Reframing Your Views for Better Perspectives This Year

By Amy Dee

Snow bombarded us again, another five inches.

Steve woke up groaning about shoveling, but after clearing the driveway, he shook off the white powder saying, “What a beautiful day! It’s nice to get outside right away in the morning.”

Same driveway, same snow, same chore, so what changed? Steve’s point of view shifted. 

Your point of view depends on your framing of the situation. Reframing is a technique to create a different way of looking at a circumstance, event, or person. By moving the frame, you can change what you see and how you see it. You shift your perspective to change your perception. 

Brainstorming is a method for generating ideas to solve a problem. I use brainstorming every day to gain new insights, work through issues, and improve my creative thinking. 

During the next few days, write lots of reframes to your current thinking. Seek quantity, not quality. Write as many ideas as possible, no matter how outlandish or bizarre. Do not criticize or analyze the value of the ideas generated. 

Why so many reframes? Helpful friends would often advise me, “Instead of being afraid of flying, just remind yourself that flying is safe.” The problem is that considering the opposite doesn’t generate enough energy to create change because my fear of flying was like a well-worn mountain path, deeply embedded in my thinking.

Creating a new path means cutting through lots of weedy thinking. Brainstorming lots of reframes is like slicing repeating slicing through the weeds.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how ridiculous, keep writing. I wrote things like, “if the pilot passes out, maybe I will be a hero and land the safely land the plane” and “During bad turbulence, I might be a hero and keep everyone calm.” (You see a bit of a pattern here, right?) I promise that you will generate great thoughts along with the dumb stuff.
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Try this: Write out 15-30 Reframes. See your perspective change.

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