Coming Home To Yourself - Look, Listen, Feel

This simple but powerful practice can help you navigate all kinds of life challenges, moments of upset or unsettling emotions. This practice can also be used as a way to calm the nervous system, potentially avoiding panic or overwhelm in the body.

Transcript

This practice I sometimes label look, Listen, And feel. It's a very simple practice that you can do and it's really a process, A three-stage process, Of noticing your surroundings and taking a moment to just observe, Look around, And then we go into listening. And sometimes it's I think it's helpful to close your eyes at the second stage of listening and we're just listening to the sounds close by, Far away, And then we kind of tune more in than feeling the body, Feeling the emotions. What are the the sensations in the body that are here? And so we take a little bit of time to do that and then at the end it's really good to in stillness just open your eyes slowly and kind of it's almost like just coming back to the world and just take a moment to listen and see again. But from this place of having gone through this practice you'll probably notice there's kind of a different feel that you experience. So go ahead if you are in a place to do this take a moment to look around and you can vary the speed in which you look around but just noticing and you can turn your head look behind you. If you're outside you might notice things close or far away or if you're in a room just notice what's in the room, Notice where the door or windows are. And as you're looking around you might also just bring awareness to your breath, Just see if you can breathe slow, Kind of slowing things down with the breath as you're looking around gently. And keep a soft gaze at things, Not dwelling on any object for too long, Just noticing how the lights and the shadows are on the surfaces of objects and things. Just noticing and looking and breathing. And then you might take a moment if it feels good to close your eyes and you can just listen to sounds. What are the sounds close by, Closer to you? Can you hear sounds farther away? You can hear maybe your heartbeat, Maybe your tummy is rumbling. And then you might go even more inward, Noticing your breath in the body, Breathing slowly in and out. Starting to notice and feel inside your body, Noticing any thoughts that are here, Emotions that are here. But also noticing the tension in your body where it might be tight or you might be holding on. If you can just take a moment to loosen and soften. You might also notice where it feels pleasant in your body, Where it's just a little bit easier to inhabit your body. You might notice the textures of clothing against your skin. If you're sitting down or laying down you might notice how your body is in connection with the surface below it. Just breathing and noticing. Not trying to fix anything or figure anything out. Just being with the sensations that are here. Notice if you're trying to achieve something, If you're trying to achieve a relaxed state, Might be aware of that and let that go. I'm not trying to achieve anything here, We're just simply noticing. Noticing what's here. You might take a few more deep breaths in and when you're ready you can open your eyes. And I just invite you to stay in whatever stillness or state that you're in with your eyes open. If you can just stay here, Listening, Seeing the world again, Feeling your body, You here in this space. So that's the look, Listen, Feel practice. It's a really powerful practice to come back home to yourself.