Is it possible to meditate with eyes open

By paying attention to all these different parts of my present-moment experience, I become completely immersed in it. For me, refocusing my visual gaze or tuning-in more intentionally to my bodily sensations is usually most effective. Focusing on the sounds around me then brings me back to my practice. I can simply invite it into my practice. Lastly, this multi-sensory approach feels very open and spacious to me. Rather than drawing me mostly into my inner world, it guides me in accepting, embracing, and connecting to my outer one.

They become more fluidly connected, as I invite my mind to stop drawing lines — in the form of judgments, fears, expectations, worries, etc. I hope you enjoy the practice and find it as beneficial as I have. Having different meditation techniques in your meditation toolbox can help you stick with your practice through the natural ebb and flow of your life. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Have you tried meditating with your eyes open? I wish you all the best on your meditative journey. May it bring you peace, joy, and a lightness to your step. Email address:.

Rose Hahn's passion for inspiring intentional wellness has evolved over the past 20 years from a personal practice, to working as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, to founding the first neuroscience and mindfulness-based addiction treatment center in Texas with her husband.

View all posts by Rose Hahn. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. I could translate my meditative state of mind into my everyday life with greater ease. I could use my external environment as a focal point when my mind drifted toward daydreams or tried to jump down rabbit holes of thought. I felt more connected to my present moment experience. It encouraged me to use meditation not as a form of escape, but rather as a path for learning how to be in this world more skillfully, peacefully, and acceptingly.

Grounding For Anxiety I welcomed and celebrated all of these benefits. How To Meditate With Your Eyes Open In addition to the moving meditations listed earlier, there are two seated techniques for meditating with your eyes open.

Then, take a few moments to take in your surroundings. What can you see? Find something you can direct your gaze to. Whatever feels pleasant and comfortable for you to look at. Without focusing too intently, look at this thing. Notice its details, as well as how it dwells within its environment, until your gaze begins to soften — taking in your object at the same time as you take in what surrounds it.

Keeping this gaze, feel your breath moving in and out of your body. Gradually, begin to notice how your body feels too. Feel its contact with the ground or seat beneath you. Your posture.

Lewis started her meditation journey 16 years ago and likens the different meditation practices to different types of exercise in the sense that each practice garners different results. Other moving meditation techniques can include karate and some kung-fu -- where eyes can be open or closed. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline.

Keeping the eyes shut can aggravate the problem. So here, the reverse antidote is given than what we as beginners get.

Second , by keeping the eyes open, you can see the space likeness of the mind. If you do it long enough, you will experience the outside world as inside.

Better said, you will see that the space from outside extends inwards. This makes you realise that our mind have this vast, spacelike quality. Once you have realized this, you can also notice it in other forms of meditation, so it is a form of insight. If you combine these two, you get zazen , or as it is sometimes called, just sitting.

Beginners typically engage in breathing meditation and later on move on to koans. All of these practices are done with open eyes. Since it is zen, they often face a wall or a black curtain to curb the tendency of the eyes to wander of in search of something more interesting to do than meditation. Shamatha is a form of breathing meditation but for simplicity, it has been split into 9 distinct stages. Each stage has its own methods and challenges.

But the end goal is to reach shamatha, which is where the mind completely unifies. It is said that the body and mind are so pliant that meditating for 3 hours or more becomes very easy and pleasant. Shamatha, like zen, advocates meditating with eyes open.

First to ward of dullness and second to realize the space nature of the mind. Something that is heavily emphasized in the Tibetan tradition. Side note: my all-time favorite meditation handbook covers exactly this method. Finally, a piece of good advice when you start is to meditate for a set time. You can start with one, two or five minutes. Then, gradually increase your time. Who knows, you might end up open eye meditating for quite some time after a while!

Open eye meditation: why should you do it and how Neal E. Johnson Unsplash. Health Marilou LeBel-Dupuis. You thought meditation could only be done with closed eyes? Gustavo Fring Pexels.