Heartsong Studio

Have you ever been looking for something and were staring right at it without seeing it ? Some clients can’t see what their new work is revealing because they can’t see beyond their expectations. When we have too fixed an expectation, the reality often doesn’t match our mental picture and so we don’t even see it.

I used to be scared of swimming in open bodies of water. All I could see was the water surface reflecting sky in the choppy waves. I knew that underneath lay the dark unknown. Jaws wasn’t a movie yet, but my imagination had the same effect. There’s a lot of fear in the unknown, and this was a deeply engrained prejudice. While I knew how to swim, I never felt safe putting my whole body at risk where I couldn‘t see beneath the surface.

Looking is distancing and one-sided, like looking up a dark alley. Many prejudices crop up because of our existing beliefs and past experiences. Looking allows the exterior appearance to shield us from exposure to the unknown or the feared.

One year, I was on the Isle of Elba in Italy for my summer vacation. I’d been given a scuba mask as a birthday gift. It seemed like a safe idea to lie on the warm rocks wearing the mask, so I could put only the mask under the water surface.

What a surprise ! I was blown away by what was hidden by a thin veil of nothingness - the water surface. Suddenly the choppy murky dark unknown was a calm, clear azure blue. I watched coloured fishes and scuba divers flying gently underwater, and I lusted to fly too !

Pablo Picasso said: “The trouble is, we’ve been taught what to see and how to render what we see.” Unlike looking at the surface, seeing can be seeing into, as well as being seen. It’s the beginning of a relationship.

Wildly enthusiastic about what I finally saw beneath, I learned to scuba dive the next year, and overcame a life long fear. This was the single most empowering event of my life. Overcoming a strong fear unleashed powerful creative energy.

How can you see in a new way, beneath the surface of things ? There is a way of seeing that’s readily accessible. It’s not risky in the least, and it’s within easy reach. It’s seeing beneath your own surface, into your heart or spirit. Reflecting on your Source is a practice in most spiritual traditions. I use the Sufi practice of the Remembrance in my life and work.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was looking up at the same surface of the water from below. It was all brightly lit and acted like a mirror for those of us underneath. The water surface was like a two-way mirror, one way dark and foreboding, the other, bright azure and welcoming, yet each was a mirror image of the other.

This complimentary yin-yang phenomenon keeps showing up again and again it seems. By seeing into your own heart, your ability to see into everything else is made possible and enhanced. Outside and inside are mirror images of each other, and we are all reflections of the One.

Walk into the thing you don’t want to see the most instead of using it as a reason why you can‘t. The mindfulness you gain in learning to see is very healing on its own.