6 Ways To See Your Life With New Eyes
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
If four people witness a car accident, each on different corners of an intersection, and the police interview them afterwards, they're most likely going to get four different stories.
Same accident -- four different reports.
If life really is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it, then it means that our reactions to situations, people, and things are all based on our personal perspectives -- whichever corner of the intersection we happen to be on at the time.
When we find ourselves in major life circumstances where we feel powerless -- when stress, pain, and frustration have a stranglehold on us -- my first advice is to do something that helps see their situation from a different vantage point. It can make a world of difference.
Here are six ways to see your life with new eyes:
1. Organize something. I don't care if it's your closet, your office, or the drawers in your kitchen. Clearing out the old and restructuring what's left over has a significant effect on how we see our capabilities. One successful organization project can lead to many more, as you build increasing evidence that you have the ability to really transform something.
2. Change your lenses. If you know you're the kind of person who looks at your life through gray-colored glasses, then make a concerted effort to list the people, situations, and things for which you are grateful each day. The grass grows where it's watered, so if you're paying more attention to positive things, those things will automatically pop out for you more frequently.
3. Get a new look. Physical makeovers do more than just make you look better. It also gives you a shift in confidence and the way you carry yourself. Take on a new hair cut or color, buy clothes you wouldn't normally wear, get a spray tan, or hell...go big and get a little plastic surgery! The point is, you and others will respond to the new look differently and as a result, your life will naturally feel newer.
4. Revitalize your relationships with friends and family. If you feel like any of your relationships have gotten stale or even sour, see if you can approach them differently. Talk with them and work out any differences. Suggest engaging in a completely new activity together. Or change the dynamic by doing something for them you've never done before. Anything that breathes new life into your relationships will give you a positive outlook and added support.
5. Embrace physical wellness. If you haven't already done so, start taking better care of your body -- whether it means joining a gym, trying a new sport, doing yoga, or changing your diet. Choose something that you enjoy and can stay committed to, then reap the benefits of your body's new energy. Improving our physical health can easily help us see our lives from a new perspective.
6. Create a new home. Our outer space is a reflection of our inner one. So if you're feeling stuck, depressed or anxious, it can help if you change your environment in some way. If you're able, pack up and move. But if you can't, then redecorating your current space can also be restorative. I know many women who've either moved into a new place or radically changed their current home, after going through a breakup or divorce, and all of them said that it helped them see old belongings in new ways.
In Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love, she wrote that her favorite Italian word was attraversiamo, which means "Let's cross over." It's symbolic in many ways, but I use it here to symbolize the effort we sometimes need to make to see the same situation from a new angle -- or with new eyes. It's the power we DO have when we otherwise feel like we have no control.
So if one car accident can reap four different reports, don't limit your life circumstance to only ONE interpretation -- cross the street.
--Proust
Same accident -- four different reports.
If life really is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it, then it means that our reactions to situations, people, and things are all based on our personal perspectives -- whichever corner of the intersection we happen to be on at the time.
When we find ourselves in major life circumstances where we feel powerless -- when stress, pain, and frustration have a stranglehold on us -- my first advice is to do something that helps see their situation from a different vantage point. It can make a world of difference.
Here are six ways to see your life with new eyes:
1. Organize something. I don't care if it's your closet, your office, or the drawers in your kitchen. Clearing out the old and restructuring what's left over has a significant effect on how we see our capabilities. One successful organization project can lead to many more, as you build increasing evidence that you have the ability to really transform something.
2. Change your lenses. If you know you're the kind of person who looks at your life through gray-colored glasses, then make a concerted effort to list the people, situations, and things for which you are grateful each day. The grass grows where it's watered, so if you're paying more attention to positive things, those things will automatically pop out for you more frequently.
3. Get a new look. Physical makeovers do more than just make you look better. It also gives you a shift in confidence and the way you carry yourself. Take on a new hair cut or color, buy clothes you wouldn't normally wear, get a spray tan, or hell...go big and get a little plastic surgery! The point is, you and others will respond to the new look differently and as a result, your life will naturally feel newer.
4. Revitalize your relationships with friends and family. If you feel like any of your relationships have gotten stale or even sour, see if you can approach them differently. Talk with them and work out any differences. Suggest engaging in a completely new activity together. Or change the dynamic by doing something for them you've never done before. Anything that breathes new life into your relationships will give you a positive outlook and added support.
5. Embrace physical wellness. If you haven't already done so, start taking better care of your body -- whether it means joining a gym, trying a new sport, doing yoga, or changing your diet. Choose something that you enjoy and can stay committed to, then reap the benefits of your body's new energy. Improving our physical health can easily help us see our lives from a new perspective.
6. Create a new home. Our outer space is a reflection of our inner one. So if you're feeling stuck, depressed or anxious, it can help if you change your environment in some way. If you're able, pack up and move. But if you can't, then redecorating your current space can also be restorative. I know many women who've either moved into a new place or radically changed their current home, after going through a breakup or divorce, and all of them said that it helped them see old belongings in new ways.
In Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love, she wrote that her favorite Italian word was attraversiamo, which means "Let's cross over." It's symbolic in many ways, but I use it here to symbolize the effort we sometimes need to make to see the same situation from a new angle -- or with new eyes. It's the power we DO have when we otherwise feel like we have no control.
So if one car accident can reap four different reports, don't limit your life circumstance to only ONE interpretation -- cross the street.
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