Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. With the classic tunnel view, the view only goes straight ahead, you isolate yourself from everything else and hardly notice what is happening around you. This phenomenon is particularly widespread in the job, makes life difficult for workers and regularly causes mistakes that are difficult to understand from the outside. Because tunnel vision can start unconsciously, it is difficult to completely prevent it. In some cases it may even be wanted. What you need to know ...
Tunnelblick meaning: What exactly is that?
Tunnelblick Meaning Psychology The term tunnel view has different meanings:
psychology
In psychology this is called the limitation of the visual field . It can already be caused by small amounts of alcohol. The alcoholic person then has the feeling of looking through a tunnel.
medicine
A tunnel view is also possible due to illness. This is how ophthalmology describes visual impairment, for example when the optic nerve is damaged or due to a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
software
In addition, Tunnelblick is a name for a free app suitable for Mac OS X, with which VPN connections can be established.
metaphor
In a figurative sense, we speak of a narrowed perception without external influences if you lose sight of the big picture. You get lost in details, hardly notice what is going on around you, you may not even notice important information and you keep getting stuck.
This is about the latter meaning of tunnel vision. Instead of looking at the big picture, your perception is concentrated on a tiny, small aspect , which means you miss everything else. Metaphorically speaking, you can imagine that you have blinders on. You don't notice what happens on the left or right.
In what contexts does it appear?
We can encounter the tunnel view in various contexts, for example:
In the job, a tunnel vision often occurs with very extensive and complex projects or orders. Here it would be important to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to form an overall result and to keep an overview, but instead focus is only on a single problem or a rather unimportant aspect . The following causes are possible:
stress
Stress is often the cause of tunnel vision. If the tasks and documents are stacked on your desk and boss or colleague are at your door every minute and bring other concerns with you, this leads to foreclosure. At first, there is a normal protective reaction .
If the stress increases, the overwhelming threat threatens to bring you to your knees completely. To prevent this from happening and to be able to react at all, concentrate on a very small part - which you control without feeling overwhelmed by the workload.
lack of sleep
Another possible reason for tunnel vision is fatigue . Whether physically or mentally , if you lack the necessary energy, you start to hide things and no longer perceive them.
isolation
Bullying can also be responsible for tunnel vision at the workplace. You want to protect yourself and are probably already so frustrated that you only want to take care of your own concerns - you don't want to be aware of what the others around you are doing.
self-organisation
The reasons for a tunnel view can also be due to a lack of organization . If you lose the overview, you no longer know where your head is and you have no plan at all, which to-dos are pending, how they relate to the overall result and where the priorities lie, there is little left for you to do but to do so one thing to focus on.
In relationships
Some people also have a tunnel vision at the relationship level. You have some good friends from the sandbox era and / or are in a steady relationship. However, they are then really fixated on these people and only enter into superficial ties. This phenomenon can be observed time and again in students who stay at home and commute to the university.
While newcomers rely on making new contacts, commuters have a real tunnel view. They are only moderately interested in new acquaintances, draw on the security of their old friends. Maintaining existing contacts is important. However, there should be general openness to new contacts. Especially when it comes to networking , it is important to broaden your horizons and social contacts. Anyone who travels essentially in the same circles as when they were at school deprives themselves of new perspectives and possible inspiration.
In performances
If the examples above are about sensory perception, Tunnelblick can also be ideological or argumentative: For example, if you only see your own point of view and completely ignore other opinions or points of view. In this case, it stubbornly insists that your own view is correct and inviolable. Anyone who argues in the opposite direction or provides information that speaks against their own opinion is simply hidden and ignored.
A tunnel view can also occur for certain areas . For example, many people tend to only see the negative around them, focus exclusively on criticism and completely ignore the positive.
Two sides of the coin
Tunnelblick two sides of the same coinIf you take it seriously, there are two sides to the coin. And they are related to stress. There are two types of stress: positive and negative.
