Vantage Point

Journaling has been known to reduce stress, manage depression and anxiety, prioritize your fears and concerns gives you an opportunity to recognize triggers allows us space for positive encouragement and positive self talk.

The act of writing itself has been shown to improve blood pressure levels and improve your mood, and increase those feel good hormones those those feelings of well being the functioning of the immune system, and improving memory. Those are some pretty awesome benefits simply from taking time in your day to write your thoughts, your dreams, your goals. I believe in the benefits of journaling so much that I created a document for you 30 days of journal prompts. If you head to the link in the show notes. This is a free resource for you so that you can start your journaling journey with me.

Have you ever seen a movie that completely changes the way you look at things? Years later, you're still thinking about that movie? Maybe it was a scene or maybe it was the whole movie? Maybe it was one quote, but the movie stays with you and you keep coming back to it and then something will something will happen and you're immediately transported back to something in that movie. Have you ever had or seen a movie like that in your life?

13 years ago, 2008. I saw a movie entitled vantage point. vantage point. I don't remember the actors that were in it. But I remember. I remember the message of the movie. And I went with my daughter. And she said mom, she had already seen the movie. She said Mom, you watch the movie, no questions, no questions till the very end. And when the movie started, I was just I was a little confused with what was going on. But she just kept looking over me putting her hand her finger on her lips like no questions. No questions, just keep watching the movie. And the whole premise of the movie was that there were eight, eight strangers who saw a crime happen. But they all saw it from a different vantage point. They were all in different places. So they all saw something different.

And it was so interesting to me how the same situation can be viewed so many different ways. And when we talk about a vantage point, we think about a good photographer will always get to a different vantage point they will they will get down on the ground or they'll be up above you or they'll be on the side of you but they were all they're always creating angles. A good videographer will do the same thing. They will create angles. When you're on stage speaking or singing. You want to be going to different parts of the stage that you're creating a different vantage point, a different viewpoint.

A vantage point is a place from which something can be viewed. synonyms, our viewpoint, your perspective. The term of vantage point refers to the position that

You're in. It's a standpoint the way something is viewed.

So think about the people that you hang around with, we probably are all coming from different vantage points, we can all see the same rainbow and see something else, something different. I may be looking through a window, where I see the bottom half or the right half, let's say this way, that way, the right half of a rainbow, someone else may be looking out a window from a whole different viewpoint and see the left half of the rainbow. And still somebody else may be up higher, and they're seeing the whole rainbow. Or maybe they see a double rainbow. It's not that we all saw different Rainbows, we all saw the different the same rainbow. But we saw them from very different perspectives. Life is like that. We are looking at things and we're all seeing the same thing. But we are coming at it from a different perspective.

We're coming at it from a different viewpoint, your perspectives shape, you think about it. Think about how various perspectives in your life shaped you and your world. Considering those views, may help you start to make a product a change to changing your perspective, if it needs to be changed, or maybe into seeing someone else's someone else's viewpoint, embracing someone else's perspective. You don't have to agree with someone else's perspective. But getting along requires us understanding each other's perspectives. Be honest with yourself about your perspectives and where they come from, and if they need to be changed or not. Consider the sources of your of your perspective could be parents, could be brothers could be cousins could be friends, it's the people you surround yourself with.

And if you can find yourself to one person, two people, those are the only perspectives you're ever going to find. What have you looked deeper, and really learned about others perspectives, and then envisioned how your life would change if you actually

if you actually respected other people's perspectives.

So if you went out in the grass, on a bright sunny day, and you lay you, you laid out a blanket, and you lay down on your back, and you stared up at the blue sky. So you could see the sky, maybe you're maybe you are counting clouds, or this is fun. finding out what shape is in the clouds, that is always so fun to do. Because you could get this, you could get so many different shapes out of the same cloud because it keeps moving. It keeps changing. So you're laying in your back, maybe maybe you look to your side a little bit, and you might see, oh, maybe some trees in the in your peripheral vision.

