There is no reality.
Remember the conversation between Neo and Cypher in The Matrix?
“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? (Takes a bite of steak.) Ignorance is bliss.”
There is no reality. There is only perception.
Facts are facts. They only have meaning when we decide what meaning to give them. The Matrix told people that what they were putting in their mouths was juicy steak. There is no intrinsic
value of good or bad to that fact. It just is what it is. Cypher took that fact and decided that a world with fake juicy steak was just fine with him. Neo decided that the world with fake juicy steak was bad. It’s the same fact, but each man had a different perception of it.
Barack Obama just became the American president. That is a fact. If you like Obama, that fact becomes a good thing. If you don’t like Obama, you might decide that’s not so good. Again, the
fact itself is just the fact. Each of us is made up of our own experiences and those experiences filter how we perceive the facts.
In order for each one of us to take control of our own lives, we have to understand the filters that we use to perceive the world, often unconsciously. If we want to make changes in our lives, we must learn to recognize those filters and bring them to a conscious level so we can change how we perceive our experiences.
A lot of filters begin in childhood. How, where and when we were raised affects the way we see the world. If we were raised more conservatively, we’ll filter differently than someone who was raised more liberally. Someone who was raised on a farm in Idaho will not see the world in the same way someone who was raised on a coastal city might. A twenty year old will not have the same perspective as a 60 year old. None of these differences are “good” or “bad,” they’re just different and they color the way we perceive the world around us.
Another type of filter is how you speak to yourself. Some people say really mean things to themselves, often out of the habit of years, and usually without recognizing it on a conscious
level. Many times it’s even disguised as a joke or self-deprecating humor. Over time, these seemingly small snippets start to dig at your self-esteem until your subconscious becomes programmed that they’re true, and then they become a filter as well. The bizarre truth of our brains is that if you see the world through a filter that says, “Women are never attracted to me, “ you will literally not see the signs when the opposite is actually true. A girl can be smiling at you, giving you all sorts of positive body language and even flat out asking you to ask her out, but if you have your brain programmed that girls don’t like you, that is how your brain will interpret the facts that your eyes are seeing. You have to believe it to see it.
Conversely, self-affirming language will create a clearer filter that will be more effective for letting
you see the possibilities that the world has to offer. If your brain is programmed that people find you attractive and like to be around you, then when your eyes see a lady looking at you and smiling, your next thought can be, “Cool! She’s into me! I’ll go say hi.” When you believe it, you will see it. It’s all in your perception.
We choose how we want to perceive the world around us. It is a choice. If someone walks by me and says, “Nice pants!” with their nose all wrinkled up, I can choose how I want to perceive that comment and the accompanying facial expression. I can take it negatively and decide that they’re being mean and sarcastic. I can take the words by themselves and ignore or assign a neutral meaning to their wrinkly nose and decide it was a lovely compliment. The point is that either way, it’s my choice. It’s my perception of the words and actions that give them meaning, so if I choose to perceive them as a compliment, than that’s what they are.
Our lives are built by our choices. We make our choices based on how we perceive our experiences. If you have been making choices that aren’t leading you where you want to go in life, then start looking at how you perceive the world around you. Change your perception and you will change your life.
