Thought Distillery

One of the biggest reasons why I object to automobiles is that they cut off the drivers and passengers from the rest of the world. Hurtling down the road, they are locked in their own little world and suddenly other drivers instantly become jerks and pedestrians become nuisance obstacles. Cruising down the road at high speed greatly limits what the automobile people can experience. Even when they actually do notice something worthwhile, it lasts but only a brief moment and is then likely soon forgotten never to be given much consideration or thought.

Walking, with its open and slow paced nature does much to counter the shortcomings of a driven experience as my friend Katie has recently noted. Though walking may shed the isolating steel shell, I think most people still usually carry their own internal shell that locks them away from the world around them. What I am referring to is an overly “chatty” mind. Stop and think for a moment how the mind is almost constantly jumping around thinking about what happened yesterday, and what its planning for tomorrow, and how great it would be if, and countless other thoughts that are anywhere but right HERE and right NOW. With such a mind, its no wonder that even when we slow down by walking we can still be oblivious to the world and miss so much!

Last fall I had the wonderful privilege of attending a wilderness class by the renowned adventuring couple Ray and Jenny Jardine. The main theme of the class was learning how to better connect with nature and the world around us. Without divulging too much of Ray’s special curriculum, I will mention two very important elements that can greatly expanding one’s observation abilities: Wide-angle vision, and pure mind.

Wide-angle vision, as opposed to our usual pin-point vision, is simply unfocusing our gaze and opening up our attention across the full range of our periphery. Huh? Heres how you can practice: stretch your arms out straight in front of you and wiggle the fingers on both of your hands. Keep looking straight ahead and slowly spread your arms out horizontally until you can just barely see your fingers still wiggling. Your eyeballs should not move, and you should still be able to see your fingers within your peripheral vision. Do the same exercise again except this time spread your arms out vertically above and below your head. You will notice that your vision is blurry and not focused on any one thing - however you are now tuned into a wider view. In wide-angle vision you can (with practice) detect even the smallest of movements from anywhere in your field of view. This is a very natural way of seeing and most animals probably rely on this type of vision to be able to help detect danger. Humans have just trained themselves to use their vision differently over time as the need for discerning detail grew more important. This vision is difficult and uncomfortable to maintain at first. Holding it for just 5 minutes straight will take some practice. As it becomes more comfortable you’ll be amazed at how many more things you will notice. You’ll be able to see almost everything in front and to the side of you without even having to pivot your head and move your eyeballs about. Thats not to say that you should ONLY use wide-angle vision however. When something particular catches your eye, then you will certainly (and probably automatically) switch to your normal pin-point vision to check it out in detail. Good vision skills will automatically bounce back and forth between narrow and wide vision as the situation demands.

While wide-angle vision opens up our field of view for better observation, pure mind makes us receptive to the information that is coming in to us not only through our vision, but through all our other senses as well. The idea of pure mind is simple: your mind is empty of any thoughts that aren’t focused on your senses or your present state. Eliminate all thoughts about the past, the future, and any other mental songs or chitter chatter. For most people its VERY difficult to think of nothing, even for only 1 minute! You will find stray thoughts trying their best to creep into your mind. The best way to deal with them is not to become flustered, but to quietly acknowledge them and to shut them off. There are many strategies you can use to stop these stray thoughts. One that worked well for me was suggested by Jenny Jardine. Imagine the thought as a sunbeam peeking through a window. Then imagine closing the window shade so that the sunbeam is completely blocked. Pure mind definitely takes practice, but with it you not only can make yourself much more receptive to the world around you (its constantly trying to tell you something!) but you can also learn greater control over your own thoughts which can too often be overwhelming.

So I guess in summary, walking is the first step which puts us in a better position to tune-in and observe everything around us. By learning to take control of our mind and to use our visual senses to their fullest ability we can suddenly be open to and aware of a whole new world that we were once oblivious to.

Automobile opinions are my own, however wide-angle vision and pure mind ideas should be credited to Ray Jardine and/or Tom Brown, Jr.