Checking your vision
I have pretty decent vision. I can read road signs and clocks without any noticeable problem, and I can spot dishes in even the messiest rooms from the top of the stairs. So I wasn’t too concerned the last time I went to the optometrist for a check up, confident I didn’t need any corrective lenses.
After reading the letters on the wall, the optometrist put me behind a periscope with 800 lenses in it (I don’t know what it’s actually called, but you know exactly what I’m talking about). He snapped back and forth between lenses and suddenly letters I could already see snapped into even clearer focus. I could see sharp edges, and that “C” was now clearly, in fact, a “G”. Oops. It turns out, I only needed mildly corrective lenses. Instead of the gold standard of 20/20 vision, I had 20/40 vision. This meant I could see at 20 feet what a “normal” person could see at 40 feet away, and I was told that I could choose glasses or pass on them. Without them, I might miss some details here and there, but for the most part I could navigate life without them. I commented that I hadn’t really noticed a lack of ability to see, and the doctor said something that stuck with me. “You probably wouldn’t notice your own inability to see for a long time. The human brain makes all kinds of things up about the world in front of your eyes.”
As a student of neuropsychology, I already knew this, of course…but it feels very different when it is your own eyes you are thinking about! So often we think we see things completely clearly, as they are, but we forget about our own interference: our moods that sometimes cloud everything, our preferences which make things we love stand out, our education which allows us to interpret things differently, even our gender, where we grew up, and what religion we claim can all play a role in how we see the world. Watch football with someone cheering for the opposite team and this will quickly become obvious!
Getting clarity
But what about when it is something bigger? What if you are trying to change your life for the better…trying to get sober or get healthier? At a time when it is crucial to see as clearly as possible, you may be hindered by your own lack of lenses. Your beliefs that you can’t change. Your ideas about how hard it will be. Your preconceptions that it won’t work for you. Your filters that you may not be worthy. If you can’t see very clearly that you are definitely worth the effort to be your healthiest, best self ever—maybe you need your vision checked! Let someone who loves you show you the way to what you actually need. Let yourself know you could be wrong about yourself, and let wisdom and clarity in.
2020 is the perfect year to get very clear
about your life and what you want.
Centered Recovery is calling this “The Year of Clarity”, and we have a whole team of amazing, caring professionals who are waiting to help guide you to your own health and resilience. We’ll check your vision (without the periscope), illuminate the details that may have been hiding, and show you your own path home…to you. Are you ready?
To learn more about the mindfulness-based approach to addiction used at Centered Recovery and contact us today at 800-556-2966.
