Shifting your focus: Discovering the wisdom in the unseen

As a coach and educator, my work is to reveal the wisdom that lies in the spaces we can’t see.

Creative breakthroughs happen when we perceive the wisdom that lies outside of our ordinary ways of looking.

In Gestalt psychology, there is a concept called ‘figure’ and ‘ground.’ Westerners tend to see figure and have a harder time seeing ground. For example, looking at a fish tank, a Westerner will immediately notice the biggest or prettiest fish, and not the broader environment—sand, seaweed, etc.

But what if the “ground” holds just as much significance as the “figure”? What would happen if you shifted your looking to take in the entire context, rather than just the most obvious part?

Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Often, the most transformative insights come from noticing what we’ve been conditioned to overlook.