Change Your Perspective with Art and Live in the Present

Change your perspective when you feel overwhelmed. There is always a solution, and sometimes, by looking at situations differently you can find answers. Art is a coping creative process that helps you evaluate and visualize circumstances objectively. Nourish your psychological well-being with artistic activities.

Change Your Perspective

When you change your perspective towards suffering you can judge it better. How awful is the situation when you look at it from someone else’s perspective? Also, consider how terrible the situation is if you take a broader perspective. For example, does the issue affect you in a long term? Or does it have a consequence on your well-being?

It’s not about ignoring what is in front of you, is accepting it with courage. Nothing lasts forever and all troubles in life might be smaller than you think if you put them in perspective. Remember what the stoics have taught us, that we can only control our minds. Also, we must cultivate our virtue and morality. As we train our bodies, so we should exercise our minds daily.

It’s in keeping with Nature to show our friends affection and to celebrate their advancement, as if it were our very own. For if we don’t do this, virtue, which is strengthened only by exercising our perceptions, will no longer endure in us.

Seneca

Community and Individuality

The way to live in this world is with virtue and decency. Why? Because we live with other people. Others not only go along with us but can help us live with a broader perspective. People suffer, and sometimes because of us. You can use that perspective for your benefit. In other words, you can always rely on the feeling that you are not alone. First, by thinking about others. Second, by feeling that others are empathic because they also have similar feelings.

This is a move we encounter repeatedly in the arts: other people have had the same sorrows and troubles that we have; it isn’t that they don’t matter or that we shouldn’t have them or that they aren’t worth bothering about. What counts is how we perceive them.

Alain de Botton

Art is More Than a Hobby

Do we need external resources to train our minds, or can we do it being alone without anything else? For example, through a pandemic what is the best way to live through isolation?

I usually keep my mind occupied with books, music, movies, series, and art. Do you think that is the best way to cope with isolation? I think it’s important to look for hobbies where our minds become wiser. Activities where they don’t rely on someone else to make it happen. How can we train our minds when being alone?

Also, why do we need social interaction so much? And because we do, what activities might help us connect with humans without being close to them? I wouldn’t rely on virtual encounters because they tend to leave me drained and sometimes with a headache.

Art is capable of connecting us with other people by the way we express our feelings. Also, as mentioned before, art shows us that others also suffer. This not only helps us train our minds to be more resilient but also to change our perspective of what truly matters. For example, when feeling desperate through a pandemic because we can’t go out, what if we consider that others actually can’t eat. Others lost their jobs because of the situation. When we ponder about life-threatening situations, our lack of social interaction is more tolerable. A change of perspective makes everything more tolerable.

Also, remember that art increases the release of dopamine from your brain. Low levels of dopamine are linked to depression. And, it turns out that dopamine levels play an important role in how you perceive the world.

Art to Change Your Perspective

When you paint or draw a scenario you are thinking of it differently. As an example, rough neighborhoods in Brazil, called favelas, have a reputation for being dangerous. By painting the walls with colors and with beautiful landscapes, the violence decreased.

In Bogota Colombia, a whole neighborhood was painted so that when seen from afar it looks like a butterfly. Also, there are many murals around the city painted by local artists. This gives people a perspective of belonging. They like going to their home, and they take care of their surroundings because they want to keep them beautiful. It is easy to see how you can behave with the objects that surround you. If you take care of the place where you live or work and use art as a form to shift a perspective, you can be able to observe your obligations from a different point of view.

Art: A Tool That Can Help Us Be More Sensible

Art is a form of consolation. We can find consolation by expressing and observing. When we put situations in perspective we may find a way to cope with our troubles. How can art help us do that? By looking at beautiful pieces that reflect a person’s sorrows. Also, by expressing your own and contemplating what they mean.

Just as you train your body to be fit, so you need to train your mind to be in shape. The sum of every day comes to be your life. The routines you develop come to shape the way you are. That is why art can help you gain perspective over your life.

Vanishing Point to Change Your Perspective

A vanishing point is a point of a perspective drawing where lines converge. These lines are parallel and the representation is used to recreate two-dimensional perspective drawings of three-dimensional spaces. It is a point where everything tends to vanish.

