One of the hardest things to do as individuals is maintain a level of content, happiness, and positive outlook for a period of time. Now, there are ups and downs in everyone’s life. There are bad beats and bad luck, and good fortunes and good luck. Things change, life changes, and there are a lot of things that are out of our control. It is one of the things that is extremely difficult to do, yet so practical and useful for that sustainment of being content. Want to feel good? How about taking a dose of seeing other perspectives.
Our brain is structured for efficiency and to seek out the easiest mental processes. Due to evolution, our brains and our bodies have evolved to take the less strenuous route, mentally and physically. This is to save calories to survive. It’s a physiological process. This has been talked about by many different esteemed psychologists (Kahneman, Tversky, and more), behavioral specialists, organizational leadership, and management specialists. Therefore, understanding how our brains work in this way is critical to sustaining joy, and being content. It takes some extra effort to use the part of our brain, which analyses perspective and looking things at another angle. It is pretty much impossible to do that when we are reacting, caught up in the moment, and using that reactionary part of the brain built for efficient scenarios and outcomes.
Having perspective, and working towards obtaining it, is key. The first way, in my opinion, to learn how to look at things from another perspective is developing the part of the brain that requires more effort to pause, think, and analyze. That takes some study, practice, and understanding of oneself. Once utilizing that part of the brain is developed, and there is an understanding of our physiological makeup, then it is easier to seek out differing perspectives.
Now, those tactics to get to pausing, thinking, analyzing: Taking a walk in the woods, being out in nature, slowing things down, doing some meditation, breathing, exercising in the gym, spending time doing a hobby, spending time with your kids. Whatever can help you get out of the mood of reaction, and succumbing to our natural mental processes (super efficiency, less effort possible), will assist in allowing one to see things from a different perspective. Those tactics help lead to higher level thinking processes to see other perspectives.
Now, the tactics for seeing things from a different perspective. I want you to imagine yourself as somebody else for a moment. Imagine yourself as rich, imagine yourself as poor, imagine yourself as a coach, imagine yourself as a laborer, imagine yourself as a dog trainer, imagine yourself as a single mom or dad of five kids, imagine yourself as a kid, imagine yourself as a senior citizen, imagine yourself as someone with a physical ailment. When you look at current situation you are facing from those perspectives, you may realize it is not so much of a problem after all. Other people could be in much dire scenarios based on those outlooks. Granted, the situation you are in may be important to you at that time, but in the grand scheme may not be that big of a deal.
I will leave with you with a story. My father was a Vietnam veteran, a combat Marine, and suffered some wartime injuries that led to being awarded a Purple Heart. After the conflicts in Vietnam (and any war), a lot of people had physical and mental ailments like post-traumatic stress from the experience. My Father likely did too. However, what he said to me as a kid was, “When I was flying home on that helicopter from Vietnam, I told myself, I’m not going to let the small things bother me in life. I just went through the worst and will always keep that in my thoughts as I live my life”. Seeing my Dad throughout my childhood teenage years, and present day, I saw how he was very laid back on some scenarios, where those same ones probably would have been troubling for others. Now I realize why. He had another perspective from personal experience to compare to. Everyone has tough times, and if they say they don’t, they are lying. If one takes a dose of perspective, and works to see a scenario through another lens, tough times are likely going to be a little easier to get through.
Stay well my friends, and keep in mind the tactics mentioned above.