Dear "Reframing"

Dear “reframing,”

This weekend wasn’t the first time I met you, but I still have trouble keeping you in mind. Kaz Brecher’s exercise on reframing was important and seems like it will be really helpful as I continue to try to help solve problems in my community, but it’s still difficult for me. Reframing by flipping what you see as a problem into an asset seems to me like it should be simple. Nonetheless, I have a lot of trouble with flipping my mindset all the way. In our group exercise on flipping mindsets, I continued to add caveats to my “positive” reframing. Clearly, this is not true reframing. Kaz defined reframing as overturning conventional wisdom to discover possibilities. Being able to use this tool properly seems like it could prompt a lot of positive thinking, as it approaches an issue with an asset-focused lens rather than a problem-focused one. While I’m still not great at reframing, practicing at Citizen University was really helpful, and I think this will ultimately be something I continue to need to work on for a long time until I naturally think more optimistically. It might be difficult, but I think it’ll be good for me and the communities I serve.

Thanks for reminding me that there’s always more to learn, reframing.