Earlier this on my way back from visiting someone in hospital I began to notice that my eyes were feeling a little sore. I was reminded in that moment how much we can take any level of health and wellbeing for granted. I began to wonder how I might cope in the event that I were to lose my sight. This in itself was quite a levelling thought.
Perhaps the combination of my sore eyes, the mild evening and this wondering led me to try to close my eyes and see how many steps I could make without opening them. So I closed my eyes and did just that.
A number of factors came to my mind: how far I believed I could walk with my eyes closed; what the risks and dangers might be of walking down a main road with my eyes closed from others who might walk around corner or out of a door or cross the road; the different physical factors of different parts of the road – how wide and narrow, lampposts side roads, curbs etc. I decided to play it quite safe and try this experiment only for stretches of the road where there were no side roads, no visible people and no blocks to my path. And I will say at this point that I do not recommend this experiment at all unless you take due care, precautions, self responsibilities and are aware of your age, abilities, abilities, circumstances etc. I am simply reporting on my experience.
And so I closed my eyes and started walking. At first I managed around 8 steps before opening my eyes. Then I managed about 10, then 12, getting beyond 12 steps was a bit of a challenge. By now I had walked a fair distance back from the hospital toward home. I tried a few different approaches including becoming more aware of my breathing, walking slower, being more aware of my body as I walked. Eventually I managed to walk 39 Steps. An interesting number – the same as the famous film which interestingly I’ve not watched.
I carried on walking, by now I was on the last long road toward home. This was quite a wide road but interestingly i found that sometimes I’d really veer off to one side or another, sometimes just into the road itself (just as well this was a very quiet road) and again I was mindful at each stage of the people, the environment, the clear space I had to walk and the traffic. It was also a stretch and walk I know very, very well. For the last 8-10 minutes I didn’t improve on the 39 steps or even get closed. At one point I had hoped to manage 100 steps, which on refection would probably not be wise to attempt for a novice or in that kind of environment perhaps on a open grass stretch that was quiet and flat – perhaps.
Finally as I walked through the door of my destination I realised that I had walked for most of that 15 minute journey with my eyes closed. That in itself was very interesting indeed.
What was the 39 steps about? You decide: appreciation, trust, self belief, risk, uncertainty, certainty, testing, exploration, knowing oneself, connecting, awareness, safer, ability, visibility, flexibility, risk-aversion, familiarity, unfamiliarity. What was interesting for me was that there was a point where I felt (based on how I was doing) that I did not think I’d get beyond 20 steps. But I did. I then felt that having got to 39 steps I could better that, but I did not despite trying several times. Whatever it is that we are doing it is perhaps the appreciation of what we can do and take the learning from where w are at and what we experience each time we try to move beyond where we are at physically, emotionally, intellectually or spiritually, it is the depth of learning and utilising that which is certainly important.
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Rasheed Ogunlaru is a leading life coach, motivational speaker and business / corporate coach.
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