Character Development: Perspective And Affirmations

In this episode of the Character Strengths Affirmation Series, we explore the strength of Perspective, which falls under the virtue of Wisdom.

Perspective is the gift of seeing the bigger picture — recognizing patterns, honoring complexity, and discerning what truly matters. It allows us to hold multiple viewpoints with compassion and to offer insight that brings clarity and meaning.

My hope is that this episode invites you to embrace perspective not only as advice we give others, but as a way of living with depth, balance, and understanding.

Through discussion and affirmations, we will strengthen our ability to step back from the moment, to view challenges through a wider lens, and to celebrate perspective as a source of wisdom for both personal well-being and collective harmony.

Peace and Blessings,
Hannah

Transcript

In a world that often focuses so much on what we lack,

It's easy to overlook the incredible internal strengths that each of us possess.

Grounded in ancient philosophy and modern science,

This series invites you to reconnect with the innate strengths that make you who you are,

Promoting balance and harmony in everyday life.

Whether you're looking to boost your confidence,

Overcome negative self-talk,

Deepen your relationships,

Or simply invite a greater sense of well-being,

My hope is that this series offers a practical and uplifting path to personal growth.

Oh my gosh,

You guys,

I really just recorded like a good five minutes and then looked and my mic was not on,

The mic was not on.

And you know,

It's okay.

We can always start again.

Isn't that the beauty of life?

Cool.

Well,

Hello.

So glad you're here.

Welcome to our Character Strengths Affirmation Series.

In each session,

We explore one of the 24 character strengths identified by positive psychology,

Each of which fall under six universal virtues,

Courage,

Humanity,

Wisdom,

Temperance,

Or transcendence.

These strengths are universal and they form the foundation of our highest,

Most grounded selves.

We are currently moving through the virtue of wisdom,

Which the Values in Action Institute defines as the set of strengths that help us gather and apply knowledge in thoughtful,

Meaningful,

And life-giving ways.

So far,

We've explored creativity,

Good judgment,

Curiosity,

And love of learning.

And today,

We are arriving at the fifth and final strength in this category,

Which is perspective.

According to the VIA Institute,

Perspective is the ability to provide wise counsel to others,

To see the big picture,

And to offer guidance that takes into account both immediate concerns and long-term meaning.

It's sometimes described as the forest and the trees strength,

Helping us notice the details without losing sight of the whole.

I want to be clear.

Perspective is distinct from intelligence.

It isn't about being the smartest person in the room,

But about holding a kind of practical wisdom that integrates knowledge,

Experience,

And compassion.

Perspective plays a quiet but powerful role in our lives.

It's what allows us to pause in the middle of conflict and remember that one hard conversation does not define an entire relationship.

It's what helps us step back during stress and recognize that this moment,

While intense,

Is part of a larger unfolding story.

Perspective helps us see failure as feedback,

Setbacks as teachers,

And daily frustrations as temporary rather than permanent.

Without it,

We can easily get swept away by emotion or urgency,

And with it,

We hold on to balance and meaning.

And perspective doesn't just serve us.

It also shapes how we show up for others.

It helps us support people in times of challenge,

Not by rushing in with answers or assuming that we know best,

But by offering insight from the heart.

Okay,

Before we jump into the intricacies of perspective,

I quickly wanted to differentiate between perception and perspective.

Perception is the way we take in sensory information.

It's what we see,

Hear,

Feel,

Etc.

It's the raw,

Immediate experience filtered through our senses and our nervous system.

It's about the input.

It's about the reception and interpretation of sensory data in real time.

Perspective,

On the other hand,

Is the standpoint or framework we bring to interpreting experiences.

This is shaped by our values,

Our culture,

Our education,

And our personal history,

Just to name a few.

Perspective is about the lens through which we see the world.

It's the context.

It's the angle from which we are interpreting what we perceive.

Put simply,

Perception is what we notice.

Perspective is how we make meaning out of what we notice.

For those of us who love metaphors,

Perception is the camera capturing the image.

Perspective is the filter or the frame you apply to decide how the image is understood or shared.

