Welcome to this mindful awareness of sight meditation.
So taking a moment to settle.
Having a posture that's dignified,
Honours this space that houses who we are.
Begin by taking a few deep in-breaths and out-breaths.
Perhaps taking a moment to congratulate yourself for being here,
Taking this time for yourself.
And then settling your breath into its natural rhythm.
Just taking a moment to find the most vivid spot of your breath.
Could be the tip of your nose,
The back of your throat.
Could be the rise and fall of your chest.
Somewhere that you can anchor yourself to when your mind has wandered,
Which it will many,
Many times.
Each time you notice that your mind has wandered,
You can return yourself to this anchor within the breath.
If the breath isn't somewhere that you want to settle,
Finding a point within the body that's neutral,
No juicy stories,
That you can return your attention to and observe your experience of resting in your body with present moment awareness.
Once you've found that anchor within the breath or the body,
An invitation to narrow your awareness to the area of your eyes and an invitation to close the eyes,
If you haven't already.
What can you notice here?
The muscles,
The eyelids,
The eyelashes,
The space between the eyes,
Around the eyes.
Does this area of the body feel warm,
Cool,
Light,
Heavy?
Are there textures,
Colours,
Shapes?
And an invitation to narrow your attention to your visual field.
What can you see behind your eyelids?
What can you see in your eyes?
What can you see in your eyes?
What can you see behind your eyelids?
Colours,
Movements.
What are your eyeballs doing?
Are they still?
Being present without judgement,
Stepping away from our habitual doing to observing,
Connecting to the present moment through our experience of what we're noticing in our eyes,
Them closed in this moment.
Is there tension?
Is there tightening?
And now an invitation to slowly open your eyes,
Observing the movements of your eyelids,
Focusing on a point in front of you,
Picking one specific point as best you can,
Being with your direct experience,
Perhaps noticing if you're judging what you've chosen to look at,
But staying with it.
What is your experience,
Your direct experience of observing this one point,
Letting go of the story as your mind interprets what the eye has delivered in terms of information as best you can,
Being with your direct and felt experience of observing this specific point?
Are the eyes moving?
Do they feel dry?
Observing the sensation of blinking,
That childlike curiosity and interest.
And now an invitation to move your focus to the space around the point that you're looking at.
And then,
As you're looking at the space,
You're going to focus on the space around you.
And then,
As you're looking at the space around you,
You're going to focus on the space around you,
The space around you,
The space around you.
So your visual field of awareness that expands beyond this point,
Whilst remaining looking in the same place,
Exploring around this spot,
The senses,
The movements,
The focus,
The concentration that's required.
What is your visual field?
Can you notice the tip of your nose?
Without moving your eyes any further than they are?
And now an invitation to slowly move your head to the left,
As far as you feel like you want to go.
Observing what you notice as you make these movements,
Being playful with your visual field of awareness,
Focusing on a particular spot,
Slowly expanding your awareness to include all of your visual field.
If that feels right for you,
Perhaps looking up,
Perhaps looking down,
Observing the shapes and colours and textures,
How this information is interpreted by the brain,
And then turning your head all the way round to the right.
And again,
An invitation to be playful with your visual field of awareness,
Exploring your direct and felt experience,
Observing what you're noticing in the environment around you,
How the eyeballs move,
Your visual perception.
And then returning your head to a neutral position in its natural alignment in your body in this moment,
And closing your eyes,
Bringing your awareness back to the eye area,
Exploring the sensations that you're noticing here.
And now an invitation to bring your awareness to your breath,
Simply following the flow of your breath,
Allowing it to breathe itself,
And then expanding your awareness from the breath to include all of the body.
And an invitation to just take a moment to set an intention for what you need to do next after this practice.
What does your body need you to do that you may have neglected?
Some stretching,
A cup of tea,
Expanding your awareness from your breath to include all of your body as you sit here and take in this time,
And as best you can,
Taking this sense of connection and awareness into whatever you have left to do with your day.
Thank you so much for joining me.
.
