The Making of a Human: Balancing the Subjective Lens
Nothing is as capricious as mankind. Our behavior is a complex dance triggered by elements we rarely pause to examine: some unconscious, some intended, and many hidden beneath the surface of our daily interactions. At the origin of this erratic nature often lies perception—the silent architect of our reality.
Perception is the cognitive process of organizing, identifying, and interpreting raw sensory data to make sense of our environment, translating it into meaningful experiences. Influenced by our memory, brain chemistry, and expectations, perception forms our internal idea of the world. It is how we decide the reputation of a company, the safety of a situation, or the intent of a stranger.
However, perception is not a passive receipt of information; it is an active, often biased, construction. It is shaped by a complex interplay of internal variables—our emotional state and cognitive biases—, external and sociocultural factors like our upbringing and faith. When we become "caught" in our own perception, we run the risk of experiencing a distorted version of reality. The real danger arises when we mislabel our subjective reality as objective truth. We stop being the authors of our stories and instead become prisoners of our own assumptions.
Because our opinions are always subject to our perception, they are rarely the neutral observations we believe them to be. Instead, an opinion is often the verbal expression of an internal bias—a structure built upon the foundation of how we’ve chosen to interpret the world. When we fail to recognize this, our opinions become fixed, hardening into a "truth" that leaves little room for the complexity of others.
This leads to a modern paradox where conflicting perceptions are held as absolute, non-negotiable "truths." In a landscape where freedom of speech is often used to justify the refusal to see beyond one's own lens, we find ourselves at an impasse. When we weaponize our perception as "our truth," we use it as a shield for our actions, effectively shutting down the possibility of a shared reality. In these moments, the question of who holds the truth becomes irrelevant, because truth has been replaced by the desire to be right. This rigidity prevents the very connectivity required for a resilient environment.
This entrapment often happens during social interactions where impressions are formed quickly and automatically. It occurs in the quiet spaces of meeting new people, interacting with colleagues, or even within our most personal relationships. Common perceptual errors, such as the fundamental attribution error—where we overemphasize a person's character while ignoring their circumstances—or self-serving bias, which leads us to take credit for successes while blaming the environment for our failures, can lead to misperceptions that result in unfair judgments, misunderstandings, or conflicts. This reality stresses the importance of being aware of our biases and the potential for error in our judgments.
Breaking free from this captivity is not an accidental shift; it is a conscious act of self-determination. It requires a deliberate choice to step out of the familiar and into "unknown territory"—the space where our own shoes no longer fit and we are forced to look at the world from a different point of view. This is where we stop simply reacting to our environment and begin to actively author how we view it.
In a society driven by raw knowledge and objective data, we often dismiss the subjective as unreliable noise, having not explored our subjectivity for its full potential. Yet, we have subjectivity for a reason: it serves as a critical navigator for life’s most important decisions. When we open ourselves to our emotions, we find they are not distractions, but signals and beacons. Using our feelings to complement our cognitive insights brings an increased value to our perspective. It allows us to balance the objective facts of the world with the subjective reality of our hearts, creating depth on what would otherwise be a flat, two-dimensional existence. In doing so, we are rewarded with a broader perspective and a deepened consciousness.
Periodical reflection of our perception and weighing our objective truth against our subjective reality, will in time become second nature, as it is slowly integrated into our very state of being. To maintain this evolutionary consciousness—the profound state of being aware of oneself in relation to our surroundings and vice versa—we must hold ourselves to a set of key criteria:
Accountability & Integrity: Being responsible for our choices and remaining honest with ourselves even when the narrative becomes uncomfortable.
Character & Tenderness: Approaching the world with a distinctive moral quality, tempered by a gentleness that refuses to harden in the face of hardship.
Respect & Loyalty: Holding a deep admiration for the qualities of others and maintaining an allegiance to the truth over our own biases.
Courage: The bravery required to do something that frightens us—the act of stepping away from our own certainty to embrace a wider truth.
When we are willing to make the self-determined choice to challenge our own behavior being subject to our thinking, we achieve more than just a shift in perspective. We reach a state of interconnectedness where the internal and external align. We are no longer reactionary beings triggered by hidden elements; we become the conscious authors of our lives, aware of our standing in a larger whole.
By practicing awareness of how our own brains can work for us, but also against us, we can actively change not only our behavior, but also our perceptions. We move from the comfortability of being "trapped" in a singular view to the freedom of an abundant consciousness. In this space, the words that were never really lost are found, and the distance between our internal truth and the objective world finally disappears.
About the Author
After the events of 2020 reframed her life—bringing a life-threatening illness and the end of a long career—Sonja Glover shifted her focus to a purpose-driven journey. Now dedicated to personal development and creative expression, she believes that while we don't always choose our opening lines, we always hold the pen for the chapters that follow.