A few days ago, in a group session that I was facilitating, I witnessed a fascinating reframing of internal perspective.
When I asked to share the emotion or feeling with which the participants were entering the space, one of them shared the word "perplexed".
A fascinating word for a powerful inner state to confront.
We have all been there, probably more than once.
It's that state in which we feel confused and are also slightly worried because we do not understand our own confusion.
When we are perplexed, getting entwined with the problem or the challenge we are facing is easy. We get lost in our own confusion, making things worst. It's like when we get scared in water and begin to move frantically to get out of it. By doing that, we just make things worst. The best thing to do is to relax and stay still, so the water will keep our body afloat.
Similarly, the perplexed participant just stayed with that emotion. And by the end of the session, a decisive shift of perspective happened; that perplexity transformed into curiosity.
The confusion was still there. However, instead of worrying about it, there was now the desire to explore it.
Sometimes, we need really a little to completely transform a situation. Something like changing one word.
Words create worlds; by changing how we label something, we change our attitude towards it.