So many of us spend our days seeing life through a cracked lens. Perception colours everything and gives us an incomplete view of what we are trying to see. Most of the time, we don’t even know that we are seeing an incomplete picture.
Perception is the process of gathering information through your senses, and then, organizing and making sense of it. The process of gathering information is gained through what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell. It happens naturally without any effort on your part.
As you process this information with your knowledge, memories and attention, a new picture is formed. Here is an example from our breakfast table.
Ed, my husband, does not like strong coffee. I like strong coffee. When we make a pot of coffee in the morning, we have agreed to move the setting on our coffeepot about halfway between medium and strong.
Ed perceives his coffee compromise as a little strong, but ok and I perceive my coffee compromise as a little weak, but still flavourful. It’s fascinating that two cups of coffee from the same pot can have such different responses. Each of us is experiencing our coffee through our own cracked lens.
In our journey to becoming wiser human beings, we need to understand that there is a big difference between the factual information our senses gather and our interpretation of these events.
We tend to treat our interpretations as fact! The truth is – they are not!
This is how you create your unique experience of your world and your life.
Innocent perception is the ability to see clearly – without the interpretation that colours what is being seen.
Let’s play with this:
Look out your window and describe what you see – without adding an interpretation.
For example, here is what I see outside my window:
- A fence, a light brown colour.
- 2 apple trees with leaves just emerging from buds. Flower buds are visible in each cluster of leaves.
- Light rain falling from a cloud overhead.
- Several dandelions with bright, yellow blooms.
- A hedge along the fence with leaves almost fully emerged.
- Green grass.
No interpretations, just what is there.
That said, interpretations are an important part of understanding your experience of your life.
But we need to understand what in doing the interpreting – the brain or the heart.
Here is some of my favorite wisdom on this topic from author Glenda Green called, “Love Without End.” She is a well-known American artist, specializing in portraits, who had Jesus appear in her studio one day asking her to paint his portrait. Her book is the story of how her life changed to prepare her for this painting and a record of their conversations as she painted the portrait. You can find out more and see the portrait here: https://lovewithoutend.com/
She asked Jesus the question, “How does the mind relate to the soul?”
Here is part of his answer:
“The soul is the totality of your love, awareness, experience, ability, memory, emotions, and potential which comprise your immortality. Your mind is the recorder and administrator. In this capacity the mind is a useful and important asset to your existence. But it was never built to be the commander. The mind has no power of its own, and it can’t alter basic conditions. At the center of your soul is the Sacred Heart. This is the point at which you are one with God. The heart sees infinity within and without. It can behold perfection, It can ascertain the origin of conditions and change them. The heart is your higher intelligence. The mind assumes that it understands whatever it controls. This is the central problem, in a mind-dominated world, and the single most important reason to require that the mind be your servant and not your master…I give you three practices. The first is to strengthen all of your positive emotions through daily gratitude and admiration (wonder). The second is to disempower your negative emotions daily through forgiveness. The third practice is innocent perception.”
Here is an example of seeing through the eyes of the heart or soul. This comes from a blog I wrote a year ago called, “Through the Eyes of the Soul”. You will notice a mixture of innocent perception and interpretation as the heart sees:
Here is a link if you wish to read the whole blog:
https://soundwellness.com/through-the-eyes-of-the-soul/
“As I refreshed the water in the birdbath and watered the gardens and roses, I noticed that there were so many spent apple blossoms on the ground that must have been knocked off their branches during a recent hailstorm.
These two apple trees bring us a delightful harvest of apples in the fall, and they are shared with many of our neighbours. As I checked the branches of the trees, there were still many blossoms that were already transforming into tiny apples. The blossoms were so plentiful this year, that there were still many on the trees. Beams of gratitude were sent to the apple trees for their abundance.
As I settled into writing beside the pond, the first visitor to the birdbath is a flicker. This beautiful bird is a member of the woodpecker family. We have a pair of flickers that have been nesting near our home and we are delighted to see them all year round.
They love to drum their music on the top of the light post beside our house or on ours or our neighbour’s roofs. To me, when I see the flicker, it always inspires me to remember to sing and play my own music long and loud or to follow the rhythm of my own drum. Flicker always brings me back to my soul purpose of being and sharing harmony in the world.
As I started to write about the apple trees above, a robin was the next bird to visit the pond garden. It was more interested in looking for worms than to enjoy its morning bath. Most likely to feed hungry young birds. The garden has more than enough worms to go around.
My heart is always filled with hope and joy when I see the first robin in the spring. Their song is filled with so much variety and joy. The robins are always the first ones up in the morning, even before the sun. They love to sing the sun up. I love how they are such perfect reminders to begin the day with joy and with a song in my heart.
After the robin left with its worm, the bushes were filled with the chirps of sparrows as they showed up for their daily sip of water and a bath. They particularly love to have fresh water in the birdbath and will always let me know if it gets dirty or too empty during the day.”
Are you feeling the nudge to give up the limitations foisted on you by a mind that only knows control?
Are you feeling that there has to be more to life? You are right! You only have to look to your heart.
I invite you to play with innocent perception or the eyes of your soul as a doorway to the healing and love you already have within your own heart.
In Health and Harmony,
