Expanding my awareness - venturing out without glasses
My blog and the prospect of soon having my Wellness with Nat business is something that keeps me inspired and gives me that little flutter of excitement in my belly each day. I love sharing my journey with you and I love receiving emails and facebook comments from people in similar situations.
As part of growing my presence and planning Wellness with Nat, I have been following these wonderful ladies Rach and Therese from Kickass and Sparkly Ladypreneurs Unite and listening to their Effortless Success Formula free training series. Today's video is about Expansion, Expanding our minds and opening up to the universe to allow new things to come in, above and beyond what we may envisage for ourselves. The action from the video was to do something that you haven't done before ... something I could expand my awareness into ...
Given my recent awareness of my decreasing vision as well as the headaches and muscle pain I get from wearing glasses, I thought I might try life without glasses with just a simple walk around my suburb. I put on my comfortable walking shoes, wrapped my glasses in a cloth, popped them in my pocket just in case of an emergency and I set out on my journey.
With my glasses I can see well enough to drive, without my glasses I am legally blind (I hate saying this aloud as I don't want to manifest that, but it is what it is I guess). Legally blind doesn't mean I see only black, it means that I can't make out letters from a certain distance, 6 metres in Australia and 20 feet in the US.
I blurred the photos from my walk as much as I could so that you could get a comparison of what I'm seeing vs real life. You'll notice in the first set of photos that there is definitely a path there. You can notice the grass, but no definition, the lamp post isn't as obvious either. The big difference is with the trees, you can see the trunk, branches and leaves in the original photo, but for me I can tell they are trees, but the beauty of the detail is missing.
I walked down my driveway ok, no surprises here. I turned into the lane way and thought that this wasn't too bad at all, I could see the path in front of me ok and could make out the nearby fences. Ha, I'm doing this! Then I turned onto the next path (pictured above), where the houses were further away and there was more grass and trees. Wow, that was a bit of a shock, all of a sudden the houses blurred into the background and I could make out fuzzy trees, I couldn't see the grass clearly or where it met the fence line. But I was ok, I'm doing this. I'm out and walking without any glasses. I'm independent and free.
As I continued my walk I came across some interesting experiences, as people walked passed me I couldn't see their faces, wow that was disconcerting! So much trust needed when you have a figure coming your way and you can't tell if they're male or female or safe or threatening, it was like walking through a dimly lit ally way late at night. I could hear a man calling his dog, but I couldn't quite make out the dog so I was hoping it was running for me, thankfully he wasn't...
I found that when I walked in areas that my brain was familiar with it was heaps easier. It was like my brain knew what it was seeing so told me what the images were and assured me it was ok. When something had changed I found myself squinting and getting headaches as my eyes and brain tried to work out what was ahead of me and if it was safe or not. You can see in the picture of the construction zone (above and across), the orange stood out from a while away, but I couldn't tell if there were people around or what was actually coming up, so it was hard to relax into my walk while my brain was playing a guessing game.
The weirdest thing was seeing these figures ahead of me on one of the footpaths. I could see a pixelated image in front of me and for a while tried to determine if the people were coming towards me or walking in the same direction. After about 7 minutes I established they were walking in the same direction. I was proud of myself for noticing there were two people in front of me, even though I couldn't see bodies or clothes, I could tell there was something there. I was walking faster than the two people and as I got closer I was pleased with myself for noticing they were both wearing pink! As I got closer still (about 15 minutes later), I saw three people ... ? Three people, all wearing pink? Hmmm something wasn't right here. Is it three or two people? Or is it just one and my eyes are multiplying the image? I took photos along the way (below) and when I got home I confirmed it was just one person...weird hey?! (I was unable to edit the blurred photo to get multiple people :) ).
Overall the main thing I learnt from my low-vision walk was a metaphor for life ... as I looked forward I could see the path in front of me, I could look down and see my feet and what was right there in that moment, as I looked to the sides I knew there were trees and houses, but I couldn't see them. Right next to me on the grass were things, like rubbish or branches or feathers, but I couldn't identify any of them. As I looked up, the sky looked like the sky, blue with some clouds. It made me realise that this is a metaphor for me right now: the path is clear in front of me, if I look forward I can follow it to my goals and dreams. Distractions will always be there and if I don't focus on them or worry about them then I will reach my goals. Do you believe in synchronicity? I am trying to eagerly complete my Wellness Coaching qualification before my next surgery and I want to plan my Wellness with Nat business, however my social life and house / life jobs seem to be filling my time no matter how hard I try to prioritise study. The meaning I got from this walk has definitely sparked my attention - stop getting distracted Nat! Focus on your goals!
I am at peace with what is.
Miss Nat
xox