We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world as we are.
This statement is so mind-opening for me. My brain has to wrap itself around these words and then travel to my heart to really comprehend it.
Everyone wants to be understood. Everyone craves appreciation. Everyone wants to be loved. And yes, these are all important. But these are going about it from the outside in, instead of from the inside out.
Don’t wait for people to understand you. It’s not their job!
It’s YOUR job to understand YOU.
Others can only understand you from their perspective. Their perspective includes their experiences, their pasts, their views, their upbringing – everything that happened to them so far – which has NOTHING to do with you. You probably weren’t even around when they formed a lot of these perspectives, especially if they took place early on in childhood.
The moment you try to make people understand you, is the moment you aren’t living in your own true self. You are letting their understanding you be more important than YOU understanding YOU.
How many times have you heard where a group of people all witness the same thing, but everyone has their own version of what happened, and it’s different than someone else’s version. Why is that? Everyone saw the same thing. It’s not what you see or what happened that’s the issue, it’s who you are and how you feel as you see it.
Your perspective controls what you see.
If you’re coming from a victim stance, that’s how you’ll see your world. You may feel powerless and like you have a bullseye painted on your back.
If you’re receptive to possibility, you’ll see ways to create and improve. You’ll have a can-do, positive-approach-to-life perspective. Both of these perspectives will affect your actions and choices.
We are all living our lives from our own perspective. When you accept that, you can let others off the hook. When you truly appreciate and understand yourself, you will know your worth and you will know others’ worth. When you value yourself, you can value others. When you give yourself the benefit of the doubt, you can do the same for others.
It comes back to self-love as well. Only when you love yourself can you truly love others. You can’t give what you don’t have. It seems to always come back to Self.
Allowing others to live from their perspective while living from your own perspective is what brings you peace. Understanding this, is also what brings you peace.
When you live from this place of understanding yourself, you won’t need the understanding from others – because the most important person understands you, and that’s YOU. But don’t be surprised if others start to understand you in return. That just can’t be your motivation.
How you see YOU and how you understand yourself will affect how you see the world and others.
So, I leave you with a question: How do YOU see yourself?
Active-ist for your health,
Irene
