I take a walk almost every day, usually taking the same route. This is intentional. I set my inner GPS, and, free from thinking about where I’m going, my mind is allowed to wander in whatever direction it chooses.
The other day, I tried an experiment. I decided to walk the same path, but in the opposite direction.
I couldn’t believe what I experienced.
Despite the familiar surroundings, I saw a ton of things I’d never seen before:
I saw new signs, strange knots in trees, and unique vistas that were there all along, just not in my field of vision.
Then there was the strangely-shaped house I only noticed because I was approaching it from a different angle.
My biggest shock was discovering an impressive landscaping arrangement spelling out the name of the cemetery I like passing through. Even though I walked through it hundreds of times, I didn’t know that word was there because my back was always to it on my usual route.
The experiment reminded me how our lives have a way of becoming familiar, too, making us blind.
We form routines that help maintain discipline and automate decisions so our brain has the bandwidth for other, more important tasks. But these routines can also crowd out serendipity and novelty, which makes us feel older. Researchers tell us that one reason time seems to fly so much faster than when we were kids is that we have fewer novel experiences.
The “same old, same old” steals our years away, one moment at a time.
This is why travel is so beneficial. It lifts us out of our ordinary and drops us into something new. We can gain valuable perspective (and slow time down a bit!) by shaking ourselves out of our sleepwalking state from time to time.
And you don’t even need a plane ticket or a passport.
You could literally take an alternate route to work. (Or a different mode of transportation: Ride your bike if you normally drive, or take the bus if you typically walk.)
Go to a different church service than usual, even if it’s just a different time.
Eliminate tools of speed and convenience and try doing a job or household task the long-hand, old-fashioned way.
Swap chores or responsibilities with a spouse or employee for a day.
Listen to a radio station you never listen to.
You can also gain a fresh perspective by hopping into a time machine and revisiting something from your past.
Explore a place you haven’t been in years, like an old neighborhood where you used to live, your elementary school, or the place where you had your first date with your spouse.
Watch a movie or episode of a television show you haven’t seen in decades.
Read a book you read when you were a teenager or young adult.
You might be surprised by what memories come back, or how different it seems, now that you’re different, too.
By the way, it’s not just our environment that becomes familiar. Our perceptions of people can become just as entrenched.
It’s not unusual for relationships to be relegated to routine. If the interactions we have with our co-worker, our spouse, our children become rote, we miss things. We might make incorrect assumptions about them.
This is where doing something together that’s outside your routine can be revelatory. Take a pasta-making class with your partner. Go camping with just one of your kids. Attend a ballgame or organize a charitable event with your co-workers.
These opportunities allow us to see one another in a new light, to encounter new facets of the other person that were there the whole time, but we simply didn’t have an occasion to witness.
It can even change the perceptions of self-perceived “enemies.” Sometimes, the opportunity to engage with someone we dislike or disagree with under entirely new circumstances can transform the relationship. There have been people in my life that I didn’t particularly like at first who became dear friends after encountering them in a different light.
Here’s the point.
Routines are great, until they become ruts.
When we make even the smallest effort to shake things up and force ourselves to experience a new perspective, we can slow down our lives, transform our relationships, and maybe even uncover solutions to our most stubborn problems.
When we see with new eyes, we encounter blessings hiding in plain sight.
