30 Aug A change in perspective
Earlier this year I purchased a book, one that I’ve been wanting to read for a while. And because I purchased it from overseas, I had to wait for it, so when it eventually arrived I was super excited to get stuck into it. When I started reading the book, I didn’t really take into account how busy my mind was at the time. Imagine my brain like a computer that had too many tabs open, I had a lot going on!
I remember that there was this great excitement when I opened the book for the first time but as I started reading, I became irate very quickly because it felt to me that there was nothing new in the book that caught my attention. Now granted, I read a lot about curiosity, so I look for a different perspective or an insight packaged in a different way, and I just couldn’t seem to find it in the book. About halfway through I just closed the book and put it down because I wasn’t feeling stimulated mentally by what I was reading.
I was feeling a combination of irritation and disappointment because I had such high hopes for this bright and beautiful book, so back on the bookshelf it went in the hopes I would read it when I was in the right frame of mind.
Fast forward to last week, I had finally gotten some good sleep and rest, allowing me some time to pick up the book again. And literally on page one, there was an opening paragraph with a completely different take on curiosity. I thought to myself, “what happened? The content of the book hasn’t changed, so how could I have missed it?”. Then I realised that my state of mind was different because I was rested and relaxed, so my mind could be present and absorb the content of the book.
I think what happened before was that my mind was so rushed and distracted that I couldn’t really focus on what I was reading and when that happened, I formed this perception of the book and it was completely inaccurate. And that got me thinking about how much we miss when we’re not super present or we’re fatigued and there’s just so much on our plates.
By putting away distractions ( including my phone) and seeing to my needs, I was able to embrace this book with new insight and joy because my mind wasn’t clouded by all the things I needed to do and millions of thoughts. When you focus on filling your cup first, you’re able to approach new and old things with a fresher, calmer and clearer perspective than you might have if you were tired, frustrated and distracted.
We’d love to hear how you limit your distractions or perhaps what things could you relook at with a new perspective.
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