ACTIVITY
Did you know that for our ancestors, gazing at the horizon helped scan for threats and helped calm them. For us, the impact is the same – a calming effect and reduced stress.
When you see something exciting or stressful your heart and breathing rates increase. One of the most powerful changes is vision. The pupils dilate and there is a change in the position of the lens in the eye. Your visual system goes into the equivalent of portrait mode on a smartphone. Your field of vision narrows. You see one thing in sharper relief, and everything else becomes blurry. This is a primitive and ancient mechanism by which stress controls the visual field.
This focal vision activates the sympathetic nervous system (similar to breathing). All the neurons from your neck to the top of your pelvis get activated at once and deploy a bunch of transmitters and chemicals that make you feel agitated and want to move.
Is there then a visual mode associated with calmness that can change stress levels?
Yes! Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist at Standford University says that is Panoramic or optic flow. 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 of the stress response by changing the way we are viewing our environment, regardless of what is in the environment.
In addition, we encourage mindfulness in ourselves by focussing our attention on one thing, the vastness of what is there, the rolling clouds, the canopy of trees. In addition, it connects us with nature – or Clear Air! A connection with nature and the outdoors is a well-known way to encourage positive mental well-being.