Eustress
This is positive stress that occurs during short-term loads and is no longer harmful. We are familiar with this, for example, when someone is highly motivated to study for a final exam, cheers on himself "Only one more week - after that it's vacation time!" And thanks to good time management can do everything. Even in such learning phases, many people develop a tunnel vision and this can be deliberate.
To get rid of all secondary aspects for a certain time - in this case meeting temptations like friends, parties, cinema and the like - means to concentrate fully on one thing: in this case the exam. This kind of tunnel vision is like flow . After successfully mastering the exam situation with happiness hormones, the steadfast will ultimately be rewarded. The same can be observed when overcoming an illness.
distress
On the other hand, the permanent stress, also known as distress, is harmful. Situations or phases are permanently negatively assessed because someone has no coping strategies at hand and feels overwhelmed or even threatened. With this type of stress, the main cause of tunnel vision, the same biological program as in the Stone Age runs: it puts the body on alert. This, in turn, has the advantage that humans - if there is imminent danger - can react quickly and escape or fight.
Hundreds of thousands of years later, it makes no difference whether we are actually threatened by a saber-toothed tiger (rather unlikely because it died out), whether we feel threatened in our self-worth or have reached our stress limit .
Thoughts like:
There is not enough time, it is too much work.
I can't complete the project so impossible.
Why doesn't anyone see how much I work?
Why is there so little support here?
are associated with negative stress because you are constantly circling around a problem. On the one hand, this is normal because this is how the brain works. Because problems mean potential danger , so they are given more attention and saved so that they can react more quickly in an emergency.
At the same time, positive things can be neglected, because they are beautiful and worth striving for, but are not essential to get us out of a dangerous situation. And this is where the tunnel vision comes into play again: If we feel threatened in any way, the negative information in a situation is primarily filtered out selectively .
That is why tunnel vision is so harmful to you
The tunnel vision in distress is self-reinforcing, it is by no means the depicted reality, but only an excerpt. This can lead to someone getting so involved in something that only the basic assumptions are confirmed .
The greatest danger is avoidable mistakes . If your perception is restricted and you don't notice what is going on around you, you will miss important information or new data that may be needed to complete your tasks.
Or you actually don't see the forest for the trees and are so fixated on your small part that you simply overlook obvious solutions to a problem and hang on to a problem for hours that shouldn't be a challenge. This occurs especially when you completely ignore the opinions and views of your colleagues or other stakeholders and only consider your own perspective and consider it correct.
Isolation by tunnel vision is also problematic - if you do not separate yourself from toxic people or a negative work environment. You set yourself apart from the team and exclude yourself from the community. Instead of working towards a goal together, do your own thing. A message that your colleagues are unlikely to miss.
How to put an end to tunnel vision
If the tunnel vision is unwanted, you suddenly become aware of it. Before you even get it right, you no longer have an overview, but only concentrate on your small area. If this phase of negative stress continues, it can lead to some reacting aggressively or depressively or even becoming completely helpless .
How do you get out of there and overcome the tunnel vision? Fortunately, there are several ways that you can widen your view again, allow other opinions and look at the overall picture of the situation:
Reduce stress
The first step should be to combat the causes and reduce the stress that triggered the tunnel vision in the first place. Make room for yourself, reduce the workload on your shoulders or redistribute the projects to give yourself more breathing space.
Also relaxation exercises can help to be less stressed. With increasing relaxation in the job, your perception will change again and the tunnel vision will disappear in a short time.
Look at the situation from a new perspective
In order to get out of the tunnel view within a few minutes, you should try changing your perspective . Put yourself in the position of your colleague, the boss or even a customer and look at the situation through their eyes. What changes from this point of view? What have you perhaps not noticed so far?
With your tunnel vision, you restrict yourself and ignore what is obvious to everyone else. Especially if you are stuck and do not want to move away from in your opinion, can change in perspective immediate results achieved when you approach these openly and engage in it.
