Perspectives: They Make All The Difference

Today I want to speak to you about the idea of ‘perspective.’ How often have you had an argument with someone because you were unable to understand their perspective?

How many times have you gotten upset because you took the perspective that you were being victimized, when in fact it was merely the circumstances that needed to be contended with on the other side?

How many times have you failed to truly listen to another person, because you knew that you were absolutely correct and there was no way to budge you on the subject…and then there was some new research that came out to demonstrate that what you thought was true, no longer is thought to be true?

Or how about the ‘group think’ vs being able to use your own knowledge and critical thinking skills to come up with a whole other way of understanding the subject at hand?

One of the most important things that I learned how to do in my training in Time Line Therapy (R) was to take different perspectives as I run through the process. Each position gives a different perspective. So we begin the process going a little before the event even happened, to recall the event — from there we are dissociated from any of the feelings that would be there. Then we go above the event looking down on it so we can get our positive learnings (learnings that allow us to feel better for having learned them) so we can transform a negative event into a positive event. Then we go into the past to get a new response to that event, and lastly, we go into the future to a time when the event could happen again and get a new response there. Sometimes the past and future responses are the same, and sometimes they are different. It doesn’t matter so long as we know how to better handle a similar event in the future. Each position is from a different perspective and each perspective gives us a bit more knowledge on how to let go of that which no longer serves us and make it something that does serve us.

So as we go through life, it becomes clear that we can indeed open our minds to those things that others may feel strongly about, and perhaps we can even get to the point where we may agree with that other perspective. But, we certainly cannot get there if we are unwilling to listen and unwilling to learn, can we?

Perspectives: They make all the difference in the world! And, they can make your life a hell of a lot more simple and easy if you allow yourself to open your mind to new and different perspectives from your own. You don’t have to agree, however, you may be shocked at how often you will once you take on a different perspective.