Perspective

Remember that the tool which overcomes all hatred is love, kindness, empathy–whichever form you choose to enforce. Let’s choose empathy for this particular post. This means extending a sense of kindness and understanding by trying to see things from someone else’s point of view because you have encountered a similar occurence in your life.

Empathy also means not judging someone or a group of people when you may or may not totally agree with the person or group’s point of view. It means finding a common ground and attempting to navigate your actions through the commonality as opposed to the difference. It ultimately means shifting your perspective to include the peripheral. Perspective is everything. It will help you to relate to far more people than you would have imagined. Now, please do not misunderstand me–I am NOT instructing you to water down or change your own beliefs in order to accommodate someone else, but just try using a compassionate set of eyes and your heart in trying to understand a person’s situation for a moment in time.

For example, let’s use a sheer hypothetical… You may not be someone who has to study for tests. Learning comes easily to you. This causes you to judge people who have to really study diligently. HOWEVER…you may be horrible at sports because you have very little eye-hand coordination… it happens to the best of us. =) Your lack of athletic ability (through no fault of your own) should cause you to relate to the person who struggles with learning instead of thinking that everyone other than you is a moron. Perspective. Judgment always comes first (along with labeling…you know what I’m talking about…nerd, geek, freak, weirdo, goth, EMO, jock, slut, goodie-two-shoes, teacher’s pet, “the man”, b!tch, etc… Oh, I could go on and on…) and then maaaybe the understanding, but I urge you to flip the script and do the reversal with your use of empathy!

If you can’t empathize, then try to sympathize and treat people how you would like to be treated. You may not be able to find a common ground (even though there is always a common ground if you try hard enough to find it), but you can always take the higher road. By slightly altering your perspective and considering another one, you may just help everyone by seeing yourself more clearly.

Bio

Keelah Jackson is a teacher, writer, singer, and artist who strives to make the world a better place through her offerings of art and love. After completely retooling her life a few years ago, Keelah decided to chronicle her journey and offer spiritual and physical inspiration to people of all ages who desire to live a more fulfilling life and raise the vibration of humanity. Her featured blogs are The Runaway Diaries: Journey to a New Homeand Teenage Love.

THE RUNAWAY DIARIES: Journey to a New Home www.kcsweetskj.wordpress.com