Frame of Reference
Experience is one of the key features of our personal lens.
Remember, the personal lens is the way in which we view our world, our circumstances, our current experiences. We look through this lens as a means of interpreting the events of our lives and the events of the world. We look through this lens as we come to terms with differing viewpoints, alternative perspectives, and situations that seem to surpass our understanding.
The personal lens is the foundation of our frame of reference. Your frame of reference holds all those ideas, situations, past experiences, beliefs, and attitudes that you are familiar with so as you make sense of things, you decide if it fits in your frame of reference or not, either accepting it or rejecting it as part of your reality.
Dragging Around the Past
Past experience impacts upon our current experience in profound ways. As creatures of habit, we often concede to the way it has “always been done” – to always and never kind of thinking. This reminds me of the time when…
This process tends to happen automatically without much thought or attention. Through devoted awareness, we can start to dismantle the impact that past experiences have on our current experiences.
Experience is personal and subjective. Your reality is personal and subjective. Without challenging the status quo, we will end up living a long loop of the same experiences over and over and over again. It’s time to lift the needle off the skipping record and hit the pause button.
Just because something has had a repeating performance in our lives up until now does not mean that it has to continue to repeat. This requires us to challenge ourselves when we hear the little voice that is busy gathering evidence to support a belief or expectation of an experience that we no longer wish to encounter.
When you find yourself back there again in some circumstance in your life – the second the words fall from your lips “How did this happen again?” or “See, this always happens” – Pause – Stop in fact! Does this experience – past or present – serve to limit you or expand you? Usually, if you are uttering those phrases it’s a pretty clear indicator that you’re feeling limited by what has just occurred in your reality.
We Hold the Power
The beauty of our personal lens is that it can be manipulated and readjusted to suit us in any given moment.
First, get in touch with how you feel. Limited. Expanded. Restricted. Excited.
Second, remind yourself that that was then and this is now. Be in the moment of this experience. What is it telling you? Do you like it? If not, you can create something new.
Third, ask yourself how you can find expansion within the current experience. What would help you to feel a sense of personal power? Is there a different choice you can make that will shift the habitual outcome?
Fourth, keep this focused on yourself. Any move you make – if it is to bring you to a point of expansion – can only involve your actions, thoughts, feelings and choices. We all have free will. You can only exercise your own.
Fifth, be gentle with yourself. There is no room here for berating yourself about any choices that have landed you in the same place again. Be curious about the pattern you have witnessed in your life and grateful for the opportunity to make a different choice – to take a new path. Get excited. This is a good place to have a good laugh!
Embracing the Power in Numbers
I have seen the limitations of past experiences play out so many times from an organizational perspective. You find yourself in those staff meetings pouring over problems, entrenched in lack thinking, considering cuts and restrictions. You try desperately as a team to come up with some creative solutions – to break out of the mold – but that old reminder about the “last time” keeps entering into the conversation.
This is fear. It is understandable. When we have had crappy experiences in our past, we tend to brace ourselves for something to go wrong again. We mean well. We are trying to protect ourselves. It is understandable. It is not, however, expansive. It is limited.
To encounter expansive experiences, we must stay on the cutting-edge. We must be willing to take a risk. We must be willing to be wrong. We must be wiling to go outside of our comfort zones. We must have some sense of safety in doing so.
We must have each others back.
As an individual, you can create safety and security in your own experience. What helps you to feel safe enough to take a risk? Create this for yourself and seek out the resources you need in the process.
As an individual working in an organization, you can be instrumental in creating a sense of safety and security for those around you. How can you contribute to an environment that encourages others to take risks and step into expansiveness?
Let’s get started!
Where do you feel limited in your life? What would it take to move into expansiveness instead?
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