This summer, I went ALL out on eyewear.  Daily contact lenses (life changing) AND prescription sunglasses. WOW.  What a wise move. Why haven’t I done this sooner?  Maybe I was half in denial about my sub-par vision.  A few years back, I’d only really worn glasses when I was sat at my desk in work.  Quite frequently, I’d almost blank colleagues walking past me in the street whilst on my lunch break.  I thought at the time this was because I was in my own world.  Turns out I just couldn’t see very well.

Anyway, now I’ve got my round-the-clock vision sorted out, I was walking through Clapham Common one morning, proudly sporting new eyewear and pondering something (can’t remember what).  I was trying to think about something from a different angle and “life through a lens” popped into my head. Not the Robbie Williams album, just to be clear. And it wasn’t an Einstein moment either, what I’m about to say isn’t new.  It’s just a pause for thought in terms of how we look at things. 

You see, regardless of whether you have 20:20 vision or not, we all look at life through a particular lens.  OUR particular lens. And not even one of them, there are many.  What am I talking about? Well, we’ve all travelled our own unique path in life. Nobody else has encountered the exact same people and experiences that anyone else has. All of this affects the way that we perceive the world. And this in turn impacts how we feel and behave. In actual fact, by the age of 35, 95% of who we are runs from a memorised (and therefore automated) program of beliefs, emotions and unconscious habits.  If that sounds interesting, see @drjoedispenza.  But for now, back to the lenses.

So, the next time something sets you off, or triggers you, get curious about the lenses that you might be looking through and what would someone else think /do if they were to be faced with the same situation?  What makes you see a situation in a certain way? And don’t forget about confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is when we look for things to confirm what we already believe (our beliefs and biases). Think of the belief as being a lens you’re looking through. Say you want to change your job or career.  Your belief might be, “I don’t have the right experience for that job” or, “this is the only job I can do” – you then scour vacancies for your dream new job and uh huh, that’s right, you find your “proof” by focusing on the evidence that backs up your belief.  You’re less inclined to consider all the facts in a logical and rational manner.  You stop your job search as you consider it to be futile.  Whatever we face in life, we are bound to come across our fears, and they will trigger us.  They might be just, and protecting us, but equally they might be unhelpful and reinforce unhelpful beliefs we are already running.  You don’t need to figure out where these beliefs come from.  Simply think about whether they’re helpful or not.  If they aren’t, replace them with something that is.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to forward my blog posts and/or follow me on Instagram @mindfulswan xx