Chapter 2 (final), part 16, Perception and Focus, Beauty.

Focus: When you focus on life in a negative or positive way, you become like a moth to the flame. One perception of your life can affect all other aspects. It’s like the old woman watching the six o’clock news. She locks herself in her room because she lets the media dictate her whole perception of reality. She does not go outside and feel the breeze, nor does she notice the roses in the neighbour’s garden. Fear takes hold of her, and whilst she focuses on the pain and torment in the world, she misses the beauty in each day.

Perception: There is no reality, only your perception of reality. And interestingly enough, your perception can change if you truly want it to. You can see a homeless person on the streets and focus on all of the torment in the world, or, you can be thankful that so many people in the world are not homeless. Your emotions and thought processes can trigger you to apply one of these scenarios. Your mind can then either be inspired or deflated by these thoughts. The same example applies to everything you focus on throughout your day. Your perception is then your truth, not THE truth, just your truth.

When we truly grasp that there is no reality, but instead only the perception of reality, it is then that we can begin to understand that we create our own limitations and beliefs. And once we grasp this, we can begin breaking down our limitations by simply being aware that they exist. We can then remove them one at a time.

So if life is truly based on our own perception and focus, then why don’t we all focus on beauty and create that perception within our daily life?

Like anything worthwhile, making a positive mental change within ourselves is not an overnight job. It takes time, mental strength and many failures before we notice significant differences within our own psychology. Every day brings new challenges and frustrations for us to navigate. Yet this does not mean that we can’t see beauty more regularly.

By being present (living in the moment) and witnessing our emotions as they arise, we can begin to understand our triggers. When negativity or painful emotions appear we can then see them for what they truly are. The next step can be to ask ‘is this a reasonable response based on my own belief system?’

When we ask questions such as this it is important not to place any pressure on ourselves to come up with answers. It is also important not to place time restraints on ourselves to achieve a goal. Life is a process, not a destination. It will take as long as it takes, and acceptance in this knowledge will achieve so much more than any type of self-pressure.

As a personal recommendation…

Throughout each day stop for a moment, take a deep breath and focus on something beautiful. It doesn’t have to be a sunrise or a flower. Beauty can be your first sip of a coffee, the feeling of a chocolate on your tongue, the water from a shower, or a feeling within yourself that you appreciate. And as you repeat this pattern, it ends up becoming more common to see beauty in each day without the effort of trying.

This all being said, life is not easy and some days are harder than others. Yet trying to better ourselves is an incredibly healthy and evolutionary response. Beauty is more visible with regular self-love, self-appreciation and acceptance. As expected, on certain days (especially in the western world) it doesn’t always work. But the more you practice, the more present you will become within each day. It is also easier to bring yourself back to what I call ‘ground zero’ which feels like complete presence.

So to finish…

How you perceive your life creates what you focus on, and what you focus on reinforces the way you perceive your life. You have the power of your own reality at your fingertips. The answers to questions such as ‘what is the meaning of life?’ are contained within the eye of the beholder, not within Wikipedia or Google. Means such as blogs and guru’s are just information to help you make your own decisions. You define your own beliefs and your own reality. So how would you like to perceive your reality today?