soft eyes, big picture

Judith Cross-Strehlke made a deep impression on me during her Centered Riding clinic a few weeks ago at Woodbine Equestrian in Southern New Jersey. Her self-contained manner, powerfully quiet presence, and generous way of tuning into each and every one of us was very inspiring.

Judy also offered me a comment in private which caused me to take a deep breath, step back so to speak, and begin to open my perspective on this process of learning to ride. She suggested that I use more “soft eyes” in relation to my whole approach to learning. Suddenly I was acutely aware of how my enthusiasm, focus and determination had subtly evolved into over-thinking, overly critical over-analysis and a kind of grasping or over-reaching.

With a sigh of relief, I decided to relinquish my hard focus and give myself the luxury of non-doing, just being with the whole idea of horses and riding for a while. No list of books to read, no blog to write. I let go and stepped back, catching myself over and over in the habitual response of asking myself “what should I be doing now?” It took the form of “I’m sure there is a book to read, a thought to get down on paper, a video to order, a clinic or course to sign up for, an image to invoke…” Each time a thought of this type surfaced, I was reminded to breathe, and out would come an audible sigh. Then I would remember to ask myself, “ wait a minute, what is the bigger picture?” 

A week of this “let’s open up to the big picture” approach turned into two, with a couple of days which masqueraded as a mild flu -- of simply sitting on the sofa, reflecting. What is the hurry? What am I really trying to learn? During this retreat on the sofa I was drawn to the Magic Eye (stereogram) books loaned to me by a friend. I had “tried” to use them a number of years ago and was never able to allow my focus to soften enough to enter their 3-D world. A week or so before the clinic I had my first experience of allowing the depth of the images to be revealed to me. Now I couldn’t seem to get enough of the peaceful place where the process of softening my vision took me. One way to learn how to see the stereograms is to start with the image directly touching your nose and allow your eyes to keep the same diffuse focus as you slowly move the image farther away.

The tendency for most of us is to try harder to see something, which I notice goes along with a tension in the neck and jaw and a holding of breath. What a good metaphor for the new approach I was exploring. What a wonderful biofeedback tool for soft eyes. And as I discovered very quickly when teaching the Alexander Technique to the Centered Riding instructors last autumn, most of them immediately released tension in their head/neck relationship at the mere mention of using soft eyes.

If you would like to learn more and try it for yourself, visit: The Magic Eye image of the week. In addition to reminding me to soften my approach and expand my vision of riding, Judy also shared much detailed information and instruction during the clinic. We are already making plans to see her again soon and other ideas from her teaching will be making their way into my reflections here.

Judy rode several horses during the clinic; above she is shown with Chloe, a sweet and beautiful Andalusian mare. Watching her make an immediate connection to Chloe and proceed to ride with seeming effortlessness reminded me of a phrase we use when describing several of our aikido master instructors: “no moving parts.” It really just means that they are so integrated, functioning with such harmony, that we cannot see how they do what they are doing!