👀Your Eyes Control Your Brain: the panoramic vision hack to motivate yourself do boring, hard things.

What if the way you look at the world could change how you think?  

Every week, I climb a mountain in Cape Town. At the top, everything shifts. The city looks smaller. My problems feel lighter. The higher I go, the bigger my perspective becomes. But here’s the thing—you don’t need a mountain to experience this shift.  

Navy SEAL commander Rich Diviney, in his new book "Masters of Uncertainty" talks about how simply changing your gaze can rewire your brain. When you focus on a single object, your mind narrows in, locking onto details. But when you soften your gaze—seeing everything without focusing on anything—you activate a different part of your brain. Suddenly, you connect more dots, see patterns, and think beyond immediate obstacles.  

This practice isn’t just about problem-solving; it’s about freedom. For me, true success isn’t money or titles—it’s living without compromise, expressing myself fully. Every decision I make comes down to one question: Does this expand or limit who I am?  

Next time you feel stuck, pause. Shift your gaze. Step back. Look at the bigger picture. A new perspective might be all you need to keep going with a lighter heart.  

Try it today. Then share this episode with someone who needs to see things differently.  

  

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Brought to you by Angela Shurina
EXECUTIVE & OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE COACH

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of your
Brain's Coach podcast.
My name is Angela Shurina, I'myour host, I'm your Brain's
Coach and also a change agentaccelerator here to share with
you, discover, learn with youall the amazing brain-body tools

(00:21):
that we get more and more dataabout and scientific support of
brain-body tools, psychologytools, behavior tools, so we
could take better control ofthis vehicle that we call human,
this vehicle in this life.
So we could take better controlof our emotions, of our
thoughts and, most importantly,of our actions.

(00:43):
So we get to live the lifeexperience that is closer and
closer to what we envision inour wildest dreams or all the
inspiration that we have forourselves.
You know, yesterday on my walk,I was thinking to myself that I
am so freaking not luckybecause I actually worked on

(01:07):
that, but I feel so immenselyrich because I have this one
achievement that I've done in mylife.
Is it maximizing my freedom ina sense of not, let's say,
financial freedom and being ableto fly anywhere or buy anything
, but in terms of spiritualfreedom, I thought to myself

(01:31):
there is not a single person inmy life whose bullshit I have to
take and I'd like to keep itthis way, so literally.
There is not a person in mylife.
I don't mind people whodisagree with me or people who
think differently, not at allbut there is not a person in my

(01:52):
life who limits my spiritual, myself-expression freedom in any
way, and I thought that is suchan amazing achievement.
And any opportunity, if I thinkto myself, any opportunity that
I get in life, I always somehowsubconsciously measure against
that.

(02:12):
Is it going to limit my freedomof self-expression or is it
going to enhance it?
Is it going to help it?
Or at least just you know, beneutral towards it?
So, as I put it in my post onthreads, my most treasured
achievement is having theability to not put up with

(02:37):
anyone's bullshit and anyopportunity I measure against
that.
If you have that in your life,you probably know what you're
talking about.
And if you don't, and you haveto think a few times per day or
per week that, oh, I wish Icould do that, but because of
this person or this circumstance, I can't.
For me this is the worst kindof prison and I'd rather be less

(03:00):
rich or, I don't know, powerfulor in any way perceived as
being successful in the world.
I'd rather have my spiritualfreedom than all the gold in the
world.
I'm a freedom fighter.
That's why, probably, I connectto Mandela and living in South

(03:21):
Africa so much as well.
But anyhow, that's a lyricalwalk around.
And now to the main theme of ourpodcast, and I want to tell you
a story.
First, I got a message from afriend and he knows a fellow
entrepreneur that I go and hikeup the mountain the same

(03:43):
mountain every Friday and heasked me the same mountain every
Friday?
And he asked me so you do itevery Friday?
Are you sort of religious aboutit?
And I told him why I was doingit.
And one of the biggest reasons,guys, it's because when you go
above, like literally, when yourise, when you raise yourself

(04:04):
above the regular environment,above the city just up there,
and you see a bigger pictureliterally.
So you see the city from thetop of that mountain all around
you.
This is like 360 view on thetop of that mountain and you see
all of that and it allows youto see a bigger perspective.

(04:29):
And also the way you see thingschanges the way you think about
things.
When you see a bigger picture,you see a bigger picture, you
think of a bigger picture inyour mind's eye.
That's how amazing that humanbeings are designed, that our

(04:49):
biology changes our psychology.
For animals it's probably alsotrue, but they don't have much
of psychology or prefrontalcortex to be able to do such a
thing as complex thinking.
But we humans do have thiscapacity and so, yes, the way
you see things changes the wayyou think, and that's why I told
him.
That's one of the reasons why Igo and hike up this mountain.

