Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life

It’s not what you’re looking at but rather from where you’re looking; perspective plays a powerful role in how you experience life. What do you see when you look?

- Marie Rowland

Controversial but highly influential 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously said, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” And while he quipped this more than a century ago, the observation is as relevant as ever today. For any one issue there’s a multitude of viewpoints, so who’s to say what’s right or wrong? It’s all a matter of perspective.

Perspective is subjective because it’s predicated on human judgment, values and experience. But what if your perspective is holding you back? What if changing yo ur point of view could, in fact, positively change your life? By swapping the lens in which you view life you may alter its very course. After all, as the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Not a bad perspective.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

American writer Edmund Wilson said no two people read the same book. Each individual will take something unique from that experience — even if it’s different from what the author may have intended. No two minds or hearts are the same and the lived experience is entirely exclusive, which can never be duplicated.

Have you noticed when viewing an artwork your interpretation might be the opposite of that of your partner or best friend with whom you have so much in common? Why is that? How can two people look at the same object or vista and see something entirely different? From the moment you are born you are conditioned to think a certain way and unbeknown to you, you are moulded by your family culture and experiences, both good and bad, which affect how you view life.