When is perception not reality

You can explore past experiences to see how they shape your perception in the present day. Whether you like it or not, your past thoughts, feelings, and experiences play a role in how you perceive things. If you want to understand yourself better, psychotherapy is the best way to do so. This is why Royal Life Centers offers a variety of intensive therapies, including psychotherapy and behavioral therapies— which can help you decipher thought patterns and break bad habits like the tendency to jump to extremes.

There are some questions you can ask yourself to better understand your perception, thoughts and feelings, in any given situation. Ask yourself:. What is their point of view? Almost all interpersonal issues can be solved by communicating clearly. We all internalize everything so often, we forget that most of our wondering can be eliminated by asking a simple question.

For a more accurate picture, build your reality based on reason and perception, try to strike a balance. You can change your perception to benefit you. Have a perception that includes gratitude, finding the silver linings, focusing on the bigger picture; understanding your role in your reality is key. If you focus on finding the positive aspects of every situation, your perception will be mainly taken up by the positive things, making your reality more positive, enjoyable, and manageable.

I personally think faith plays a huge role in bettering your perception. Take the example of the new friend that cancelled on you as mentioned earlier : what if you were to take it as a sign that you needed to spend time alone? What if instead of feeling unimportant, you saw the situation as just what it was— cancelled plans, that left you with free time.

Focusing on something you can do for yourself in that free time will benefit you exponentially more than troubleshooting what caused the new friend to cancel plans. Your perception could go from something went wrong, to something went right. Your growth may be a catalyst for their growth as well. Change of any kind, Dr. Humphreys says, requires willingness. So having a desire to see things differently is a vital component.

This readiness, Dr. Gilliland adds, creates room for us to learn and create new perceptions. Whenever you feel triggered by someone, something, or some situation, Dr. Humphreys suggests "hitting pause" and taking a moment to breathe and ground yourself into the present moment so you can choose how you will respond from a more empowered place. Humphreys recommends letting other people know that you need some time to process things, and you will address the issue at a later time.

By OpenSpark. Event Staging. Search Search. Latest Posts. What is your UC strategy? Ready to look and sound your best? Talk to the experts at IMS today. Still, even for someone like me who knows this research well, Perception held some surprises.

In one study cited in the book, researchers found that people who are more easily disgusted—when imagining things like a garbage pail filled with maggots or a piece of chocolate cake in the shape of dog poo—tend to be more conservative politically. And they tend to have stronger negative feelings about people who support sexual freedoms they disagree with—like gay rights or the right to an abortion.

Feelings like disgust—which come out of the limbic system of our brains, often below conscious awareness—guide our reactions and evaluations, making them less than impartial. What does it take to live a happier life? Learn research-tested strategies that you can put into practice today. Hosted by award-winning psychologist Dacher Keltner.

For example, people listening to melancholic music tend to think a hill looks steeper than people listening to happy music. That means that nurturing our positive emotions may help us to approach difficult tasks more easily—an idea that at least some research bears out. The presence of other people affects our perception in difficult situations, too.

Holding hands with someone while experiencing a painful event can lessen the pain. Anticipating having to carry a heavy load with someone else as opposed to alone makes it appear lighter, and just thinking about a friend can make hills seem less steep. Our social connections seem to play a role in reducing stress , which might be why being with others changes our perception of pain or difficulty, making them both easier to bear.

These studies and more point to the centrality of our social relationships for resilience when things are hard.