It's All in the Perception

So many clients look at me with bewilderment in their eyes when I explain, as I often do, that there really is nothing wrong with them.

Usually that bewilderment fades when they grasp my meaning: The real problem lies not with them, but with their beliefs.

And those beliefs are based on perception. Once the perception is changed then so is the person.

Let me explain.

The simple fact is that to a large extent we are our beliefs.

If we believe we are happy, then who is to tell us that we are sad?

If we believe that the world is a bed of thorns then we will find it difficult to find rest and pain will punctuate our dreams.

Likewise, it is we ourselves who perceive and define both success and failure and, ultimately, which one we choose to become.

If we honestly reflect for a moment then we will recognize that so often
' we see things not as they are, but as we are '. It is our perceptions that really shape the life we choose to live.

This is the reason why two different people can pass through very similar experiences with one feeling devastated and the other remaining wholly unaffected and able to get on with life as if little had happened.

For both the facts are similar, but the perceptions -- and consequently the beliefs created by those perceptions -- are different.

You see, our perceptions are the light we shine on the experiences and events in our world. Yet the world that we truly experience depends entirely on where we choose to shine that light and how we choose to shine it.

After all, perception is simply the way in which we interpret the facts. And perception is the foundation, the very cornerstone of our beliefs.

We may have limited control over external things, but we do have control over the effect that those things have upon us because we possess the ability to ammend perceptions and adjust beliefs.

It is the beliefs that we hold, and hold onto, that determine our outlook and our approach to our world and to ourselves. Those beliefs originated in perceptions brought about through our interpretation of past expereriences.

Each one of us has a past, because each one of us has lived. And in that past there will have been painful as well as joyful events and experiences. We will have perceived and interpreted those experiences and based so many of our beliefs upon them.

Now, we can hold on to the pain of the past, nurturing grudges, wallowing in disappointment, apportioning blame and luxuriating in self pity and guilt . But in doing this we make a choice. We choose to become victims, working to a script written by someone other than our authentic self.

We can do that, or we can decide to take responsibility for ourself and our life, work on re-examining our perceptions and realigning our beliefs, letting go of the negativity and choosing to move forward.

If you are troubled, if your life is feeling like it's stuck and on hold, then perhaps it is time to let go of that way of perceiving, that way of being.

You were not born to be a victim. The only way you can remain a victim is by choosing to perceive yourself as one. It really is all down to your perception.

Let go of the grudges, the resentments, the limiting beliefs of the past.
Let go of the script and you become spontanous and authentic.

See yourself as a success and you begin to move forward. Do this consistently enough, put in the work and as sure as morning follows night you will become that success.

Choose to shine your light wisely and you will see that peace is what really remains when you let go of those negative beliefs and the perceptions on which they are based.

" Men are disturbed not by the things that happen,
but by their opinion of the things that happen. "
Epictetus