Meditation For Focus Using Drishti

A practice to focus on...focus. Perfect for lunch break regeneration or pre-work stillness. Drishti is the sanskrit term for 'single pointed focus' - something we cultivate during practice to stay in the present moment and to stay attentive to that which we are mindfully attending to. Awareness follows specific points and lines of body, akin to a nidra practice but a little more alert. Enjoy!

Transcript

Today,

We are going to do a practice that is focused on focusing.

And those that just did yoga with me before will have a bit of an idea of what we're going to be doing.

But essentially,

Drishti is a term we use in yoga,

Or the yogic traditions,

And it stands for single-pointed focus,

Or gaze.

And you use it to bring your awareness and your concentration and your attention back in to one thing,

Essentially.

And we can use it in multiple ways.

We can use it by literally using our gaze,

Where our eyes are looking,

Or we can use it to follow a particular thing,

Like our breath.

And this is something that also you could try as a practice to increase your focus as well.

Like when you're working throughout the day,

If you feel like your,

You know,

Mind is all over the place and you're lacking in focus and concentration,

Practicing a meditation or a breath work practice where you're focusing on something quite intently can help you kind of gain that sense of concentration back as well.

So try that as well as something,

Maybe as your moment of pause.

You could try what we're doing tonight.

So we're not going to necessarily do any specific alterations or,

What's the word,

Technical breath practices.

It's more so going to be following your awareness with your breath and moving that awareness into different places.

And I'm going to guide you the whole way through.

There's going to be moments of silence where you'll be able to kind of follow with your own pace and your own breath and your own focus.

But as always,

You know,

You feel free to bring your gaze somewhere else or your focus somewhere else to wherever feels comfortable for you in the moment.

If focusing on the inside is like way too much.

So get comfortable,

A little shimmy,

A little shake,

Find a position where both sit bones can be quite evenly grounded.

Or if you're laying down a position where both sides of your body are quite even.

And then we're going to start by gazing around the room,

Just using that external gaze to orient yourself.

And so using your eyes,

Focusing your attention to everything that you're looking at,

That you're seeing.

And then eventually you'll bring your gaze back towards centre and maybe you close down the eyes.

Maybe you steady the gaze towards the floor just in front of you,

Almost like you're gazing down the tip of your nose.

Your gaze might like to come between the brows if the eyes are closed into a place maybe just behind the forehead.

So you're kind of gazing to the top centre of your head in a way.

But if you find that your eyes are strained or feel quite uncomfortable when you're doing these sorts of practices,

Then just ease back a little.

We don't want to be straining our eyes with our gaze and our practice.

And then just take a few breaths here,

A few wriggles,

A few stretches,

Do whatever you need to settle in a little more.

Maybe a few exhales out through mouth.

Just do whatever you need to settle the body,

Settle the breath.

Letting the shoulders settle down back into their sockets,

Relaxing the neck,

A little wriggle out of the jaw.

And then beginning to draw your drishti,

Your focus and your awareness to your breath.

Maybe first of all,

The awareness and focus is to the sensation of the breath coming in and out of the nostrils.

Maybe the sensation of breath against your upper lip.

And then maybe shifting that attention and focus to start following the breath as it moves in and out of the body.

It's almost like you can see your breath coming in and down into the lungs and then all the way up and out.

Noticing what happens when the external noises come in and can you keep your drishti to your breath or to wherever feels appropriate for you right now.

And then from here we'll take a slow breath in through both nostrils.

Then open the mouth,

Exhale it out.

Two more breathing in through the nose,

Following the breath in and down,

Open the mouth,

Follow the breath up and out.

Nice.

One more time,

Breathing in,

Following the breath,

Breathing out,

Releasing pressure.

Keep breathing naturally,

Maybe another exhale through the mouth if you need.

And then when you're ready,

Just gently bringing the hands to rest on your body,

Maybe belly and chest,

Whatever feels right.

And just feel your body breathing.

Your drishti shifting towards maybe the tip of the nose or the space between your brow,

Your inward gaze with the eyes closed,

But this felt sense of the skin and the edges of the body moving as you breathe.

Maybe you keep your hands in one spot,

Maybe you shift them around to different places and feel what's happening in those places.

Every breath in,

A cleansing and a clearing.

Every breath out,

A releasing of pressure from the body.

