A Matter of Perception

Perception is an interesting concept. Truly founded in our feelings, it is a powerful anomaly that is inexplicable to most.....how does our perception truly influence our reality? Its interesting isn't it and something that most of us deal with every day. A sarcastic comment taken as truth, fantasies about what we want turning into reality, the appearance of a situation shifting in a specific way because of our past experiences, the tone in our voice changing the meaning of a sentence and causing a different reaction than intended to the receiver of the message, the shifts in weather that to some seem beautiful and to others seem horrible....

This idea of perception and shifting our reality came into full focus for me this weekend. One of my new teachers, Stephanie Culen, said it best while in yoga class. She was on her way to teach a class, splashing through the rain and enjoying the beauty of the rain and the melting snow, when she overheard someone on his cell phone complaining about how horrible the snow and rain was. To many people, snow and rain is pure beauty. A friend of mine even said to me this weekend that he loves rainy mornings more than anything. Who doesn't love bundling up on a rainy day? There is something really comforting about it. There is a time a place for the rain and snow, just as there is a time and place for warm, brilliant weather.

Perception can negatively cloud your experiences or positively expand our views in any given situation. As difficult as it, letting go of past experiences and opening up our perception can be very powerful and life transforming. As a yoga teacher who is currently substituting group classes, I come face to face with this every time I walk into someone else's yoga class. For most students, attachment to the experience with their teacher and the familiarity of what to expect is the driving force and the reason students keep coming back. I am not immune to this either. When my favorite teachers are gone, I have been known to not even show up for class. On those occasions that I show up and walk into a sub situation, I expect to be disappointed. When faced with this, I start my meditation with a personal mantra to stay receptive to the experience and remain open to learning something. I am usually so pleasantly surprised that I am constantly reminded that their is so much to gain from shifting your perception and opening up to something new.

So, when I walked into class this weekend, I challenged my new students to keep an open mind when I came to teach for Leah, an instructor at Equinox. Since I had never practiced with her before, I did not know what to expect. My vigorous vinyasa classes are quite different from "restorative flow" which I was teaching. Leah is obviously loved. Her class was packed, there wasn't even room for another mat. By encouraging her students to release their attachments to their experience with her, shift their perception, and open up to something new with me, I was hopefully able to create a safe environment for these students to grow and expand. I think it worked...I received a few claps, many thank yous and several "when do you teach(es)" after class...the best compliment of all.

And so this idea of shifting perception can expand, grow and be applied to just about every experience that we have in life...something that seems important to me, may seem trivial to the next. Our perception of a situation is what shapes our feelings and our feelings about a situation, is what shapes our perception...it may be because of our past experiences and history are shading our reality, preventing us from releasing attachment and moving forward. Who really knows??? All I know is that my perception of life is quite different than the person standing next to me and regardless of what our mind is telling us, we have a choice to make a shift, and with practice, any shift can happen.