Perspective Owl
When wondering what strength to focus on first, perspective kept popping up. My rational brain was telling me to focus on creativity or curiosity, but my heart sang perspective. Perspective won!
There is so much happening in the world right now, perspective is an invaluable strength to explore! A dear friend shared how her little one was really struggling with friendships and in particular, understanding and relating to different perspectives. It's taking a toll on her emotional state and relationships. We talked about ways Perspective Owl can help kids understand others thoughts and feelings and brainstorm helpful ways to respond. This helps to build empathy and resilience.
What is the Strength of Perspective?
Perspective has levels. Ultimately, it is defined as 'being able to provide wise counsel to others; having ways of looking at the world that make sense to oneself and to other people.' (Niemiec, 2018)
Perspective for children is all about understanding both their own and other viewpoints and developing empathy. It’s about developing awareness of their own and others feelings, thoughts and values and growing skills to respond appropriately. From a world view, perspective is all about processing what’s happening around them, how it makes them feel, others feel and developing ways to respond in a way that’s within their control.
There is no time like now to help our kids make sense of their emotions, and the situations we're all facing. Life is different. With that in mind, we’re leading with the character strength of perspective.
How does Perspective help my family?
Perspective can help kids to:
- Build and maintain relationships.
- Build empathy.
- Develop social intelligence.
- Manage conflict.
- Grow resilience – ability to bounce back from adversity.
- Develop essential leadership skills of being able to listen, understand and act on different viewpoints and situations.
- Understand (as much as possible) the bigger picture of what’s happening in the world/school/family etc.
Perspective can help us to:
- Take a wider view.
- Bring both feeling and rationality into decisions.
- Grow deeper empathy for ourselves, our children, our family and others.
- Understand how we need to adapt to meet other’s communication and behavioural needs (think workplace as well as home).
- Understand our own limits.
- Give awareness of what we’re tuning into as a parent. Are we working to manage our brains negative bias by looking for what works?
- Are we focusing on what’s not working or what’s working?
- Be aware of our parenting approach.
And so much more!
Perspective is one of the strengths most connected with a life of engagement. It is shown to buffer us against the negative effects of stress and trauma. (Niemiec, 2018)
We can use the Perspective Owl to help our kids think about situations from other's view points. You can develop their strength of perspective by flying Owl around the room to see things from a different view, sit Owl on the shoulder of friends and families (photos) and use Owl to have fun thinking and feeling into the shoes of others. You can work through problems and create a sense of ease and confidence in how they might approach new and challenging situations.
Perspective helps to create a happy home.
If you would like to do some activities with your kids that help them develop perspective, you can download this mini printable pack.
References
Niemiec, R (2018). Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners. Hogrefe Publishing Corporation.
Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006, a). Character strengths and happiness among young children: Content analysis of parental descriptions. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(3), 323-341.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Character strengths and virtues a handbook and classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Simmel, G. (1950). The sociology of Georg Simmel. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.