Allowing your body to breathe in all directions,

This 360 degree breath,

Ribcage,

Belly,

Torso,

Chest,

Back,

Everything breathing,

Everything moving.

And then with your hands on body,

Can you shift the hands so that the fingertips are touching the body now.

So the hands or the palms are off the body,

It's just the fingertips.

Just anywhere,

Maybe belly and chest still,

Maybe somewhere else.

And bringing your awareness to the fingertips,

The tips of the fingers resting against your body,

The tips of the fingers resting against your breath.

Breathing and bringing your full awareness here into the tips of the fingers,

A gentle touch.

And then allowing the hands to relax down to wherever feels good,

Maybe in your lap,

Maybe against your thighs.

And keeping your awareness to the tips of your fingers.

And as your body breathes,

Can you also feel your fingertips breathing?

Now with every breath in,

Following this awareness of breath,

As though it travels in through the tips of your fingers all the way up your arms into your heart.

And the exhale empties from the heart,

Comes down the arms,

Around the crook of the elbow and back out of the tips of the fingers.

Every breath in,

Traveling in and along the arms up into heart and then all the way back out.

Following this breath or this movement of energy with your inner gaze,

Your inner focus,

Inner awareness.

Every inhale clearing,

Every exhale releasing pressure,

Releasing tension.

And after your next breath out,

Drishti comes to toe tips.

Bringing your whole attention to the tips of your toes.

Your whole body breathing and all 10 tips of toes breathing.

The cells in your skin,

The cells in the muscle and the blood and the bones of your toes breathing.

The oxygen passing in to the cells and the carbon dioxide passing out back into the bloodstream.

And with your Drishti following this breath in through the tips of toes,

Up through the legs into the pelvis and then all the way back down and out through the tips of the toes again.

Drishti stays on the breath,

On the body following this line of energy from tips of toes to pelvis and back.

And after your next breath out,

Drishti comes to pelvis.

Your whole awareness to the bowl of your pelvis.

Every breath in traveling from pelvis to jaw and then every breath out traveling from jaw back to pelvis.

The pelvic floor softening,

The jaw softening.

Every breath in clearing and cleansing,

Every breath out releasing.

And then from here Drishti shifts towards the space between your brows.

The breath traveling into this space and out.

Breathing in between the eyebrows and then back out.

Just one point,

Maybe visualizing this point of focus shifting from one inch beyond your forehead outside in between the brows to about one inch inside the forehead and back,

Backwards and forwards with this attention and awareness.

And just starting to notice if the belly or the shoulders or the jaw is starting to curl up a little.

It's starting to hold tension,

Re-relaxing,

Re-softening anywhere that needs to.

And after the next breath out,

Drishti shifts to the throat.

Following the breath in and out of the throat space.

And then Drishti shifts back to heart.

Breathing into and out of the heart space.

Every breath,

The heart shifts in shape,

The heart ballooning and softening.

The heart being hugged by the lungs.

The heart held in this loving embrace beneath ribcage and lung lobes and diaphragm.

And from here,

Shifting your Drishti to anywhere that you like.

Finding somewhere,

Experimenting,

Adventuring with your focus and your awareness.

Maybe shifting back to something that felt really good or something that maybe felt a little tricky and you'd like to practice a little more in that spot.

We'll just be here for a minute or two.

Always bringing your awareness back to this point and this breath.

Every breath in,

Clearing and cleansing.

Every breath out,

Releasing.

Just noticing when the mind begins to wander.

Just noticing,

Not reprimanding or scolding.

Just noticing and bringing it back,

Bringing it back to your Drishti,

Your gaze,

Your focus.

And from here,

Just three more breaths.

As you're ready,

Just gently starting to bring your focus towards the skin layer of the body.

Maybe starting to shift a little in your seat,

Moving,

Swaying,

Hands might come to body and you just start squeezing and waking everything a little more.

Grounding yourself back into this physical body.

A little bow of the head and the hands can come together and rub gently.

And then you can decide whether you give yourself a little facial massage or a thigh massage or hand massage with those hands.

Taking a moment to give yourself a little bit of love and TLC.

And then your eyes gently flicker open as you gaze towards the floor.

And then your gaze gently comes towards the sides of the room before they come back to center.

And then just take your time to come back into more open awareness and external stimulus.

Thanks for practicing with me.

Go slowly.

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Namaste 🙏