All right,

So as with any of the strengths that we're talking about and working with,

Perspective flourishes in balance.

Any of these strengths can be underused or overused,

And oftentimes that is specific to the context and to the individual,

But there are some commonalities that I'll speak to,

As always.

At its most aligned,

Perspective allows us to step back without checking out and to offer insight without overriding someone else's process.

When perspective is underused,

It can collapse into reactivity.

We get that tunnel vision.

We become consumed by the urgency of the moment,

Unable to zoom out or consider the long-term view.

Maybe we're flooded by emotion,

Or maybe we're clinging to our vision of the story so tightly that we just cannot imagine another point of view.

This is a very human response,

Especially when we're hurting or afraid.

But in this state,

Our decisions may become impulsive,

Defensive,

Or overly narrow.

We forget that our perspective is just one thread in a much larger tapestry.

Responding instead of reacting requires that we self-regulate our emotional responses.

If you want to have access to greater perspective,

We have to have the wisdom to know that we see things through the lens of how we feel in the moment.

And believe me,

I have been teaching meditation for several years now.

I did not get into meditation because I grew up in a super mindful environment and because I'm just like an enlightened saint here to bless you.

That's not who I am,

Sorry.

Like I'm in this with the rest of you,

I'm in the soup.

And I know that taking 10 deep breaths is going to make me feel better,

Be more regulated,

And more grounded.

I also know that little stubborn reaction,

That little clinging,

That little clutching,

That little grasping that will sometimes stubbornly hold on to our own narrow perspective and prevent us from taking those 10 deep breaths.

I know,

I know how that feels.

However,

What I find personally is that if I honor that part of me,

If I say like,

Listen,

I know that there's a part of me that really feels like it needs to be seen and heard and felt,

Taking 10 deep breaths is not going to take away from that part of me.

Let me relax a bit and settle into this moment and have some faith in the process and take those 10 deep breaths or five or three.

Then things really start to shift.

That has been helpful for me.

You know,

There's a relationship I think between perspective and humility.

How quickly can we release attachment to our own perspective and honor that we might just not have access to all aspects of understanding in this moment.

But let's be real,

Honestly.

You know,

Sometimes life be lifing and deep breaths in the moment are not enough to get that clarity.

I have learned that it's okay to simply say to myself or to someone else,

I need to sit with this and take some time.

Or maybe you've given me a lot to think about.

I'm going to take some time to process.

Or one of my favorites.

I really value this issue and want to give it the consideration it deserves.

And then I'll offer a timeline for when I can check back in.

Funny enough for me,

I've actually gotten pretty good at maintaining perspective in emotionally heightened states.

Or at least at the humility it takes to notice when I've lost perspective.

An area I'm still working on strengthening my perspective is in my research.

Right now I'm working on a systematic review,

Which is essentially where you read and categorize all of the existing studies on a particular topic.

Researchers out there are like,

That's a pretty minimal description,

But it's fine.

That's suitable for what we're talking about today.

Let me tell you,

If I'm not careful,

Not only will I lose sight of the forest through the trees of the work that I'm doing,

I will lose sight of the tree in the intricacies of one patch of bark.

If I don't maintain perspective,

I will get so absorbed in the details of the method section of one paper and I will forget to step back and see how all of the different pieces come together to connect to what I'm essentially trying to convey to the world with this work.

Without that broader view,

I'm not able to synthesize what I'm reading into something coherent and meaningful.

Perspective is what helps us weave diverse findings together into a larger story instead of drowning in the noise of data.

And let me be very clear.

Sometimes this means we have to just take breaks.

We have to re-engage with the world and then come back with fresh eyes.

When overused,

Perspective can become too intellectualized.

We're disconnected entirely from feeling.

We may offer observations or insights that are technically accurate,

But emotionally cold.

Without meaning to,

We might come across as overbearing,

Stepping in with solutions when someone really just needs to be heard.

Or we may slip into a kind of quiet arrogance,

Assuming that our ability to see the big picture gives us some kind of authority over someone else's process.

In trying to help,

We risk creating distance.

