What’s your reality?

Have you been surprised by how you remember an event differs from someone else’s take?

Sometimes when reading old lettersI see that my memory and what I’ve written in the letter don’t match! My memory at the time and my memory years later can differ – how extraordinary.

Our perspective changes with our stage of life too. I touched on this just last week, discussing that what we look for in friendship evolves over time. We certainly see things through a different lens as a child than as an adult.

Paddington – and a child’s logic

When I was a child, I was logical. I was actually fairly logical by any standard, but sometimes my logic was my own.

The most hysterical example of my ‘logical’ brain is when I travelled with Paddington. I got a lovely Paddington when I was eight and I am still devoted to him. It was the year we lived in Germany and we took many road trips. Paddington came along too of course and he took it all in his stride.

I took it less in my stride. I was most concerned he enter each country legally so I decided his ‘please look after this bear’ label was his passport. It fell to my father to ‘get his passport stamped’, which caused much hilarity at boarders and airports. The guy at the Polish boarder even borrowed Paddington to show him to his colleagues. This was 1976 so things were very different.

The only sticky situation as at Frankfurt Airport:
My father to Immigration Officer (in German): Could you stamp my daughter’s cuddly toy for her?
Immigration Office: But sir, it’s an official stamp!
My Father: I know, but as you can see from the other stamps, it means a lot to her.
Immigration Official: Sir – I cannot put an official stamp on a stuffed bear.
My Father: I’ll just stand here until you reconsider

The immigration official stamped it with such force you can see the wobbly lines.

I love looking back at my child’s perspective, but my reality is very different today.

Perception and Reality

When someone’s interpretation of something is different from your own, you stand there wondering what is The Truth.

Of course, the fact is that they can both be right.
But do you want to keep your reality?

What perceptions from our past might not serve us well?

Perhaps you didn’t feel listened to as child. We all want to feel heard! My mother often cuts me off, assuming she knows what I’m going to say. No only is that rude, she often guesses wrong!

The result is that I’m very sensitive – and sometimes over sensitive – about being interrupted and that people aren’t listening to me.

On the good side, I am am a close listener and really focus on the person I’m talking to.

We can get so caught up in our own truth that it limits us. We all have our point of view, we can gain by opening up to someone else’s lens.

Often at work,  childfree people feel that those with kids are taking advantage of them while parents think that their stresses are not being understood.

How would it be if, rather than seeing this as childfree v parents, we zoomed out out and thought this way:
‘we all have times when we need flexibility and that should be honored! No-one wants to pay a late fee, whether it’s for childcare or eldercare.’

The Yoga Way – bringing perception and reality together

When we deepen our yoga practice – physical or meditative – we get in touch with who we are and understand the perceptions we carry. It helps us decide if we want these perceptions as part of our way forward – or not. Do we want to take them into our interactions?

When we understand our perceptions, we can choose to carry them forward or to change our point of view. Yoga can give us the ability to do this.

Have you found yoga has led you to change how you see something?

Interested in going deeper? Find out more info about working with me
https://bit.ly/stepintonewnormal
or email me antonia@newlandscapeyoga.com