How Perception Can Cloud Your Vision for Your Life

What is hidden from your current view may surprise you. You probably are not finding or seeing new ways to heal your body and live with more joy because of the way your perception works.

Your perception can obstruct your vision through your brain as much as a literal cloudy fog can hide a huge mountain in our environment. The photo on the left is the same portion of my backyard as the photo on the right taken only about an hour apart.

Where’s the mountain and the blue sky in the one on the left? From a perceptual viewpoint, it appears there is no mountain, we can’t see it. If we didn’t know better, we would not even assume there are other possibilities than the way we are currently looking at this area of the background.

Perception is ‘how’ we see, it’s the story or the meaning we assign to a given situation or circumstance based upon our unique way of looking at life.

Sometimes we can be even looking at a situation or event right in front of our eyes and not really see that there is more than one possibility of what is before us. Like the mountain range behind the fog. Very recently, during a period of heavy rain here in Northern California, I noticed that the vast mountain range behind my home seemed to disappear as the clouds and fog descended low enough to obstruct it, so I took the photo of my backyard from my window.

If I didn’t know better, it looked like there were no mountains, that the land behind my home was flat and that I was just seeing the edge of the sky on this rainy, dreary day. In reality, things were not as they seemed. In a little while, the clouds and fog rolled away to reveal the huge, majestic mountains and the beautiful sun and blue sky.

I found this situation to be a an interesting metaphor for perception. This is important to your mind and body health and well-being. Whether we realize it or not, things really are not always the way they seem, and in fact, they are generally are the way WE see; it is subjective based upon the meaning we assign due to our perception.

It’s like a ‘Cataract of the Soul’ that blocks the Light of our soul, who we really are, and keeps us from witnessing our own intrinsic worth and beauty and from seeing this beauty also in others.

As an ex-eye surgeon, I can tell you that most people had normal, healthy eyes behind their cataract, which is simply a clouding of the lens of the eye. Once removed, their vision typically returned to 20/20. We don’t often realize that there is more to a situation, person or explanation than meets the eye. Two individuals can come to very different conclusions based upon how they have unconsciously wired their brain over time and how they expect the outcomes to evolve.

They can have different, ‘stories’ for similar circumstances. So they ‘see’ things differently. Often we are metaphorically seeing the world through a ‘cloudy lens’ of perception.

For example, we’ve been taught that chronic disease is a part of aging. Therefore, when we buy into this, we assume that there’s nothing we can do to age with good health. We don’t look for causes in our behavior, food, or toxins in our environment that harming our mind and body and destroying our health. We ignore new research. We don’t pay attention to reports that show toxic foods and pesticides are harming out gut. We don’t recognize that allowing our mind to wander into negative self-talk is actually creating disease in our body through the stress response. We continue to only look for evidence that aligns with what we believe and we therefore miss evidence right before us. It’s like there’s a cloud blocking out potential. That’s perception.

This is how perception can work. When we are not aware of how we are conditioned and have unwittingly wired our mind with a host of self-limiting beliefs, we can make assumptions that we will never see our way clear again and become full of stress, anxiety or even become depressed. When we don’t have a vision for our life we only focus on the clouds and lose sight of the potential majesty that could be hidden from our view at the present time. However, if we take the path of higher wisdom, we can make room for the possibility in our mind that perhaps there is just a mis-perception within our thoughts. That things can change, that we can change. The the ‘authorities’ are wrong and that what we once thought was true, is just not true or certainly not for everyone. That we can expand our vision and possibilities and change our perception.

Instead of thinking less of our self and allowing our fear to rob us of peace of mind and even help create disharmony in our relationships and lives, we can learn to hold the faith and courage to recognize that there are beliefs and ways of seeing life that need to evolve if we are to reach our greater potential. As we change our beliefs, we will notice new information starting to show up in our view.

Our soul’s journey is one of remembering that underneath the surface, behind the clouds in our life lies the Light of our spirit that is magnificent, like the mountains, beautiful, strong and majestic all at the same time.

It just may be temporarily covered over by confusion in our mind and heart that cloud our vision for our life. If we make time to

• feed our soul and spirit, to contemplate and reflect
• develop the trust in our inner spirit to guide us
• to apply the actions of our intuitive nudges that come from within our heart…

…we will be able to expand our vision for our lives as the circumstances shift and the clouds roll away in our perception to see the hidden beauty that was there all along. We can open our mind to new ways to heal our bodies and reverse chronic disease. This is the new science. It also requires your active belief change to participate.

The more willing we become to learn and grow and recognize that retraining our brain and mind and ‘making friends with our emotions’ is a skill that we can develop, the easier it becomes to navigate the storms and clouds that show up in our lives, including our health.

As we get to know our inner lives and the power within us to cut through the confusion and fog around us, we are better able to live with greater purpose, passion and to see the beauty that is hidden from our perception within the context of our everyday lives.