The Power of Perception

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being
but non-being is what we use.
– Tao te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation

 How we look at things changes how they show up for us.

This is not a new concept, however it is not quite as simple as we might believe. There is a fundamental desire inside all of us to feel that life has definable terms and we are ultimately secure. This need pulls us toward seeing certain aspects of life as heavy and immovable, and nothing fulfills that call better than the perception of a problem.

We need to understand that problems have less to do with events and more to do with an instinctual desire to feel safe. Until you realize that your brain is hardwired to perceive something is wrong, the sense of having a problem will continuously plague your life.

With that in mind, I would propose that it is more useful to shift perspective toward movement than a positive feeling or intention. This is because opinions about what serves are rooted in the ego, the same structure that’s addicted to perceiving problems. If you let your opinion about what you want to feel/see direct your perception, it will always bring you back to seeing something wrong.

Rather, if we can learn to see movement for the sake of movement, we lose the narrative of being stuck that is the basis for all problems. Allow me to demonstrate. Pick an object in the room to look at, preferably a few feet away from you. It can be anything, a spot on the wall or a mess you’ve been meaning to clean up.

Go ahead and stare at it, and notice how you feel as you do (physical tension or emotions might come up). Now look at the space around the object. If you picked something on the wall focus on the air in front of it. Try to maintain this awareness of space for a full minute. How does it change your sense of body and emotion to look at emptiness rather than something solid?

There is a level of the mind that cannot differentiate between what we perceive and who we are. When we focus on something as solid, we perceive ourselves as solid, and tend to feel heavy and like there aren’t a lot of options. When we look at the space around things, we perceive the spaciousness within ourselves, and the feeling of movement and energy is naturally present.

You can do this same exercise with a problem in your life. Practice observing the air around you, and consciously bring up a situation that has felt impenetrable in your life. Do you notice a difference in how you perceive it? You can also ask to see the space around the problem when thoughts about it come up.

Please note, you are not focusing on a positive intention, prayer, emotion, or trying to find something good about a bad situation. The power of perception works best in raw form, when we apply it toward seeing movement for the sake of movement, and not a narrow view of what we believe serves.

Practice observing spaciousness, and when faced with something that feels like a problem, ask “how can it be different?” Apply your awareness toward movement, and you will feel freedom.