Exceptions to Foveal/Peripheral Mood Switch

In my classes, I have had people for whom a sustained peripheral gaze is not calming. They are more comfortable if they can make darting glances—saccades—into the figurative underbrush, perhaps to make sure there aren't any dangers lurking around. The thing is, we talk about vision in terms of hunting and gathering, but it also has a role in avoiding being hunted or gathered. The saccades may feel like a better strategy for being at home in the world than the peripheral gaze. For that person, maybe the peripheral meditation is uncomfortable. What I want you to do here, dear reader, is not to pathologize. Our culture has such a habit of turning differences into "you're injured and you have this compensation and isn't that a shame." What the heck! It is a legitimate alternative strategy, not a pathology. Isn't it nice that a certain proportion of our village population is looking out in this way? If you notice you are more comfortable with saccades—great! Insight. Celebrate it unless you don't—maybe you'd like to enjoy peripheralness. But. So. In this sense you are "neurodivergent." Hooray.