Perceptual Positions – What is this?
Perceptual positions describes the way we perceive the world, be it through our own eyes, in another person’s shoes, or from the detached, fly-on-the-wall position.
You will be familiar with these already through such experiences as:
- an awareness that not everyone in the world shares your point of view.
- arguing the case for someone else as you just ‘get it’.
- feeling emotional when someone is telling you about a problem they are
experiencing in their life, or just watching a television program and crying. - noticing the empathy of health care workers as they leave you feeling like
they really care. - a need to sometimes step back to get an objective view
What you are naturally experiencing is different perceptual positions. From each of these positions you gain a uniquely different experience and by learning to take an altered perspective in situations, you gain a newfound sense of balance, alongside an increased richness of experience and new options.
So utilising and accessing different perceptual positions allows us to have multiple perspectives in a situation so that we can have greater influence and be even more flexible.
