Learning to see is about.. well? Learning to see.
In this busy and smoky life of the city, London to be exact. Am lucky to be living here and am grateful everyday. Every corner there’s always something to see and learn from – so long as one is open to it - guess it’s applicable to anything really.
Now and then we are hindered by so much noise. So much noise that I, myself, time and time again have to bring myself back to the attention and focus on being in alignment with my values, ethics and beliefs.
Ensuring that they are mine, and why do I feel what I feel. Lots and lots of questions and lots and lots of mindful breathing helps. Learning, unlearning, re-learning.
We’ll be covering topics in Three Parts:
Part I Learn to see : UNSEE
Part II Learn to see: Meditation (Release date: Wednesday 25th September 2019 09:30gmt)
Part III Learn to see: RRR : Re-conditioning, Reading, Re-learning. (Release date: Wednesday 9th October 2019 09:30gmt)
Here you will find some steps that I use daily and I hope that this may be of use to you too.
SURPRISE! This is not an instruction manual. These are simply personal experiences that I am sharing and hopefully something will resonate with you and you’ll end up flying to space, or swim the ocean, or eat that cake- whichever floats your boat – or just float anyway.
What’s the first thing you can think of when you want to learn to see? And what do I mean by that?
Everyone has different ways of envisioning the world and a very individual way of looking at life. Isn’t that the same thing? Not sure. Perhaps. Will leave you discover that one yourself.
LEARN TO SEE : PART I : UNSEE
And you’re like “wtf?” scratch your beard (and your beard too) and be all confused as fuck. The thing is, we all grow up and be all lovely and a bundle of joy for most of us, some not so much. Point is this, along the way we sprouted from this earth with pretty much the same as most beings, then as time goes on, well we are given information from our ancestors, grandparents and to our parents and those in proximity. I remember when my aunt Levie told me this phrase or was it from a stranger? Basically the phrase was ‘Be careful on who you become friends with. They influence who you are.” Or “you become the person you surround yourself with”. This phrase comes up over and over again in many forms.
So how does this apply to you? Learn about the PROXIMITY PRINCIPLE.
We are influenced by the people that we are close to, particularly those that we surround ourselves by daily. Here’s a list of people to be watchful of, our lovers, parents, teachers, churches, friends, strangers, our thoughts. See if you can by any point of time you may have said something that you would never have said, and if you tap, something magical happens.
Books to read:
“Outwitting the Devil” by Napoleon Hill
"The Tipping point" by Malcolm Gladwell
"Thinking, Fast & Slow" by Daniel Kahneman
Podcast to listen to:
“The Proximity Principle” by Ken Coleman
"What you will learn" by Adam Ashton & Adam Jones
I asked fellow Artist Justine Zamora on what she thought of first thing when I said “Learn to see…”
She responded beautifully:
“You know the times you’re clouded by a certain belief? Which then blurs your vision in seeing what’s actually in front of you, and you’re left believing that’s what you’re seeing, when it’s not? That. The moment you realize that a certain belief is the fog of your vision, then that’s when you learn to see again. Unseeing everything, only to see it again. Except this time, you learn to see it as it is, not as how you thought you saw it.”
What are your thoughts on “Learn to see…”? I am very interested to exchange or discuss between everyone as to how or what may help others.
This is such a big topic that perhaps I will always return to (& cover further in the future as I progress with my practice). I also thought I might as well start today while I remember – I have notes all over the place so this would be a good way to start organizing my thoughts and share them rather than hoarding all over the house- like a treasure hunt whenever I clean something I find notes like “… on mental toughness.” – these little notes then triggers something, hence I find it hard to just bin them.
