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Using Peripheral Vision to Unleash New Perspectives
Widening your lens can make a difference in your relational well-being
By Dr. Kenneth Silvestri
Posted November 3, 2026
Key Points:
- Broader perception helps break free from rigid, stress-inducing models of certainty.
- Using a stereoscopic lens to zoom in and out can help resolve conflict.
- A peripheral visualization exercise offers an improvisational means to make a difference in your life.
“The moon commends herself to the matter-of-fact people by her usefulness, and makes her uselessness adored by poets, artists, and all lovers in all lands.” -Walt Whitman
“Sometimes change is directly visible, but sometimes it is apparent only to peripheral vision, altering the meaning of the foreground.” -Mary Catherine Bateson
I wonder at times what is necessary and what is not. Water is, but is it, when you cup your hands to drink, encompassing many yin-and-yang contexts? Maneuvering life’s many different manifestations is not always easy. Richard Adams, in his book Watership Down, echoing Walt Whitman’s quote above, once said, “We need daylight, and to that extent it is utilitarian…
