Shift Your Life & Perspective with One Simple Exercise

Have you ever noticed that you can just sort of float through life without really noticing what’s going on around you? Think about your day for a moment. You get up, stumble into the bathroom, get dressed, head out, drink some coffee, start your day, get through your day, eat some lunch, drink some coffee, come home, eat some dinner, drink some more coffee (ok, maybe I just drink this much coffee), do whatever it is you do in the evening and go back to bed to start all over again. We all get into this rhythm of life but we’re so asleep while we’re living we miss most of what’s going on around us.

Here’s a little exercise you can try to see every day things in a new light. Let’s take a tree as an example, A long time ago, someone decided that this large thing in front of us with a trunk and leaves should be called a tree. Ever since then, we have all walked around like little robots acknowledging in our periphery: Tree. Tree. Tree. Another Tree. Tree. Big Tree. Small tree. Dead Tree. Pretty Tree. Green Tree. Blah blah blah.

Now imagine that you have never seen a tree before. Imagine that you are just seeing this amazing thing for the first time and you have no idea what it is and you have no idea what it’s named. In fact, maybe it doesn’t even need a name. Maybe it just is. Really take some time to look at it. Look at how the sun filters through the leaves. Listen to how the wind blows through the branches. Look at the birds and bugs that use it’s trunk and branches for food, for support, for protection. Step back and really notice this thing that you previously have just skimmed over as tree.

Sort of makes you look at life a little differently doesn’t it? Once in awhile, try this little exercise with different items that you see and encounter in your every day life. Decide to notice it for the first time. Forget what you think you know about it including it’s name. Open your eyes to what is really before you. It’s a small but powerful way to shift your perspective which inevitably, shifts who you are just a little bit and that’s a good thing.

You try it now. Look at something around you. See if differently. Notice it. Describe it. Really really notice it. How did it shift your perspective? What did it make you think? Share with me and others to help teens live happy!