A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the concept of “horizon gazing” and it fascinated me. Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford, has discovered that stress narrows our field of vision. One thing is in laser sharp focus and the rest gets blurred. By contrast, when we “defocus” our gaze and we take in a wider panoramic view, we relax, we enter a state of calm.
“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 off the stress response by changing the way that we are viewing our environment, regardless of what’s in that environment.”
Dr Andrew Huberman
If you thing about it, it makes sense. When our body/mind worries that there is a threat it will focus our gaze to the things closest to us to make sure no predator will jump on us. When our body/mind doesn’t feel threatened, we can allow ourselves to take in a view and to relax our eyes by defocusing…
That is the idea with “horizon gazing”. We stop, look at the horizon and in doing that, we tell our body/mind that it can relax, that there is no foreseeable threat. So, you’ll ask me what all this has to do with mandalas… Don’t worry, I’m getting there. I haven’t forgotten the mandalas… 🙂
Horizon gazing is an amazing idea but we need to have a “horizon” to gaze at. When you’re inside, in your office space for example, how can you do that? Well, that’s where the mandala comes in.
How can a mandala help?
Take some time, during the day, to stop. Take off your eyes from the task you’re doing. Lift your gaze to the mandala on your wall (or any other piece of art that you enjoy and calms you) and defocus your gaze. Don’t try to take all the details in. Look at the mandala as a whole.
By doing that, you’ll get the benefits of “horizon gazing” without needing to head out. Though if you can head out, by all means, do it! 🙂
If you want to add an extra layer of calmness, add some deep breathing to it. Not any special type of breath work, just deep, relaxed breathing.
I’m sure all of this will give you moments of stillness that will improve your well being throughout the day.
And if all of that is not enough, there is an added benefit to doing that. According to Rick Hanson (a psychologist with the Greater Good Science Center) widening our eyes into a panoramic view activates the parts of our brains involved in holistic perspectives. That means that it helps us feeling connected and whole.
Here is a free mandala to download to start feeling the benefits of mandala gazing right away!
