The first thing this helps me with is anger management. I usually get mad very quick and I calm down very hard because I interpret situations and opinions through my own lens and that’s not right nor fair. Why? Simply because most of the time what I’m interpreting has nothing to do with that situation or opinion. It’s just my belief about that. Once I realized and accepted this, I started to search for alternatives at least as plausible as the one I took for real. And most of the time, I can find too many. Some of them can make me mad and some of them can make me happy, but since they all are equally plausible, I cannot choose to feel in a certain way because I know it might not be real.
Based on this, I get to the second benefit. Because I can see multiple perspectives about something, I got to a new level of knowledge. I realized I know exactly sh*t about everything and because of this, I know I can’t be right. Because I know I can’t be right, I can’t create expectations about other people’s behavior or about some situation. Having expectations prepare you to one or two scenarios and if something else happens, you’ll be caught “off guard” and you’ll get mad (mostly, because you don’t know how to react). Without expectations, I can be “prepared” for everything simply because I’m not “programming” myself to react in a certain way so I’m open to my environment.
Having multiple perspectives in my mind helps me have a better understanding about other people as well. I know that I know sh*t and because of this I cannot judge other people for the way they talk and act. I can find several reasons for that behavior and usually none has something to do with me. People behave in a certain way because they think that way is the best for them in that situation, so how can I know what’s best for them and how could I judge their behavior since they have their unique background and that background made them act in that way? I don’t know their background, therefore I don’t have enough knowledge to judge. The best I can do is to present my point of view, but it’s their decision if they want to take it into consideration or not.
Training my mind to see multiple perspectives also helps me whenever I encounter a problem because I tend to see multiple solutions. Being able to see multiple solutions keeps me in a positive mindset because I tend to see every problem as a challenge that helps me grow.
All of this started from my intention to find out what the hell is going on inside me that controls me so much. Because of this I started to ask myself questions and when I realized that no answers came, I knew that somewhere there is a problem. One question lead to another and so on until I became a pointless overthinker.
It works for me, but how do you feel about it?