Last week while listening to Ashley Graham’s podcast Pretty Big Deal, Graham interviewed model and style icon, Hailey Bieber. The duo spent the 45 minute podcast discussing multiple topics ranging from spirituality and relationships, to criticism and life in Hollywood. During the talk, Bieber mentioned a revolutionary suggestion that her therapist made. Her therapist explained the importance of using the term “perspective” instead of “opinion.” This got me thinking about the major impact this simple word change can make. Think about it, when was the last time you shared something about yourself and someone said something along the lines of “in my opinion, that’s not the right thing to do.” How did being told that made you feel? Did you feel empowered or did you feel insecure? Something about it feels definite and offensive, like somehow their word is law and if you do not follow it you are making a major mistake. Now imagine they said “in my perspective, that’s not the right thing to do.” Doesn’t that sound better? It sounds lighter, less binding. These days, we are all constantly subject to opinions. You hop on social media and click on a post and next thing you know opinions come popping up wherever you look. This is not a normal or natural way to live. We are not meant to be exposed to so many different opinions all the time. We are not even meant to have opinions on so many different things. When you think about, all day we judge celebrities when in reality they are complete strangers who we should not know anything about. Despite this, we continue to use our precious brains to judge and criticism them. While these opinions are probably not going anywhere, we can still do our part in helping the language behind them be more uplifting and inclusive, instead of divisive.
It is inevitable that all people must have a perspective. As soon as you started experiencing life, you started having a perspective. We all gather our thoughts, predictions, and feelings toward something based on how we have experienced that thing in the past. It is okay and natural to have a perspective, you cannot even think without having some degree of perspective. It is simply proof that you have experienced life. It’s so interesting to talk to people from different walks of life and see how their outlook varies depending on their upbringing. Hearing a different outlook is beautiful thing because it can help you grow and come to realize things in a way you never would have on your own. While it is beautiful to have different outlooks, it is important to remember that your outlook is not law. Just because your life experiences led you to believe something, does not mean it is fact and it definitely does not mean someone else is wrong if they see things differently. When someone judges another person for their different outlook, that is when the beauty of our differences turns into something hurtful. While opinion tends to have a more aggressive connotation, I find that perspective offers a friendlier tone. Try it out, you may end up making the people around you feel lighter.
Let’s grow together.
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