Going to the balcony is a way to collect your wits in the midst of conflict, to distance yourself from your natural impulses and emotions, according to William Ury. If you mentally go to the balcony…actually picture yourself walking up the steps to a balcony…and look down on the stage of any troublesome situation, you see a bigger picture. You can get above the emotions of the moment and see the relatedness of the parts, including you! It becomes clearer that when something changes in one part of the picture, it affects the other parts. When you take the long view, you see patterns and natural cycles in behavior over time.