The Power of Perspective Shifts
Dear friends,
Have you ever thought about how miraculous a shift in perspective can be?
We spend years attached to one way of thinking about a challenge, opportunity, person, or place, then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, we have an experience or insight that completely changes how we see the same “reality”.
The external reality may not change in the slightest, but once our perspective changes, how we feel, move, relate, and behave changes. And before long, that reality will never look the same – we overcome the challenge, reconsider the opportunity, shift our relationships, or let go of places.
When most of us think of miraculous experiences, we typically imagine major extraordinary occurrences that cause shock and awe. For example, a terminally ill patient being cured out of the blue or a person walking away from an extreme car collision without a scratch.
Many of us also recognize that there are miracles happening all around us and in the small moments of life. Even the fact that you are effortlessly breathing, reading, and seeing these words can be considered miraculous.
But we often forget that the most powerful miraculous experiences do not happen to us or around us, but through us.
When we change our perspective, we change, and before long, our reality changes along with us. In fact, I believe that A Course of Miracles defines a miracle as “a shift in perspective” for this reason. We have the capacity to be living miraculously – every single day!
By regularly taking the time to slow down and being present with ourselves, we create the fertile ground for miracles to happen. It is in this space that we can examine our thought patterns, stories, and internal blocks, identifying areas where perspective shifts are needed.
We may not always receive the shifts right away, however. This in-between space will sometimes require us to surrender our old ways of being and thinking without knowing what to replace them with. It can feel incredibly uncomfortable and unsettling to be in this void.
That’s how we know we have met a new edge–the edge of new perspectives, new growth, and new miracles that are about to unfold through us. This is when our deepest presence and attention is needed the most, so we can be receptive to the fresh perspectives that are coming in and piece by piece, create our new reality.
Unfortunately, in this digital age filled with apps, notifications, and distractions, and with all the competing demands on our time, most of us never get this far—missing out on incredible opportunities for major shifts and miracles every single day.
When I flew out of Los Angeles back in 2023, I thought I was taking a vacation and would be back within a few weeks. I didn’t expect the countless perspective shifts that would be on their way, miraculously changing the trajectory of my life forever.
Six countries and fifteen cities later, never in my wildest dreams could I have envisioned such an unexpected and incredible journey. I’ve visited places that I had never heard of, had experiences I didn’t know I needed, and met complete strangers who have nourished my spirit.
But for the life of me, I can’t identify one major miraculous event that sparked this adventure of a lifetime. There have been a series of miraculous moments where I noticed myself facing a block and needing to shift my perspective. Countless times, nearly on a daily basis, I didn’t know what my next steps would be, where I would be going, or how my next step could even be possible.
The only way I’ve been able to meet edge after edge, and experience miracle after miracle has been by fiercely protecting my attention and focus and even disappearing from social media. I had always been mindful, but this experience has required a whole different level of mental discipline. I’ve needed to stay fully present, breathe through the uncertainty, and meet the edges and perspective shifts to fully experience the awe and miraculous moment-to-moment opening and unfolding of it all.
This life-changing experience has shown me how truly miraculous life can be—if we are present enough to allow for it. Now, your journey may not look like mine—it may not involve travel or stepping away from everything and everyone that was ever familiar to you to this extent. But these moments of transformation and perspective shifts come for all of us, in different ways. The key is being present enough to recognize them when they arrive.
But maybe the reason many of us easily fall into distracting, busying, and over committing ourselves is because a part of us doesn’t want to allow enough presence for perspective shifts and miracles to occur. Maybe a part of us isn’t fully ready and is scared of what those shifts could mean—for our careers, organizations, relationships, and lives—and the changes they would bring about, and who we would need to become, even if, in the long run, they would ultimately be good for us.
Receiving miracles every day sounds lovely and amazing, but it can also be terrifying and disruptive, especially for our nervous systems that are wired to seek safety in the familiar - even if the familiar is struggle, pain, and stuckness.
To make miracles a regular part of our lives, to experience the natural miraculous and unpredictable flow of life with ease, we must be prepared to live in the unknown and walk through it bravely.
Over this next month, I invite you to gently notice wherever you face a block or moment of frustration, anxiety, or uncertainty. Notice how you immediately cope with it. Do you reach outward for answers? Do you run from it? Do you shut down? Or do you drop into the moment and curiously go inward?
Challenge yourself to choose the latter and lean into it. As uncomfortable as it may feel, know that you are on the cusp of a perspective shift and receiving a miracle.
Allow yourself to gently meet this experience with presence, curiosity, and compassion. Practice breathing and even relaxing in this space, surrendering the need to figure it out with your mind, and opening yourself up to the possibility of a new insight and perspective on this situation.
You may even be invited to lovingly meet the parts of you that get scared, want to cling to the illusion of certainty, and want to run from this space and the incoming breakthrough.
Be with it all and trust that this is exactly where you need to be. It is all here to give you important data and teach you something about yourself and your path forward.
You were born to continuously expand your perspective and live miraculously, and now, you are allowing yourself to do so.
Once you fully surrender to the experience, seemingly out of nowhere, the insight and perspective shift will come and you’ll be taking actions and making what you previously thought to be impossible, possible.
May this month be the start of you welcoming more presence, more perspective shifts, and an endless stream of miracles into your life.
May you trust that each shift is leading you exactly where you are meant to be.
And may you continue to thrive!
Maliheh