It's a subtle form of bypass that can leave others feeling unseen or dismissed,

Even when our intentions come from a good place.

True perspective isn't something we achieve just by thinking harder.

It's something we grow into by living our lives,

By trying and failing and learning and trying again.

Mistakes and missteps often become the soil where wisdom takes root.

If we rely only on intellectual analysis,

We miss the humbling,

Humanizing lessons that come from our own lived experience.

Real perspective has a kind of elder-like quality to it,

Because it's not shaped by what we know,

But by what we've walked through.

True perspective is both wise and warm.

It holds clarity and compassion.

It sees the full picture without forgetting the heartbeat inside of it.

Balanced perspective is rooted in not assuming that we know best.

It listens more than it lectures.

It's the strength that knows when to speak and when to pause.

And when it's shared,

It's offered as a gift,

Not a directive.

One of the most powerful things we can do is stay present with the unknown,

While gently opening space for understanding to emerge.

Now that's tricky.

Again,

It's the relationship with so many of these strengths and humility.

Which is the ability to say,

Oh,

I just don't have perspective right now.

I am seeing things through the lens of how I feel in the moment.

How I feel in this moment is activated.

And so I just don't have access to it.

Let me have faith in the process of time,

And see if maybe that will come,

And explore what is it that actually needs my attention right now.

Maybe there is something that's very intricate,

That's very specific,

That is a tiny wound within ourselves that we actually need to devote our attention to before we can gain that greater perspective.

When we offer that to ourselves,

We become more self-forgiving.

When we offer it to others,

We become safer to confide in.

We become the kind of person people feel calm around.

And it's not because we have all the answers.

It's because we've gone through our own stuff,

We've lived our own lives,

And we've let it chip away at us.

We've sat with it,

And listened to it,

And gotten curious about it,

And grieved it,

And danced with it,

And celebrated it,

And honored it.

We've gotten curious about how other people might consider what it is that we're going through,

Or what they've gone through.

And we've allowed ourselves time to rest,

And not gotten caught in the trap of constant self-development,

Which is really oftentimes just another guise of avoidance,

Trying to fix instead of learning how to just be with the thing.

And people can sense that when you're with them.

I had a teacher once.

He was the kind of teacher who really didn't say much.

And so when he did say something,

You were like on the edge of your seat.

And this is a spiritual teacher,

Not like in a public school.

I met this guy in the jungle.

And we were talking,

And I said,

Gosh,

Like,

He said something really profound,

And I said,

Wow,

Well said.

And he said,

And another thing,

Be careful of people who say things that are well said.

And I was like,

Oh.

Huh.

He really taught me to care more about how someone says something than what they say,

And to get really curious about whether or not they've just got a list of quotes,

Or if they've really integrated that wisdom into their being,

So that it's truly their perspective.

And let me take this moment to say that I have had the privilege of a fabulous curriculum in the form of my upbringing,

And some experiences that I've had in early adulthood,

That involve tremendous hardship,

And trauma,

And grief,

And opportunities for that refinement.

And I have been incredibly privileged to have had access to treatment modalities that have allowed for me to move through a lot of that,

And move it through my body,

And through my heart,

And surrender it.

And I hope that some of that has been cultivated into who and how I am,

And how I sit with my clients,

And how I sit with the people that I love,

And I care about,

And how I interact with people I don't know,

And how I walk through the world.

It certainly has changed the way that I interact with myself,

And I hope that I offer that to people.

But I don't get it twisted for one second that I'm a perfectly integrated person.

I am too attached to the path of truth to allow that.

It would just be too strong of dissonance with myself.

So I think that one of the things that we have to be cautious of,

And that of course I want you to be considerate of when it comes to me,

As I talk about virtue and well-being,

Is that just because somebody is good at pointing at the thing doesn't mean that they're the thing.

Just because somebody is good at talking about the thing doesn't mean that they are it.

I mean,

I think that that's the offering of integration.

How can I take what I've learned and I've experienced and view it as a sort of education in life?

By the way,

The whole curriculum thing,

That's not original.

That's a Ram Dass one.

