Change your perspective and tackle the season

by Theresa Birmingham

The holidays are over. January is past. All your pesky resolutions are either in play or in the gutter. So, how has your perspective changed? Now that you have some perspective on the new year, is it shaping up to be different than previous years? Or have you found yourself in the rut of bad habits you struggle in shedding? This month we will discuss how when you change your perspective you can change your life.

As we move into the short but cold month of February, The Daily Key will be examining how Perspective can open new pathways of healing, help us survive the winter, and better love yourself. We’ll also be looking at everything from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) to reexamining our perspective on triggers.

Change your perspective and boost relationships, career and personal growth

For many, seasonal depression is very real, and perspective is often necessary when it comes to this dark season. Simply changing your perspective or mindset can improve relationships, give your career focus and boost your energy. Taking that much-needed step back to practice self-care or to understand where your emotions are coming from can make all the difference.

PERSPECTIVE offers an understanding of why others do what they do, and can also offer an opportunity to not take things personally, and/or to practice tolerance and compassion. Tolerance and compassion absolutely play a role in perspective. For example, seeing through a child’s eyes offers the parent a chance to understand different facets of their child’s experience.

In order to gain perspective, you may just need to zoom out to view your situation in the bigger context. While in the process of stepping back, you must also learn to not discount your own thoughts and feelings. This can be a hard practice to maintain.

How our perspective colors our world

What does it mean when someone asks you to shift your perspective? Are they really asking you to accept their point of view over your own experience? Can perspective be used as a means of persuasion?  

It is said that criminal and civil investigative witnesses are often unreliable. This is because individuals have their own histories, and even physical issues such as eyesight problems can affect what these witnesses expect to see. Like the Rorschach Inkblot test, an individual may assume their perspective is the truth. However, as this popular psychological test shows, a blot of ink can become so many things in the eye of the beholder.

As a human, your brain is hard-wired to perform at top efficiency. Because of what is termed heuristics (a psychological term for your brain’s ability to find the path of least resistance), you understand much of life in labels. Dog. Cat. Yes. No. This is not a bad function in terms of evolution and survival. In fact, these boxes and labels are what have helped you to survive and also to learn.

But because of this evolutionary quirk, you might miss the most important details. You may even struggle with understanding another’s viewpoint—because picking sides or having things a certain way, your way, seems more important. This is a large mechanism of what creates our protective shell—or the ego. The Daily Key we will that this discussion of perspective further next month when we explore how the ego affects how we perceive and navigate the world.

In this issue

In this month’s issue, our writers will discuss how a fresh perspective can open new pathways to healing, help you survive the winter, and better love yourself. Our articles will encourage you to take a step back and practice the process of gaining a new perspective.

Perspective is a double-edged sword of practicing visualization in the midst of strong emotions while also strengthening our minds against being too closed off to experiencing an outside view.

Whether seeking perspective on love, tackling new tasks, or understanding how you see yourself in others, we hope to offer new insight into opportunities for growth.

You can change your perspective, and in the process change your life.