Choose to see what is right in front of you!

You know when you have that Ureka! (Jonsson) moment?

I recently did, and I feel as overwhelmed as I do gobsmacked at how I missed it before now. Ironically, what I’ve learnt is actually nothing new. The clues have all been there. Ive seen it before, heard it, read it and even thought about it. And now it seems so obvious. How do you miss something when you’re looking straight at it?

Well, I think we, as humans, see exactly what we want to see. Whether it is literal, or metaphorical; We see what we want, or what we think we want. Our mind will process what our eyes are looking at and we will calculate in an instant exactly what it is in front of us. However, what we are actually seeing, depends on the perspective of our mind. Whether we are looking hard at something or glancing over it is irrelevant.

Let’s say you have a blank piece of paper and I ask you to write an epic story about yourself. When you finish, I ask you to look at it and tell me what you see. You might say "I see my life before my eyes", whilst others may see a spelling mistake in the first paragraph. Your first thought might be related to your handwriting, or maybe you just notice the crease you unintentionally made in the bottom right hand corner of the page when you leant across the table to grab a drink. Of course these are all right answers. They have just been determined through a variety of perspectives.

Mindfully speaking, we can apply an even simpler ideology to the balance of our own thoughts and how we look at them, just like that piece of paper. In their simplest form – the positive or the negative; Love and pain. We have the ability to judge events and tailor them to our perspectives with our own thoughts and emotions, and we can do it with almost anything. Take death for example. Supposedly (almost certainly) we stop breathing for long enough and we die. In most cultures, the next step to take place is a funeral; but why have a funeral? From one perspective, it’s to celebrate the life of that person. We wear colourful clothes and think about their achievements and our happiest times spent with them. From another perspective, we mourn their death. Wearing black, colourless attire, sharing memories alongside the concept they never had chance to take another step into their future. Of course, neither is right or wrong. The same contrast can be said for injuring ourselves, or losing a job to name a few. The positive reaction can be appreciation of our overall health, and the opportunity to try something new and different. Whereas the negative is to immerse yourself in sorrow and worry about the future. Even breaking up with a loved one – do we turn memories of beautiful truths into hurtful lies, or do we accept that maybe we just had different paths to take and be grateful for the beautiful experiences shared. Its up to you and however you want to view it.

So what exactly did I miss? Well, in a word…

Perspective; Or rather the idea of perspectives.

Actually stopping for a second, and being aware of where my balance of thoughts lies. A wise man once told me ‘Religion is poison, you are your own God’. The view I originally took from this was negative, and I spent the majority of life after thinking the church was full of suckers (no pedo joke intended) and the world would be a better place if all religions just disappeared. Now I find my own beliefs sharing various similarities across many religions, depending on how you look at it of course, but that story is for another day.

This is really only the basis of what Ive come to realise of late and I feel like I’m only scratching the surface with where this thought process is going. I’ve had a constant buzz since. Its a powerful feeling, with the only concern being I could fuck with my head so much I'l be sharing a crack den with a badger in a few months.

You can change what is right in front of you - You can change your reality! Just by shifting your perspective.

You will always see what you want to see.

After all, You are your own God.