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One way to describe most unhappiness is that we develop "tunnel vision," narrowly focusing in on a problem while ignoring everything else that surrounds it. We also tend to take problem experiences out of the flow of time, isolating them from what preceded and followed them. While this concentration can be useful in order to study a situation to see what can be done, a narrow view often leaves out the very information that we need in order to start moving toward a solution. To see a problem "in perspective" means to see it in relation to something else, and the same thing is true of our thinking about ourselves.
There are many, many ways to gain perspective. Simply expanding your field of vision to include much more of what is happening simultaneously in the moment gives a perspective that is literally wider and broader in scope, the "big picture" that includes much more information. Typically when a problem is seen within a larger context, it appears smaller and easier to solve, and the additional information included may provide a basis for a solution. Expanding the frame in this way is the most common pattern in most cartoons. Usually a series of small frames sets up a puzzling or confusing situation, and then a larger frame at the end includes something new that resolves the puzzle and makes sense out of it, changing the meaning. Sometimes the last frame simply draws attention to something that was already in the earlier frames, but was easy to overlook and ignore.
Since the frames in a cartoon typically indicate a time sequence, this example introduces the other way that we can increase scope, by turning a still picture into a sequential movie that shows a situation changing over a period of time. Expanding scope in either space, time, or both, is a simple, yet very powerful intervention that is an important part of many effective change patterns.
Simple dissociation, stepping out of a problem context, allows you to see yourself in relation to your surroundings. This gives you a different outside perspective, the perceptual position of a curious, and perhaps compassionate, but otherwise emotionally uninvolved observer. Taking on the perceptual position of another person in the same context provides yet another perspective, with different information.
Seeing two events that are separated in time in relation to each other creates another kind of perspective. Whenever we endure something unresourceful in order to move toward a desirable future, we are seeing how the present activity relates to our future outcome, providing a sequential perspective. This kind of perspective utilizes two representations that are connected simultaneously in our experience, yet which remain separate from each other in different time frames. People who overuse food, drugs and other forms of instant pleasure typically do not view their present behavior in relation to its long-term consequences. They can be taught to take a "longer view" to help them avoid experiences that may be pleasant, but which have later unpleasant consequences. The same kind of perspective can help them stick with tasks that are not inherently pleasant, but are useful in reaching pleasant goals.
Of course, in many contexts it can be very useful to have a narrow perspective, concentrating your attention and deliberately deleting other concerns, events, and information. Whenever you want to focus attention on a single task, or the simple enjoyment of life's pleasures, a broader perspective would only detract from your experience. All skills are useful in certain times and places, and every skill becomes a limitation if we lose the choice to use it or not in a particular situation.
John McWhirter has characterized the general form of a simultaneous perspective that is the basis for a healthy self-concept, a pattern that has many other useful applications.
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