Gaining perspective in your life is an important exercise that you must purposefully develop. By experiencing other peoples’ perspectives, speaking with older relatives and volunteering, you can start to get a more rounded view of the world in which you live.
Volunteering is unique in that it gives you a very pure opportunity to connect with people that you may never have met otherwise. You can learn about yourself through relationships you never would have forged if you hadn’t volunteered your time. “Giving back” reaps perspective.
There are countless people all over the world who are in need of assistance, and volunteering your time and energy enables you to perform a selfless act that simply helps others. Becoming a volunteer is a wonderful way to gain perspective in your own life.
When you speak to an older person about their life, ask if they would do things differently or exactly the same. Understand that right now YOU are the one living the life you will speak of when you are older. Make your actions count.
You can practice feeling life from the vantage point of someone else by reading a book or watching a movie that is told by an older person. What would they do today if they were in your shoes? Try acting as this person would if they could switch to your younger body.
Living with perspective means always looking at your life from the 10,000 foot level, and when you train yourself to pull back and view yourself from this height, things begin to look different. More often than not, they begin to look much better.
We are just people, and no matter how hard we may try to mitigate negative emotions, they persist. You can use practical tools for gaining perspective amid the tough times.
The only thing that we really have control of is our emotions when dealing with situations. Gaining perspective is a wonderful tool for sustaining a meaningful and fulfilling life.