How many times have we held ourselves back from making an instinctive comment, because of a little voice in our head that says 'wait a minute. I can't say that, they'll think I'm XYZ..'. Or worse still, how often have we decided against wearing a certain outfit, going out to an event, being friends with someone, because we fear external perception?
And isn't it a shame to think of all the wasted moments that pass us by due to this mentality? It seems to me that whilst social media, such as Twitter, seems to encourage instinctive, carefree thoughts, sadly, our generation appear to be increasingly self conscious and afraid of perception. I realise that was a sweeping generalisation but it's serving here as a premise for my argument! Be that physical perception due to appearance, overthinking our texts so we don't get perceived the wrong way (the eternal debate of whether to send a winky face, a smiley face, a kiss, two kisses, a :* emoticon?!) to someone we may like, or the way our actions may be judged in the future.
Now this all seems to tie in with the previous post about the importance of living for today, and not thinking about a future version of you that may or may not regret this decision.
So, we make mistakes. So, some people do think I'm an absolute nutter. So, people have probably talked about me behind my back, and they probably will do for plenty of time to come. So what?! We can only tread on eggshells so much before realising we can't predict future responses or what anyone else is thinking (just think about all the times autocorrect thinks it knows what you're typing but is just way off. Telepathy is far from being the most reliable way to judge responses). Overthinking things will, bit by bit, lead us to leave behind our true selves, if we're constantly altering ourselves to fit in with how other people think.
Another form of perception that deserves a mention is self-perception, which now more than ever is less a matter of seeing all the positive, amazing qualities we hold but all too often putting ourselves down, and perceiving ourselves in regard to others. We see the world through these tinted glasses, noticing only the negatives in how we view ourselves and admiring the best traits of those we look up too, whilst ignoring that they too have faults.
All this perception stuff is pretty complicated, right? It seems nobody will ever know what anyone else thinks unless it's well communicated, and I think it's about time we just throw the towel in with all this predicting how future situations may or may not come about and why and how and when and who with. It's time to take off the glasses and learn that yeah, people will judge me for my actions, they may criticise me and pick out my bad qualities. But wouldn't anyone much rather just live their life as they want to rather than eternally asking themselves 'what if?' (You know, the sort of pondering what if's that can only ever lead to questioning every little mistake you've made and why you're a terrible human being and what if you'll never achieve anything ever again?). It's just not worth it!
Perception is another word for awareness, senses, taking things in. So surely the best way to go about life isn't to fear perception, but embrace it. Living for the now, and for you, not a million other people who you feel are judging you, means soaking up every experience, dancing on the train even though you're going to get those funny looks, making a decision that may not fit in with your peers because you're more interested in experiencing things at your own pace than how others will perceive you for not following the crowd. Perception is about gaining insight, seeing the world in a new way, and if you have to make a few unpopular decisions along the way to make the most out of life, then that's going to benefit your development far more than it will harm you to hear external criticisms that may surround your choices. Go perceive and discover!
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