Below is a transcript from the meditation and yoga series “Come to Your Senses.” This unique series explores the ways in which we habitually overwork and strain ourselves in our daily interactions with the world, specifically through the use of our senses. This lighthearted series
pokes fun at some of the ways we unknowingly add to our own stress and teaches us simple tools to turn our unwanted habits into helpful ones.

. . .

When it comes to noticing the details, it seems like we’re always being encouraged to “take a closer look.” In fact, that’s one of those phrases that we like. Imagine a scene in your mind, where you have found something very interesting and you call a friend over to take a look. You watch as they lean in, really they crouch forward, scrunch up their eyes, and try to make themselves small enough to see the details you’ve pointed out. Have you ever noticed this way that people try really hard to see the details? As if making themselves small, in that crouched and scrunched position, could make them see more clearly.

You might notice that they hunch their shoulders or even hold their breath. Why do we do this to ourselves? Maybe we developed this kind of habit because there was always somebody or something telling us that we needed to look closer, to see more. Maybe we were interested in what we were looking at, or maybe we wanted to appear like we were interested. So, we tried really hard to take the information in, to play the part, while straining as if we could actually absorb the sight through our eyes. We somehow believed that if we tried hard enough, we could see a little bit more.

What if we took a different approach? What if, instead of crouching and becoming small, we expanded? What if we continued to take up space? What if instead of trying to magnetize whatever we wanted in through our eyes, we let ourselves stay steady and let the sight come to us? If we don’t distort our stance and our efforts to consume the sight, aren’t we more likely to understand, to interpret, to be creative within details of what we see?

If we change our approach in this way, if we lessen our efforts, we begin to interrupt the habit of over-working.

If you haven’t, go ahead and let your eyes close just for a moment, if that’s okay for you today. Let’s give this a try for ourselves.

Now, let your eyes blink open. What do you see around you?

Notice if you immediately started searching the room. Can you give it a bit less effort? Let a curious gaze rest out in front of you. Your eyes are free to move but you don’t necessarily need to move them to see around you. So, what can you see?

[silence]

There’s no need to search, to magnetize, or to pull sights in through your eyes. There’s no need to become small, to take it all in. Become a curious witness and just notice what is already available.

[silence]

You see things, or not, all day long. This practice is about allowing yourself to be as you are without strain. It’s about noticing this sense of sight instead of “trying hard” to see the details. If we are constantly “taking a closer look,” we are continuously narrowing our gaze and our experience. So today, for this practice, I invite you to broaden, let yourself expand, to let the stream of visual experience flow to you.

[silence]

This act of tuning-in to our senses, of allowing ourselves to notice what is already available in the moment, gives us reprieve from the constant demands and requests made of us. The next time someone asks you to “look closer,” remember that you have the choice to crowd in or to stand back and see.

Thank you so much for sharing this practice today. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you!

. . .

To learn more or listen to the meditations, visit the “Come to Your Senses" Course.