“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

- Albert Einstein

Rorschach Inkblot

If I asked you to look at the picture above and ask what you see first, what would you say? Have you seen images like this before? They’re kind of fun to decipher and look at repeatedly to see what comes first, see what comes next.

This digital creation is reminiscent of the blurrier, more ambiguous Rorschach Inkblot images developed in the 1920s by a Swiss psychologist of the same name to look at how people interpreted images and what that might say about one’s personality or state of mind.

Although the reliability and validity of using such images in psychology have been controversial, the idea of how an individual interprets marks on a page is intriguing. It can prompt us to reflect on our perceptions and point towards what we might immediately be drawn to.

Eye Test

Interestingly, when I glanced at this picture, I registered it as some kind of test. I tried to figure out the ‘correct’ answers as quickly as possible and proceeded to tell myself, “Oh yes, I see two faces facing each other”, “Ah, it’s the two faces that create a candelabra in the middle; of course it is!”, “No, wait a minute - there are two more faces behind the middle two - why didn’t I notice that? Oh, and now there’s the butterfly, it’s clear. That’s it; I’ve got it all figured out.”

What was your process? Did you look, did you stop, did you keep looking?

I lingered longer, moving back from the image as if it were one of those Magic Eye pictures with more to reveal. Only then did I notice the autumn leaves and the vivid yellow of the background. Looking again, I could appreciate the pleasing satisfaction of the aesthetic symmetry. Asymmetry - in colours - became apparent the next moment, pleasing in its own way. The hues of orange, brown, black and green were there, colours distinct then blurring into harmony; the dark veins of the leaves stood out, the blotches, one leaf overlying another.

When I softened my eyes substantially, I realised this could be a nice painting, not a test after all.

Look Again

At the top of this blog is a quote from Einstein that speaks to unknown potential when we choose to see differently. It suggests that the reality of the world is not fixed, but rather, it depends entirely on how we perceive it.

Therefore, we could be mindful of the lenses through which we see things (ourselves, others, situations, problems or anything else), and whether we adopt myopic or hyperopic vision, watch quickly or slowly, or gaze through dirty or rose-tinted glass.

I love how the yoga mat provides a laboratory to experiment with changing perspectives. Even as we repeat the same poses and routines, we can alter the intention one day, shift our focus the next, and approach from different angles and attitudes.

By rehearsing this concept, bending and flexing our ways of seeing and sensing, yoga becomes a vehicle for us to experience a whole new world rich within our bodies and beyond.

Let’s practise.