Why A Change In Perspective Changes You
A change in perspective allows for a more well-rounded viewpoint in almost any situation and will possibly give you a completely different way of seeing something. A new perspective on something can broaden your frame of mind and give you new ways of seeing the bigger picture.
Our initial opinions are formed most often by our personal beliefs that we’ve developed throughout our lifetimes. Often times our beliefs can be limiting us from being more open-minded and keep us from seeing new ideas or even old ideas from a different vantage point.
If you can have a change in your perspective and see something from a different viewpoint, it’s a great first step in better understanding another person’s perception of reality.
Showing others that you can be open to a different perspective will also help you help others to see your point of view and perhaps help you in adjusting their mindset and also have a change of perspective.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
“Change your perspective. Enjoy every failure as a success and every win as a loss.” ~ Debasish Mridha
Martin Ward | January 26, 2022
What Is A Change In Perspective?
The point of this post is to show how a change in perspective is a real learning opportunity for us and can empower us or even change our initial interpretation of an entire issue.
Being able to be open-minded and allow ourselves to grow as people.
As human beings, we have the mental capacity, if allow ourselves to do so, to change perspective in midstream and quickly see things in a new light allowing us to develop as more centered and mature individuals.
Through personal development, and having more of a growth-oriented mindset, we can see new things without allowing our negative self-talk or negativity bias to keep us caught in a fixed mindset and play a major part in our decision-making processes.
Having the capacity to change your perspective in this fast-paced world we live in unleashes your true potential and is a great way to build better rapport with new people and old colleagues.
Your perspective on anything is from your unique set of core beliefs. These set perspectives, often set in stone, can also be called limiting beliefs.
It’s essential to clarify the difference between core beliefs and limiting beliefs.
Not all core beliefs are limiting beliefs. Some core beliefs are sound, reasonable, and beneficial to you and everyone else.
Other beliefs can hold you back from experiencing your full potential in life. These are known as limiting beliefs.
To make a point. If you think your mother is a saint, and you treat her as such, however, she happens to be a bank robber, then you can see how treating her like a saint is limiting for you and the rest of us.
These core beliefs are developed through our life experiences or life trauma and can become very rigid and unwavering.
Limiting beliefs are generally negative and disempowering and make it hard for a person to see a different point of view or change their perspective and grow as a person.
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A Change In Fear-Based Perspectives
People’s perspectives often create fear, or they become fearful that their viewpoints are being disregarded.
A silver lining to the life experience of fear is that its existence inside of us is often related to our own limiting beliefs. However, truth and facts can easily challenge and disprove limiting beliefs, and our negative thoughts.
In his post, Fear and Anxiety Drive Conservative Political Attitudes, on the Psychology Today website Dr. Bobby Azarian Ph.D., writes,
“This is what psychologists call a “negativity bias.” If you think about it, this makes sense. When attention is biased toward the negative, the result is an overly threat-conscious appraisal of one’s surroundings.”
A perfect example of the challenge in changing one’s perspective, or limiting belief, that’s ignited many different emotions at some school board meetings across the United States, in 2021 and 2022, was the topic of critical race theory, aka CRT.
Parents are concerned about CRT being taught from grade school through high school. However, the facts will show that CRT is not found in any of their lesson plans.
CRT has become a contentious and heated debate accelerated by the belief that children will be negatively impacted by a school curriculum, including references to race relations or the history of slavery in the United States.
Some parents have even pushed back on a school curriculum that covers the history of the Holocaust during World War Two.
This discussion has even led school boards and state legislatures to start removing books from libraries having anything to do with topics on race, the history of slavery, and even gender identification.
For those contesting CRT, a change in perspective might occur by challenging and pointing out that they were not harmed by the same information being taught in their history classes in school. And that they, in fact, are better and more well-rounded people because of that education.
In an article on the Advance Local Media Website, titled; What is critical race theory? Is it really taught in schools? Answers the question for us.
“There is little to no evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it, such as the lingering consequences of slavery, have been. In Greenwich, Connecticut, some middle school students were given a “white bias” survey that parents viewed as part of the theory.”
“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.”
~ George Eliot
How Can A Change In Perspective Affect Our Daily Lives?
Having a growth mindset and acquiring the ability to quickly and easily see things in a different light or change your perspective, can calm you down and relieve stress and anxiety in others. But it does take some practice.
Finding happiness and peace of mind in our lives is quite hard with the constant barrage of negative events brought on by the huge political divide in the U.S. and disturbing news from all the different forms of social media we have today.
The information we get daily is sometimes so overwhelming and negative that simply turning it off is the only thing we can do to find some peace.
When you’re feeling triggered by a conversation, a subject, or a negotiation, stepping away or leaving the room is one of the best things you can do for yourself and everyone else. The wrong thing to do is to let arguments escalate into negative situations.
When you are angry, your ability to see something from a different angle becomes more difficult.
