What Determines What You See

The way you really see yourself and the world around you derives from your heart.

Your heart consists of your core belief or feelings about yourself and the world in which you live. Throughout your life you have had a series of experiences that made a deep impression upon you. These experiences gave rise to meditative thoughts bathed in emotions that formed a portrait of who you are in your heart.

You may not remember all of these experiences or thoughts, but they have come together to shape a value, belief or image of your own identity inside your heart. This identity is also the filter through which you view other people.

Whether the situation involved comforting words offered by a parent during a painful time or a rejection by someone you deeply loved, your inner response created a belief about yourself that has stayed in your inner consciousness your entire life.

I am not suggesting that every experience or thought creates an impression on your heart. The experiences and thoughts that we continually rehash in our minds until they evoke strong emotions imprint values, judgments, and opinions on our hearts, which in turn shape the way we see ourselves and others.

Continued tomorrow…

Adapted from Unraveling Love’s Mystery, David Youngren (2012, chapter 6)