Stare Vacantly into the DistanceStare Vacantly into the DistanceStare Vacantly into the DistanceStare Vacantly into the Distance
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Stare Vacantly into the Distance

Stare Vacantly into the Distance

Boketto is a Japanese word for staring vacantly into the distance. It describes a visual phenomena that is related to nervous system states, and a restorative practices that involves softening the eyes and the attention.

Aside from its general utility for chilling out, softening the eyes and letting them gaze into the distance has significant effects on our stress physiology. Single-point vision, which is what we are doing most of the time, is the kind of seeing required for responding to threats. To soften the gaze—some of our nature awareness teachers call this Soft Eyes—to let the focus dissolve and expand into the peripheral vision, often shifts us from more sympathetic (stress) to more ventral vagal (connection and relaxation) states.

This is a style of gaze that we often utilize when tracking. We de-focalize the center, and expand and soften our vision out. You can learn more about that particular practice in Sensory Calibration. But letting the eyes soften, letting them wander, letting the gaze into the distance, is also connected to a general shift towards relaxation and settling.

Related Practices:

If you want to practice moving around with the eyes softened, see Soften the Gaze, and check out Tracking as a Governing Metaphor. For more ways to utilize vision, see Vista Views.

Who taught us this?

We learned the word boketto in Ella Frances Sanders marvelous little book, Lost in Translation: A compendium of Untranslatable Words. The concept of staring vacantly into the distance feels pretty intuitive.

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Humans have probably always been awed by the natural world.

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Humans have probably always been awed by the natural world.

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Video: | Photography: | Licensed from Pexels.com, used with permission.

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