Reflections - shifting perspectives

It’s been a beautiful, bright and still day here in Shetland. The kind of day that lifts your spirits when the darkness is falling ever earlier and you know the light will be limited for months to come. The changing of the seasons is inevitable. In many ways change can seem to be the only thing that is truly constant. Learning to embrace it, to let go of resistance is a powerful way of reducing stress.

Change can take us out of our comfort zone but it can also take us away from our own discomfort. The only way to grow is to embrace new experiences and learn from them. It’s through new experiences we gain insight to ourselves and shifts in our perspective.

Many of us still make decisions based on beliefs we formed as children, about ourselves and the world around us. Would you choose to ask the 5 or even 15 year old you for advice on a major life decision? I’m sure you wouldn’t and yet, for many of us, that’s what can be happening at a subconscious level. Have you ever been puzzled by some of the choices you’ve made and reactions you’ve had or wondered why some things seem more difficult than they should be? Many of us carry into our adult lives some self limiting beliefs we formed in our early years.

The good news is that, like most things in life, our beliefs aren’t fixed. The unhelpful ones, inherited from others and life events, can be changed. I often see clients, who once believed they couldn’t do something, come to realise that the way they were perceiving themselves and their situation wasn’t an accurate reflection of the truth. Rather it was a reality being filtered through limiting beliefs and possibly a skewed value system that no longer serves them. Through coaching and therapy, new and more helpful beliefs can be formed and values reviewed and re-prioritised. The seemingly impossible then becomes not only possible but readily achievable.

It struck me, this bright morning, as I was driving through Clumlie just how different the landscape looked. Everything was so still and the light was amazing. The loch reflected the surrounding terrain perfectly like a large free form mirror, creating an illusion from some angles that there was no water body there at all. It was beautiful, peaceful and a bit surreal. I saw it today as I’d never seen it before.

So it is with life and our belief systems. Something can shift and we can see ourselves and external situations in a new light.

A core part of my coaching work is to shed that new and different light by asking the right questions and re-framing the less helpful things we are sometimes telling ourselves.