Practice mindfulness
There are several methods by which mindfulness is practiced. Common to all is the goal that somebody recalls himself and readjust his perception : away from the one thing that promotes tunnel vision - towards more vision. You can do this by consciously focusing your attention on other sensory perceptions:
Smell, hear, taste, see, feel - for example, go for a walk in nature and listen to animal sounds, feel the sun, rain or wind on your skin and hair, pay attention to the green of the leaves, watch animals, look for certain Plants and trees. Nature demonstrably contributes to relaxation and brings you to other thoughts.
Make sure you get enough sleep
A fatigued brain is proven to be faster in stress mode than a rested one. Studies with overnight managers have also shown that the willingness to take risks then increases - such side effects are not necessarily desirable and are more likely to increase errors. So make sure you get enough rest.
Find a new environment
In order to see and perceive something new, it is actually advisable to go to another place. If you are caught on your computer in the tunnel view, go to another room or even better outside in the park or in a café. Bring to other thoughts and make sure there is some time for distraction . When you return to work afterwards, you usually see things with completely different eyes, have new ideas or are more open to the suggestions that you rigorously rejected before.
Maintain your psycho-hygiene
Taking care of your own psycho-hygiene means that you are aware of the consequences of too many negative thoughts and influences. You therefore take countermeasures to let more positive things into your life. Because the tunnel vision is fixated on problems - life is not just problems.
Even if some problems dominate at work - high turnover, lack of orders, bad working atmosphere - you should take measures to get rid of these negative things. Instead of focusing on fears and worries, consciously deal with coping strategies. In addition to mindfulness and relaxation exercises, this includes a fundamentally more positive attitude to life, for example through positive thinking .
Do you do sports
Similar to a walk in nature, exercise and exercise help blow your head through. They direct the focus away from problems to physical activity , relieve stress and rearrange your thoughts. Suddenly, things come up for problem solving that you haven't seen before.
Optimize your self-management
Similar to the first point, it is about reducing the workload. Delegating and saying no are important means to avoid being burdened with more work and to get another reason into a project if it is proven to be overloaded .
Basically, however, you should make sure that the most important adjustment, namely your own work organization , also works smoothly. It's easy to waste time chatting in the tea kitchen or looking at your smartphone. Good self-management means identifying and eliminating time wasters.
Tunnelblick meaning: What exactly is that?
Tunnelblick Meaning Psychology The term tunnel view has different meanings:
psychology
In psychology this is called the limitation of the visual field . It can already be caused by small amounts of alcohol. The alcoholic person then has the feeling of looking through a tunnel.
medicine
A tunnel view is also possible due to illness. This is how ophthalmology describes visual impairment, for example when the optic nerve is damaged or due to a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
software
In addition, Tunnelblick is a name for a free app suitable for Mac OS X, with which VPN connections can be established.
metaphor
In a figurative sense, we speak of a narrowed perception without external influences if you lose sight of the big picture. You get lost in details, hardly notice what is going on around you, you may not even notice important information and you keep getting stuck.
This is about the latter meaning of tunnel vision. Instead of looking at the big picture, your perception is concentrated on a tiny, small aspect , which means you miss everything else. Metaphorically speaking, you can imagine that you have blinders on. You don't notice what happens on the left or right.
In what contexts does it appear?
We can encounter the tunnel view in various contexts, for example:
In the job, a tunnel vision often occurs with very extensive and complex projects or orders. Here it would be important to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to form an overall result and to keep an overview, but instead focus is only on a single problem or a rather unimportant aspect . The following causes are possible:
stress
Stress is often the cause of tunnel vision. If the tasks and documents are stacked on your desk and boss or colleague are at your door every minute and bring other concerns with you, this leads to foreclosure. At first, there is a normal protective reaction .
