how we see.

I am blind as a bat. 

I often imagine myself in the 13th century mistaking our family goat for a tiger and that being the end of our bloodline. 

Survival of the fittest becomes difficult when you can’t see.

Seeing isn’t just physical.

Scientifically, seeing is when light hits the retina, our photoreceptors turn the light into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the brain. The brain then turns those signals into the images we see.

There is so much more to seeing than photoreceptors and electrical signals.

Seeing is our response to whatever stimuli we are presented with.

How we see determines how we carry on in this world. 

We often say that seeing is believing…

But who’s seeing?

Two people separated by inches will view the same thing very differently.

Why is it that eyewitnesses are some of the most unreliable evidence in a court of law?

Who’s seeing do you believe?

Early on in life our individual cultures and environments shape how and what we see. Our realities are shaped outside of our control. 

What we believe to be true is often told to us by those with limited vision.

These become our self imposed boundaries, limitations or our rule sets for reality.

The key to truly seeing is challenging those boundaries and limitations and questioning what is real.

Truth is, if we aren’t always questioning what’s “real” we can easily fall prey to a blind spot.

There are so many factors that affect how we see that we should never stop questioning.

Living a life being fully convinced that what you see is reality, could be the difference between the family goat and a tiger, or more likely, your success or failure.