News
Think Like a Lion
It was the snake charmer in the summer, now it’s the lion tamer’s turn – all those years as a kid wanting to run away to the circus…they weren’t wasted! See below!
Graham Thomas Chipperfield, a star lion tamer with Barnum & Bailey Circus, was once bitten by Sheba, one of his 500-pound lionesses. Before the mauled tamer ever attempted to re-enter the cage, he made very sure to see what had happened from Sheba’s point of view. He knew that lions tended to think of the trainer as another lion, so when he had bounded into the cage to break up a fight between Sheba and another lion, Sheba had simply seen Chipperfield as wanting to join in the fight too.
Chipperfield did not waste time sitting around blaming Sheba for her ferocious way of being. Instead, he took the time to see the biting through Sheba’s eyes so that it would never happen again.
Many therapists, even going as far back as Freud, had and have clients role-play situations from the offending party’s perspective. Before you shriek back in horror at the thought of any form of role-play, remember you’re not attempting to win an Oscar – it’s at your pace as you explore and take time to step back and understand your contribution to the bad event you’ve just been through.
Never, ever, put yourself back into the same environment – be it a marriage, a job, a friendship – not until you’ve fully understood how things are from “the lion’s point of view”.