The Power of Refocusing

Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot, shifting your focus from one thing to another and seeing the world around you change.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to get that other perspective.

Last week, I went for a walk only to find that the lower lying areas (about 2 kms) of the walk were partially submerged under about 30 cm of water. I decided to take off my shoes and walk through these flooded sections. Some of the deep puddles had clear water and I could see my feet. Others were so murky, I couldn’t see anything, although they were less than ankle deep. And still others had rushing water and everything was blurry.

Like you, I don’t particularly like walking through rushing or muddied water, sharp stones or mud squishing up between my toes, not being able to see what lies beneath or ahead. My rampant imagination is of no help in this situation. Like you, I prefer to see where I go and put my feet. It gives me a sense of control, of knowing where I am going.

You know what it’s like. When you focus so hard on trying to see where you are going, you see nothing else. Especially when the path is not clear, you try to penetrate the murkiness, blurriness and uncertainty with everything you’ve got.

And then it happened.

In that same water where I couldn’t see the ground, where I couldn’t see where I was going, suddenly the whole forest, the sky and the clouds were reflected. I had refocused, my mind had refocused; as if that narrow concentration on just one thing was too limiting and didn’t fully reflect the world around me. I hadn’t heard the birds, seen the majestic gum trees around me nor noticed the intricate patterns my feet stirred up in the mud.

With different perspectives consciously available, I found that I can actually control what had initially happened more unconsciously. I had tried, but it was like my brain didn’t want to shift to a different perspective for some reason. Now I could shift my focus between the two perspectives. And it was strange how that change affected me physiologically. If I focused on the muddied water and the uncertainty of each step, my breathing would become shallow, my heartbeat increase and my shoulders hunch up. If I refocused on the reflection, the shoulders would drop, the heartbeat slow, the gaze would lift and take in what was around me. The need to have control over that next step into the unknown was gone. As was the rampant imagination. I could just take that next step, even if I didn’t know where I was going or what was coming. Ultimately liberating.

What are your muddied shallows, your rushing waters? What advantages are there for you for staying with the current focus? And what do you notice when you allow yourself to refocus?