A deeper process
LENS Process
Locate · Examine · Name · Shift
LENS supports the broader journey of YOUR PAST → YOUR WORLD → YOUR FUTURE. Use it to look closely at one real situation and choose a practical next step.
Explore the Method →
Locate
Start with one situation
Find where the pattern lives. Notice when it happens, where it happens, who is involved, and what usually comes right before it.
Describe a recent moment rather than a conclusion about yourself. Where were you? Who was there? What happened just before the tension? Write down what you observed and what you inferred.
At work, you agree to another task even though your week is already full.
Examine
Look around the pattern
Look at the social forces around it. What roles, rules, expectations, pressures, rewards, punishments, or missing supports are shaping the situation?
Consider family expectations, culture, social class, institutions and resources. Ask which rules are explicit, which are assumed, and who has the power to change them. Include strengths and available support.
Your role is unclear, reliability is rewarded with extra work, and you learned that saying no is disloyal.
Name
Use specific, ordinary language
Put the pattern into words. Naming the force helps you stop blaming yourself and start understanding what is really happening.
A useful name describes a pattern you can examine; it does not diagnose a person. Separate the facts, the expectations and your interpretation. Revise the description when new information appears.
“I keep accepting work without clarifying priorities” gives you something more concrete to work with than “I am failing.”
Shift
Try a proportionate change
Choose one realistic next move. A shift may be a new sentence, a boundary, a change in routine, a request for help, or a different way to respond.
Choose a step that fits your money, time, responsibilities and influence. Notice what happens and revisit the situation. If a setting resists a reasonable change, that is information for your next decision.
Ask: “Which current task should I move to make room for this?” Then review the response before deciding what to do next.
Return to the situation. Try again.
The four movements can be revisited as circumstances change. Understanding comes from looking, trying and learning.
Ways to practice