When I was teaching drawing back in California in the 80s and 90s I use to use a few techniques to help my students really ‘see’ their subject or the art clearly, without the unconscious assumptions they were using. One was to turn the art in progress upside down and have them look at it. Another was to have them hold a hand mirror and look at their work (or the subject) through it. Yet another was to have them put their work at the end of a long, long breezeway or hallway and look at it from as far away as possible.
The purpose of course was to help them see their work more clearly, to notice things they weren’t likely to see when standing at arm’s length or within the constrains of how they would normally look at it.
Translate that into your life. How do you look at things (or people). Do you see the person you think is ugly and find the good angle, the good light and see their beauty? Do you change your thinking about them and see their beauty? What about events? Can you change the way you look at the traffic jam? Maybe it gives you more time to listen to that good book on CD? What about a rainy day? Does it mess up your plans and depress you, or can you look at it another way and find a great new thing to do indoors (or even outdoors in the rain!)
Your perception is what makes reality, not the ‘real’ world. Change the perception and the world changes.
Thanks to my new friend Erin Christy for having this quote on her Facebook page!
Drawing and commentary @ Marty Coleman
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer, 1940-not dead yet, American Author and Speaker
