Reframing is a great tool that can be helpful in changing our perspective on something. Often times, things are not inherently good or bad. It is our perception and applied judgement that makes them so. This has been identified in the play Hamlet by Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” We see this early reference to the idea of reframing far back through time.
Reframing is simply taking the context in which we put an idea and changing the words around that context to ones that might be more tolerable or even desirable. I could describe ice cream as a solidified liquid from an a large smelly animal that can often cause intense cranial pain when consumed. Reframing has the ability to make the desirable undesirable and the undesirable anywhere from tolerable to desirable.
I discussed this topic quickly in the mindfulness post in describing what is being perceived as pleasant or unpleasant, helpful or unhelpful, rather than good or bad. Good and bad have so many previously linked preconceptions to those words, whereas we do not often use the words pleasant or unpleasant despite meaning almost exactly the same thing.
There was actually a recent article on the PsyPost that looked at a study on reframing in the context of alone time. In the article, Mane Kara-Yakoubian discusses how these studies showed the effect of simply labeling the alone time of the studies and the perceived impact on wellbeing. The studies examined both identified impact on the perception and impact of the alone time. Reframing alone time as “Me time” rather than “Isolation” seems to have a great impact on how we view this time and its affect on our wellbeing.
This brings us back to what Hamlet was professing in Shakespeare’s play. It is our perception of our circumstances that determines our feelings rather than a true nature of any situation. It is the distress caused by the situation or mental health symptoms that makes them intolerable. Being able to reduce this distress can reduce any influence mental health issues have on our lives.
Take some time to look at something you view as negative in your life right now. See how you might be able to reframe it to be less impactful. Even chart your mood over the course of a week with a simple emotion identification and a scale of 1-10 per day. Does it change over the week?