Reframing

THINKING TOOLS – Models and Frameworks

You can reframe a belief, behaviour or relationship by putting it in a different context. This gives it another perspective or a different meaning. If a belief or behaviour is limiting your ability to solve a problem or see new possibilities. Changing the context can bring new interpretations which enable new possibilities to be seen, felt or heard. It is often used to help the mind create

Reframing is often used to help the mind create a different context so it is looked at from another point of view. You may then feel relieved or able to deal with a situation better. For example, if your manager criticises you for not being objective enough in your assessment of others, you could see this as you being good with people or great at appreciating the creativity.

You reframe “as if” it were a positive comment. If you are in conflict with another part of yourself or someone else, reframing can help you switch the time frame, switch into another body, assume you have the information or commitment you need to consider alternative solutions to the problem.

Perception

Reframing is about changing the way an event is perceived, thereby changing its meaning. Words too can be interpreted in a different way. This is the basis of many jokes. When comedian Ronnie Barker walked into a shop and asked for “fork handles” the assistant thought he was asking for “four candles” when he actually wanted “fork handles”. Reframing is at the root of creative thinking too. Just asking someone who is being negative – “In what context would this behaviour be seen as positive?” Will it refocus the mind on an alternative perspective.

Everyone is entitled to their point of view, simply because that is what it is, just a point of view. The meaning you make when seeing things from that position depends on how you make sense of the experience—which is always going to be a partial view. This is because the brain filters the data it draws in through its senses by generalising, distorting or simply deleting bits of to serve an already chosen point of view. This shifts how the context is interpreted when external events are filtered to make sense when passed through our interpretation of the distinctions, memories, values and beliefs that gain our attention. This process produces the language we choose, the mood we adopt and how we behave as a result. This process is summarised in the diagram below.

Our unique experiences cause us to see different consequences from the connections made with other similar experiences. Even the new science of Quantum Physics allows “matter” to be seen as waves or particles as your mind flips from one assumption to another. You tend to see what you’re looking for or expect to see.

Movie Making

When considering emotions and the meaning of words we find they are tied together with time. Feelings of guilt or shame often relate to something that happened in the past. Yet, we may be holding on to that guilt today and allow it to influence how you live tomorrow. Going back in time to picture what was actually happening just ten minutes before the event about which you felt guilty took place, we can ask ourselves: Where is the guilt or shame now? From this perspective, the memory will be different. Is it still in front of us? Well no, because there were things you didn’t know then that you know now, so be gentle on yourself. This simple exercise can help to destroy the guilt for most people, as it seems unnecessary and no longer important or relevant, especially when we now have new experience and knowledge to draw on. What was unknown to us then is only too clear today because we have more resources to draw on

If that event in the past remains in the past, it loses its power over us today. It is a memory of then—not what’s happening now. When you discover new ways to interpret the event from logical reasoning, you can let go of the guilt and keep the learning. What is happening here is a recognition that a context drawn from the past will be given a meaning different from the way we might assess it today. Our unconscious mind can make more distinctions because it has learned to think and react in more informed ways than it could back then. You can make more “distinctions” now. However, there may be a part of us that thinks it is still important because it delivers benefits for us today.

We can then explore what else we could do to reframe those thoughts enabling us to forget any anxious ot guilty feelings. We are dealing here with feelings, not facts. Our feelings show how we choose to react to events outside ourselves. The event did not induce the feeling, we did. If our mind created it then, with a bit of practice, we can cut it from our mind. Holding on to perceptions that no longer serve us is one of the biggest blocks to learning. If we stay in touch with current reality (what we pereceive is happening now), we will see that we need to let go of the guilt, shame and other fantasies and fears that are stopping us making the most of our present moment. For more information on these techniques read

Realisations

When people deal with significant events in their past, they actually change their perception of those events. It involves reflecting on real meaning. This way the present can be connected with the past and shape intentions for the future. For example, John Heimler transformed his experience of NAZI concentration camps into a personal success story. He came to see that it was love that sustained him through the blackness of Auschwitz because it was something that could not be taken away from him and could endure. It is possible to be happy when we understand that we can anchor the response at any time. It then becomes a resource available to us now and is not dependent on having a happy past. The past does not have the power to control us today if we do not allow it to. We do not have to blame ourselves or others for our past as we can decide to see it differently today. We can redefine our attitude to the past. To do this we need to disconnect our feelings inside us to events outside us that cause us to react negatively or positively. To change our reactions we have to change our choices. It requires inner balancing to realise how we can unlock the things that are holding us back from a better future. We can discover a new way of being by changing the way we think, feel, act, and talk by bringing them into harmony.

References

Timeline Therapy by Tad James & Wyatt Woodsmall.  Meta 1989