Take a break from your own serious standard routine in a situation

Our personalities play the game of living up to each others standards, values, expectations, do's and don'ts, what is allowed or normal and what isn't, etc. It is usually played quite seriously from an early age on, not only because of its rewards when you play it well, it also promises a quite reasonable way of predicting where to expect unpleasantness and how to avoid it.

A funny way to question these principles every now and then is, on a regular basis whenever you find yourself seriously involved in a situation, to introduce an unexpected thought. You need not even carry it out, although it often could lead to surprising results.

For example when you find yourself at the dinner table with your in-laws, boss, friends, colleagues etc, and you slip into the old routines, you could for example imagine how you would look back on this moment when you are all dead. Or what it would be like if you were not allowed to speak for an hour and could communicate with gestures and facial expressions only. Or your reaction when everybody at the table would wear a funny red clowns nose. Or when you would stop for an instant and started dancing together. Or when your purpose for this meeting would be to intensely disagree with each other. Or .... whatever you want, it is your fantasy! As long as it offers you a really refreshing new way of approaching the situation. And a bit of humor would not hurt either.

A new approach forces your personality to break with his familiar routine and automatic interpretations. These are fine opportunities for your inner Self to fill the space thus made available. It is not about a new approach giving you new ways to look at a situation, it will simply help you to remember that neither is a truth in itself.