Recognize that your perception of the world is a unique, subjective construction, not an objective truth. This understanding fosters humility, empathy, and better communication by acknowledging that others experience reality differently.
When interacting with others, especially loved ones, try to approach them as if it’s the very first time you’ve met. This helps strip away preconceptions and past conditionings, leading to a fresh and potentially more harmonious experience.
Use practices like meditation and mindfulness to create a psychological distance from your thoughts, emotions, and perceptions. This helps you recognize them as transient constructions rather than fixed realities, which can be valuable for mental well-being.
Actively pay attention to your internal bodily states, such as breath, heart rate, and physical sensations. This practice, known as interoception, helps you understand that emotions are the brain’s interpretation of bodily changes, which can help dissolve their negativity.
Understand that your ‘self’ is not a fixed essence but a dynamic set of perceptions and predictions, a creative act of your brain. This perspective can be empowering, especially when feeling stuck, as it highlights the potential for change and growth.
During challenging times, such as grief, engage in rituals. Rituals provide a structured framework, give you specific actions to perform, and foster a sense of social participation, offering comfort and reducing overthinking.
Be aware that your brain is a predictive organ, often making assumptions based on past experiences and evolving for safety, not always harmony. Actively notice and challenge these habits when they might be working against your current goals or relationships.
Consider consciousness and the self as processes rather than fixed entities. This perspective can help in coming to terms with death, as it frames it as a natural end to a process, similar to the oblivion before birth, offering reassurance against fear.
Strive to align your personal beliefs with scientific understanding. Anil suggests that understanding more about how things are will, in the long run, always enable a better life and improved coping with adversity.
Engage in a ‘walking meditation’ by occasionally pausing to reflect on the nature of your perceptions. For example, consider where the colors you see truly exist (in the interaction between world and brain), introducing a useful gap between how things seem and how they are.
Wearing minimalist or ‘barefoot’ shoes can naturally enhance mindfulness during walks. By allowing you to feel the ground more directly, it encourages greater attention to your foot’s interaction with the environment.
Visit anilseth.com to participate in the Perception Census. This allows you to explore individual differences in how people perceive the world and learn about your own unique perceptual style, while contributing to scientific research.