(05:11):
I'm not religious.
I went to church maybe liketwice and maybe twice more for a
tourist exploration purposes.
But other than that, the mainreason why I go there,
especially when I'm goingthrough a lot in my day-to-day
life and sometimes you have moreproblems to deal with than you
have wins or joys when you raiseyourself above the mundane

(05:36):
physically and also hiking upthe mountain, it's quite a
physical fit, at least for me.
Still so, when you do that, ithelps you A to think of a bigger
picture, like, ah, these arethe goals, these are the dreams.
This is why I'm doing thisday-to-day.
This is why I'm working ontaxis, on company setup, on cold

(05:58):
reach-outs, on cold calls andemails.
That's why I'm doing all thisboring work or this unfancy.
Day-to-day.
My days are actually quiteboring, like majority of them.
Sales are not that fancy for amajority of the time.
But going up there it allows youto almost force the bigger

(06:21):
picture thinking and getyourself back to realizing what
it's all for.
What's the goal of the goal,what's the bigger picture?
And it also allows you to getyour thinking into even bigger
thinking mode, to envision thatthere is a whole world out there
.
There is a lot of opportunityout there.

(06:42):
Get in the boat, get in theplane, get out there, fly there.
It's not the thing that you see.
So it switches that thinkingpattern into bigger, more
audacious.
But then also, while you climbup there, it shows you that
you're capable of doing hardthings.
I used to be afraid of heights,or I used to think that I was

(07:03):
afraid of heights, and then Idid this mountain, did it once,
did it twice.
Well, I did it first with otherpeople.
That helped also a lot.
But then I did it many timesand I'm not afraid of heights
anymore, it's just a normalthing.
Well, everything is relative,obviously.
Probably, if you put me on someever-historical image, I might
have my fear of heights back tosome degree.

(07:26):
I guess it's human nature to bea little bit afraid, being up
there and exposed and seeing allthe stuff down there and
imagining yourself falling.
So there is a part of that.
But it also made me realize howmany things I'm afraid of might
be just a condition of me notbeing used to that.
I come from Siberia.

(07:47):
It's very flat.
There are a lot of things aboutSiberia that are cool.
Well, maybe not that manyactually, but it's very flat.
There is almost no elevation.
We do skiing a lot, but it'scross-country.
It's not that fancy as mountainskiing.
You put on skis and you workhard to move anywhere.
No fun, just monotonous goingforward, pushing forward.

(08:12):
So that's what Siberia canteach you, but anyhow, so no
elevation.
So when I first even was drivingtowards that mountain parking
lot, I was, oh, that alreadyfeels weird and I'm already
afraid.
But then you do it and you doit and you do it and it's like
this is the most mundane thingI've done, but still it has this
effect.
You get up there and you seebigger picture and you start

(08:36):
thinking of a bigger picture,and even when you feel, oh, I'll
just keep working, I have otherthings to do, et cetera.
But it's worth that Becauseevery week it allows me to
readjust, to tune myself up,literally to tune up my thinking
.
So I don't keep myself small,but instead I ask myself

(08:59):
questions like what if I couldbuild my million-dollar business
sooner?
And what if I could scalefaster?
What are the tools?
What are the people?
What are the things?
What if everything goes well?
What things do I need to put inplace in advance so I can
capitalize on this opportunity?
What if I get my million-dollarcontract tomorrow?

(09:20):
How can I fulfill it?
So this kind of questions willcome to you when you get up
there and you see the wholeworld that is out there and you
will start thinking bigger.
So how you see things that'sthe beauty of our biology
changes the way you think.

(09:40):
But then also today to day, whatNavy SEALs recently finished
the book Masters of Uncertaintyby former Navy SEAL commander
Rich Deviney.
A lot of things around highperformance, and he starts the
book with this physiologicalslash, psychological tools that
allow you to change your biology, to change your thinking, to

(10:00):
change your emotions so youcould perform optimally for the
task at hand.
So he teaches you how to pushyour own buttons, to push those
levers that allow you to againget in the right state mentally,
physically, emotionally toperform optimally for the task.
And another tool that TrishDevaney.
Well, one of the tools thatTrish Devaney talks about there

(10:24):
in the first chapters is thegaze, how you control your eyes
and, yes, you can go to themountain to think bigger.
But also when you just engageyour panoramic vision, meaning
when you have focused vision.
Let's say you look at yourphone.
That is the example of yourfocused vision.
You're very narrow, you focusyour visual attention very

(10:48):
narrowly.
But then when you opened it up,let's say right now I'm looking
out of the window and I look atthe mountain and I look at the
sky.
So all of a sudden you can evenlook at your ceiling and just
kind of soften your gaze andlook nowhere, seeing everything
but nothing.
That is how you engage yourpanoramic vision and again you

(11:10):
can see the mountain.
You don't have to see a mountain, but you can relax your gaze,
which relaxes your neuralcircuits, which changes the way
you think and you start thinkingabout a bigger picture instead
of this problem or this bug thatyou can't figure out and
everything seems to be doomedand you're like, oh, it's so
hard right now I won't be ableto do it.

