The power of perception

Mind Matters
Jannah Walshe

Perception is a powerful thing. It can be both positive and negative. And herein lies its power over us: We humans tend towards the negative, not the positive. This is particularly evident in times of stress, time pressure and lack of self-care. But let’s start at the beginning. What do I mean by perception? And how does it tie in with good mental health?
Perception is how we perceive that which is happening around us and in how it affects us. It’s the glass-half-empty, glass-half-full type of stuff. If we tend towards the glass half empty, always seeing the negative before the positive, this can have a huge impact on our mood and subsequently on our mental health.

Let’s look at three examples where perception is playing a large part in how the situation unfolds:

>    Life is going through a very busy period and you perceive it as overwhelming. There are not enough hours in the day, and you always feel time poor. There seems to be more things to do than hours in the day.
>    Your relationship is going through a rough patch, and you see only negative in your partner. Your perception now only picks up when they are late home, when they don’t empty the dishwasher or when they don’t ask you how you are.
>    You have less contact with friends and you see yourself as all on your own. You feel lonely and isolated. You perceive the lack of contact as a reflection on you and as meaning that friends don’t want to spend time with you or don’t care.

In all of three previous examples, negative perception has taken hold, not positive. Let’s try looking at them differently.

>    Life being busy can also mean having a full life, one brimming with many different things and people who bring you happiness and joy.
>    Your partner may do lots of things that benefit the relationship but in their own way, and this makes it harder for you to see. Taking time to try to see the positive things they do (even if you have to search hard) could be the starting point for a turnaround in the relationship.
>    Having less contact with your friends may mean that they (and you) are busy, not that they don’t care. Try to break the growing isolation by being the one that picks up the phone or pops in to visit them. You may find that they feel similarly isolated and lonely.

On a daily basis, we mostly process what we see and hear most unconsciously, even if we have a great self-awareness. These impact the decisions we make, how we see ourselves, the people we meet and what we focus on. When we focus on something, it gets ‘bigger’. If we overly focus on the negative, we experience more negativity. Conversely, when we see the positive, more positivity follows.
In many situations in life, when we look hard enough we can find something positive to focus on. Harness the power of your perception to your advantage. It could be the start of the glass half full.

>  Jannah Walshe is a counsellor and psychotherapist based in Castlebar and Westport. A fully accredited member of The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, she can be contacted via www.jannahwalshe.ie, or at info@jannahwalshe.ie or 085 1372528.