What, is this a joke?! What sort of silly topic is this, “How to See”?!!
You want to see something? No problem – just open your eyes and, voila: seeing!
Well, no actually, that’s not seeing – that’s just looking.
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, 551-479 BC
Looking, Seeing – What’s the Difference?
Looking is merely a mechanical process:
- Light is reflected off an object.
- That reflected light enters your eye.
- The lens in your eye focuses the light on to your retina.
- Your retina converts the light to an electrochemical signal.
- Neurons carry that signal to your brain.
- Your brain translates the signal into a 3D image; a depiction of what’s “out there”.
However, there are two additional steps missing from this chain of events to turn looking into seeing:
- Conscious awareness.
- Focus of attention.
Conscious Awareness
The first thing that makes looking different from seeing is conscious awareness of the brain’s depiction of what’s “out there”.
For example, let’s say you’re hiking along a quiet wooded trail with your young daughter. She’s enraptured by the many butterflies, chipmunks, squirrels, woodpeckers, blue jays, and other assorted critters along the route.
In stark contrast, you notice none of these wonders, your attention instead fixated on a difficult issue you face at work. Even though you’re looking at the same scene as your daughter you see virtually none of it. With your mind elsewhere, it simply doesn’t register in your conscious awareness.
In this manner, whenever we lack presence, we don’t actually see or appreciate our immediate surroundings. The many small joys of life completely pass us by.
Focus of Attention
To simplify communication we developed the useful practice of assigning names to things – car, building, cake, Uncle Joe. This makes conversation so much easier because we don’t have to describe each object we’re talking about: “the metal thing with four rubber wheels that moves when the pedal inside the occupant-chamber is depressed ….”.
So far, so useful.
But problems begin when, after repeated encounters with the same object, we limit our experience of that object to just its superficial name.
An example will help clarify what I’m getting at here.
So, we arrive at work and see the same office building we’ve toiled away in for the past eight years. If it registers in our consciousness at all it’s merely as “the office building where I work”. We look at it but do not see it.
But let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a new-hire encountering that same building for the very first time. What do they take note of? Just “the office building where I now work”?
Probably not. Because the building is a novelty to them they likely take conscious notice of the building’s overall shape, the colour of its walls, the pattern of its windows, the scent of the flowers bordering its entrance, and dozens of other features about their new environment. They actually see it!
What’s going on here is the exact same thing that makes travel to a new locale seem so much more interesting than life back home.
The objects and places you encounter every day have become so familiar to you that they no longer warrant close examination – you have become blind to their opportunities for joy and deeper insight.
In short, if all we ever do is look, then familiarity can indeed breed contempt.
True seeing, then, takes mindfulness: consciously engaging our senses to actually notice our surroundings.
But What is There to Notice – It’s Just a Boring Building!
Yes, if you limit your experience of an object to just its superficial label (“the office building where I work”), viewing it all in one go, you may indeed find it boring and not worthy of your conscious attention or consideration.
But there is another way to view the world, a better way in my opinion, that brings the seemingly routine parts of our world to life again. I refer to this way of seeing as “going into photography mode“.
Going Into Photography Mode
When I first took an interest in photography I mistakenly thought that good camera gear was the key to good photos. But I was completely wrong. In actual fact, the equipment deployed has virtually nothing to do with it.
So what does? The ability to SEE!
“Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with how you see them.”
Elliott Erwitt, photographer
How to See
“Going into photography mode” means to change the way you view the world around you.
Instead of seeing your surroundings in terms of objects, each with a familiar name, in photography mode we view them in terms of their components and overall feel:
- lines
- curves
- shapes
- intersections
- colours
- textures
- patterns
- symmetry
- shades of light and dark
- reflections
- contrasts
- emotional impact
Seeing the world in these terms necessitates mindful noticing – looking beyond the familiar objects before you and, instead, looking at them with renewed curiosity in terms of these components. In many cases you are looking inside the everyday to see past their familiar exterior.
That “Boring” Office Building
So, back to that seemingly-boring office building. Instead of seeing “just a building”, someone in photography mode may take note of:
- Reflections in the windows.
- Shadows slanting across the building’s exterior.
- The texture of the brick.
- The exterior’s warm glow in the late-day sun.
- The apparent convergence of the exterior walls when viewed from below.
- A lone light in an otherwise dark building.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, this a photo I took of a farm house near my home. On the face of it this scene could be considered rather non-descript; until looked at in photography mode. In other words, when looked at mindfully!
Here are some of the components that compelled me to take this photo:
- Notice the many triangles: 1) The road. 2) The bottom right corner of the road bordered by its median line. 3) The front yard. 4) The triangle formed by an imaginary line drawn across the tops of the trees + along their base + the right edge of the photo. 5) The roof peak. 6) The mass of cloud on the right of the picture, again drawing an imaginary line across its top edge. 7) The snow banks.
- The symmetry created by the parallel lines formed by the trees, home, telephone pole, and silo.
- To my eye, the trees at the entrance to the driveway lend a menacing presence, their branches seemingly reaching out to grab incautious passersby.
- The contrast of the black and white components.
- The contrasting textures of the smooth road and sky vs. the front fence and yard.
- To my eye there’s an eeriness about this scene, I believe due in part to its inhospitable starkness and absence of life.
Looked at mindfully, a scene surely unnoticed and unremarked by many, becomes one of compelling interest.
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
Henry Miller, American writer (b 1891)
For other examples, do check out the photos on my Flickr site. As you assess them, take particular note of how the components listed above work together to render them interesting (well, hopefully interesting)! 🙂
Noticing is Mindfulness!
Living each day in “photography mode” is a wonderful way of making your way through life because, in doing so, you cannot help but be mindful. Noticing is mindfulness!
Why? Because the act of noticing keeps us in the present moment, the only moment where life actually happens. And when we live in the present moment – when mind and body are in the same place at the same time – that’s when we’re happiest.
Think of it this way – if your mind is always focused on noticing the world around you, really seeing it and engaging with it, you can’t also be fussing over the past, fretting about the future, or wasting your life in spaced-out fantasy.
I truly hope that you see what I mean! (awful pun sadly intended 🙂 )
Warmest wishes,
Rob @ Living a Mindful Life