If the stress increases, the overwhelming threat threatens to bring you to your knees completely. To prevent this from happening and to be able to react at all, concentrate on a very small part - which you control without feeling overwhelmed by the workload.
lack of sleep
Another possible reason for tunnel vision is fatigue . Whether physically or mentally , if you lack the necessary energy, you start to hide things and no longer perceive them.
isolation
Bullying can also be responsible for tunnel vision at the workplace. You want to protect yourself and are probably already so frustrated that you only want to take care of your own concerns - you don't want to be aware of what the others around you are doing.
self-organisation
The reasons for a tunnel view can also be due to a lack of organization . If you lose the overview, you no longer know where your head is and you have no plan at all, which to-dos are pending, how they relate to the overall result and where the priorities lie, there is little left for you to do but to do so one thing to focus on.
In relationships
Some people also have a tunnel vision at the relationship level. You have some good friends from the sandbox era and / or are in a steady relationship. However, they are then really fixated on these people and only enter into superficial ties. This phenomenon can be observed time and again in students who stay at home and commute to the university.
While newcomers rely on making new contacts, commuters have a real tunnel view. They are only moderately interested in new acquaintances, draw on the security of their old friends. Maintaining existing contacts is important. However, there should be general openness to new contacts. Especially when it comes to networking , it is important to broaden your horizons and social contacts. Anyone who travels essentially in the same circles as when they were at school deprives themselves of new perspectives and possible inspiration.
In performances
If the examples above are about sensory perception, Tunnelblick can also be ideological or argumentative: For example, if you only see your own point of view and completely ignore other opinions or points of view. In this case, it stubbornly insists that your own view is correct and inviolable. Anyone who argues in the opposite direction or provides information that speaks against their own opinion is simply hidden and ignored.
A tunnel view can also occur for certain areas . For example, many people tend to only see the negative around them, focus exclusively on criticism and completely ignore the positive.
Two sides of the coin
Tunnelblick two sides of the same coinIf you take it seriously, there are two sides to the coin. And they are related to stress. There are two types of stress: positive and negative.
Eustress
This is positive stress that occurs during short-term loads and is no longer harmful. We are familiar with this, for example, when someone is highly motivated to study for a final exam, cheers on himself "Only one more week - after that it's vacation time!" And thanks to good time management can do everything. Even in such learning phases, many people develop a tunnel vision and this can be deliberate.
To get rid of all secondary aspects for a certain time - in this case meeting temptations like friends, parties, cinema and the like - means to concentrate fully on one thing: in this case the exam. This kind of tunnel vision is like flow . After successfully mastering the exam situation with happiness hormones, the steadfast will ultimately be rewarded. The same can be observed when overcoming an illness.
distress
On the other hand, the permanent stress, also known as distress, is harmful. Situations or phases are permanently negatively assessed because someone has no coping strategies at hand and feels overwhelmed or even threatened. With this type of stress, the main cause of tunnel vision, the same biological program as in the Stone Age runs: it puts the body on alert. This, in turn, has the advantage that humans - if there is imminent danger - can react quickly and escape or fight.
Hundreds of thousands of years later, it makes no difference whether we are actually threatened by a saber-toothed tiger (rather unlikely because it died out), whether we feel threatened in our self-worth or have reached our stress limit .
Thoughts like:
There is not enough time, it is too much work.
I can't complete the project so impossible.
Why doesn't anyone see how much I work?
Why is there so little support here?
are associated with negative stress because you are constantly circling around a problem. On the one hand, this is normal because this is how the brain works. Because problems mean potential danger , so they are given more attention and saved so that they can react more quickly in an emergency.
At the same time, positive things can be neglected, because they are beautiful and worth striving for, but are not essential to get us out of a dangerous situation. And this is where the tunnel vision comes into play again: If we feel threatened in any way, the negative information in a situation is primarily filtered out selectively .
That is why tunnel vision is so harmful to you
The tunnel vision in distress is self-reinforcing, it is by no means the depicted reality, but only an excerpt. This can lead to someone getting so involved in something that only the basic assumptions are confirmed .
The greatest danger is avoidable mistakes . If your perception is restricted and you don't notice what is going on around you, you will miss important information or new data that may be needed to complete your tasks.
