Author: Stephen Lau

Copyright (c) 2010 Stephen Lau

Living for life is not always easy. Real life has real problems, which are unavoidable and unpredictable. Some of these problems include financial problems, such as foreclosure or loss of employment, relationship problems, such as a divorce, major disease diagnosis, or death of a spouse or loved ones. All these problems are real everyday problems, and they may be even devastating and traumatic. Living for life is not striving to avoid these problems, but rather to learn to cope with them through perspectives. Don’t try to fix your life; learn to manage it with a different perspective.

Living in perspective is the key to solving your everyday problems. In life, there is no reality, only your perception of the reality for you; in other words, what is “real” to you is all in your mind’s eye.

In life, your emotions are determined and shaped by your perceptions of events that happen to you, and once these perceptions become “real” to you, they become your past experiences, which will be stored up in your subconscious mind, forming your behavioral patterns in the future. Hence, everything begins with a perception — how you look at an event that happens to you, and how you react to that event. There are many factors that may affect your perceptions: your past experience, your values, your upbringing, and your background.

Change your perspectives to change your perceptions. To change perspective, first and foremost, identify your top priorities in life. Once you have identified what are the more important things in life, then you will have a different perspective of what happens to your life. You might think you had a problem, but once you have identified your top priorities, you may think otherwise.

To illustrate, time stress is a common stress factor in modern living that may require a different perspective. You may think you have more to do than everyone else. Accordingly, you have unduly stressed yourself. But time stress is all in your mind — a result of your own thinking. Everyone has only twenty-four hours a day; time is an equalizer of men. Then, why do you need more time than others do? Do not let your life’s constrains mould your time. To be able to do this, you need to have a different perspective of time. Only when you start prioritizing the things you have to do, then you will begin to have enough time for everything else.

This may sound stranger than fiction, but this is the truth in overcoming time stress, because you are looking at the same problem with a different perspective. Try this out when you go home this evening: if you think you have a lot to do, such as making important phone calls or attending to your kids’ homework, stop short at doing anything! At that very moment when you think are stressed by time, be mindful of only that present moment. Do nothing for the evening, and get yourself relaxed. Not making those important phone calls won’t cost you your life, and not helping your kids with their homework will not deprive them of their college education in the future. Nothing is really that important if you look at it in perspective. Of course, it does not mean you do nothing in your life; it is just that you put everything in perspective, and your life will take on a totally different meaning. Living in perspective is the art of living well.

Living for life is taking the challenge of finding the meaning of life for you — not so much with who you are but why you are here. Once you know your purpose in life, you may look at everything from a different perspective — that is living in perspective!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/living-for-life-is-living-in-perspective-2305807.html

About the Author

The mind is powerful. Use mind power to control your thinking to change your thoughts so as to alter your perception of reality. Visit the author’s web page: Brain Power. Also, visit the author’s most recent website: Living for Life. Stephen Lau is a writer and researcher with publications on health, Chinese healing, depression, eating disorders, and the game of golf.