post that you find here.
What we believe about ourselves and the world around us, deeply influences the lens or filter in which we experience life. If you believe you are unworthy your brain will actually seek out data to confirm what it already believes. No matter what happens in your life, even if it is a neutral event – the experience will be colored by whatever lenses are active in your belief system.
The good news is that you can choose to view your life experiences through any lens you wish. You can start seeing your life experiences through the lens of empowerment, or resilience, or goodness. You can train your mind to look at any situation and ask, “What do I want to see here? What do I want this experience to mean for me? How can I shift my perspective so that it benefits me?”
It is also important to begin seeing yourself through a more positive lens as well. Rather than seeing yourself as a person who will be taken advantage of, change that perspective to a person who trusts their instincts, or a person who has healthy boundaries in place. Begin seeing yourself as a person who is worthy of love, kindness, and respect; a person who is blessed and fortunate in endless ways. It sounds too simple, right? Does just changing your beliefs really make your experiences and perspective different?
The answer is yes! But it does take some time.
When you begin changing the way you see yourself and your life experiences, you deactivate those old beliefs that have conditioned you to react in unproductive ways. In the process you create an opening for intuition and insight to emerge. You start to become aware not only of what you are observing, but of yourself as the observer, and how that influences what you see around you. You develop a keen awareness of the moments when your past conditioning is influencing your current experiences. You develop the ability to choose more productive lenses just by choosing to do so.
Remember, the human brain will always seek out data to confirm what it already believes – good or bad. When you start seeing yourself and the world around you differently, you will see opportunities and perspectives that you never saw before.
As you begin to see yourself in a healthier way, you will start gravitating toward better-feeling lenses, like gratitude, openness, trust, love, and faith. Life starts to feel less threatening and more inspiring. You start recognizing the positive aspects of every situation. You are able to look past the struggles and obstacles and grasp the blessings and opportunities. And all of this, young padawan, is very empowering.
With enough practice, you will come to know that every experience in life contains both positives and negatives, benefits and drawbacks and lessons and trials. And you get to keep the ones you choose to see.
