You Don’t See Things As They Are, You See Them As You Are.

"You don’t see things as they are, you see them as you are."
— Anaïs Nin

The world doesn’t hand us truth.
It hands us mirrors.
And what we see in those mirrors depends more on what’s happening inside of us than what’s unfolding around us.

We don’t see life objectively.
We see it through the lens of our experiences, our pain, our fears, our healing, our hope—or our heartbreak.
We filter the world through the stories we’ve told ourselves to survive.

When you’re hurting, everything looks like a threat.
When you’ve been abandoned, love feels suspicious.
When you’re grieving, joy feels like betrayal.
When you’ve been silenced, honesty feels like danger.
And when you’ve learned to expect disappointment, even blessings start to feel like ticking clocks.

The outside world stays the same.
But your inner world?
That changes everything.

This is why two people can stand in the same room, hear the same words, and walk away with two completely different realities.
Because what we see isn’t always what’s there—it’s what’s alive inside us.

Your perception is shaped by what you’ve survived.
By what you’ve been taught.
By what you fear and what you long for.
By how much healing you’ve done… and how much you still carry silently.

And that doesn’t make you broken.
It makes you human.

But awareness is everything.
Because when you realize that your vision is shaped by your inner state, you stop blaming the world for being cruel—and start asking what parts of you still need gentleness.
You start asking: What is this reaction rooted in?
Is this really what’s happening, or is this what I’m afraid is happening?
Am I seeing this clearly, or through the residue of old wounds?

Sometimes the fog isn’t out there—it’s inside.
Sometimes the storm isn’t the situation—it’s the story you’ve attached to it.
Sometimes the threat isn’t real—it’s a memory.

And when you begin to shift the lens, everything changes.
Not because the world has changed… but because you have.

Healing is not just about fixing the past.
It’s about clearing your vision.
So you can stop seeing life as a battlefield when it’s trying to offer you peace.
So you can stop expecting to be hurt in places where you’re actually safe.
So you can stop pushing love away because you’re too familiar with its absence.

You don’t have to keep viewing today through yesterday’s pain.
You don’t have to keep seeing every smile as a setup for disappointment.
You don’t have to mistrust good things just because bad ones happened.

You can change the lens.
You can soften the focus.
You can see with new eyes—not naïve eyes, but eyes that have made peace with the past.

Because the world doesn’t always change when you do…
But how you experience it does.
And sometimes, that’s everything.