Use your eyes to rise

The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye.

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Few sensations can compare to those we feel when we are looking into a horizon. So many words have attempted to describe it and failed. Paintings and films do their best to capture the impression, but our body knows we are getting a well-meaning reproduction. The event holds a much deeper meaning than just a combination of sensations.

Imagine looking out into a field under a cloudy afternoon sky. The imagery is enough to set off a relaxed state. Now picture yourself going down the Florida turnpike at rush hour, cars zipping by left and right. Our attention scanning through multiple tasks: we must monitor oncoming traffic, be alerted to impending hazards, while propelling our vehicle through arbitrary lines on pavement.  With no time to contemplate or comprehend, our body enters an activated state. We can begin to understand the power our perception has over our state of being, and vice-versa.

Now imagine, for example, you were in an art gallery in front of a very large painting. From across the room, its aura beckoned your eyes and drew you nearer. Now face to face with the work of art you start noticing certain details not revealed from your original viewpoint. A character in the foreground, an expressive texture in the brushwork, an extra color revealed only upon close inspection. Suddenly the painting becomes even more interesting, more effective.

Impressionists like Monet sought to replicate the mindset brought about by the beautiful landscapes they experienced in person. His style consisted of the “ultimate expression of a realism of sensation”.[1]

Water Lilies by Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To appreciate a work like this, the viewer must stand a few feet away and calm the gaze. The goal of the painter was not to convey the object but the impression of the object.[2] A stunning, glorious impression only available to those willing to enter the state of mind that welcomes beauty through gentle contemplations. This process can give us an idea of how it’s possible to manage our body’s energetic state using our senses.

Eventually, my eyes were opened, and I really understood nature. I learned to love at the same time.

Claude Monet

Every human being has two forms of visual processing: the  ambient mode, responsible for navigating space and comprehending scene layout and the focal mode, which involves attention,  is for gathering salient details of the visual field.[3] For thousands of years, our survival has depended on our ability to employ both of these effectively.

One example of this use is in the case of visual narrowing or tunnel vision. This phenomenon takes place when, under notable stress, an object catches a person’s attention and the visual field constricts resulting in loss of peripheral vision.

On the other hand, ambient vision, which does not require attention, is probably unaffected by attentional narrowing. This is because it acts in concert with functions that are more reflexive in nature like spatial orientation, posture, and gaze stability [4]

Because we have the ability to voluntarily shift between the two, depending on the situation, we have a tremendous opportunity to use our eyesight to either spy potential threats in our environment or to find a natural connection with our best deportment.

Now imagine you are an African Hadza tribe hunter, roaming the plains in search of your next meal. Your favorite hunting place is just a morning’s trot away. At first light, you jog there with a steady pace and eyes to the horizon. A valley opens up and you take in the view of the vast, open field before you inspire a hearty breath. Scanning the landscape, you notice the tree under which you like to take shade and the stones upon which you would play as a child. The wind strokes the high grass in endless sprightly ripples. Bright white cranes cut like sun bleached bones through the cerulean open sky.

Suddenly, in the corner of your eye, you perceive a wiggle in the lines of the landscape. Your eyes dart across and center on the irregularity in the lines of the tall grass. The bright sunlight flashing off of the ridge of a dik-dik, a bush antelope, catches your eye. You get that giddy feeling, perk up, reach for an arrow and set up your stance. With your body upright and alert, you center all of your attention on that one place on the animal’s body that will ensure nourishment. You aim, fire, breathe a sigh of relief. The family will feast tonight.

Eye Opening Exercise

Find your focal point

Probably the most definitive part of the exercise is to find something that will be eye level when standing. For this reason, looking into the horizon is ideal. If you don’t have access to a horizon, you can find a painting of a landscape and set it to eye level. Any object set to eye level will actually work.

Lock in your focal mode

Find a specific point at the center of your gaze to focus your eyes on. Remove all external stimulus and simply look a that single point. Hold this view for 10s, notice how you feel, how you are holding your body, how you are breathing.

Switch to ambient mode

Widen your view to include the entire panorama before you. Allow your eyes to take in the vast space around the initial focal point. Notice how much of the environment you can see. You may center your view on the focal point but allow your attention to broaden across the entire panorama below, above and on the sides of the focal point. Hold this view for about 10s. Again, notice how you feel, breathe and allow your body to adapt to any changes you may feel.

Use this skill to your advantage

When you become proficient in switching between these two points of view, you have taught yourself to use mindfulness to change a state of being. Regardless of how each of these manifest in your body, the fact that you can easily shift between the two shows your willingness to detach from either extreme. The point is to know that our bodies have the ability to adapt to different situations and that though mindfulness, we can more easily access our varied vocabulary

Sources

[1] ,[2] Gaeton Picon Modern Painting p 62 Newsweek Books, New York 1974

[3] ,[4] Emergent Techniques for Assessment of Visual Performance.National Research Council (US) Committee on Vision. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1985.