TLC Application 06|29|2011 “Getting A Broader Perspective”

Have you ever noticed how quickly your whole world can shrink to the size of your current problem? One financial worry, one difficult relationship, one piece of bad news — and suddenly that one thing fills your entire field of vision. Everything becomes irritating. Everyone seems to be in the way. The world feels suffocating and small. When that happens, you have not lost your circumstances. You have lost your perspective. And perspective, it turns out, is something you can deliberately get back.

How the World Gets Small

Sometimes we get caught up in our own little world, and the world gets so small. Especially when we get into our problems and cannot see any solution. We are just engulfed in our problems. We are overwhelmed with stress, walking with anxiety, shaking inside, not knowing what to do — and the world just gets smaller and smaller. All of a sudden we find ourselves irritated by everything and everybody.

What has happened is that we have lost perspective. The good news is that perspective is not gone — it is just buried under the weight of self-focus. And there are specific, practical ways to recover it.

Widening the Hoop

To get a new perspective, we widen the hoop. We think beyond our immediate situation. Consider this: if you live in America and you were born here, think about the amenities you have — a vehicle, food and shelter, a home, good clothes. People in parts of the world spend their entire day looking for a meal, perhaps missing one every day, seven days a week. We sometimes complain about going to work, about not being paid enough — while there are people begging for the money to buy food, without clothes, without shoes.

We need to get perspective. It is not about being imbalanced; it is about creating balance. It is not about feeling self-righteous.

When we get caught up in our own little world, it is about finding a way to breathe a little bit. And to remember that everyone struggles. Our basic troubles are the same as everyone else’s. It is such an important principle to remember when you are feeling the anguish of life. When you feel that anxiety and you have gotten caught up in your emotions, and the world is just getting tight and it is hard to breathe, you have to recognize: you have lost perspective. And it is very easy to get it back.

The Cosmic Scale

Widen the hoop further. Think about what other people are doing. And then widen it even further: imagine your planet from space. This planet has been unfolding for five billion years. In the essence of time, what are our problems about based on the unfolding of this planet at five billion years? They mean nothing in that scale. Widen that hoop. People struggle every day. Smile and laugh. This is the life you have — do not wait for tomorrow.

Laugh today. Get perspective. Make it a point to see how other people feel, the struggles they go through. Be empathetic.

A Practice: Ask God to Show You

There are people living a comfortable life who do not stress out. Remember that too — because you have to see everything. There are people living better than us and worse than us. We are trying to get balance.

Widen the hoop. Consider asking God to show you that you have lost perspective — and let God know that you want to see the things that will uplift you. When we make that request honestly, the shift in perspective often comes quickly. A news story, a conversation, a moment in nature — something arrives that resets the scale. And when it does, we breathe again.