Open Your Eyes

“Is your insurance all paid up?”

Before I had the chance to point out that insurance does not actually prevent injury, the man next to me had floored the gas pedal in the Porsche 911 Turbo S in which we were sitting. As we hurtled down a nondescript street in Arizona, I found myself doing something out of the ordinary for me. 

I opened my eyes.

This is a story about what I saw.

Some backstory…

The man in the Porsche was Steve Hardison, aka The Ultimate Coach. I recently had the extraordinary privilege of spending an evening with him - a time that I will continue to process for weeks to come. What’s important to know for the purposes of this story is that this part - the speedster part - occurred a couple hours into our evening together. 

If you do not know who Steve is, then it’s also important to know that one of the many reasons he has gained the reputation he has as a world-class coach is that he is immensely and impressively present and perceptive. The obvious benefit of this is that it provides the ability to pick up on the unspoken truths that clients bring forward. 

However, there is an additional, equally important benefit.

High levels of perception are, in my experience, contagious. If you are receptive and you want to upgrade your own sensory system, spend a few hours with someone who sees things, hears things, and notices things that you don’t. You will leave a much more aware human. 

Before we get back to the back road with the speeding car, I should give some context to my own relationship with speed. While I am a speed lover and thrill seeker, I wasn’t always that way. As a wildly sensitive child, I would burst into tears the moment I was pushed more than an inch on the swings. The motion was too much for me to handle.

As I grew older and started fancying things like roller coasters and skydiving, I realized that I could enjoy the thrill of high speeds more if I closed my eyes. It offered me the opportunity to feel thrilling sensations in my body without the added terror of actually witnessing the situation I had put myself into. 

So, with the exception of only a couple rare times, I habitually and seemingly involuntarily clamped my eyes shut in nearly every high speed occurrence in my life. 

Up until this point.

Back in Arizona…

So there I was, in the passenger seat of a car that has just gone from 0 to 60 in around 3 seconds, whipping down an empty road, eyes clamped shut. When suddenly, some of that highly contagious presence that I had soaked in over the past few hours kicked in. Reluctantly, I urged my eyes to open.

At first, it was what I expected to experience. The world was moving so fast - almost too fast. I wanted to shut my eyes again. 

However, the longer I kept them open, the more I saw that the world around me wasn’t one big blur. It was actually discernible - even at this high speed. With each passing moment, I saw more objects outlined in detail.

I turned to look at Steve who was, thankfully, not closing his eyes. Not only that, he looked calm and in control. I turned back to the road. Suddenly I felt more calm and in control. 

The world was moving quickly, but despite that, I had slowed down. And eventually, it slowed down to meet me.

The moral of the story…

The world is a fast-paced world. Many of us live fast paced lives. And yet, when things get frantic, most people tend to repeat my habit in high speed situations. Maybe you do this yourself.

You close your eyes. You shut off a section of your senses. You aim to make the pace more bearable by creating the numbness that lack of presence creates. Yet, even though the pace may be more bearable in the moment, it feels even more uncontrollable. 

You may even consider, for a moment, that you could bring yourself into the present. And yet, presence feels way too scary and way too overwhelming. When you first explore total presence, it actually feels as though life is speeding up - not slowing down.

But here is the thing. 

It is only through presence that we can actually slow down. It is only through presence that we can actually increase our sense of control in this lifetime - or rather, our feeling of mastery.

I know it feels scary. I know you may have tried and failed before. 

But the next time you find yourself in a situation where you feel like the world is whizzing by you, and everything feels too unwieldy and too out of control - try opening your eyes. Bring yourself into the present. Wait a few seconds.

And watch as the world slows down to meet you.