"We live our entire lives
through our perspective."
-- Albert K. Strong
Okay, be honest now. How many times have you been is a situation where you cannot seem to find something, and in your mind you are accusing others of doing something with it, or maybe stealing it? That's a great example of "what's wrong with this picture?" Something is wrong, or something is missing, and the first inclination is to blame. It couldn't have been misfiled, misplaced, done wrong by us. . . it has to be something else.
Being honest myself, I have to admit that this used to be the typical scenario in my head. Sad, but true. And, it still happens like that once in a while, but I've learned to let go of blaming for the most part, and just relax and I'll remember where it is sometime soon.
I was looking at a CTS Daily Inspiration post from 10-28-14, where I talked about learning from Tony Robbins and his Awaken the Giant Within book about what he called, The Problem Solving Questions. In that post I focused on question number one: "What is great about this problem?" What I love about these questions, and especially the first one is how it flips our learned thoughts and behavior completely around. Instead of what is wrong or what is bad, he asks us to look at what is great about this problem. I took that and asked it in a simpler way, and from a larger perspective, what is good about bad?
It seems true that many of us have this tendency to see the bad, or what is wrong, and to lament about it, and even expand the size of that ill. Things then easily go from problem to crisis, from inconvenience to disability. But, if we learn to ask some of these freeing questions that can shift our perspective, we have a whole new opportunity to change our world within immediately.
We may also be so trained in our negative perspective, that it clouds over us so that we cannot see anything else--at least for the moment. But, asking some good questions can help the sun shine through again. The result is what Tony Robbins calls changing your state. It isn't about physical geography, but mental geography. Happiness is a state, and so is unhappiness. You could express any and all of our emotions, whatever their name, as a state, or that place that we are in. And all of it is learned. All. Why not learn a way that feels better? What is great about this problem is an excellent start.
Whatever the state we are in, or what is going on in and around us, we each have the power of perspective, and that perspective controls the event. Because we have this power; albeit, we may not be consciously aware of that individual power, we can learn to see it consciously and to use it to our benefit and the benefit of those around us.
Here's a good plan on how to do this. First, look at the situation, or problem, and admit that it is there but from the perspective of it not being attached to us. I see this problem here. I recognize that I am not feeling good right now. This problem seems to be causing this. Second, after accepting the situation for what it seems to be, ask question one: What is good about this situation or problem? If the clouds are so dark as to not see the sun, ask it a different way: If there could be something good about this, what might it be?
Tony also has what he calls The Morning Power Questions. There are seven, and they can be so helpful to change our mental geography:
1. What am I happy about in my life now?
2. What am I excited about in my life now?
3. What am I proud about in my life now?
4. What am I grateful about in my life now?
5. What am I enjoying most in my life right now?
6. What am I committed to in my life right now?
7. Who do I love? Who loves me?
I highly recommend this book that I have brought up many times. There is an entire chapter titled, Questions Are The Answer. They do seem to be that, or state changers if nothing else.
Questions Are The Best Cleaning Solution For Our Revitalized Perspective.
Spread Some Joy Today--Absolutely. Joy is a perspective.
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