This is a phrase you may have heard before, several times: just look at the big picture. Whenever an issue pops up, an obstacle or a curveball, seeing the big picture helps us to put our situation into perspective. Seeing the big picture gives you the birds' eye view of a map you're trying to follow when you are faced with a corner or split in the road. It's some pretty helpful advice, but how does one do that? How is one supposed to zoom out and look beyond what they can see and where they are in their timeline to see this bigger picture?
The funny thing about perspective is how multidimensional it is. Exploring different perspectives can involve putting yourself in someone else's shoes and attempting to understand the same thing from the point of view of a completely different person, but it can also be more about the perspective of time. The way our brains develop and change over the years, changing the way we think, the default neural pathways that our brains are used to taking will shift and adjust to new circumstances, and new environmental factors that train our behavior. Time is a powerful tool in the art of perspective, as it affects everything from a person's priorities and interests to their physical and mental capabilities and the unique experiences that are collected in the old metaphorical tool belt.
I've been learning more and more about perspective, and just how relevant it is in various
aspects of life. Depression in particular has taught me the most about perspective. The fact that one can understand something in theory without truly understanding was a concept that was difficult for me to grasp before I began to experience hardships and different things that other people weren't necessarily experiencing. It was even more difficult to realize that this, by no means, made me special. The human experience is so intensely unique and individual, that one of the hardest obstacles to overcome can be getting over the fact that everyone does suffer, for a laundry list of reasons, and that there is no other choice but to keep moving forward. And sometimes moving forward only seems possible by looking at this bigger picture.
The biggest mistake when looking for this bigger picture, is assuming you will always, eventually be able to see the whole thing.The bigger picture is about control, having the answers; the bigger the picture, the more answers will be staring you in the face, and the more questions you'll be forced to ask yourself. This larger picture is about knowing and trusting that no one knows how tall the ladder reaches or where you happen to be positioned on it at any given moment. Never-ending, like a painting that is always being added to.
Last year, in the summer of 2021, I was lucky enough to participate in a New Artists' Gallery Exhibition at the Inman Perk Coffee Shop in Gainesville, Georgia. This year, I am even more thrilled to be able to be putting on my very own art show at the same venue, this coming august. It will last for the whole month of August 2022, and I will be the only artist whose art will decorate the walls. Sometimes I have this feeling like I'm in a race and I don't know how long it is or where the finish line might be, and when I make these little accomplishments, it makes me feel like I've at least made some headway in this race. As if I finally put some of the track behind me.
So that's when I really started thinking about this big picture. Exactly how big is this picture anyway, and when do we know when to stop looking? And yet again, a simple idea becomes profound. This big picture that we need to be looking at-that we have been looking at our whole lives- is infinitely large. We zoom in and zoom out, and yet this frame always seems to stay the same size, filled to the edges with information-a picture worth an infinite amount of words, not to mention the ever-changing world with its ever-growing population... all of this adds to the big picture; it is us who must adjust our frame, our point of reference.
This feeling of an impending... something, that I need to be preparing for, an anxiety to get my life together and settle down as soon as I possibly can, that so many young people are feeling these days, is meaningless. If you enjoy the rush of competition and earning more than you could ever need, then that is a goal to work towards for yourself; otherwise, your big picture may look a little different. This race to get to some kind of imaginary finish line does nothing but cause unnecessary anxiety to run towards something that doesn't exist. At what point do you stop working towards peace and happiness? At what point do you decide that you are done doing the things you want to do and becoming the person you want to continue to be? What is the rush? Working towards our goals is what everyone should be doing, because what else is life about but pursuing the things that make you happy? Taking the 'race' aspect out of this equation only serves to take away the anxiety and add a little more peaceful to the journey. Peace can heal the pain, and we all need a little more of that.
How big is this picture? I'd like to think it's as big as you choose to make it. Not to say that adjusting your frame is simple by any means, because it is not. I think seeing the big picture is about balancing letting go of the things in life you can't control, with taking hold of the things you can control.
But that's just a little bit of emotional rambling from someone who thinks too much.
Until Next Time,
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