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Can You Be an Outsider to Yourself?

Travel
by Carlo Alcos Dec 10, 2011
Sometimes a change in perspective is in order.

I CAME ACROSS this interesting post at the The Happiness Project. The author, Gretchen Rubin, discusses changing viewpoints when thinking about your needs. She advocates thinking about yourself in the third person.

I’ve been thinking a lot about self-love lately and how I find it difficult to direct energy inward that I find easy to direct outward. I guess it’s a form of thinking about “what do I need right now to fulfill myself?” It can be hard to figure this out; sometimes it takes an outside perspective to bring to light what it is.

So what if we could be that outside perspective ourselves? It’s a neat-sounding trick, one I haven’t yet really tried, but can see how it can be helpful. Gretchen finds it helpful for herself:

I asked myself, “What’s the best medicine for Gretchen when she feels drained?” And, when I framed the question about my nature that way, from outside myself, I immediately knew the answer. “Gretchen gets mentally refreshed by doing a lot of reading.”

Next time you’re out traveling — maybe trying to decide on a restaurant, a tour, or if you should make out with that guy/girl — give this a try. Check in with yourself. What does Carlo need?

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