The Paradox of Perception
One morning I woke at 5:30 a.m. with a fragmented thought looping in my mind. I usually get hit with ideas early morning and will often work them out during the day. Still, half-asleep, I grabbed my phone and quickly typed it into a note so I wouldn’t forget.
When I woke and went back to it, it read exactly as this:
It’s not the mind altersong the expeorend
It’s brr experoemfd
That alerts
Tbd mind
Translation: It took me a bit to decipher it, but it says, “It’s not the mind that alters the experience, it’s the experience that alerts the mind.”
No idea what triggered the thought initially, as I couldn’t recall any dreams that night. So I dug a little deeper into that early morning insight…
I often wonder how much of what I perceive is real and how much is shaped by my own bias’ and desires—a behavior born from an enigmatic life experience. It’s a strange dance, living through something only to question whether my interpretation is true. But I’ve come to realize that my experiences haven’t just shaped how I see; they’ve sharpened the very lens I see through entirely.
Psychology often tells us that when our lens shifts, it’s a sign something is wrong—that we’ve become 'distorted' or overly sensitive. Especially when what we see is negative. We’re taught to blame our minds for 'flawed thinking,' to reframe difficult realities, and to question whether we’re just being irrational or biased.
But I don’t think that’s always true. Sometimes, what we’re seeing is negative—because reality itself can be. And sometimes, that so-called 'negative' lens brings a clarity others can’t or won’t see.
For a long time, I accepted the narrative that I was too sensitive, too critical, too aware. But then I realized—what I was seeing wasn’t a distortion. More often than not, it was revealing truths buried beneath perception.
Of course, cognitive distortions exist – I’ve felt their weight too. But I’ve also experienced moments when what looked like flawed thinking – what I was led to believe was faltered thought – was actually a sense of knowing. An intuition – the perfect alignment of everything I’ve lived, every nuance and complexity that’s been layered into my lens. Into my being. And that kind of knowing feels as though it cuts through perception – it feels as though it touches truth.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
– Albert Einstein
I’ve learned that not everything I’ve picked up on about people or situations has been wrong. In fact, much of it has been painfully accurate. It’s not easy to hold onto that clarity, though. Thats the hard part – truth isn’t always easy to accept.
Maybe this is why intuition often lacks understanding—because it’s an unconscious effort to protect us from truths too difficult to face. Sometimes, it's so uncomfortable, so inconvenient, that ironically, I find myself distorting it just enough to soften the clarity. Because what do you do with a hard truth that no one else seems to notice but you?
And yet, I also often find myself in a place of depth and understanding for hard to face, hard truths, supposed ‘ugly’ truths about the world, that many couldn’t reach. And I like that about myself.
I don’ know how often I’ve heard that we don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are. Yet, who we are is nothing but a reflection of the world we see.
Maybe the real work isn’t about reframing or rationalizing everything we see. Maybe it’s about finding the courage to trust what we know—even when it’s uncomfortable, even when others don’t see it the same way.
Maybe what we perceive that others cannot is an introverted, intuitive truth about the external world—one meant only for us to decipher, understand, and explore.
