Reframe it
I am getting ready to have a garage sale and as I was creating a mountain of items to tag and display I ran across two large antique picture frames that I had carelessly tossed in my back closet. I spend a lot of time during trainings with teachers talking about the process of reframing and why it is so important. I always talk about our innate fight-or-flight response to our environment as a safety mechanism for seeing what is wrong. Not to mention all of our dentist office training with Highlights Magazine finding 'what is wrong' with this picture. We are taught to find what is wrong- that is why we have to teach people how to find what is right/good/hopeful/optimistic etc. One skill to help do that is, reframing. Reframing is a process by which you view something in a different manner. Literally, you take a situation, a circumstance, a happening and you view it through a different frame. For instance, a fight with a spouse is no longer a fight, but an opportunity to voice each other's opinions and spend time communicating with eachother. An angry driver is no longer rude, but likely in a hurry. A parent yelling in the school office is no longer aggressive, but passionate about thier child's education. Everything can be seen with a different frame... it is about perspective. Practice it. Take your hand and create a small circle in your line of sight. Start with the circle close to one eye so that you have a small tunnel of sight and keep the other eye closed. Describe what you see- only within that circle. Now open your hand so that your circle is a bit wider- now what do you see? A bit more right? Now open your hand completely and the world comes into view. You didn't change anything but your perspective, your frame on the world. Next time you find yourself struggling with anger or sadness or negativity, try reframing the situation from a positive outlook. Put a beautiful shiny frame around it.