Portrait mode blurs everything except the subject. Worry does the same thing to everything except the problem.
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Worry is a focusing mechanism with the aperture jammed open. The problem becomes sharp and enormous while everything else goes soft: the parts of your life that are fine, the people around you, the fact that you handled something similar in March. The blur is not a judgement about what matters; it is just how the lens behaves under pressure.
Widen the frame on purpose this week when a worry has taken over. Write down three things that are currently working alongside the one that is not. Say the worry out loud to somebody, because speaking it tends to resize it. Then do one small thing about it.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What went out of focus while one worry held all your attention?
MORE IN PERCEPTION & ATTENTION
- The view from your window is somebody’s dream vacation. You stopped seeing it because you see it every day.
- Late at night, problems tend to look bigger. Your brain is tired, not wiser.
- Some things look smaller than they are only because they’re far away. The moon blocks the whole sun with that trick.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.