per·cep·tion [per-sep-shuh]

–noun

the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses; cognition; understanding.

In psychology, perception is presented as the process of awareness and understanding through the senses. To my understanding, perception goes far way beyond reality, it builds its own.

Perception not only depends on what you see, but how you decide to see it as well. I can tell you an example I heard recently: The white light surrounding us contains all the colors of the rainbow, but nobody notices that until they change the way they look at it. The over lookers and non-observant are the ones who never reach the whole spectrum. Their own narrow views stops them from seeing all the colors, so they don’t see the light.

Some people rather not see what’s in front of their eyes, so in their minds they create these scenarios to make themselves feel better about it or worse maybe in some cases. They will believe their “mindful creation” because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. How about like Stella, who recently broke up with her boyfriend and the pressure of trying to know what he’s doing bothers her every second. She can’t call him on his cell because he would know it’s her, so she just casually drives by his house to see if his car is there. She doesn’t see his car so she’s assuming since it’s Thursday night, he’s probably at a happy hour bar with some chick who’s all over him and Stella’s stressing out of just thinking what they might be doing while she’s just outside of his house with no plan of her own. What she didn’t know was that former boyfriend’s car was at the repair shop, and she wouldn’t know that because they don’t talk anymore. Her own view (perception) of the situation made her think up this wild scenario that never happened.

What does this all mean? It simply means that no matter what you see, something as clear as day, it could turn out to become something entirely different if your unconscious mind decides it so.