This is a creative activity where you draw anything that you want to change your perspective on. For this, use the vanishing point as an extremity of a circumstance. For example, draw the past on the vanishing point. Accordingly, draw other events of your life away from that point. This will help you realize that you can’t change your past. Also, that we tend to idealize our past and that we shouldn’t trust all of your memories.

If you want, you can draw quite the contrary. The vanishing point is where you want to go. It represents that point in the future that you can build up with optimism. When you change your perspective and build habits with optimistic thoughts, you can accept situations as they happen. You start to value the way you live because that is the way you have created your life to be.

Scale Drawing

What is this problem that you are facing right now? How can you put it in perspective of everything that you have lived? Of everything that you have survived?

When we think of everything we have lived, we can conclude that we are capable of managing difficulties. We are far more prepared than what we give ourselves credit for. We can cope far better than we think. Also, we realize that most of our problems are nothing if we visualize the universe. What is going on now in the world? What is our life compared to everything else?

It is nothing at all. We are just here to survive, and most of what we do doesn’t affect the world at all. This helps us change our perspective of what is important. Choose wisely and observe what you are prioritizing. Every choice we make builds up our lives. Remember, how we spend every day makes up our lives. By drawing, you can visualize what it is that you are prioritizing. As a consequence, you can change your perspective of what you value the most.

Draw Your Virtues

Draw what you like about you or just draw what you like. Also, paint with your favorite color. A little goes a long way… What we are is what we do every day. Don’t think about enjoying everything you do, but cultivating what is good for you. This art routine will empower you. This happens because you are constantly remembering your strengths and embracing them to create.

It is about cultivating your powers. Don’t focus on what you wish you had, focus on what you have. Cherish your personality and don’t expect to be someone else. Also, think about how you can reprogram or change your perspective with positive affirmations. It is proven that you change your subconscious, thus becoming more positive about your life.

Just Let Go to Change Your Perspective

I find this practice to be the most rewarding. Letting thoughts go and accepting them just as they are. When I am stressed I tend to think a lot about how some situations are difficult. I keep talking to myself that I am not going to have enough time to do some obligations. The opposite is also quite stressful. Thinking about solutions and how some situations can be different if I do this or that. That constant thinking and speculating is what is overwhelming. The feeling of being in charge of everything is exhausting. Sometimes all we have to do is let go.

Let go of controlling situations and thinking of solutions to everything. I am stressed about thinking negatively, I am going to think positively. Think, think, think. What if we let go and accept circumstances as they come? Again, we shape our lives by our daily actions. Drawing is a form of acceptance.

What would happen if we drew every day? How can we change our mood by perceiving objects and people around us? How can we use the objects that surround us as sources of inspiration? Consider, for example, drawing some items that you like. Also, you can draw with different mediums and materials.

Observe Paintings

In this article, Alain de Botton observes paintings and makes analogies with our lives. We feel part of a community when we discover artists that express sorrow. We all feel sorrow, is part of being human. Seeing that all of us feel it and that we can express it makes us feel elevated. It is because we feel part of a group and because it constitutes a source of inspiration. When we discover that we as humans feel desperate and that we all do, we feel life less of a burden. After all, we didn’t choose to be here. It is not our obligation to be happy all the time. We only have one obligation and that is to die.

It is not pessimistic, it is realistic, and it can take a burden out of your hands. By changing the perspective of what life is supposed to be you can live free of choosing how you want to live. It is precious to live in the moment. When we are focused only on what is in front of us is liberating.

Another great example is to surround yourself with wisdom. You can be physically alone, but psychologically you can choose how you want to be. Again, it is about perception. We can admire paintings that reflect our state of mind. It is about feeling understood and knowing that there are people that share our sorrows.

How can art give us hope? Rather than needing a stern dose of disenchantment, we’re more likely to require art-tools that can feed and sustain our beleaguered optimism.

Alain de Botton

Art to Express and Art to Feel Understood

Any activity that you choose, whether it is to draw or observe, enhance it. It is about making the best of what we have. It is about seizing the best perspective there is for us.