Regardless of the situation we may find
ourselves in, our response may depend upon the perception we have. Perception is the ability to see, hear, or
become aware of something through the senses.
It is the basis upon which we draw conclusions on the way we will react
to what is happening around us.
As an example: If you were to see a person
being brutally killed by being cut into pieces (sorry for the graphic
description) you may respond in an accordingly manner. However, if you sat in a theatre seat and
watched a magician saw a woman in half, you would have a different response. Why?
Because the first situation would highly disturb your sense of morality
(I would hope), but the second situation you recognize as merely a trick, an
illusion of the mind, and you know no one was actually harmed. Your perception of the situation has been
trained to understand these things and that’s why you react differently. That is why as young children we can be more
easily deceived. We have not yet
obtained the training in life to help us deal with various situations.
This is also the reason that certain
things or situations may affect people in different ways. It is all a matter of our perception. Consider, you are outside in your yard on a
beautiful summer afternoon. Suddenly a
jet plane goes roaring overhead. You
complain to your wife how the thunderous roar of the engines disrupts your
enjoyment of the activities. That is YOUR
perception. Now consider, you are the
pilot of that jet aircraft. You’re
sitting there at the controls and you hear the roaring purr of your
engines. You know from the sound those
engines are performing normally. You
enjoy the fact that those engines (and the noise they are producing) are
keeping you and your aircraft from plunging to the earth below. See what a different perception the pilot
would have from yours? But whose
perception is RIGHT? Actually, BOTH
of you would be right. It is merely your
perception based on your specific situation.
Our perceptions can be trained based upon
the circumstances we have to face. Most
often this is for the good. But there
are times when we have our perception trained in a bad manner. We often perceive that anything or anyone
that we do not understand or who is different from us is to be feared. At times we train our own perception. If we have had a “bad” dealing with someone
of another ethnic background than our own, we will tend to perceive that ALL
individuals of that group are the same and we should treat them differently,
when in reality that is just not true!
If we were to actually sit down and
consider all the situations in our lives that we face or may have to face (I
know that would be impossible), but if we could, we would probably be surprised
to see that most of our reactions to these situations are based on our
perception of some dealing from the past or from the comments we have heard
from others.
In 1993 there was a song released by Geoff
Moore and the Distance entitled “If you could see what I see.” The words of the song actually highlighted
that not all people see the same way. Even
if we are not able to see the better qualities within ourselves, it may be very
evident to someone else. You can train
your perception to look for those good qualities in others and not focus on
someone’s imperfections.
If our perception is to focus on the thorn
and how we might get hurt by even a tender touch, we will miss out on the
beauty of the rose and its wonderful fragrance.
The same will be true about many things within our lives. Placing a higher opinion on the negative
things will make us lose out on all the positive things.
Our perception can be improved to help us
enjoy the things we see, hear, and become aware of that are around us every
day. When we can have a better
perception about our own lives, we can have a better view of others around us
and we can deal with them in a better way than falling prey to our former perceived
concepts. The major hurdle to overcome
is ourselves, because we’re only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
"Sadly, at times truth is pushed aside
for what is perceived as truth."
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