Slicing Through Past Perceptions…Yeah Baby!

One of the biggest ways that we inhibit our capacity (and the capacity of others) to grow is through our past perceptions. Without examining these perceptions, they’re repeatedly carried forward and applied to the people (including ourselves) and events that arise in our experience, leaving no room for us to expand our conscious awareness of truth. And we don’t want that!

First, a look at how perceptions are created…

They’re created by the way in which we’ve chosen to interpret a neutral event…yep, that’s right, all events are neutral; we’re just so identified with the past perception we keep carrying forward that we fail to see the neutrality in the event we’re applying it to!

If we don’t work to bring light to the way in which we choose to interpret the events that occur in our lives, we’re at risk of unconsciously assigning a meaning to them. This unconscious choice is largely based on our outer conditioning, which is predominantly based in ego-consciousness.

When we’re operating from ego-consciousness, our inclination is to feel that everything is happening outside of us to us. We tend to blame something or someone for how we feel, never stopping to question the root of our motivation to blame in the first place.

A quick example…

Neutral event: Sally didn’t call you back.

Interpretation through ego-mind: You feel rejected and blame Sally for having made you feel this way.

Here’s what really happened:  Sally not calling you back awakened, within you, the deep insecurity that you do not feel good enough for her to have called you back. Without recognizing this outward reality as having manifested from an inner judgment that you held against yourself, you blamed her for having “caused” you to feel rejected.

Another possible interpretation through ego-consciousness: Sally not calling you back made you feel disrespected. “How dare her not give you the respect you deserve?” you seethe.

Here’s what really happened:  Her action to not call you back served as a pinprick to your self-image, which demands that people show you respect. This action challenged the way in which you see yourself, which ignited a fear from deep within that your self-image isn’t as stable as you believed it to be.

Again, the event itself was neutral…the meaning you assigned to it was based on your inner world.

The problem lies in the fact that we tend to get cause and effect confused. We think the outer events that occur in our lives are causing our distress (or happiness depending on the situation), when, in actuality, the outer event is being perceived through the inner thoughts we hold about ourselves.

If we want to change how we perceive the world around us, we have to change our inner world, which of course, ties directly into perceiving the world through love and light…

Our ability to experience the people and events in our lives from a place of love and light is directly related to the degree to which we’re able to rid ourselves of any self-judgment that we hold against ourselves, since that judgment is what is being projected onto the people and events in our lives.

Everything that appears to be happening outside of you to you is actually the effect of this judgment against yourself.

At any given moment, our perception is based in the degree to which we choose to see and experience our own love and light. If, in any given moment, we are in judgment of the love and light that is our truth, it will be reflected in our experience.

Here’s how this self-judgment leads to projecting judgment onto others…

We see someone as doing something that we would disagree with and we judge them for their actions. In judging them, we separate our self from them. But the only way we can judge them, is if we have expressed some degree of the energy they’re expressing and judged ourselves from having done so.

It’s this judgment of our self that we should look into, since it’s the wedge between us knowing our self as love and light or as our ego. Really let this sink in, because it’s the difference between continuing to be run by ego-consciousness and entering the realm of unity-consciousness.

You can bet, as someone who writes about shifting out of ego into spirit, every time I find myself aligned with ego, I fall into the trap of judging myself for having done so! Not good!

The only way to remove this judgment against ourselves is to forgive ourselves for it…to take responsibility for whatever we may have thought, said, or done and then to forgive ourselves for having done so, knowing that none it represented the truth of who we are.

Remember, this journey is about looking within to clean up whatever is preventing us from knowing our truth. Unfortunately, ego has done a very good job of using any and all judgments against ourselves to create an all-consuming worldview that distracts us from this clean-up process.

Self-judgment is a key linchpin in ego’s web of distractions—beginning there will help to unravel ego’s mysterious hold over us!

As we clean up these judgments against ourselves, we’ll move more deeply into alignment with love and light, which will be reflected in our perception of the world around us. Work to flush out any and all judgments against yourself so that you can fully experience the love and light that is your truth!

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Each moment that we’re able to live from our soul, we leave a lasting impression of love in the wake of our presence.  Together we can help heal the world by simply being loving.

Peace, Love, & Joy,

Shanna

P.S. I’ll be giving a talk at Whole Foods at The Quarry on Thursday, October 24^th, 2013 at 7:00pm. I’d love to have some hometown support…bring a friend or two, as well! =) Also, A Call to the Heart will be available for purchase through this Whole Food’s location—super exciting!