Is Perspective Reality?

Last spring, I took a critical thinking course, and one of our discussions centered around a simple question:

Is perspective reality?

I immediately thought of a principal I once had. She used to remind us of that, and at the time I remember thinking about it often. Looking back now, I realize I understood the words, but I didn’t yet understand the weight they carried.

Then I read the responses from my classmates.

It was incredible to see how differently everyone answered the exact same question. No two responses were alike. As I read through them, I found myself wondering about each person’s life. What had they experienced? What had they overcome? What had shaped the way they saw the world?

It made me realize that perspective isn’t created overnight. It’s built over a lifetime.

The older I get, the more I notice this in yoga too.

I can guide the same class, say the same words, and teach the very same pose, yet every person experiences it differently. One person finds peace. Another feels frustration. Someone else feels grief they didn’t expect. None of them are wrong. They’re simply arriving on the mat carrying different stories.

Life is no different.

We can all witness the same conversation, the same event, or the same season of life and walk away with completely different understandings of what happened.

That doesn’t always mean someone is right and someone is wrong.

Sometimes it simply means we’re looking through different windows.

I think that’s something we’ve forgotten.

We’ve become so quick to defend our own perspective that we rarely stop to wonder what someone else has lived through to arrive at theirs.

Yoga has taught me to pause before I react.

To breathe before I judge.

To stay curious instead of becoming defensive.

It doesn’t mean I’ll always agree with another perspective.

It does mean I want to understand it.

Maybe that’s one of the greatest gifts we can give each other.

Not agreement.

Understanding.