Position yourself where you can see some nature.
It could be out a window,
It could be a pot plant,
A single leaf,
Or the sky.
Or something else.
Find something of the natural environment where you can allow your gaze to rest.
Now take a moment to let your body settle.
Feel your feet on the ground.
Feel the weight of your body being held by the surface beneath you.
And as you allow your eyes to rest softly on what you've chosen to focus on,
For the next couple of minutes,
I invite you to be completely absorbed in what you're gazing at.
Allow your eyes to remain soft,
But get deeply curious about what you're seeing,
As though you're seeing it for the first time in your life.
Notice the color,
The textures,
The shape,
The shadows,
The way the light plays off it.
Take in the details,
Maybe the tiny veins on the leaf,
Or the way the air moves through a single blade of grass.
Maybe the way the sunlight shifts across the petal.
And as you continue to watch,
Notice what happens in your body.
Is there a shift in your breath?
Perhaps a drop in your shoulders?
Or a softening around your jaw?
Just stay present and notice.
Without judgment,
Just stay curious.
Can you continue to invite in a sense of awe and curiosity to what you're observing?
Nowhere else to be,
Nowhere else to go.
Just noticing the shape,
The color,
The texture,
The way the light plays with what you're observing.
Now I invite you to let your awareness gently broaden.
Allow your eyes to stay soft,
And allow your vision to expand,
To include more of the scene in front of you.
So expanding your peripheral vision.
And just start to notice now how the object that you were focused on relates to the space around it.
Can you take in more of the scene while keeping your gaze soft and open?
And as you do so,
Again,
Notice what your breath is doing.
Has it become slower,
Deeper?
Or maybe you're holding it a little.
Can you invite yourself to take a fuller breath in and a longer exhale out?
Notice how the rest of your body is responding.
As you broaden your peripheral vision and take in a little bit more of what's around you.
And now let yourself connect with the sounds around you.
The subtle ones.
Maybe a background hum,
A distant noise.
Let each sound come in and out of your awareness without needing to hold onto any of them.
Just letting them pass through like the wind passing through branches.
And stay curious,
Keeping that essence of wonder as you keep your attention wide.
Can you let yourself take in more without needing to define it or make sense of it or create story around it?
Simply allow yourself to receive the whole scene with awe,
With wonder and with curiosity.
And take a slow deep breath in.
And as you exhale,
Let yourself feel the whole expanse of what you're seeing.
The colors,
The textures,
The interplay of light and shadow.
Let the experience fill you.
Like you're being held by what you see.
And for the last few moments,
Just stay with this sense of spaciousness.
Let yourself be held by the scene.
And if thoughts arise,
Just let them pass through like clouds.
And simply coming back to what you see.
Observing with a sense of curiosity and wonder.
And then take one more deep breath in.
Feeling the air move through you.
Exhale slowly.
Letting it all settle.
And then when you're ready,
Gently release your focus and bring your awareness back to the room around you.
Just allowing your gaze to wander a little bit more.
Orienting yourself back into your space.
And notice how you feel.
So thank you for joining me in this short practice.
Awe and wonder can be such a powerful way to reset and reconnect.
To drop out of our minds and into the present moment.
So as you move through the rest of your day,
Notice what it would be like to allow the ordinary to become extraordinary.
How would it feel to let the simple things bring you back to a sense of being held by life itself?
