Why do the bad things so often grab our attention and stick in our memories rather than the good ones? It’s not just you, this is a human experience. Dr Rick Hanson says, “the mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.” The primary job of our brain is to keep us safe, whether that’s keeping our bodies functioning properly or protecting us from danger around us. In fact, since our brains are designed to keep us safe, not happy, we have an innate negativity bias, probably because earlier in human history, paying attention to bad, dangerous, and negative threats in the world was literally a matter of life and death. Those who were more attuned to danger and who paid more attention to the bad things around them were more likely to survive. As I shared in the last blog, now that we no longer need to keep an eye out for sabertoothed tigers, we often need to work at zooming out to the bigger picture in order to see the good.
This is more than a psychological pursuit however, it is also firmly in the physical world. Sensory input, such as proprioception, vestibular, and interoception, is where the brain gathers information needed for that job, but vision is the primary input.
When our focus is on things right in front of us, when we have a tight zoom, our brains get a little scared about what might be coming at us that we can’t see. Our nervous systems might become a little on edge (think filling our threat bucket more than necessary). So expanding that vision is vital to our sense of security in the world. This is where our peripheral vision comes in.
Most of us primarily use what’s known as foveal (or central) vision, where we concentrate on one point in front of us and notice all the details about that one point – watching TV, looking at a computer screen, reading, talking to someone – and ignore everything around it. It may even be required for a job: think data entry or a skilled trade which demands significant visual concentration, causing a constricted perceptual field.
Unlike foveal vision, peripheral vision focuses on a broader area, providing a general impression of our surroundings. For example, while reading a book, the words in the center of the page are clear due to foveal vision, but words toward the edges become blurry. However, this blurriness allows the brain to detect objects in our peripheral field, above, below, and to the sides, that might be important for our safety, such as a moving car or an approaching person. Peripheral vision is crucial for detecting movement and objects outside of our direct line of sight, which is essential for spatial awareness and reacting to potential dangers.
We start to notice problems when we live in tunnel vision for too long (thanks modern technology). Think of walking while reading something on your phone. You are no longer as aware of curbs to trip on or people to bump into. We need more practice using and expanding our peripheral vision. Doing so can also help you be and feel safer while driving, or safer in general. Our parasympathetic nervous system loves to know what’s going on around us, so getting more signals of safety from our periphery can help to calm our nervous system. But even seeing a fire or a car heading towards us in our periphery is to our advantage even if it turns on our alarm bells!
In the studio, we practice broadening our peripheral vision in multiple ways. Mandy often has our Friday morning class of seven stand in a large circle around the edges of the room. We then take THREE Brainspeed balls and toss them to each other simultaneously. Yes, that means that sometimes you might have 2 or 3 balls coming at you at the same time! She slows it down by having us say a word that starts with the letter we see when we catch the ball. This makes our brain work and keeps our throwing speed manageable.
When we’re standing in that large circle with balls flying at us, we have to use our peripheral vision. It often takes a minute for our eyes to catch up to what we’re asking of them, but we do usually get better as we go on.
Another visual skill we practice in the PIH studio is convergence and divergence. In my classes with Debra, we use close vision or convergence when we catch a Brainspeed ball and name the letter or number on it. Our eyes have to work together to focus on a close object. When we toss the ball to our partner, watching it the whole way and saying what we see when it’s in their hands, we’re practicing divergence or looking at distant objects. Our eyes need practice working together in both ways.
Looking in the distance or horizon gazing can be relaxing, not just because we’re probably in nature, but also because it broadens our perspective to make our nervous system feel safer. Dr. Andrew Huberman, who call the eyes “two pieces of the brain” (and he means that literally) says:
When [you] look at a horizon or at a broad vista, you don’t look at one thing for very long. If you keep your head still, you can dilate your gaze so you can see far into the periphery—above, below and to the sides of you. That mode of vision releases a mechanism in the brain stem involved in vigilance and arousal.
We can actually turn down the dial on our stress response by changing the way we view our environment, regardless of what’s in it. So even if you’re sitting at a computer most of your day, take a few minutes to gaze across the room at something in the distance. One practice is called the 20-20-20 rule: For every 20 minutes of near work, look at a target 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Another easy way is to hold your thumb 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 seconds, then shift your gaze to a target 20 feet away, and again, hold your focus for 15 seconds. Return to your thumb and repeat several times.
When our nervous system is overloaded so much we can sense it, that’s a great time to do something like a hook-up or a breathing exercise. But for day-to-day, having a wider focus can help to keep things on a more even keel.
See you in the studio,
