A Little Perspective Goes A Long Way

Ever felt in the doldrums? Like nothing's going your way or nothing's happening, everyone's having it better, you're lost, frustrated, going in circle, caught in webs/poison ivy/vines/thorns? 

Maybe it's time to get some perspective. 

A little perspective goes a long way (in getting clarity).

One of the best ways to gain perspective, I find, is to leave my usual comfort zone and to take a little trip - even  a work trip. Packing is not fun, but taking off into the air/ hopping into the car for a long drive somewhere is fun. As the plane takes off, i feel like i'm zooming out of my life - into space - and gaining a different perspective. Literally. 

The runway and the airport start to shrink, then you see more and more patches of green. Light leafy green, dark musky green, super dark chlorophyll green. Houses become rows of concrete, you start to see long stretches of road with lines of cars resembling streaming lines of little dots (so small you can't see the colour of the cars). Then you see large bodies of water - could be a reservoir, could be a lake, a meandering river... then you don't see the houses anymore but just a large swathe of green.

Then the OCEAN (yes, i live pretty near the ocean).

Then you rise above the clouds, and are above everything else. Literally.

Then you feel like you're above everything. Figuratively. 

It's a good feeling (unless, of course, you are afraid of heights or small spaces. Then you'd probably be very freaked out by now.)

Perspective makes me a bit heady, then it makes everything look and feel so clear. Suddenly, it's not so hard to figure out what's important, and what's not. What makes me tick, and what gives me dread. What matters, and what doesn't. Then if by many strokes of luck, you meet some randomly wonderful people who have led random and wonderful lives, it makes you wonder about the things you sweat about in your life, the impact (real or imagined) of your decisions, and if your worries are justified at all.

And now, as I sit here alone by the bar at Ansara (www.ansarahotel.com), a small but very cute boutique hotel in Vientiane, Laos; sipping a glass of Baileys on the rocks and sharing my thoughts here, while 4 young Laotian hotel staff stand around the hotel front desk watching some video and chuckling to themselves, I wonder...

... when did some perspective hurt anybody?