But now you're going to turn over and you're going to lay on your stomach, what are you going to see then? grass, maybe some bugs scurrying around.

Maybe you see the flowers more more clearly in front of you.

It's all you're in the same place. Nothing changed. Except your perspective. Nothing changed except your viewpoint.

Know what your What is your perspective? Where did they come from?

And how would your life be different if you embraced other perspectives around you?

Consider considering the perspectives of others. Number one, acknowledge that people have different perspectives.

Your Way is not the only way. The way that a car is washed your way is not the only way to wash your car. The way that you organize things is not the only way to organize things.

Understanding that other people have different viewpoints,

understand other people's perspectives.

Talk to someone number two, talk to someone else about their perspectives and what informs them.

Listen to people and their points of view. You may learn something, how cool would that be?

It helps you understand other viewpoints and provide you with context or information that maybe you'll change your own perspective and maybe not but it's okay. The point is to a

acknowledge that other people have perspectives, and it's okay.

And number three, don't debate them. Be respectful of their viewpoints.

Arguing is counterproductive. And it keeps you from developing as a person, be respectful, don't debate. their viewpoints are awesome. Your viewpoints are awesome. You get to have your own, you get to make your own decisions, you get to make your own choices. Consider the perspective of others acknowledge that other people have different perspectives. That's number one. Number two, talk to someone about their perspectives and what forms their perspectives and what informs them. What did they read? Where do they go? What do they listen to. And number three, very respectful and don't debate, you're not there to argue you're there to learn. You're there to forge a friendship, you're there to learn how to get along with others.

You're allowed to keep your perspectives, you're allowed to organize things the way you want. You're allowed to set your schedule the way you want, you're allowed to follow your dreams the way you want to.

But while you're on your path, make sure you're listening to other people as well. vantage point.

If you're standing in a crowd of people, if you are all in a stadium, let's say we're all in a stadium, and we're watching a football game. We're all going to see that football game from the from the vantage point of where we are sitting.

Are we looking at the field? Or are we looking at the at the monitors?

Are we talking to the person next to us when a touchdown happens?

Our viewpoint then is going to be very different than someone who's sitting down right on the field, like the referee who's watching. The perspectives are very, very different. But we'd like to throw our ring in the hat and say, Wait, no, this is the this is the way it was because this is the way I saw it.

What if we took the time to listen to the way other people see things? What if we took the time to understand the way other people see things? What if we really loved people, even if their perspective and viewpoint is different than ours? What if we chose to all get along and stop judging each other?

I know that, in the past few weeks, I have really been trying to see things from another viewpoint, putting myself in someone else's shoes. Looking at a perspective different than mine. Acknowledging that I can have my opinion while still loving someone who has a different opinion. And that's okay. What is your vantage point?

Your journal prompt today is this, I choose to consider the perspectives of others. This week, this week, I will learn the perspectives of one other person in my life. And that person is fill in the blank.

This week, I will choose to learn the perspectives of someone else in my life and that person is and then take the time to talk to them to listen to them. Listen to their perspectives.

It's going to make you a better person.

It's going to make them feel loved and cared for.

You are empowered, you are amazing. I love you. I am your biggest fan.

I can't wait to hear your feedback on this episode. And if you want a good movie to watch Vantage Point 2008 I'm actually going to add it to my Netflix queue or to my Amazon Prime queue because now I want to see it again. I have never forgotten the movie in 13 years, it keeps coming back to my brain. Of what an interesting perspective. The writers of that movie had to show us all the different perspectives of this crime that was permitted of what they saw and what they were totally convinced was true because that was what they saw.

But when they looked at the other vantage points, the story wasn't anything like they thought it was. Get out of your own head. Look at the perspectives of others. Listen to the people around you. I'm not saying you have to change your viewpoint. But I am suggesting that you learn the viewpoints.