(Stillness in the Storm Editor) Can our desires and values they embody influence how we perceive the world? Studies conducted by psychological researchers suggest that perception is altered by desire and states of mind. Given that what we perceive directly influences what we think is real and consider possible, comprehending this mechanism of human experience is essential.
Quality of life is an important thing almost everyone values.
We want the best for ourselves. How do we achieve states of happiness, fulfillment and bliss?
One way is simply to recognize the sublime beauty inherent within reality, which is a decidedly spiritual perspective that has been an essential staple of the philosophy that underpins a spiritual life.
But there is another way, one that is more hands on. It requires harmonizing your values around coherent desires that work with each other. This might be called an embedded or incremental life plan.
The process involves carefully considering what you value by reflecting on the experiences that provided the most fulfillment.
Ask yourself “Who do I want to be? What is the most ideal version of myself? What characteristics do they embody?” Then ask, “what goals can I pursue that will help me become this ideal?”
Take the time to itemize all the goals that mean the most to you.
Then work to prioritize them.
Arrange them into a realistic life plan using a vision boarding process or a life journal exercise, wherein you write down a story or narrative that describes what the next week, month, and year looks like.
Use a calendar to itemize the things you’ll do to achieve your goals.
Once a solid plan has been created, be sure to leave room to revise and change it as you reflect on the results of your efforts.
If you’re like most people, your first attempt at this won’t be perfect. You’ll have to refine and rethink your ideals. Then you’ll have to refine and rethink the plan you developed to realize these ideal goals.
The psychological effect of consciously shaping and reflecting on your life goals and plan is to train your biology and neurology to achieve them. The more you develop and consciously focus on a realistic and well-crafted life plan, the more your body, mind, and emotions will work with you to achieve it. This is the “magic formula” for success in life.
Your subconscious mind is extremely powerful. It governs the process you use to interpret your experience, which is itself, a tapestry of moments wherein you made some opinion that became an automatic frame of interpretation. For example, if your first attempt at playing music in front of a crowd was well received and uplifting for you, you’ll likely form a positive opinion about the experience, which in turn makes you more receptive to experiences like this in the future. That is, you’ll be more likely to reach for and make use of opportunities to play music. And since you value this activity because it allows you to express your ideals, you’ll feel incredibly inspired and uplifted, not just while playing music, but generally in life.
Thus what we pursue and value literally shapes our perception and programs our biology. Moreover, how we interpret our life, the narrative or story we tell ourselves determines what we feel in response to what we pursue.
Goals and life pursuits are akin to the dry ingredients in a cake recipe, with the wet ingredients being your personal narrative that vivifies and frames your life goals.
Using affirmations or setting positive interpretive intentions is extremely helpful in this regard.
To do so, you need to precondition your goal by saying something like “No matter what happens when I try to do (insert goal) I’ll be happy and proud of myself that I tried my best. I know I’ll move one step closer to who I want to become simply by trying, even if it doesn’t work out.” This is an embedded suggestion, an auto-suggestion that is designed to prepare your subconscious to perceive your experience in a positive light.
It should hopefully be clear, upon thinking about the character of this suggestion, that no matter what happens you’ll feel good about the result. At least you can if you take the time to build a coherent thought structure in your consciousness.
Our choices become bricks in the temple of our being. Take care to make choices that align with your chosen path.
Are you the timid kitty cat that is afraid of it’s own shadow? Or are you the lion, bravely and proudly walking through life?
Pursuing our life goals requires emotional support and motivation. What we pursue, if we’ve created the right preconditions, feels more accessible. Imagine yourself already having what you want, feel that satisfaction that comes from that vision. Let it inspire you, while also realizing even if you don’t achieve it in your first attempt, in the trying, you made a step forward. This interpretive frame will produce constructive emotional states, and it works fairly automatically, so long as you’ve visualized it completely and held that vision in place for a least 60 seconds.
What are your goals? How are your values shaping your perception? What is the story you use to frame your life? Is it empowering and helping you become everything you want to be?
– Justin
(Science Blogs) We tend to assume that we see our surroundings as they really are, and that our perception of reality is accurate. In fact, what we perceive is merely a neural representation of the world, the brain’s best guess of its environment, based on a very limited amount of available information. This is perhaps best demonstrated by visual illusions, in which there is a mismatch between our perception of the stimulus and objective reality.
