The Inner and Outer Landscape

I’ve always had a sense of not using my eyes when I'm navigating my physical body as a way to have a deeper connection. I find myself closing my eyes when I’m doing a deep movement practice or singing or even dancing, but I never had an explanation as to why I do this until now.

During my chiropractic visit, I was shown pictures of my physical body's alignment. My chiropractor showed me where my body was out of alignment and suggested the possibilities or probabilities of why it was out of alignment in my hips, shoulders and the tilt of my head.

She said my head tilt was all about a recent shoulder injury. Because my shoulder was drooping due to my deltoid being injured, my head was tilting. My brain made this adjustment so that my eyes would view the landscape evenly. This was of course utterly fascinating to me! I immediately closed my eyes and felt my head was in fact tilted. Whereas when my eyes were open, I couldn’t feel the tilt at all. 

I said to my chiropractor with excitement, “This proves my point! I’m always telling my students the eyes cannot help you with the inner landscape so don’t use your physical eyes. If you want to look somewhere, close your eyes and look inward“. In other words, at your inner landscape.

The eyes are going to focus you on the outer landscape, which doesn’t help you with balance or inner awareness and alignment. It reminds me of when I was learning to ride a motorcycle and the instructor said, when you know you have to take a curve or make a turn, look ahead at where you’re going and your body will follow. Your body, because of your outward gaze, will intuitively lean the bike and you will easily make the turn or the curve.

I find when I close my eyes, and I don’t always have to physically close my eyes to be looking within, I find there is a flow. There is an inner landscape which has invisible pathways that become visible to my inner eye and I follow it. It shows me which way to go, which turns to take how to move and breathe. I can see the inward pathways of others as well not just my own, but only if I look without using my physical eyes.

So spend some time with your eyes closed, of course when it’s safe to do so, and see what you experience. See what you can see with your eyes closed.