Perception Is Fluid

I handed Bill the information that Joe wanted. A few days later, I asked Joe if Bill had given it to him. When he replied that he hadn't, I said I would find it for him. Thinking that Bill might have put the information on his desk, I turned towards his office to look inside.

However, it wasn't there! It had disappeared. Confused, I walked over to the wall where the door should have been, and stared at it. Blank. Perhaps they had covered it up? "Nope, no office has ever been there," said Joe.

I knew I had seen the office right where that wall currently resided, but since it obviously wasn't there now, I decided to pretend that it existed but, perhaps in another realm, and somehow not in this one.

I know, I read too much science fiction, but it was more satisfying than thinking I had not seen it, when I knew I had. I knew the answer to where the office was would reveal itself, eventually.

The mystery solved itself a few days later. Walking to a class, I turned and saw the open door to the office right where had I thought it was. At first, I allowed myself to pretend for a moment that I had stepped back into the realm where the office door existed.

Not so - or at least not in this instance. Instead, I realized that there was another wall in front of the one where I had looked before. Yes, it was in the exact direction that I thought it was, but not in the same space.

Here's the point. Perception is fluid. It changes based on who we are, what we were thinking, what we are noticing, and what we think is real.

Nobody sees the same thing the same way. Actually, we don't even remember things the same way we experienced them either. Perception is fluid.

And since it is, here's the important question. Why do we fight so hard to maintain how we think things once were, or how we want things, and people, to be? Will power. Stubbornness. Decisions build on hurt feelings. Divisions, wars, and sadness are all planted in perceptions that can be shifted at any moment.

I love the idea of free will. However, I think we have misinterpreted it and wasted its true power on wanting things how we want them to be, instead using it to shift our perception about every event, every idea, every concept, and every desire.

Because we have free will, we can choose our perception. We can choose one that is limited and restrained, or we can choose one that is expanded and open.

Have you read the book Pollyanna lately? In this book, Pollyanna chooses a perception of good about every event that comes into her experience. She is a master at shifting to a perception that brings good to everyone whose life touches hers. She doesn't sugar coat anything, she simply finds a way to see it differently.

How many things do we fight for that could easily be resolved by shifting our perception about it to see the good? How many years do we waste wishing for something that we could easily have, if we shifted our perception about how it will happen, or how it will look?

With free will, we can choose whether we most want to be happy, or if we want most to be right. With free will, we can choose to accept a dualist reality where some people win and some lose, or we can choose, and act from, the perception that omnipresent Good is the only power.

Guess what. We get the one we choose.

This isn't about right and wrong. It's about choice, about fluid perception, about what kind of life we want to live.

There is no need to hang onto hurt feelings, or painful experiences. Facing them, recognizing that the perceptions that trap us are false memories, and replacing them with a revised, and more spiritually healthy perception, improves everyone's life.

Seriously.

I was right about where the door was, except I was wrong about where the wall was that housed that door. Instead of arguing, or even thinking I had imagined that door, I simply decided to wait and see if it showed up again. It did.

Perception is fluid. Perception is not a creator; it simply shows us what we believe to be true.

Hey, why not choose a perception that omnipresent Good is all that is going on. If we do that together, we just might remove all the obstacles that keep us from seeing that Good IS all that is actually going on.

The two most powerful things we can do with our free will is to be willing to let Good direct our path, and to set our feet on a path to action directed by the quiet voice within that is All-Good.

You have something better to do with your time than shift your perception, be willing to listen to the guidance of the Divine, and then take action? Didn't think so. Let's shift together; it's easier that way!

Beca Lewis is the author of many books including "Living In Grace:The Shift To Spiritual Perception" which can be found at Perception Publishing

Or get her free Shift Ezine here: The Shift