<![CDATA[NINA LOCKWOOD - Seeing Things Differently]]>

If you're looking to improve the quality of your life, feel more alive and awake to what's inside you and yet to be revealed, there are a lot of benefits to expanding the range of your perceptual field.

Recently I discovered a delicious new word: pareidolia. Basically, it means to notice images "hidden" in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. For example, when we see faces in nature: in the clouds, on toast, or even, as pictured above, in the faucet of a sink.

The perception of images like faces or animals in non-animate objects is really quite fun. And who's to say that what we are seeing really isn't there in this world of multiple realities?

Once you have this experience, you start noticing peculiar things all over the place and life becomes a lot more interesting.

Something that happens to me is that I frequently hear something completely different (and much more nonsensical) from what someone has said.

Why am I talking about seeing or hearing things that aren't really there?

Because aside from the entertainment value, we become aware of all sorts of things that wouldn't normally occur to us. That, in turn, expands what we know to be possible.

That, in turn, creates new neural pathways in our brains. Always a good thing.

Creativity is stimulated when your sense perceptions reveal a different image or sound or smell than what would be expected. We see something we hadn't seen before, or we make a connection between two things that were previously not connected.

And if there's some humor to be found in this process, all the better.

Our perceptual abilities and our mental agility are intertwined. The more we "play" around with our perceptions, the more our mental picture of what's possible expands.

This is hugely important if we want to experience our lives on a deeper, more meaningful and happier level.

Here are a few "experiments" you can conduct for yourself to expand your own awareness that your creative skills are ready to employ in your next adventure.

1. **Ask the question**: What else is possible here? Look, listen, notice the details of your life. What's here that you haven't noticed before? What could you do differently?

2. **Let yourself play.** Remember that activity? Just because you're an adult doesn't mean that play is unimportant. It's actually the opposite: it's a great way to encourage your imagination and creativity.

3. **Go somewhere unfamiliar to you**. Why do people travel? Go on vacation? Take courses on subjects they've never explored before? Because you begin to see with fresh eyes. And a fresh perspective generates new thinking.

All these experiments can open you up to finding solutions, finding new skills, new interests and new ways to make your life more meaningful and rewarding.