Finding the right balance between Escaping and Perspective.

Two of the most important ingredients for an everyday, stress-free life I believe are the abilities to ’Escape’ and to gain ‘Perspective’.  Create shorts bursts of ‘healthy’ escapism and create a 30,000 feet perspective to situations/emotions and see how smooth the day is.

Healthy and balanced doses of both these behaviours allow us to detach for some time from the tiring humdrum of daily life. Most of us, particularly the older generation, sometimes manage a level of perspective, so can remain calm and steady in the face of storms but we lack, I feel, a healthy respect for escapism as a form of therapy. So we do not permit ourselves to escape and even less serious past-times need to be productive in some way – add to the talents, knowledge, cultural experience etc. So any forms of indulgences in the form of ‘doing-nothing’, day-dreaming or drifting is frowned upon. Only if the past-time leads to the attainment of an outcome is it allowed by us – money, development of personality, flaunt factor etc.

So filling up reams of pages with creative, maybe even random, writing; sketches; songs; doodling – none of which may see the light of day – is not really encouraged with the question – what will it all achieve? The ability to cope with the realities and practicalities of life is how maturity is measured and encouraged – escapism amongst adults is not mature!

Not that there is anything wrong with this perception but escapism for a few minutes-hours a day is actually very productive too. We all know how well and easily children cope, adjust and solve problems in their environment – it is only because they allow themselves to escape and drift periodically so they can bounce back more resilient and adaptable.

Escaping and Perspective

Escaping is not necessarily doing anything – it could be as mindless as watching clouds drifting in the sky, absent-mindedly watching people from your window/balcony, thinking 10,000 thoughts without staying on any, sipping coffee/tea and just losing yourself in its flavour…..the list is endless and very personal. The danger, however, is ensuring that you do not stay with it for too long because it is very addictive!

Needless to say, escapism is not using any unhealthy substances! In fact who knows if we spend more time shutting down our brain periodically through harmless escaping, the need for more unhealthy routes may even vanish.

Here is where perspective comes in…I define it as a way of detaching yourself from a situation or emotion, viewing it from 30,000 feet above and gaining a macro understanding – the proverbial fly-on-the-wall approach  view it from a distance as if it is happening to a third person and not you. The question that will inevitably form after this act of wisdom is… ‘’is it really worth it, is it worth wasting so much of my time or effort or will it matter a couple of months/years down the line’’…. If not, let it go; if yes, channelize it in a more healthy, ‘win-win’ manner for all concerned. In case perspective is hard to come by start with meditation – just a simple watching of breath and observe how quickly wisdom and perspective make their presence.

So really escapism is easy and perspective is a little hard but both will enable you to become a more easy-going, harmonious person and develop compassion. Feed a little escape time and keep your perspective hat on when needed and watch how well you manage yourself and your situations.

photo credit: Clouds From Above via photopin (license)