Perspective.....the ability to find perspective allows you to see things as they really are.
It's that ability in any given moment to step out of yourself and have a birds eye view on a situation and assess it for what it is. Perspective allows clarity of thought and that mindfulness leads to better decisions, more creativity and greater satisfaction with life.
The greatest challengers to perspective are time and awareness.
In today's unrelenting modern lifestyles the time for perspective is seldom allocated. Secondly with our minds bombarded more than ever before with information at speeds never before experienced in human history our awareness of our feelings, of situations is challenged and ignored. We become expressions of that which we have knowledge of but not necessarily understood. And that knowledge without understanding applies to ourselves.
We all understand the problem. What's the solution? Awareness is the key. But to give awareness an opportunity to change our direction, our perspective we need to allocate the time to gaining perspective.
Our advice is simple: time block it.
1) Allocate to start 10 mins in the morning and 10 minutes at night to mindfulness. This may start as simply a quiet spot where initially you don't think of anything. So don't take your smartphone with you. Now if you can't find a quiet room at work or home, then multi task. In all seriousness this might be time spent in the lavatory or in the shower. If that's all you can grab then take the opportunity.
2) Move next to assessing your life and how you feel about it. Ask yourself how you feel about certain aspects of your life, rank it on a scale of 1 to 5 and then write about what you want in the future and how you want to feel. This is a great exercise to do as a couple. The areas you are assessing include : relationships, health, fitness, philanthropy, community involvement, friends, spirituality, hobbies, work, house and home, finances, personal space, education and personal development.
3) Identify the three most important areas for you and assess whether you are spending enough time and resources in these areas.
4) By now that 10 mins hopefully has moved to 15 now you need to start a dialogue with your self and significant others : try setting time aside and this may start as only once a week that you and your partner just talk about your world and perhaps it's just as simple as a download of the week. Take turns. Listen don't solve.
5) Start focussing on what's really important (identified in 3)
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