Looking at things from a new perspective can help to overcome inner blockages, develop new food for thought and find solutions. The reframing method achieves just that.
There are some situations in life that make it difficult for us to maintain a positive outlook on life. However, some people seem to keep their cool even in the most difficult of situations; it brings almost nothing out of balance. But what do these people do differently? You simply perceive differently.
The power of your own thoughts
“There is nothing that is good or bad in itself, only thinking makes it that way” – even William Shakespeare recognized the power of one’s own thoughts. We have up to 80,000 thoughts a day. The question of what we think about it is of fundamental importance. After all, our thinking literally affects all of life. Thoughts are the cornerstone of your own personality, affect our understanding of ourselves, our fellow human beings and our behavior. Beliefs, character traits and all life decisions are based on the power of one’s own thoughts.
The power of thoughts has even been scientifically proven in the meantime. The so-called Bannister phenomenon from 1954 serves as a prime example. Never before in human history has an athlete managed to run a mile (around 1.6 kilometers) in four minutes. Athletes, track and field athletes, even scientists and doctors were convinced that it was simply physically impossible.
The British middle-distance runner and neurologist Roger Bannister disagreed and was not dissuaded from his plan – with success. On May 6, 1954, he was the first person to run the English mile in less than four minutes. In an interview afterwards, he said that he had already seen this run a thousand times in his minds. After Bannister, 37 more runners cracked the time mark in the same year, the following year the number exceeded 300 – simply because the runners were convinced, thanks to Bannister, that it was possible. We can therefore achieve just about anything through the power of our own thoughts alone.
What is reframing?
The term reframing is derived from the English term “frame”. Reframing is a method from systematic psychotherapy and neurolinguistic programming that can be traced back to the American family therapist Virginia Satir. The core of reframing is to look at situations in a new context and to give them a new, beneficial meaning. With the help of the new framework, it is possible to subjectively perceive, interpret and experience an objectively unchanged situation in a different way. That alone enables us to react differently and opens up new, previously unrecognized options for action.
A well-known example to illustrate the practice is the question of whether a glass is half full or half empty. Viewed objectively, both glasses are equally full or equally empty – and yet, depending on the perspective, you come to a different result.
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Everyday practice
Basically, we give every situation a framework every day – mostly unconsciously. We interpret events against the background of certain thought patterns, expectations and attributions. Depending on the mood, the manufactured frame can be positive or negative. In the long run, however, negative interpretations not only lead to dissatisfaction, frustration and a restricted ability to act. Often the same aspects of familiar situations are perceived every day. However, the impermissible narrowing down to partial aspects prevents our own horizons from expanding and means that we are constantly moving in our comfort zone. The purpose of reframing is to consciously look beyond one’s own “framework” and take a different look at things. This can be helpful in a professional as well as everyday environment and help us to come up with new ideas, approaches and desired changes. As Virginia Satir said, “Life is not what it should be. It is what it is. The way you deal with it makes all the difference.”
The method: Forms of reframing
There are now numerous different forms of reframing. The basic principle is based on the following three basic assumptions, which in turn can be traced back to the concept of neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP for short. This deals with the subjective perception of people and the question of which factors control our experience and how we produce our own experiences. It was developed in the 1970s by psychologists Richard Bandler and John Grinder.
- Any behavior makes sense in any context.
- Every behavior is given a meaning.
- There is a positive intention behind every behavior.
In NLP, according to Bandler and Grinder, a distinction is made between meaning and context reframing.
Meaning reframing
Meaning reframing is the process of giving the content of a situation a new meaning. According to NLP, most people who dislike an unpleasant sensory perception of a situation are actually reluctant to react to it. So if you can change the meaning of a situation, your reaction to it will change too.
An example from my circle of friends serves as an illustration. A mother is annoyed by the shoes of her children lying around in the entrance area. She has already asked them numerous times to put the shoes in the shoe closet after taking them off. For her, “shoes standing around” means “Nobody is interested in my concerns.” However, with the help of meaning reframing, she gives the situation a new, more positive meaning. She attributes the shoes standing around to the thoughtlessness of her children. She assumes that they do not want to show her disrespect with their behavior, but simply do not think about their concerns in their childlike lightheartedness. For her, “shoes standing around” mean “childlike ease, life and light-heartedness”. Due to the positive association, she no longer gets upset about the behavior and thus reduces inner feelings of stress.
Context reframing
Context reframing refers to a change in the context by placing the behavior in question in a different context – accordingly, a situation is considered under changed framework conditions. According to Bandler and Grinder, a situation may be disadvantageous in some ways, but advantageous in others.
Working together in a team serves as an example. One team member is more cautious and skeptical. This results in delays in the implementation process, the team partner is annoyed and feels handicapped. However, if he puts the situation in a new context, he comes to the realization that the critical team member with his accuracy and skepticism recognizes potential errors and inaccuracies in the process at an early stage. In the new context, he combines the behavior of the partner as a helpful measure for quality assurance instead of hindering the work process. In this way, he appreciates the cooperation in the team, which in turn automatically leads to an improved working atmosphere.
Advantages of reframing
Reframing can help to change your own perception of a situation and to look at it from a more positive perspective. The aim is not to gloss over circumstances, but rather to change your perspective on events, which can help you to better achieve your personal goals.
According to the concept of neurolinguistic programming, human beliefs and expectations usually have certain fixed patterns of interpretation. This explains why some people remain consistently optimistic and others don’t. With reframing, you break out of your usual thought patterns and look for new, more helpful beliefs. This also creates new ideas or solutions to problems that were not even considered before. Viriginia Satir has made use of this in family therapy.
Since this does not solve the problems per se, but only changes the perspective on them, reframing is also referred to as second-order problem solving. In any case, it will help you achieve your personal goals, broaden your horizons and generally go through life with a more positive attitude.
Criticism of reframing – naive denial of reality?
Critics of the method see the danger in reframing that people only look at the world through rose-colored glasses and thus fool themselves. What is certain is that reframing will never dissolve your problems. It just helps you see things in a new light and makes your life easier. This not only strengthens your self-esteem, but also supports you in the targeted search for alternative solutions. The aim is to carefully change your perspective and thus to have a more positive attitude towards other people and yourself.
Of course, reframing also has its limits. Seeing an accident as a reason not to leave the house is not the point of reframing. Reframing does not serve to gloss over any situation, but opens up one’s own perception to new perspectives and possibilities for action.
Sources: “Forming attitudes via neural activity supporting affective episodic simulations”, Art University Linz, University of Cologne, spectrum, Satir, V., Baldwin, M. – Family Therapy in Action, The Concepts of Virginia Satir in Theory and Practice