In one of the Harry Potter books, Harry hides in a safe home that is made invisible to the world through magic. As I was driving home one day, I noticed a house, right in front of my kitchen window, that I have never noticed before. Granted, it was a small house squeezed between two apartment buildings (which it can be argued that it should have made it even more conspicuous) and it was across 6 lanes of busy traffic. Nevertheless, I have never seen that house before. I was in shock. I consider myself an observant person (as discussed above) and I look out the window 50 times a day. How could this be? How could I not have seen this house?

Well, quite common, right? Happens all the time, and when thinking of Harry Potter’s safe house, we realize it doesn’t take much magic to render something invisible. I am willing to bet, most things are invisible until they are visible. From other people’s feelings, to products and services we desperately need and never notice, to objects, nature, and people; even ourselves to ourselves.

Invisibility is a fact of life.

So we need to practice true vision. We need to practice “seeing” while keeping our eyes open into the world. There is nothing complicated to this. Just add intent and pause (a few seconds of pause are all that is needed). Boom! True vision.

What can you use true vision for? A ton of stuff, from understanding your environment, to understanding people at work (your boss, your colleagues, your clients), to deconstructing emotions.

Example: I was in Sienna, Italy, one summer a few years back. My daughter was 7 months old, in my arms, with a wet diaper. My mother was behind me, nursing a bad hip, barely walking. My husband was ahead of me almost lost in the huge tourist crowds, on the verge of an asthma attack. I was in the middle of Sienna, one of the most magnificent medieval towns in the world. Sienna was of course, gorgeous and at that moment, completely inaccessible to me because all these other issues and worries were fully occupying the bandwidth I had. Completely aware that I might never be in Sienna ever again in this lifetime, I did something very simple and most powerful, something that I keep using as a technique all the time, something that I recommend to you when you feel stressed.

I stopped.

I wanted to “file away” a memory of that beautiful place so I can revisit it later, in solitude, to rewind the tape and enjoy Sienna, if not in real time, at least in my mind’s eye. I literally stopped in the middle of that plaza and scanned my surroundings, literally taking mental photographs, smelling the air, listening to the din of the crowd, feeling the wind and the sun on my face. I said to myself: “I can’t enjoy it now, but nobody can prevent me from enjoying it later. This memory is mine and mine alone.” It took a few seconds – a few seconds of true vision – and then I walked away, searching for my family, up ahead.

If the banking of that rich, textured, beautiful memory would have been the only outcome of that true vision moment, that would have been enough. To my amazement however, as I was walking away, I noticed that everything had shifted internally. My daughter’s diaper was still wet, and nothing had changed in the health of my mom or husband, but my internal framework was completely different. I didn’t feel overwhelmed anymore. I wasn’t irritated. I was light as a feather. I was happy.

That is the gift of true vision.

If paying attention to detail to feed the brain with information is the ability to see at the micro level, true vision is macro level. True vision is looking for the things between the things, for the whole, for the tapestry of myriad things and how they come together. Combine the two, and well, you’ve truly got your superpower.

Cristina M. Gallegos