“It only takes a second to shift your gaze from tight and hard to soft and relaxed” Carole
I’ve recently returned from facilitating another slow retreatt in Ubud, Bali. And yet again, I’m filled with new learnings, appreciations and understandings about myself, nature and the world we live in.
The divine energy of Ubud never fails to wrap its arms around me with softness, gentleness and a penetrating depth of nurturing that is difficult to explain. It is something you profoundly feel on the inside.
Time is irrelevant, worries dissolve, excessive talking becomes unnecessary and before too long you slip into a state of being.
Being with myself.
Being with my meal and the tastes filling my mouth.
Being amazed at the insect crawling across my leg.
Being in silence with a friend.
Simple being in expanded awareness (disconnected from thoughts) and in awe and appreciation of the beauty surrounding me in all directions – rice fields – statues – divine door ways – perfect flowers and nature.
Soon the body relaxes the mind lets go and gradually I notice where I’ve been holding on in my body. The big aha! moment this trip was the tightness and tension being held in my eye balls. And of course I realize with tight hard stressed eye balls comes forehead tension, agitated thinking and a tightening of the tongue and jaw (for me).
So, if your eyes have been working overtime like mine you may appreciate the simple relaxing effect on your whole body when you soften your eyes and surrender any sharp concentrated stressed focus.
Shift to a soft eye gaze:
Place gentle awareness on your eye balls, (close them if that feels better) and breath a relaxing breath into your eyes. Feel them gradually release and let go with each inhale.
Notice how almost instantly your shoulders start to drop, the tension in your temples and forehead begins to un-clench and a softer feeling flows over your whole face. It’s really quite magical.
Open eyed meditation (soft eyes):
I found myself often drifting off into a soft open eyed meditation many times this trip. The photo above is a view I meditated on with soft eyes for around 15 minutes. There was no purpose. Only soft eye gazing and connecting more intimately with the gentle activity and energy in the rice fields.
Know there is a deeply soothing and incredibly profound healing effect on your nervous system when you gaze without a purpose into nature. Trees – flowers – clouds – grass. Ah! the serenity of it all.
Here’s to soft peaceful eyes for each and everyone of you. Amen!
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What I’m reading at the moment:
As the Chinese say the breath is one thousand times more important than medicine. Improving the quality of your breathing can hugely improve the quality of your health and life. I personally think this is one of the best books on breathing and why I re-read it often. The Breathing Book by Donna Fahrini
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