The search for and acquisition of new ways of seeing requires that we must be, at least, curious enough to take that journey which is as much internal as it is external. Curiosity and the desire to learn one new thing tangentially rewards us with many domains of new learning. These are ‘some’ of the things we need to become good at in order to learn one thing that matters to us:
To find a new way of seeing we have to become more conscious and ask ourselves a few questions like: how do I see and what influences me? How do you see? What if I looked at “it” another way? What if I did let go of my old ways of observing, what gets in my way of seeing through a new lens and so on.
Find ways to better notice the world that surrounds us, its color, shapes, sounds, energy and feeling tone. Involve all the senses available to you discussed in the last post.
Honing your sensory acuity may inspire you to explore your inner spaces and observe the ways you relate to the outer ones. Are you really ‘seeing’ them.
Get good at asking ‘why not’ and opening to possibility. Asking why not might challenge you to take a risk or three, maybe risk admitting that you may have a bias, that your slant on something may be influenced a bit by pride, or lack of information or incorrect assumptions.
Taking that kind of risk, then, can challenge you to face your resistance to new thought. Consider the self-imposed limitations of that kind of resistance…the kind that keeps us from beginning the journey of opening up altogether and challenging ourselves to bring more awareness to the process of observation. Risk surrendering something of how you operate out there in order to gain a view point that may rock your world. To some this sounds a bit dramatic but to many changing a point of view is a struggle on so many ridiculous levels….and we know it.
Like drops of water that come close enough to touch, these steps connect, merge with one another and grow the foundation for learning, waking up, seeing new again and…in the context of this series…learning to see possibilities, to see the ordinary in extra-ordinary ways.
Here is a random and interesting perspective shared by Bucky Fuller a few years back. We use the words stand “up” and sit “down” when referring to the obvious. However, he reminded us that we are whirling around space on a sphere so we are actually standing “out” and sitting “in”. Semantics, maybe. Another perspective? Yes. A not so ordinary way of seeing. It made me laugh when I heard him. We all did. Who thinks that way? He did.
Buckminster Fuller is one of those people who shifted my world view years ago. Whack! After one seminar I never saw our world or universe in the same way. Check him out. The incredible curiosity that drove him to become who he was moved me to have a small question mark charm made that I wear on my watch….just to remind me to: Live in the question, Be curious. Ask.
Perspective is more than a geographic vantage point, more than an
intellectual place. It includes all of what determines your point of view.
Looking ‘out of who you are’ is the perspective you get and seeing the world differently may even mean changing where you stand as a human being.‘
Next post: Suspended in mid air.