Three Ways to Shift Perspective

My family moved to south Texas when I was three and a half. I have a vivid memory of my parents discovering Spanish moss shortly after our move. It hung in large bunches off the branches of trees. Dad saw it as a disgusting invasive nuisance on his trees. He wanted to get out the ladder and start cutting the pesky stuff off. Mom looked at it and saw beauty.  She loved the graceful way it swayed in the breeze, dangling from the branches. And she imagined what an artistic base it could be in her next floral arrangement.

Perspective.

That word has received more attention lately.  Authors have written about shifting perspectives. People have picked it for their word of the year. Changing perspective is hard. It’s easier to look at the world through my own natural lens, even if that lens is short-sighted or pessimistic or self-centered. But challenging ourselves to see a problem from a different angle opens our minds.

Here are three ways to make a shift in perspective work for you.

1)        Perspective helps you see the forest.

One of the most common shifts in perspective is to back away from a situation and look at it from a distance. We can put the problem tree in perspective and realize it is just one part of a big forest. Taking a vacation from a stressful job gives us this kind of perspective. After we recover from a major injury or illness, we have a different perspective on each good day of health.  A mantra can remind us of perspective. We adopted the phrase ‘it’s just stuff” in our family whenever someone broke or lost something. It didn’t take away the pain of the loss, but re-framed it, reminding us that life is bigger than things. Other losses can take out a whole section of our life like a ravaging forest fire.  The broken heart. The death of a loved one. The strained relationship. Perhaps time is the only way to create enough distance to put your “life after” in perspective. However you can, create some distance. One day you’ll see the beauty of the forest again.

2)        Perspective helps you walk a mile in their shoes.

I’ve found the highest barrier to good communication is sticking too hard to my point of view. I’m fond of my own opinion. I tend to think my way is the right way. So in my marriage, my first attempt at resolving disagreements is to convince him I’m right. When that doesn’t work – ok that NEVER works – then I put in the effort to see things from his perspective. My husband loves road travel. I’m a whiny car traveler. So for years when he brought up road travel, I blew him off with “when you get your next wife.” After I finally attempted to put my feet into his road warrior shoes, I realized how important it was to him. And that motivated both of us to discover some options for me to be a better road traveler. And that explains why I’m sitting on the couch in our new motorhome writing this blog post. It also explains why Dad climbed a tree once to cut down a bunch of Spanish moss for Mom’s floral arrangement.

3)          Perspective helps you grow up.

The ability to change perspective is a sign of maturity. We’ve all encountered adults stuck in a rut who just can’t see a different possibility. Perspective shifts are healthy to emotional maturity. There is no perspective change that compares to the spiritual maturity boost when we look through God’s eyes. Colossians 3:1-2 in The Message translation says:

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Ahem…. Excuse me while I un-shuffle my feet and elevate my gaze.

What is the one perspective shift you want to make this week? Will it help you see the bigger picture? Or increase your appreciation of another’s point of view? Or strengthen your spiritual eyesight?