In 2004 I saw a movie titled, “What the Bleep Do We Know?” Movies are generally mindless activity for me; distractions to give my overactive mind reprieve from questioning and thinking and exploring and processing and figuring out and analyzing and so on. With the subject being quantum physics, neurology, molecular biology, and spirituality, this movie was anything but mindless entertainment. During the film a question was posed by a woman named Ramtha that struck me as very profound. “Have you ever looked at yourself through eyes of the person you have become?” This is more than likely my spin on her actual words but nonetheless the question remained with me.

Too often the lens of the past colors current reality. Too often life is seen through the negative messages internalized from childhood – messages about lacking worth, not being good enough, being unlovable, undeserving and so on. Fortunately we receive more affirming messages along way as well but it seems the voice of the negative has the loudest and most persistent echo in the psyche. To look at oneself through the eyes of the person you have become is to see yourself through the eyes of the knowledge and wisdom gained through life. It is to see through eyes that have endured and overcome, failed and succeeded, grown and matured.

I have interacted with several people over the years whom by all measures of society are successful. Many remain burdened by the messages of the past, viewing themselves through the eyes of a former self and from the distorted vision of others who shaped their self perception.

In the busy and hectic world we have created for ourselves we live most of our lives on autopilot; so much so that our self perception does not always catch up to our actual self – the self existing in the now, encompassing our growth, progress and evolution. It is more than a productive use of time to become conscious of who we are now, bringing into alignment self perception and actual self.

Reflect for a moment on the person you have become. What have you endured and overcome? In what areas of your life have you been successful? How are you stronger? In what ways are you more mature and wise than you were one year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? Reflecting on your experiences look deeply within and see yourself through the eyes of who you are now.

Wayne Dyer is quoted as saying, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” As we look upon ourselves with fresh eyes, we arrive at fresh perspectives, not only about ourselves but the world around us.