Connecting To Your Senses: Experiencing What You See

This meditation will guide you through a mindfulness practice with a focus on your sense of sight. It is a sitting practice with eyes open for a portion of the meditation. This is part of a mindfulness of the senses series.

I hope you enjoy it!

Transcript

Welcome.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

My name is Erin Musick.

I'm a registered psychologist,

A certified sex therapist,

And a yoga teacher.

Today is going to be a guided journey focusing on your sense of sight.

And this is part of a mindful sensory series.

So I would invite you to check out those other ones as well if you're interested in deepening your connection to all of your senses.

So for this practice,

This one will be a seated practice.

So I'd invite you to find a spot where you can comfortably sit,

Where your spine is supported,

Where you have something soft beneath you,

Adjusting your position,

Using any props that you need,

And just really finding a spot where you feel like you can spend the next few minutes comfortably and feeling well supported.

And as you're settling in now,

Making any last minute adjustments,

I'm going to invite you to keep your eyes open.

There's nothing at this moment that you need to focus your attention on,

But just letting your eyes perhaps scan your surroundings and maybe finding a spot to settle on for now.

Even allowing the eyelashes and eyelids to flutter a little bit,

Letting your gaze soften.

And then I'd invite you to just take a couple nice breaths,

Seeing if you can fill up the belly.

Nice exhale.

Filling up the belly as best you can,

As full as possible,

Perhaps even suspending the breath for a moment,

A second or two before finding a nice,

Full,

Deep exhale.

Seeing if you can imagine the breath traveling the length of your spine right from your nostrils down your throat,

Through your heart,

All the way down to the base of your spine.

And then back up again and all the way out.

Think of welcoming in and then clearing out.

And so just letting your breath be your anchor,

Coming back to your breath if at any point you find yourself distracted.

It's steady.

It's just there in this lovely rhythm that naturally exists.

And as you continue to breathe,

Just noticing if there's any adjustments you need to make in your body,

Maybe softening through the face or the jaw,

Bringing the shoulders down maybe a bit away from the ears,

Any last little wiggles.

And then when you're ready,

I'd invite you to open your eyes nice and wide,

Starting to scan your environment,

Examining things a little more closely,

Connecting to your environment mindfully and consciously,

Noticing the colors that are around you.

Anything maybe that you just naturally feel drawn to that pulls your attention and allowing yourself to just go with that.

You might linger on a particular site for a little while,

Or you might find that your eyes keep dancing,

Bouncing from one thing to the next.

Noticing maybe textures of the items around you.

Noticing the lighting,

Is it bright?

Is it dark?

Are there shadows?

Does the light change?

Noticing again just where your eyes might get pulled and allowing yourself to follow.

And as you're just scanning and observing and taking in your surroundings,

You can just marvel at your sense of sight,

Of your ability to be able to drink in everything around you just with your eyes.

You're not changing anything,

You're not doing anything with the information,

But all the same you're taking it all in and it's all being processed and integrated through your nervous system,

Through your senses.

Noticing if there's particular things around you that maybe bring up an emotion.

Maybe there's something that you feel some tenderness towards,

Something that reminds you of someone or something.

Maybe there's a heaviness that comes,

Some worry,

Some grief or anxiety.

Again we're not trying to stop,

Redirect or change anything,

We are just observing,

Taking it in and using our eyes just to guide us through.

Maybe drawing your eyes up to the corners of the room,

Maybe one corner and then the next,

Looking up and then looking down.

Maybe there's some little nooks or shelves,

Maybe there's art on the walls,

Maybe there's knick-knacks or decor on surfaces around you.

Again,

Just taking it all in,

Perhaps musing at things that you're noticing now that you tend not to or things maybe that you have forgotten were there.

Just allowing your eyes to take you on a bit of a journey.

Observing what's coming up for you as you observe your external surroundings.

And now,

Taking one last look around,

Up and down,

From one end of the room to the other.

All the light and colors and textures and surfaces,

Everything that's here.

And then I'd invite you now to take a minute to close down the eyes.

Perhaps just coming back to the breath again here for a moment or two.

And now,

The cool thing about sight is that we can use our eyes physically to take in our surroundings,

But even with our eyes closed we can still see.

So this might be your mind-sight or your insight,

Or maybe it's your imagination.

So with your eyes closed now,

Seeing now what you see.

Maybe you're reviewing all that you've just looked at around you,

Maybe picturing the layout of the room in your mind's eye.

Maybe your mind is taking you somewhere else.

Maybe you're seeing somewhere that you'd like to be.

Maybe there's a place that when you think of it,

It brings you comfort or relaxation or joy or pleasure.

Maybe you see the faces of people you love.

Maybe you see a memory.

Maybe you just see shadows,

Maybe some squiggles and some colors,

Knowing that there's light beyond your eyelids.

So we can just be curious and connected with our sight,

Eyes open or eyes closed.

Pausing for perhaps just a space of gratitude that we have this sense to call upon.

It helps us to navigate situations safely.

It helps us to imagine possibilities.

It helps us to be able to see clearly what might be going on in a particular situation.

We can see things,

Even if we can't physically see them all the time,

Because we can feel them.

Our sight brings up emotions and sensations in our body.

It reminds us of things that feel familiar.

It brings us memories and joy and pleasure.

We get to see things that are pleasing to our eyes,

That awaken us and excite us.

Just marveling in your sense of sight,

Sending gratitude to your eyes,

To the physical space of the eyes,

To the nerves of your eyes,

And to your mind's eye as well.

One more nice big breath here.

Just allowing whatever's here with these eyes closed to be here.

When you're ready,

Maybe fluttering those eyelids a little bit,

I'd invite you to bring those eyes back open again,

Coming back once again into the room that you are in.

As we're preparing to close off our little eye and sight journey today,

Perhaps finding a stretch here now,

Reaching the arms up above the head or bringing the arms back,

Opening up the chest a bit,

Wiggling fingers and toes,

Finding any movements that start to feel good,

Bringing the body back.

God,

And then if it feels good,

Maybe placing the hands on the heart,

Thanking yourself for taking this time today,

For exploring,

For connecting.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Namaste.

Namaste.