“Am I good enough?”
“Do I deserve to get what I want?”
“Is it too late now to say sorry??”
Beibs aside, these are probably questions you ask yourself daily, even subconsciously to gain perspective of yourself and your life…The word ‘perspective’ is used so broadly these days. We’ve dumbed down perspective to simply someone’s point of view, or opinion about a situation or object. In the name of conscious awareness, let’s open ourselves to the mathematical and artistic definitions of this word to help us more fully understand our own perspective, how changing perspectives works, and how to add a third dimension to our perspective that could enhance our entire experience.
What are perspectives?
Perspective is defined as: “the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.�? (Oxford Dictionary)
This definition of perspective like giving context, such as details that allow us to understand a certain object based on what’s around it. It also means making a judgment about that object based on what surrounds it. When we think of perspectives in terms of opinions and feelings, it’s much the same; we take into consideration the context to gain perspective. We use what’s around it (typically our story, our fears, etc) to make judgments about a situation or person.
For the purposes of understanding the power of perspective, look at life as a two-dimensional work as well. In this two-dimensional world, the dimensions aren’t simply height and width, but similarly dimensions of oppositions, on a plane. The dimensions are things like time: past and present. They can be physicality: here or not here, alive or dead. There is a right and a wrong, a good and a bad. The dimensions can be just is a thing visible or not, tangible or not. The two dimensions of perspective in life typically boil down to a scale of existence or non-existence. What adds the third dimension in art to a drawing? Depth. To get to a third dimension in life perspectives, we need to add the same facet of depth.
What does depth add to our perspective of life? It adds opinions like how important or how unimportant, how close, how far. So an object is not measured only by here or not here, but with depth could be: here but not yet. It adds a measure of scale that brings things towards us or away from us by their emotional and physical significance.
How do you change perspective?
True depth, however, comes from stepping back, back, back out of our physical realities, out of the two dimensional world our bodies reside in. Here’s a quick way to get into this perspective of depth, from Deepak Chopra’s incredible talk on awareness:
Looking at your entire life, through all the years and experiences you’ve been, who was present for all of it? You were. Not just your body; your body aged, changed. The energy of you was still there, though, unchanging. The earth turned, grade school turned to college, boyfriends came and went, your physical form evolved, but the essence of you timelessly remained behind it all. By realizing the timeless being that you are deep inside, the one that witnesses your whole life but is intangible, you become aware of the limitless energy that is truly you. You are not the childhood you, that physical shape of you is long gone. You are not the future you, that aged you has not yet come. Yet you are there through all that, and even now. Stepping into that being, that part of you that’s been there through it all and yet has not been affected by the physical world, what’s around you? Awareness, and endless possibility.
That is a you free of your stories about your past, free of your circumstances in your reality. It’s unaffected by the wounds of this physical world. It has no scars, it has no hurts. It simply is. If you want to dive deeper into realizing this part of yourself, watch this complete video by Chopra to help you widen your perspective on your reality.
What does this new perspective look like?
This
is only one area in which we can add true depth, and thus true perspectives
into your life. Without the restraints of a two-dimensional existence: good or
bad, here or not here, past and present; life can take on new meanings that are
infinite in depth. There is no longer one perspective that can be judged as
right or wrong. You can see things from every angle. You can start to treat
others as their limitless self bound by their two-dimensional beliefs and
experiences, and you can forgive your enemies for acting from their limited
perspective, and feel sympathy that they deny themselves this beautiful view.
You can have peace even amidst physical struggle. You can view your own life
with the kind of depth and understanding that allows you to see miracles at
work, to love everything and everyone, to respect circumstances as just that,
only circumstances of a two-dimensional reality, and to see the divine powers
of the universe at work through absolutely everything in life. Most importantly
you can see how you can bring about your limitless self, your endless love and
peace and acceptance, into every single moment and every single action
throughout your entire life.
The dimension of depth changes everything.
At any moment, you have the power to stop, look around, and assess where your perspective is coming from. Is it coming from a two-dimensional world where things are bound by judgments of good or bad, real or not real, valid or not? Is it on the linear plane of this physical world from past to present to future? And can you step back, add depth, reach into your infinite self that expands beyond your physical experience, and gain a new perspective that can include endless love, peace, and awareness?
Your perspective is so incredibly powerful if you allow yourself to access it. A perspective that acts not from the fearful you, from the past you that was hurt allows you to love more, reach higher, and respect yourself more. Don’t deny yourself a life in which you truly love and appreciate your own spirit.
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