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by Staff Writer, January 9th, 2010
Even when looking at everyday objects, our perceptions can be deceiving. According to the New Look approach, first propounded in the 1940s by the influential cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, perception is largely a constructive process influenced by our needs and values. Recent research has provided some evidence for this: in 2006, psychologists Emily Balcetis and David Dunning, then at Cornell University, reported that an ambiguous figure tended to be interpreted according to the self-interest of the perceiver. They now show that the desirability of an object influences its perceived distance.
In the new study, 90 undergraduates were made to sit at a table across from a full bottle of water. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to the “thirsty” condition, and given a serving of pretzels to eat. The rest were placed in the “quenched” condition, and told that they could drink as much of the water as they wanted. Both groups were asked to indicate how long it had been since they last had a drink, how thirsty they were and how appealing the bottle of water was. Finally, they were shown a 1-inch line as a reference, and asked to estimate the distance between their own position and the water bottle.
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The participants who had been given pretzels to eat during the experiment reported feeling thirstier than those who drank the water, as would be expected. They also rated the bottle of water as being more desirable, and estimated the distance between themselves and the bottle to be smaller than did the quenched participants. Their state of thirst had influenced their perception of distance, such that the water bottle was perceived to be closer than it actually was.
That the thirsty participants found the bottle of water to be more desirable is not at all surprising – water will quench their thirst, and therefore has immediate physiological benefits. But how about objects that are desirable because of their social value? To investigate this, Balcetis and Dunning asked another set of students to estimate their distance from a $100 bill. One group was told that they could win the money in a simple card game; the other was told that the bill belonged to the experimenter. In this case, the first group find the money more desirable than the first. Again, both groups were asked to estimate their distance from the object in question and again, those who had been told they could win the $100 bill reported it as being closer than those who were told it belonged to the experimenter.
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The researchers then asked a third set of participants to complete a survey, and told that it had been designed to assess their sense of humour. Each then watched as their response was graded; half of them were told that their sense of humour was “above average”, and the other half were told that theirs was “below average”. The surveys were then clipped to a stand, and each participant was asked to estimate how far away it was. Those given positive feedback estimated the stand to be closer than those negative feedback.
A perceptual test which did not require a numerical response was then performed. Participants were asked to throw a small rubber bean bag towards a gift voucher placed on the floor in front of them, and told that the person whose toss landed closest to the voucher would win it. One group was told that the voucher had a value of $25, thus making it desirable to them, while the other was led to believe that it was worthless. This experiment confirmed the earlier ones – those participants who believed the voucher was worth something perceived it to be nearer, and consequently under threw the bean bag so that it fell short of the target.
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The researchers designed one final experiment to rule out the possibility that desirable objects are perceived to be closer because they evoke a strong emotional response. Participants stood opposite a wall onto which two pieces of tape had been stuck. An object was placed onto a table standing beneath the tape. One group saw a brightly packaged box of chocolates, and the other saw a plastic bag which they were told contained a freshly collected sample of dog faeces. (Both chocolate and faeces evoke strong emotional responses.) The participants were then asked to move toward or away from the wall until their distance from it matched that between the two pieces of tape. This time, those shown the chocolate moved further away from the wall than those shown the plastic bag. This seems paradoxical, but is easily explained – the chocolate was perceived to be closer than the faeces because it is the more desirable of the two objects, and so the participants compensate for this by moving further back from it.
These findings demonstrate that higher order psychological states can have a significant effect on visual perception. Specifically, they show that our desires have a direct influence on the perception of distance, such that desirable objects are perceived to be closer than they really are. This mechanism would serve to guide behaviour in the optimum way, by encouraging the perceiver to reach out and acquire the desired object. Further research into this effect is needed, however, as there are other situations in which the opposite could plausibly occur. Undesirable objects which might pose a threat – such as a venomous snake, for example – might also be perceived as being closer than they are so that one can escape quickly.
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Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2009). Wishful Seeing: More Desired Objects Are Seen as Closer Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797609356283.
Balcetis, E. & Dunning, D. (2006). See What You Want to See: Motivational Influences on Visual Perception. J. Pers. Soc. Psych. 91: 612-625. [PDF]
Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools
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Source:
https://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2010/01/09/desire-influences-visual-perception
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