how changing the way we look at things changes the things we look at

The Way We Look at Things

Perspective is everything. What’s yours? Think of something that’s causing you stress. Something that happens regularly. Bad drivers. A co-worker. A family member. What do you think of them in that situation? Be totally honest. It’s ok.

Me and the Chair

I’m asking because I was annoyed at a chair the other day. Yes, a chair. It happened to be occupied by my husband. He was doing something at the computer and I had to squeeze behind him and between his chair and another one each time I passed through the kitchen. (We’ve got a spacious apartment in Vancouver, but that’s spacious by Vancouver standards.) And each time I squeezed through I got more and more annoyed. At the chair he was sitting in. It was very rational of me. It was also very limiting. And victim-inducing. And impotent rage-fueling. The damn chair. Why was it in my way? You can see the path I was going down.

Feeling Our Way to Freedom

Finally, I noticed what I was feeling. Tension and shortness of breath. Squinched up between my eyebrows. Angry. Frustrated. So, that was fun. I didn’t want to feel that way. What could I do about it? A lot. It’s kind of magic how this process works. Self-awareness is freeing. It’s liberating. It’s powerful. I had totally missed something important. Something vital. The other chair. The one my husband wasn’t sitting in. The one nobody was sitting in. It could be moved.

What I had Missed

Honestly, it’s incredible to think this hadn’t occurred to me before. Incredible to think that I had completely missed seeing this. I bet you’re nodding your head. I bet you’ve been here before, too.

When we’re certain something external is the problem, we miss seeing the solution.

And when we realize we’re part of creating the situation, all of a sudden we have the power to change it.

We go from stuck to free.

Shackled to liberated. Inching our way around blocks that get in our way, to clearing them right out our path. I moved the other chair. My stress disappeared. So did my tension and discomfort. So did my resentment. Phew. I cleared the path. I was free. (And my husband was undeniably more relaxed, too.)

Perspective is everything.

When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. Our life changes. It gets better.

TODAY

Notice when you feel stressed. Anger and frustration are two key related emotions. So is fear. Ask yourself three questions: 1. How am I viewing the other people or things involved? 2. Is this perspective in recognition of my own role in the situation or does it put all the responsibility into someone else’s hands? 3. If I were to step back out of the stress-based feeling-state, what might I see differently? Removing blocks. Flowing into freedom. Liberating your life.

Today’s Tweetable | facebook post

@lindsey_lewis: And when we realize we’re part of creating the situation, all of a sudden we have the power to change it. #libreliving #365dayshappy Thinking of you, xL