Tool #04

​Close your eyes.

Close your eyes, fall in Love, stay there.
~ Rumi

We spend so much time putting our focus outside of ourselves. And a huge amount of mental energy is spent on processing images. Think about it for a second. What do you use your eyes for? (...reading, cooking, Netflix, conversations, driving...) 

Take a break from all the input. Close your eyes. (Not just yet, maybe after you’re finished reading this.) It is an act of self-care to simply stop taking in this barrage of visual information.

A few things to notice when you close your eyes:

• At first your eyes may dart around, as if they are still trying to see. Try letting them be still, softly resting in a slightly downward direction.
• You might feel guilty. “What? How can you stop looking? There may something really important to see you’re gonna miss it!” Let that go.
• The mind may start to play some movies for you. Like that argument you had earlier, or that to-do list, or worse, your calendar. The fact is that anything you see is not actually happening. You are actually seeing the inside of your eyelids. Let the warm darkness be a comforting blank slate, an empty canvas that stays empty.

​Having your eyes closed is not sleeping, just like exhaling is not stopping breathing.
Even when you are work or waiting in line, try giving yourself a refreshing break by resting your eyes for several breaths. 

Enjoy!

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​Articles that I recommend

The healing power of nature 
“The idea that immersing yourself in forests and nature has a healing effect is far more than just folk wisdom”

Meditation and Yoga Change DNA
"We're all walking around with these distorted thoughts that we take as 100 percent true. We believe that's the truth because we're not used to getting outside of ourselves."