And you cannot reach an equitable agreement with someone when you cannot change your perspective and see their point of view. Or, as the saying goes, having the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
It happens to all of us every day, unless, of course, you live in a monastery or a cabin deep in the backwoods with no phone, no cable, and no electricity.
Of course, you can be upset with the Racoon, Rabbits, or Bears that keep getting into your food supply. But even then, you can have a change in perspective and see exactly where the animals are coming from, right?
“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into perspective.”
~ Anton Chekhov
Why It’s Essential To Have A Broader Perspective In Life?
When you learn to adjust or change your perspective, you will quickly notice that you’re not as triggered, angered, or unsettled about the subject.
Since our lives are constantly changing, a better way of moving forward is to adjust our mindsets to those changes.
Suppose we cannot modify our points of view. In that case, we might need to find that monastery or that cabin deep in the backwoods far away from civilization because we’ll be unable to exist with other people.
Just a point of fact here. In the 1950s, there were approximately 2.5 billion people on Earth. Now there is just a little under 8 billion.
We cannot live together on this planet unless we come together. If you see things from a 1950 point of view, it should be evident that you need a change in perspective.
Ellon Musk wants to go to Mars. I get it. It’s often unbearable to live here on this beautiful planet, that one day may be, in fact, uninhabitable.
It’s incredible how it can set you free when you simply change your perspective.
How Do Emotions Affect Our Perception Of Reality?
Someone else’s viewpoint or perspective on a topic can be highly emotional and contentious, and their frame of reference may not be based on facts or truth.
However, some aspects of their beliefs may have some elements of truth in them. Seeing something from another angle and changing your perspective is invaluable in recognizing these truths.
In their review article biomedical intelligence: The impact of emotion on perception, attention, memory, and decision-making, Tobias Brosch, Klaus Scherer, Didier Grandjean, and David Sander describes that “Emotion determines how we perceive our world, organize our memory, and make important decisions.”
Having the ability to change one’s perspective can be a game-changer. Allowing yourself to step back and take a different approach with how you handle your anger can truly save the day.
In the CRT controversy, though the argument is contrary to facts, the parent’s underlying emotional concern is that there could be a negative effect on their children’s well-being.
Any parent believing that CRT may harm their child somehow is undoubtedly an appropriate concern to have.
However, you cannot explain your point of view to anyone else if you too are emotionally fired up and are screaming back at them.
Next time, changing your perspective in a heated conversation or situation can become a magical tool or even a secret weapon in an argument. You can bring the volume down and then redirect the conversation and begin to talk calmly with one another.
When you can empathize with them and communicate that you see where they are coming from and envision walking in their shoes, you can open their minds and help them change their perspective.
In the case of the CRT conversations, letting opposing parents know you feel that their concern is undoubtedly a just reason for concern and an excellent place and time to move a heated discussion forward.
If you can empathize and understand another person’s perspective, you can then explain your point of view and perhaps assist them in transforming their perspective on the subject.
When your mind is trained, and you can quickly and easily see something from a different angle and then change your perspective, or in others, you become empowered.
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Conclusion
Again, the intention was not to fire anyone up about the critical race theory or CRT debate that is going on today.
However, a relevant example demonstrates why having a change in perspective can be so transformative regardless of what side or viewpoint one holds for CRT. Or any topic for that matter.
We need to find common ground to coexist on this planet. It’s the only one we have, and very few of us are making the trip to Mars with Elon Musk.
We cannot reach common ground when the truth or the facts are disregarded or distorted because of rigid, inflexible, limiting beliefs, or unfounded conspiratorial misinformation.
A change in perspective can be a catalyst for transformative experiences every day of our lives allowing us to become more aware and present-minded throughout life.
Sometimes trying to walk in someone else’s shoes and look more deeply at possibly seeing things from their perspective can put us way outside of our comfort zone.
On the bright side, individually we can each play a more important role in finding solutions to all our problems living on Earth together. if we can allow ourselves the luxury of having a change in perspective.
With the constant fast-paced change occurring all around us, it’s the only way we’ll survive.
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
~ Buddha
My Name is Marty Ward and I’m the creator and publisher of the 1-Vibrant-Life blog.
On March 8th, 1984, I sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car accident while I was driving to my day job.
At the time of the accident, I was having a fairly successful life as a musician in Chicago, which had included a recent appearance on Star Search 84′ with Ed McMahon and preparing to be included in the group’s major independent recording contract.
However, after my accident, I was unable to perform or play my instrument. I was out of work and I had lost all confidence in myself and my abilities, felt lost and with no direction.
My injury and my recovery led me down a path of self-improvement, and self-discovery which gave me my life back filled with many amazing experiences and a newfound sense of hope. Learn more about my story on the 1-vibrant-life about page.
CBTCP Certification (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Certified Practitioner) | 10-16-2021 Certification From The Academy of Modern Applied Psychology, in The Transformative Science of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT
