Emotions, Perceptions, and the Lens Through Which We See the World

Let’s start with addressing the elephant in the year; 2020 has been an epic mess for us all.  It has been a challenge to each of our resilience and mental, emotional, and physical state.  While we’ve all experienced the year differently and have different squares marked off on our 2020 Bingo card, we can all come together and admit it’s been one rough ride to which no one is immune.  

That being said, we have the ability to choose how we look at this dumpster fire and all other situations for that matter.  Frequently we view the world through our emotional state which impacts the way we think and interpret the world.  This can cause us a lot of problems as our emotions can be misguided helpers, are biased, and sometimes even lie to us.  This is not to say that emotions aren’t good things to have.  They serve very important roles such as telling us what is important to us, help us identify our needs, bond with others, and protect us.  Unfortunately, when left untempered they might lead us to interpret something someone says poorly or see them in a negative light, assume the situation is hopeless, or call us out as a failure.

Bare with me as I get a little metaphorical.  Imagine that you can only see the world if you were wearing a pair of glasses.  As your emotions ebb and flow the colors and opacity of your lenses change.  The colors and opacity prevent you from seeing the world in front of you clearly and accurately, and everyone is wearing a different pair.  What you see as blurry and blue might look golden and crisp to another, or clear yet muted.  We all see the world differently.  Unfortunately, the colors and opacity are not within our direct control.  They change as our feelings change (it’s on autopilot) and are unpredictable.  Luckily, through practice, we can change the setting (switching to manual baby!) and choose the lens through which we view the world and others around us.  We can choose a clear, rosy lens or whatever works for us.  Mine lenses are clear, frosted with glitter around the edges, and tinted gold if you must know.

So, how can we choose the lens we have?  Well, here’s where the metaphor ends since we cannot go out and buy new metaphorical lenses.  Instead, we can first start to change them by noticing when our lenses are being clouded and questioning what is happening.  What emotion is popping up?  How is it affecting how I’m interpreting this situation?  Is it accurate?  Is this way of looking at it helpful to me?  How would I prefer to look at the world?  Once we are aware of what is happening and what we would prefer, we get to work.  We challenge those value judgments that are clouding our view.  We beat back our thought distortions. We go on the hunt for the positives, the benefits, and the silver lining.  We choose what we focus on and how we allow it to impact how we see and who we are.  With practice, your lenses slowly change to a pair that helps you see the world with more hope, possibility, and positivity.

Now, while you see the dumpster fire for what it is, you can also see the many blessings and opportunities within it … like warmth, that gross dumpster smell is gone, and it’s brought people together as a community.

What kind of lenses will you choose?