Your freedom and happiness can swing on your ability to look at things from different perspectives.
How do you move your mind?
You’ve heard the saying, “Change your mind, change your mood.” Or “Change your mind, change your life.” But what about those arenas where you can only seem to see things one way? Or that point you want to keep arguing, the one where you are completely entrenched in your point of view?
How do you move your mind? There’s a simple answer…
Today’s wisdom comes from one of my favorite characters in fiction: Maisie Dobbs, heroine in Jacqueline Winspear’s series of historical detective novels. Read the following scene from the most recent book: In This Grave Hour.
(FYI, Maurice is the gentleman who trained Maisie to become the excellent “Investigator and Psychologist” that she is—in this book he is long dead.):
The library had not changed since Maurice was alive. […] How many hours had she spent in this room, talking to Maurice, answering his questions, listening to him urge her to heed the voice that counseled her from within? They discussed so many cases, pulling apart testimonies, passing post-mortem reports back and forth, Maurice encouraging her to look at each word, each phrase, every aspect of evidence from a different perspective. “Even this room will seem different from each corner—you must make your mind look through a new lens every time you read. And to do that, Maisie, you have to move—go to another room, step out on a walk, or drive to a place fresh to you. Move yourself, and you move your mind. Look at the evidence from different angles.”
Move your body to move your mind.
There it is, simple as can be: Fresh place, fresh perspective. Fresh activity, fresh point of view. Try it this week!
Coach’s Challenge:
This week, whatever it is you’ve been struggling with, take yourself somewhere new to consider the challenge. It can be as simple as setting up a chair in a part of your yard where you’ve never sat, or as complex as going on vacation. Try it, and please let me know the outcome! I can pretty much guarantee that if you are open to the possibility, moving your body will move your mind.
