Seeing things from a New Perspective and How this can Shape Us

The other day I was thinking about soap and how it can be a metaphor for life.

Bare with me.

I love soap, I often make soap for at home and to give as gifts. I like having soap at home and have fond memories of it when I was a child.  I love olive oil soap and the smell of olive oil soap.  I like making sure I have a good supply of soap on hand. 

Soap also to me can be very frustrating.  It is often slippery, annoying and time consuming.  One minute you are using soap in the shower and the next minute it slips out of your hand and you need to fumble around the bottom of the shower to try and find it.  Often it will slip out of your hand again and again and the whole frustrating saga starts all over again.  It feels like some sort of game that you didn’t wish to play.

You may be wondering why as a therapist I am talking about soap.  The reason that I am is because soap can be viewed in different perspectives.  It can be viewed as annoying, slippery, frustrating and a time waster.  It can also be viewed as a cleanser, easy to use, nice smelling and cost effective.

We can choose how we view the soap depending on how we are feeling right now and how we feel about soap in general.  We can also decide on what perspective we think of the soap based on our past experiences.

Effectively this can be the same for us and what is going on for us.  

Of course I am only using soap as a metaphor and do not for one minute think that what is going on for you or me is in comparison to a bar of soap. 

However in our lives we can choose how we look at things.  As we grow older we may have a different perspective on something from what we had ten years ago.  We may choose to look at something in an entirely different way based on the person we are now compared to what we were like five years ago.

This could be a past relationship, an event that happened or a period of time.

Different perspectives change how we look at things and how we feel about them.

In my own experiences during therapy I have been able to look at events that  happened that I felt shaped me from a different perspective from when the event occurred when I was a young girl.  My perspective has changed.  I no longer feel the way I did about it since I have seen it from a different perspective now as a mother and a grown up.  I am no longer seeing it through the lens of a young girl and so I no longer hurt the way I used to when I viewed it from a different perspective.  Instead my narrative has changed.

I am also able to sit alongside my younger self and give her a big cuddle as I see what happened differently.  It has been healing for me to see it from a different perspective.

Therapy helped me to do this.  It changed how I felt about myself from seeing things from a different perspective.  I felt held, listened to and a great deal of empathy given to me when I shared this with my therapist.

Therapy can be a place of profound healing.  A place where you can have choice with how you view things that have happened to you and what you feel about it.  

If you have been holding on to something for a while or many years therapy can be a great space to talk about it and view how you are seeing it and feeling it.  It can been a very healing process that is carried in a way that is supportive to you and at a pace that is right for you.  

If this has jarred you in any way please do get in touch here.

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