How your Brain Shapes Your Life

Seeing is believing.  

Well, that’s how the saying goes but I’m not sure. Science has proven that much of what we “see” around us is actually filled in by the brain! In other words, your eyes see a little bit, and your brain makes up the rest. But how does the brain do that? It makes assumptions. And it makes those assumptions based on what it thinks is true, or its beliefs.  

For example, lets say you walk into a room and you see a table, and just on the other side and sticking out over the top of the table is a rectangular shaped object. Your eyes see the picture and your brain makes the assumption that the rectangular object is a chair. It makes that assumption because it believes chairs and tables go together. Maybe the assumption is right, maybe it’s wrong.

Technically, you didn’t see a chair, you assumed it was a chair. You believed it was a chair and so you “saw” a chair.  

I think we can all agree, assumptions about the chair are pretty insignificant.  

But what would happen if you believed your spouse didn’t care about you? You would see it. If you believed that life is hard? It would look that way. If you believed others are always mad at you? It would appear to be true.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say, “Believing is seeing”. Perhaps some of the things you think you see, are there because you believe them to be there.