A Matter of Perception

“We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
-Anais Nin.

Have you ever thought that maybe your life is not exactly as you think it is? as your eyes see it? That maybe that apparently random event that brought you here to this exact point was, perhaps, not random at all?

The thing is, we can only see what we know how to see.

You see, throughout our lives we learn how to think, how to walk, how to interact with our surroundings and how to understand what happens everyday. But the truth is, we never realize that we are actually building an idea in our minds; the idea we have of how the world works and how our lives are affected by it.

You may not notice, but you can only see through your experience. You can only evaluate a situation taking what you’ve learned from past similar situations, and the sum of all these experiences is what we call “objectivity” or, in other words, not being influenced by feelings or opinions and only focusing on facts.

But everything you think about anything is merely an opinion.

It is a common knowledge that, at least for the time being, no one holds the absolute truth. So, everything we hold as our truth is no more than our opinions, our decision to trust a way of thinking over another, and our complete loyalty to those ideas we trust the most.

But what if I tell you that there is actually an absolute truth about your own life, but you just can’t see it?

“Ridiculous” I would say if I heard such a statement, honestly. But that wouldn’t make it less true.

As I stated before, we see through our own experiences, we can only see what we already believe is there, and therefore we already have an opinion about. That is why we see our lives as what we think it is, and constantly compare it to what we think it should be.

But, why?

Although the circumstances in which we were raised definitely matter, the way we see life as adults is heavily marked by the disappointments, the challenges and the despair. Therefore, our inflection point is always (or, at best, in most cases) a negative thing.

Then, if life gets its changing point under negative circumstances, how can we be mistaken? How can this world not be as messed up as we see it?

Well, my friend, I’ll tell you: It’s all a matter of perception.

You see, if we were taught that life was a tunnel our whole lives, then we will live forever just looking for the light at the end.

But if we learn that life is a never-ending openworld with millions of options, maybe we would make those walls disappear, and see that the light has been around us all along, waiting for us to open our eyes and look at the sky as we have never looked before.

There was a time in my life when I believed in this tunnel. I believed life was just a line and whatever came from the other end was my destiny and therefore what would define my life. This is the way many people live. I used to believe that the next step would be finally the light at the end; I used to say “when I graduate from high school then I’ll see the light” “when I find a good friend I’ll see the light” “When I finally finish college I’ll see the light” “when I find a job I will see the light”. But the light never came.

On top of that, I couldn’t help but notice that everyone around me seemed to have reached that light. I was the only one still walking in the tunnel, almost wandering.

A couple of years has passed and now I see why the light never came: the light was already there, it was just not the light I expected (or wanted). In that moment the tunnel disappeared, and I saw my life for what it was: the result of each and every single one of my decisions and believes about myself. That instant I had probably the most shocking realization in my life:

I was wrong… about my life.

And maybe you are too.

After that I started thinking that we, human beings that had lived in this crazy world and went through so much things, we, as intelligent beings that created societies, we have to learn to see what we can’t believe; that maybe we are wrong, and life is not how we see it.

No matter how many times you’ve thought that your life is not as good as that guy you went to college with. It doesn’t matter is you feel like you’ve been unlucky or just not as much “blessed” as others around you. All that stuff that happened to you brought you right here, to this exact point of your life; the point in which you can get out of the tunnel.

This is the place you were meant to be right now.

There are no coincidences, there is no luck involved, there is no mystical talent others have to get things right that you lack. It is just you, seeing your life from your failure’s point of view and believing it, trusting it as though is the only truth. As if the tunnel is the truth and the light is your goal.

Trust ME this time, that is not the truth. Your life is so much more, it could be whatever you are willing to work for…

or whatever you are willing to settle for.

How you see yourself and your life will determine which one you do. So ask yourself a couple of questions:

When was the last time you doubted your own believes? That maybe your life is not the mess you make it out to be? When was the last time you questioned your viewpoint about your life?

Because, my friend, your perception (and no one else’s) is the only thing that matters.