Perspective can be defined as: ‘a point of view’ or ‘way of thinking about things’ and I would argue when you have OCD your perspective is somewhat skewed towards the negative, worst case scenario and quite often completely illogical.

This is mostly due to the fact that we’re not thinking with our cognitive brains. When triggered by OCD obsessions, our more animalistic brain takes over and this one likes to think in black and white – no time for nuance when the obsession is being categorised as a life or death situation!

I heard a lovely story, which I believe originated in India, which highlights the flaws in perspective nicely:

Six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephants body. The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar, the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope, the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear say the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. -Taken from Brightening our inner skies Yin and Yoga by Norman Blair

We can learn from this story that quite often in life we are not seeing the whole picture. Our anxious brains have got us to focus in on the worst case scenario, often catastrophizing events to laughable levels, this causes us endless unnecessary suffering.

Do you find you catastrophise events and lose perspective?
Remember you are not alone, this is incredibly common but by having some knowledge we can remind ourselves that quite often there is another more favourable way to look at things.

If you most catastrophise then why not DO IT POSITIVELY!

As always,
Stay Strong xxx