What is THE truth? Do we ever know THE truth? We know OUR truth. OUR truth is how we make meaning of things, perspective. We can get upset by many things, but we can find peace in shifting our perspective. Some people’s perspective tends to have a filter of offense, justice, they are worthless, they never get it right and some that others are idiots if they don’t agree with their perspective. There are lots of ways to interpret situations.
I have the best neighbors and we visit often. One of my neighbors will see a white van sitting on our street and she immediately starts to wonder if there is a nefarious activity happening and if there is a dead body in the van. My other neighbor thinks that someone is getting repairs done on their house or think that the van is having car trouble. It is all perspective.
This is a simple exercise, but pick out a situation that trips you up. Could be a past argument, a breaking up, a missed invitation to a party.
Now, what is your perspective of that situation?
Next, think of all the possible perspectives/interpretations you can have for this situation. You probably have 3-5.
The cool thing is, if it happened in the past and it doesn’t harm anyone you can choose any of the 5 options to be what you settle on.
Growing up with my brothers we had daily interactions of sibling rivalry. The perspective of memories of my childhood affected my adulthood, until I rewrote the message. I came up with 5 different perspectives and interpretations of what was happening and the meaning to it.
Out of the 5 perspectives as an adult I chose the one that best served me today and which was probably more accurate of the truth. It is easy to believe and interpret the worst by default, so examine the options. The amazing thing is this exercise shifted so much for me socially and professionally.
Is there a perspective that leaves you less than? How can you rewrite the perspective to have peace? It is a worthwhile journaling exercise.