The Power of Changing Perspective

Posted by admin on August 30, 2009

Recently I went to a new hairdresser for a cut and colour. “Not too short”, I said, “or you’ll cut off the curl (my one remaining vanity) and not too dark, please. Just give the current colour a bit of a boost.”  Through one of those inexplicable vagaries of communication, she must have heard, “Please cut my hair very short and mannish, eliminate all curl, and then colour it so dark that I’ll look old and ill.”  So she did. I left the shop hoping that my alarming hairstyle might possibly look better in the daylight, away from fluorescent lights, but this was not to be. I owned this hair for at least another month until I could afford to do it all over again.

But I was very upset. I was mad at the hairdresser and mad at myself – I should have known that she was cutting too much off; I should have stopped her. I should ask for a colour correction; I should demand a refund. But I knew that the refund was unlikely and I was unwilling to put myself at risk of further disfigurement.

Once I realized that focussing on what was wrong with my hair was increasing my unhappiness, I knew that I needed to change the way I was thinking about the problem. I needed to change my perspective. And then fortunately, I remembered something that was helpful.

Several years ago, I saw an IMAX film which opened with a scene of St. Mark’s Square, in Venice. It was an idyllic picture of people drinking coffee in cafes bordering the square while children chased after each other with balloons, in the Venetian sunshine. The camera then pulled back to show all of Venice, then all of Italy, then Europe, coming to rest finally on our astonishing blue sphere, our galactic home, spinning in blackest space.  The camera withdrew even further to show us that this blackness sparkles with millions of galaxies, many containing over 200 billion stars. Our human imaginations can barely comprehend the vastness of this cosmos.

By contrasting the small scale of St. Mark’s Square with the magnitude of the universe, the camera offers us a whole new perspective of the troubling events of our lives. It helps us to see the adversity we all have to deal with through a wider and wiser lens. From trivial concerns (my hair), to unbearable tragedies (detailed in daily newspapers), we are called to pull back, see our situation from the eagle’s view; pull back further and see our lives from the moon’s perspective; and then pull back further still so that we can see ourselves as a part of the twinkling universe, moving in harmony with a Divine order that we cannot see but which nevertheless, is manifesting into Infinity. And while this new perspective does not change the facts of the situation, it allows us to let go of what is insignificant, and to trust that there is a rhythm, an order, and an eventual peace lying behind the current chaotic or painful situation that is overwhelming our hearts and minds.

Margaret Sarkissian, M.A. (Counseling Psychology), Certified Coach, is a skilled consultant, trainer, and business/life coach. She has worked with 200+ managers helping them address serious workplace problems and has developed and facilitated hundreds of workshops on coaching and communication skills, diversity and inclusion, building respectful workplaces, strategic planning, and appreciative living. www.ClearPerspectives.ca

Access your free copy of Overcoming Adversity with Grace at http://www.overcomersbook.com/grace

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