The mystery of the commonplace is hidden by veils of the obvious. To recognize one's biases means to put one's beliefs, one's cherished notions, out on the table. A helpful aid in reflecting on and articulating an experience is the question, "What am I taking for granted?" Commonly used terms, such as, "psychiatric patient," "orthopedic patient," "oncology unit," "uncooperative," "emotional," "chronic," "terminal," "hopeless," "outpatient," "ambulatory," "visitors," "family," "doctor," "nurse," "administration," "front office" have an aura of connotations that may correspond to or differ greatly from the actual immediate experience. It may be a case where believing is seeing. The habit of premature labeling may close a person to the full savoring of experience. Another means of increasing openness to one's own perspective is to consciously note whether the phenomenon is being experienced actively or passively. For example, the phenomenon may be the motion of changing a patient's position in bed. Both experience the motion, but it is a different experience for the nurse who actively moves the patient and for the patient who is moved passively. Or again, many studies of the phenomenon of empathy have been reported in the literature. Almost exclusively, these are descriptions of empathizing with someone; only rarely are they concerned with the experience of being empathized with. Yet obviously, the active and passive experiences of the phenomenon of empathy are different. The same holds true for touching and being touched, bathing and being bathed, feeding and being fed, supporting and being supported, reassuring and being reassured, and many other phenomena in nursing. Similarly, awareness of one's perspective may be increased by consciously realizing whether the phenomenon is being viewed objectively or subjectively. Consider for example, phenomena such as pain, anxiety, sleep, restlessness, boredom. Seeing evidence of pain in another person is not the same as feeling pain within myself. Recognizing objective signs of anxiety in another person differs from the subjective experience of feeling anxious myself. Sleeping and observing someone sleeping are two different experiences. The same hold true for restlessness, boredom, and so forth.