Tending your trauma,
Opening your lens practice.
I'm glad we can practice together today.
When we experience overwhelm,
Stress or traumatic triggering,
Our normal response is to narrow our focus and attention to that which is upsetting.
This is part of our instinctual survival response,
To really pay attention to what could be dangerous.
However,
We often stay stuck in this narrow experience of life,
Impacting our sense of aliveness and wonder.
Here's an analogy for our practice today.
Think of a sophisticated camera with a very large lens.
You can turn the lens to zoom in on one object.
This object now fills the entire frame.
It's all you can see.
If you adjust the lens to widen and zoom out,
There's more to see in the frame.
The original object is still there,
But it takes up less space.
This opening your lens practice is very helpful when you feel that you can't shift away from a difficult image,
Body sensation,
Event,
Thought or emotion.
Let's begin.
This short meditation is best done if you are in a safe enough location where you can take a few moments to soften,
Slow down,
Take a few breaths if that's helpful.
You can settle your body in any comfortable posture.
This is not always easy,
So be kind to yourself.
Now bring to your conscious awareness a challenging image,
Body sensation,
Thought or emotion that you've been recently experiencing.
Notice what happens in your body.
You may experience seeing the difficult image or feeling muscle constriction or noticing more shallow breath.
Next,
Widen your attention to notice something else in your environment,
An object,
Person or quality in close proximity to where you're located.
Perhaps you see or feel a soft blanket or notice a pattern on the sofa or rug.
Whatever you notice near you,
Name them to yourself.
Keep gently,
Slowly expanding your lens a bit further from your body.
What else are you aware of?
Perhaps books on the shelf,
Sounds from your kitchen or fragrance,
Or the wind blowing outside.
Again,
Just notice and name these things that you're aware of.
Continue widening your lens of attention further and further out,
Becoming aware of sights,
Sounds and other sensations that feel interesting,
Beautiful or soothing.
Perhaps there's a window with a tree outside or you may hear birds singing.
As you do this opening practice,
What begins to happen in your body?
Perhaps you notice a bit of softening of muscle tension or a bit more ease in your breath.
This practice of consciously opening and widening your lens of awareness helps our focus get unstuck,
Returning our attention to a more fluid and flexible state.
One that can increase our regulation and ability to be with whatever is happening in the moment.
We can restore the capacity to zoom in and pay detailed attention when we need to.
And then zoom out when a broader,
More open awareness would be more helpful.
When my daughter was around seven,
Her pet hamster died in front of her.
In the following days,
She complained of seeing this sad event happen over and over.
I guided her through this specific practice.
Her attention shifted from the image of her pet to her room with her stuffed animals and books,
To remembering all of us in her family supporting her in those moments.
And then the apple tree outside the window.
And then she noticed the sky.
I repeated this practice with her three or four times over the next few weeks,
Until the traumatic image no longer affected her.
She obviously still remembers,
But that difficult image is no longer stuck in her awareness.
So to recap,
Remember that we start with briefly noticing the difficult experience,
Image or sensation,
Without getting tangled into the storyline.
Then inviting our inner camera lens to zoom out slowly,
Noticing what else we're aware of in the present moment through our senses.
We acknowledge the difficult experience and then invite our attention to open and widen.
Try it one more time and see what happens.
If you are working with a very persistent experience,
You may need to repeat this meditation over time.
As always,
Pace your practice and get assistance from professionals if you need more support.
You can also try this practice with positive images and sensations as well.
It will help your attention stay flexible and fluid.
You can narrowing in on something that is curious,
And then opening and widening your attention to notice something in the broader view.
Thanks for practicing with me today and be well.
