Photo from flickr user marla2k6

So i got thinking about perspective. It´s interesting how a change of scenery can alter perspective in more ways than one. Seeing things through fresh eyes can bring solutions to quandaries or produce new ideas and synchronicities. I tend to become super inspired by travel. Experiencing the new. Always seeking adventure. Also the process of flying to a new unknown land requires a great deal of surrender and presents the ideas about perspective in interesting ways. It´s an illusion to believe this can only come by removing oneself from familiar local geography and launching into the great unknown.

Of course such extreme physical displacement will no doubt call for reaction and assessment, but we are just as capable of being able to experience this feeling of newness at any moment in our life. For example, taking a different route to work/school, looking up above the base level buildings you pass every day to admire new intricate details, stopping to sit on a bench for a minute or two to just observe a part of your world often neglected…and these are just physical perspectives.

Perhaps i could have taken a different view on Monday morning instead of groaning (again) at the snow/slush (…again) when looking out of the window. Instead, I could have been grateful for being alive and healthy enough to experience another wonderful day in this beautiful city, and instead use the cold as an excuse to get feisty and warm in class (where those Monday morning yogis kicked it big style!) or perhaps appreciated each intricate snow/slush flake that fell on my head as a work of awe-inspiring magnificence.

Perhaps we are stuck in a mindset of how we want something to be, but somehow despite our best efforts, it doesn´t come to pass…We might experience disappointment and sadness or perhaps even anger and injustice. We can use an alternative perspective to seek the good from every situation, trusting that behind every outcome, all is perfect and with reason.

I´ve been asking the super yoginis to experiment with perspective whilst practicing asanas in class. Something as simple as lifting toes in standing sequences for example,  can in turn causes a chain reaction of possibilities we might not have considered before. This principle can easily be adapted off the mat; perhaps learn to cook that meal you have lusted after…or take that dance class you´ve yearned for, or perhaps smile at that stranger you pass every day but haven´t mustered the courage to connect.

What can you do today to change your perspective?