Shift an Issue With the Learning State

There’s a state your nervous system drops into when it’s relaxed and open — soft eyes, wide attention, nothing gripped. Some people call it the learning state. It’s the opposite of the tunnel-vision you get when you’re stressed. And it turns out that what you’re looking at matters less than the state you look at it from. Move the state, and a problem can quietly stop being one.

Here’s how to do it on your own.

1. Pick the issue. Something that’s been nagging you. Hold it loosely in mind.
2. Find a spot on the wall, above your eye line. Rest your eyes on it.
3. Keeping your eyes on the spot, push your attention out to the edges — your peripheral vision. Take in everything at the sides of the room without moving your eyes. Feel your focus go wide and soft. This is the state.
4. From here, ask: “How is that even a problem? How do I know it’s an issue?” Don’t force an answer. Just notice what happens to the feeling when you ask from this wide, open place.
5. Preserve the learning. Ask: “What’s the useful thing here, for me and for the future — the thing that lets me set the old issue down?” Let it come. Then let the issue go.
6. Break state, come back to normal focus, and test it. Bring the issue back up and notice if the charge has changed.

Repeat if it needs another pass. The move you’re practising — change your state before you try to change your thinking — is one of the most useful things you’ll ever learn.