Perceptions and Assumptions

Is there a difference between the 2 words?

Perception is how our brain recognised the infomation that we received and we attached meaning to it based on our past experiences.

Assupmtion is to take to be the case or to be true.

So is there a clear line between the 2? I suppose having a certain perceptions will result in us assuming something.

Let me quote you an example. What are you thinking when you opens a door and you see man holding onto the knife that is still on the body of the dead woman you see in the room. The 1st impression is that, the man kills the woman. Our brain processes the information that we gathered through our senses and create a perception, i.e. in this case, the man kills the woman.

In actual fact, the man could be just pulling out the knife for the woman (although we know in first aid we shouldn't do that). And when we enter, we ASSUME that the man kills the woman. But we didn't even see that the man putting the knife into the woman's body.

As I am looking for informations that can further support my point, I saw this post by Karen Richards on Perception is Reality In the blog, it states,

Perception” is “reality” and is at the root of most conflicts.

The blogger gave a very valid example on people sending emails and I guess smses are more valid to us these days, although we still send emails as well. He/she said, when we received the emails, we will sense or "perceive" that the sender is sad or angry with us and this "perception" became reality when we react according to the perception. But on the other hand, the sender may have another "reality" that is totally different from the receiver's perception. And when the sender received the response from the person, they are frustrated and they create a new perception of the person which became their reality.

Do you think that this is so true and it is happening in your life? I guess it happens in mine.....

For e.g,
When we have this perception about, Ms A, but Ms A wasn't what we thought she was, Ms A got frustrated and thought that we have assume about her. And this caused her to create a new perception of us assuming about her.

Does it sounds familar now?

Anyway, the blogger also suggested a solution to that. He/She said,

"The key seems to be to remember this simple principle and, before “reacting”, take a step back and consider: “Is my perception truly the reality of the situation?” Then, communicate openly with the other person to get clear on what that person meant by that communication. It could be your perception was correct. On the other hand, you might find you were way off base and, simply by “checking in” with the person were able to avoid a tense conflict situation."

But often than not, it is difficult if the person already has this perception of you. More hardwork has to be done to clear all the misuderstanding based on the perceptions.

Hey! Have you just see that I've made my own perception that it will be difficult? =)
I guess that's life.... I think I should be more aware of it now. Have you?

Hope this post didn't bore you. Sometimes I just wish to look at things more objectively and try not to put in emotions on why certain things happened, there and then, we will know and see things at a clearer view.