Thursday, October 23, 2014

It's All About Perspective

"An amazing thing happens when you [are] honest with yourself and start doing what you love, what makes you happy. Your life literally slows down. You stop wishing for the weekend. You stop merely looking forward to special events. You begin to live in each moment and you start feeling like a human being. You just ride the wave that is life with this feeling of contentment and joy. You move fluidly, steadily, calm and grateful. A veil is lifted and a whole new perspective is born." - Unknown

Perspective. It's how you see the world. It changes as you grow and learn and develop new skills. It's how you interact with others; how you react to situations. It's distancing yourself to see things clearly. It depends not only on what you look at, but also on where you look from.

I have some amazing people surrounding me up here in Cedar. I'm talking major spiritual giants. Three of them are my roommates. I really lucked out with these three beautiful girls. One of my roommates, Heather, is a Psychology major just as I am. Lets just say, we have some pretty cool conversations.
The other day, Heather and I were the only two home (Kira and Stephanie hadn't yet come home from fall break). We went to FHE together and after, we went on a nice walk around campus. Our conversation started with our amazement towards nature, continued onto church callings, and somehow went to the subject of perspectives. As psychology majors, we talked about the different ways we analyze situations and people. We spoke of feelings and how we look at the world. As most of our conversations do, we ended up talking about the gospel and our faith.
From the words of Hannah Montana, "Nobody's perfect." LDS members have, for some reason, been held to higher expectations then any other religion lately. Society expects us to be "perfect" and wouldn't we love to be! But that is so unrealistic. We do try to be as "perfect" as we possibly can. We as members strive everyday to "be like Jesus" but most days we fall short and THAT is realistic. I do, however, think that we should never use that as an excuse to stop trying.
We are often called hypocrites for failing to be perfect. Some people are very diligent about saying their prayers, reading their scriptures, and paying tithing but might struggle with attending church every Sunday. Should we really judge them for not being perfect? I guess that is your choice. But those members might find a different perspective about what is "sinning" and what is not. That's the thing about the gospel: You can fully use your agency.
Perspective can also be looked at in a more logical way. Human bodies are amazing. Each one of us was born with a brain that processes concepts so differently. I found a quote today in the lovely world of Pinterest by Edmund Wilson that says, "No two persons ever read the same book." Those few words are so deep. Sometimes I think that we figure that everyone thinks the same as we do. In truth, no one quite thinks exactly the same as we do.

I react to others very subjectively. I change the way I talk and see things depending on who they are. It's not that I change my views or lower my standards, but I try to see the other person's perspective. I learn a lot by doing this and it helps me meet their needs. I see the world in terms of feelings and actions. I find hope, humility, compassion, respect, and consideration to be charming and kind.
 But that's just my perspective.

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

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