A Wider Lens: How to See Your Life Differently

This book has evolved from my many years of practicing Systemic Psychotherapy and Homeopathy to help people create a wider lens through which they view their lives. I believe the integration of these two powerful disciplines, plus years of teaching, provides a large enough sample for a scientific qualitative study, the results of which inform this book. Each commentary in A Wider Lens is followed by suggestions to help you see and experience your life from a broader and deeper viewpoint. The objective is to see your life as being more than the sum of its individual parts. This book can assist you in creating a paradigm shift in perspective that will help make your life work better, by seeing it differently. The chapters that follow are a self-fulfillment process that I use in my practice. It consists of being in the present to better widen your lens; being in an environment that is supportive; being able to celebrate possibilities and lastly allowing yourself to be fallible by adjusting. Later in this book, I'll describe how to widen your lens by identifying a core problem or grievance that you might not have articulated. To help reframe and amend the problem, I will share various "tools" from my experience working with Systemic Psychotherapy, Mindfulness, Homeopathy and Aikido, a martial art based on peace and harmony. The process of identifying one's core problem or grievance, is what Carl Jung believed to be the "journey of the self" constantly trying to correct and adjust. This process in no way condones or minimizes past hardships. A Wider Lens can assist you in recognizing what you need for this journey, to better navigate your path. In a very real sense, by undertaking the quest to understand who you are, you will make a profound step toward fulfilling the human desire we each have for completeness. I will also recommend using "like" (in the form of emotional inductions and/or homeopathic remedies) to cure "like" mental and physical issues. For instance, the homeopathic remedy Arnica, a mountain daisy that in full potency will create bruises, however it will heal one's contusions from an injury when used in a watered down homeopathic potency. Likewise, in many cases a narrative of someone else's grief will alleviate another's experience of similar grief. What hopefully results from this exploration is a recipe that will facilitate personal change in the lives of those looking to enhance their well-being.