Alright,
So we'll do a short exercise here to get a sense of what it's like to really increase the container of awareness,
Really expand it from your body and your visual field and beyond.
So to start with this,
Just go ahead and get comfortable.
We'll be keeping our eyes open for this one.
And just allowing yourself some nice deep breaths.
Relaxing the shoulders,
Relaxing the face,
Feeling the ground beneath you and keeping your eyes open.
I want to invite you to just pick a point in front of you that you can focus on for a minute.
So it could be something in the distance or something closer.
It doesn't matter what it is,
Just pick something and keep your attention on it softly.
Don't focus too hard.
Just let your attention settle as you continue to look at this object,
Whatever it is.
Keeping your face relaxed.
Now I want you to start to expand your attention without moving your eyeballs.
Very importantly,
Without moving your eyeballs.
So you're keeping your attention softly on this point and then starting to widen the lens.
So noticing what's to your left,
What's to your right.
Just opening up to your periphery as if you are gazing at a sunset.
You know,
When you're looking at a sunset,
You're not focusing really hard on one point,
You're just taking it all in.
So in a similar way,
Just take in your entire visual field.
Again,
Without moving your eyeballs.
And for the second part,
Increasing the awareness to not just your visual field,
But also your body.
So without moving,
Just starting to feel the weight of your body,
Your back pressed against the chair,
Perhaps.
Your legs,
Your butt on the floor,
On the cushion.
Feeling your hands.
Feeling any temperature.
Feeling the saliva in your mouth.
Feeling your breath.
And keeping the soft gaze.
Keeping this felt sense of your entire body.
Lastly,
Bringing in the entirety of the space around you.
So even if you can't see the space,
You can feel the space above you.
You know that there's space above you,
And below you,
And all around you,
Behind you.
So just take in this entire sense of space,
Of your body sitting in space,
In a room,
Or outdoors,
Or wherever you are.
Letting your mind move outwards and expand in all directions as you do this.
Without moving your eyeballs again,
Just being perfectly still.
Keep your eyes open.
And reducing any effort you're putting in here.
It's not pushing too hard.
It's a really soft movement of the mind.
Just sitting and resting in this.
If you get distracted,
Of course,
You can just let the distraction go and come back to this open,
Spacious field and feeling of your body and space around you.
And as a fun exercise to finish with,
You can even try bringing to mind a thought right now.
So thinking of something that happened at work,
Or something that happened today.
And you might notice the thought is very small,
Or maybe it's even difficult to bring up a thought.
And the reason is because your awareness is including so much of your experience now,
And so a thought is just a tiny,
Tiny part of that.
So now you can just let go of the exercise,
Let go of any attention,
Letting your eyes move if they'd like to.
Taking a deep breath.
And just taking a moment to reflect on this exercise and seeing if there's any shift,
There's been any shift if you feel any different.
There's a greater sense of openness,
Perhaps.
And essentially,
This practice is what you do in Zen and Zazen meditation.
It's a practice in many traditions,
Where you're opening up your field of awareness beyond your attention to the breath,
Or beyond your attention to one point.
And really,
You're just opening it up to everything at the same time.
So perhaps you've got a sense of what that feels like now.
And you can go and repeat this thousands and thousands of times.