(11:30):
But then you relax your gaze,you look at the ceiling, you
look out of the window, you cansee everything but nothing, not
focusing specifically onanything, and all of a sudden
your brain again starts thinkingwider, it connects more dots, I
believe, more neural circuitsinteract with each other and all

(11:51):
of a sudden you start thinkingyou know, this is just one day,
this is just one moment, andthis too shall pass.
There are going to be otherdays and I'm going to be
succeeding again and I'm goingto be on an upswing and I'm
building this big thing.
So it all matters, it all meanssomething, it all going to sum
up to something.
So, again, you don't have tohave an amazing view, even

(12:12):
though that helps to do it morenaturally.
That's why I love to go to theocean, that's why I love hiking
mountains, that's why I lovehaving apartments with the view
which, again, just naturallyallows you to do so.
But you can also just dostaring at the wall or ceiling
somewhere a little bit furtheraway, again, looking everywhere

(12:33):
but nowhere.
Soft gaze which will engage yourneural circuits in a different
way, which will allow you tothink bigger, wider, differently
, connect more dots, see abigger picture, which then makes
it easier to work through themandate.
Because if you think about thatlet's say, I do cold reach-outs

(12:54):
and lead generation it doesn'tengage a lot of my talents.
It's quite boring, to be honest.
Not my strengths as well, soI'm hoping to delegate it fully
at some point.
But it has to be done.
And it has to be done becauseof the bigger goal I have,
because I do want to work withall these amazing companies and

(13:14):
people and helping createworkplaces where we all thrive
and do our best.
So it all matters.
And I know that I don't do itjust for the sake of doing it.
And, yeah, it might feel in themoment like a waste of time,
but I know that at this point Ineed to do it in order to give
my bigger dreams, visions andgoals opportunity to realize one

(13:36):
day.
And the same as workouts yeah,you know, not every workout is
going to sum up to anythingmeaningful but I know that if I
don't create the habit androutine of doing it every day,
then my mental state is notgoing to be there and over the
years I might accumulatediseases and pains that are
going to limit my life in somany ways.
They're going to limit myenergy and the way I show up, my

(13:59):
leadership, the impact I cancreate in the world, the talents
that I can give into the world,that I've been given when I was
born.
And when you think about thatin the context of a bigger
picture of your life, you'relike, yeah, that matters.
This workout today, this halfan hour I stood up for, and it
might not be the most perfect orthe most audacious and

(14:20):
mind-blowing, but it's worth itand it meant something from big
to small, and that's whatchanging your gaze allows you to
do.
Your biology, your psychology,your mental, emotional state,
your physical state they'reinterlinked, they're one and the
same.
And that's the idea we're goingto get back to again and again

(14:40):
and it was our upcoming guestthat we're going to have at
least two this month.
We're going to get to this ideaagain and again and again that
your physiology is not separablefrom your psychology, from your
emotional state, which thendefine how people perceive you,
how you show up, what you do,what you don't do, what kind of

(15:04):
goals you set for yourself.
It's going to define your wholelife, guys, and so you want to
understand this and, just likeelite Navy SEALs, you want to be
able to push your own buttons,to push those levers to get
yourself into the state, toengineer the state mental,
physical emotion that you needand, in order to show up as your

(15:24):
best, do your best work thatyou're capable of in this moment
and then move your life closerand closer and closer to the
biggest possible expression ofself and the potential that you
have in you.
And that's it for today, guys.
That's what I wanted to share.
Just one takeaway Use your gazeto change your thinking.

(15:45):
So look somewhere, but nowhere.
Relax your gaze when you needto think bigger and understand
the small things that you do.
That might be boring, thatmight be challenging, that might
not again open up your talentcenter, that might seem
meaningless often, but they addup to something.
So use your gaze.
Focus narrowly when you need todial in and get this problem

(16:11):
solved, but don't open up yourgaze.
Relax your eyes, take thosebreaks you know.
Lay down on bed or on the flooror in the chair, just lean back
and look at the ceiling or outof the window.
Allow your visual circuits torelax, which will broaden your
thinking.
Think wider, bigger, which willallow them again to think

(16:33):
bigger before you dial in toperform the next step.
I hope you found this useful.
If you are in Cape Town orsomewhere with the ability to
climb mountains regularly, thendo that See the bigger picture,
to think of all the amazingpossibilities that are in front
of you.

(16:53):
If you don't have the mountains,then do something else, I don't
know.
Go and find the tallestbuilding and ride the elevator
and get on the roof and seethings from the above.
To understand how they all addup to the bigger picture of your
life and your mission.
To understand how they all addup to the bigger picture of your

(17:15):
life and your mission.
And what else?
Till next time, till about acouple of days, I'm going to
release a new episode with moretools to push your own buttons.
So till then, guys, startmastering, pushing your own
buttons, start designing thelife you absolutely love living,
and don't forget to share thispodcast episode with at least
one other person.

(17:35):
So, together, help me to createa better world for all of us.
Together, help me to helpothers to master themselves, so
we can create the most amazingworld it can possibly be.
Thank you for your attention.
Until next time, be awesome.