28 Oct Live your life with your eyes wide open
“I learned that what we see is not a universal truth. It is not objective reality. What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality that is masterfully constructed by our brain.” Isaac Lidsky
Isaac Lidsky’s fascinating new TED talk What reality are you creating for yourself? explores his experience of redefining his vision when he lost his sight. This life-changing experience is paradoxically, the key to the way Isaac views his world.
He explains in his talk that losing his sight “was a profound blessing, because blindness gave me vision.” What an amazing belief! He has the power to create his own reality because he is not hindered by what the conditioning of “sight” provides him.
As Lidsky explains the neurological process of sight, it is remarkably similar to how we now know our dendrites are created and strengthened through the thought process.
“To create the experience of sight, your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention…… what you see impacts how you feel, and the way you feel can literally change what you see”.
When we explore the brain’s malleability on our Advance courses we learn that the brain is constantly creating and revising mental maps by building and strengthening our dendrites. The connections in the brain have been proven in neurological research to be strengthened by the anticipation and by visualising an event, just as they are by actually experiencing the event in real time.
Lidsky’s explanation on our physical reality created by sight being so dependent on our conditioning, emotions and memories compared with our thought process is very significant. Think about one comparable experience – going to the Eiffel Tower. The visual image would be very different to each person depending on the weather, the time of day, if you were tired or had an argument or were on a romantic holiday. The image would be unique to each individual just as the whole thought experience is unique. If you returned, the variants in the experience would alter your thought process and physically change the brain connections.
In turn, by changing the variants in the visual experience, your sight is as adaptable in its brain connections as the thought process of the whole experience.
Isaac shows that even by losing the power of sight he can visualise an event, as his other senses are heightened to create his reality. His dendrites are strengthened by his positive thoughts, his development of committed habits for hard work and communication.
Over the years, Lidsky has been a Supreme Court clerk, co-founded an internet startup, and is now the CEO of the fastest growing construction company in central Florida.
His leadership is different because he cannot physically see people’s facial reactions or the company building plans and therefore, his team must communicate clearly any intentions, vision, issues and experiences.
Isaac gives some clear advice on living with your eyes wide open to create your own reality:
- Silence your inner negative critic which we explore in our courses and revised in a previous eshot
- See beyond your fears
- Harness your internal strength and redefine your assumptions by adopting a positive mindset. We have some great advice in this eshot
- Practise gratitude
Isaac Lidsky has a very powerful experience when creating his own reality through his vision without physical sight. Your brain is changing every moment with every thought, behaviour and experience, and you also have that power to create the reality that you want to be experiencing.
Seize your thoughts! Seize your vision! Create your reality!
To find out more about Isaac Lidsky, check his website.
His book Eyes Wide Open will be available in March 2017