Or you actually don't see the forest for the trees and are so fixated on your small part that you simply overlook obvious solutions to a problem and hang on to a problem for hours that shouldn't be a challenge. This occurs especially when you completely ignore the opinions and views of your colleagues or other stakeholders and only consider your own perspective and consider it correct.
Isolation by tunnel vision is also problematic - if you do not separate yourself from toxic people or a negative work environment. You set yourself apart from the team and exclude yourself from the community. Instead of working towards a goal together, do your own thing. A message that your colleagues are unlikely to miss.
How to put an end to tunnel vision
If the tunnel vision is unwanted, you suddenly become aware of it. Before you even get it right, you no longer have an overview, but only concentrate on your small area. If this phase of negative stress continues, it can lead to some reacting aggressively or depressively or even becoming completely helpless .
How do you get out of there and overcome the tunnel vision? Fortunately, there are several ways that you can widen your view again, allow other opinions and look at the overall picture of the situation:
Reduce stress
The first step should be to combat the causes and reduce the stress that triggered the tunnel vision in the first place. Make room for yourself, reduce the workload on your shoulders or redistribute the projects to give yourself more breathing space.
Also relaxation exercises can help to be less stressed. With increasing relaxation in the job, your perception will change again and the tunnel vision will disappear in a short time.
Look at the situation from a new perspective
In order to get out of the tunnel view within a few minutes, you should try changing your perspective . Put yourself in the position of your colleague, the boss or even a customer and look at the situation through their eyes. What changes from this point of view? What have you perhaps not noticed so far?
With your tunnel vision, you restrict yourself and ignore what is obvious to everyone else. Especially if you are stuck and do not want to move away from in your opinion, can change in perspective immediate results achieved when you approach these openly and engage in it.
Practice mindfulness
There are several methods by which mindfulness is practiced. Common to all is the goal that somebody recalls himself and readjust his perception : away from the one thing that promotes tunnel vision - towards more vision. You can do this by consciously focusing your attention on other sensory perceptions:
Smell, hear, taste, see, feel - for example, go for a walk in nature and listen to animal sounds, feel the sun, rain or wind on your skin and hair, pay attention to the green of the leaves, watch animals, look for certain Plants and trees. Nature demonstrably contributes to relaxation and brings you to other thoughts.
Make sure you get enough sleep
A fatigued brain is proven to be faster in stress mode than a rested one. Studies with overnight managers have also shown that the willingness to take risks then increases - such side effects are not necessarily desirable and are more likely to increase errors. So make sure you get enough rest.
Find a new environment
In order to see and perceive something new, it is actually advisable to go to another place. If you are caught on your computer in the tunnel view, go to another room or even better outside in the park or in a café. Bring to other thoughts and make sure there is some time for distraction . When you return to work afterwards, you usually see things with completely different eyes, have new ideas or are more open to the suggestions that you rigorously rejected before.
Maintain your psycho-hygiene
Taking care of your own psycho-hygiene means that you are aware of the consequences of too many negative thoughts and influences. You therefore take countermeasures to let more positive things into your life. Because the tunnel vision is fixated on problems - life is not just problems.
Even if some problems dominate at work - high turnover, lack of orders, bad working atmosphere - you should take measures to get rid of these negative things. Instead of focusing on fears and worries, consciously deal with coping strategies. In addition to mindfulness and relaxation exercises, this includes a fundamentally more positive attitude to life, for example through positive thinking .
Do you do sports
Similar to a walk in nature, exercise and exercise help blow your head through. They direct the focus away from problems to physical activity , relieve stress and rearrange your thoughts. Suddenly, things come up for problem solving that you haven't seen before.
Optimize your self-management
Similar to the first point, it is about reducing the workload. Delegating and saying no are important means to avoid being burdened with more work and to get another reason into a project if it is proven to be overloaded .
Basically, however, you should make sure that the most important adjustment, namely your own work organization , also works smoothly. It's easy to waste time chatting in the tea kitchen or looking at your smartphone. Good self-management means identifying and eliminating time wasters.
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