- LIL L E A PS
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- Perspective
This may seem like an obvious and simple topic to you, and that’s because it is! Well joy of joys because usually we make everything so complicated.
This is uncomplicated AND helps to uncomplicate other things too.
What do you mean Lil?
Potential for perspective is everywhere and yet in our busy worlds and our even busier minds we lose sight of it most of the time.
I can be incredibly self-centered and wrapped up in my own concerns for days even weeks and then suddenly I remember the power of perspective, I seem to untangle myself and find a lil peace.
I have a great Lil example!
I was nearing the end of four months living in Cape Town and I was in a bit of a funk—feeling insecure, overthinking, wondering what was waiting for me when I got home. What I’d do with my time, who I had to see, how I’d slot back into the rhythm of my family life. I knew these feelings weren’t unusual. I knew they were just part of the wobbly lead-up to a big change. I even knew most of the thoughts I was having weren’t exactly rational—just fear doing its thing. But still. Once you’re in one of those heavy-headed spirals, it can be hard to claw your way back out.
A friend and I were driving back into Cape Town after a day by the sea on the other side of the peninsula. As we drove over the mountains we got a view from above, of the Cape Flats stretching out endlessly beneath us. A vast patchwork of tin rooftops, packed so densely. I’d seen the townships before, but not from this angle. I was hit, all at once, by the sheer scale of it all, the millions that lived lives I could barely imagine. I felt how small I was. Just one human on a planet of billions. There was shame in it. Guilt. How could I have been feeling so sorry for myself when I live such a life of comfort and security? But that didn’t last. Because after the initial shock, what came through was something much more powerful, perspective.
It reminded me that I’m human, like everyone else. Not more important. Not less. Just one of many, all trying to do the same basic thing—make a good life for ourselves. Live meaningfully. Be part of a community. Be kind. Work hard. Set goals. Grow. And when I really sit with that, I realise that every little thing I spend hours agonising over—whether it’s how I look or how my sister misunderstood me—is just me trying to do that. Trying to make the most of a life, for myself.
That doesn’t mean I should ignore my privilege. Quite the opposite—I want to honour it, to let it inform how I show up in the world.
Perspective, shocks me out of my own head and makes me grateful—not by pretending my worries don’t exist, but by letting them shrink back down to size.
“I need some more Lil Help!”
I hear you say… lucky I have a few more techniques I use to get perspective!
Connection to nature- one of the most powerful tools for me is to spend a moment thinking or feeling nature and letting it remind me that we are literally atoms like sand, like trees, like water and like a bird.
Playing the “and what” game- writing down the thought that is worrying me and then following it up with lines beginning with “and what?” In the end I find such perspective and that my concern is far more irrational than I would otherwise let myself believe.
Talk to an old person- if you are lucky enough to have your own wonderful grandparents like I am, chat to them about their lives, speak to an old person on the buss, or even watch those street interviews with old people when they say what they wish they knew when they were younger. I’m always touched and reminded of how short and precious life is. #noregrets #yolo
Take a Lil Moment- This is a very short meditation style recording for those that hate meditating, listen to it whenever you like, I have used it in the loo at a restaurant when I am fighting with my sister or on the tube when I am on my way to work.
Speak next week, love from Lil xx
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