I heard him say that some teacher of his told him,

You're born into this life,

You might as well take the curriculum.

Which begs the question,

What's on the other side of the education?

And I think that it's not that there is some final point.

I think that the beauty of it is that throughout the process we too are one another's teachers.

And we get to,

Speaking of Ram Dass,

We're all just walking each other home.

How do we use what we've experienced and learned and let it change us,

Let it impact us so that we have an increased awareness and attunement to the world around us,

Where it changes the quality of our presence in any given moment,

As well as our insights into the way that things may or may not unfold,

The things to consider.

The intellect,

Of course,

Does matter,

It does play a role.

And then to be able to offer that to somebody else.

And when we can truly offer that to another person,

We can trust ourselves and they can trust us because we're not thinking that we know what's best for somebody else.

All we're offering is the work that we've done on ourselves.

So if maybe,

Just maybe,

I can sit with myself and sit with others and whatever it is that they're going through and hold it and then from that place of being held,

Cultivate a certain level of openness and curiosity so that we can wonder about the world and our place in it and explore some of the perspectives that maybe we're standing in and maybe some of the perspectives that other people are standing in.

What a beautiful offering.

What a beautiful way to make meaning out of what we've experienced for the betterment of others.

And might I say,

What a necessary one.

If we are going to move in the direction of well-being for everybody,

Doesn't it demand and require that we address our own fears and tendencies to close ourselves off and instead open our minds and our hearts to what the lived experience of others might be?

Food for thought.

Before we begin,

We'll have ourselves a quick blessing.

May we be blessed with the ability to see clearly,

To understand without rushing to conclusions,

To listen without needing to be right,

To hold complexity without shutting down.

May we become the kind of people whose wisdom is not loud but deep,

Not performative but felt and experienced.

May our insights arise not from ego but from quiet attunement,

From a willingness to see the whole,

To honor the parts,

And to offer perspective with grace and care.

I will read each statement twice,

Pausing in between to give you a chance to repeat them out loud to yourself,

And I do recommend saying them out loud.

The statements that are easy to embrace,

Savor them,

Appreciate them,

Stand like a mountain in their truth.

The statements that feel not so good,

That feel uncomfortable or foreign or like straight-up lies,

Go ahead and say them anyway.

This is where we are doing the work,

Rewiring those neural networks.

This is also where we gain insight into unhealed wounds,

Limiting beliefs,

And ingrained biases or judgments toward ourselves or toward a particular way of being.

It's great material for journaling or discussing with a counselor or trusted friend,

Maybe even someone doing the series with you.

Whether you're just waking up,

Walking your dog,

On your commute,

Or getting ready for bed,

I hope these affirmations serve your deepest,

Greatest,

Highest self.

Let's begin.

I do my best to maintain perspective.

I do my best to maintain perspective.

I see the big picture in complex situations.

I see the big picture in complex situations.

My inner wisdom guides me to make thoughtful decisions.

My inner wisdom guides me to make thoughtful decisions.

I offer insights with humility and care.

I offer insights with humility and care.

My perspective helps me focus on what truly matters.

My perspective helps me focus on what truly matters.

I remain grounded in the face of uncertainty.

I remain grounded in the face of uncertainty.

I help others see things from a broader view.

I help others see things from a broader view.

I reflect before I respond.

I reflect before I respond.

I welcome growth through life's complexity.

I welcome growth through life's complexity.

I guide others gently when invited.

I guide others gently when invited.

I stay open to what life is here to teach me.

I stay open to what life is here to teach me.

I balance insight with emotional attunement.

I balance insight with emotional attunement.

I trust that wisdom unfolds over time.

I trust that wisdom unfolds over time.

I trust that wisdom unfolds over time.

My perspective is a gift I offer in service to the world.

My perspective is a gift I offer in service to the world.

My perspective is a gift I offer in service to the world.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

As always,

Thank you so much for being here and for honoring our strengths and showing up to this process with openness and intention.

Reviews

Thank you Hannah for this wonderful talk. It was perfect for me right now and the work I’m doing on myself🙏🩷