Hello, beautiful soul!
This week in Aya, we’ll be focusing on sensing, dancing, freeing, and caring for our eyes.
Why eyes? Well, because they are so marvelous! Really, though… Do you ever stop to think about your eyes and all they do?
Windows to the World
These miraculous little orbs allow us to perceive and translate light into depth and meaning! I mean—how cool is that? Each eye contains over 100 million photoreceptor cells that send electrical signals to our brain; our eyes constantly process light to help us make sense of and navigate the world. Even when our eyes seem still, they are making tiny micro-movements, helping us take in more than we consciously realize. They help us experience space, depth, and orientation and guide our movements, decisions, and interactions. They allow us to express ourselves and connect with others. Not only that, they’re also magical gateways to beauty and awe. Through them, we can witness the intricate details of the world — the big fluffy snowflake, the floppy leaves of a Monsterra, the steam swirling up from a mug, the vibrant colors in a bowl of curry, the sunlight streaming in, or that joyful wag of a tail. There’s so much our eyes help us to experience and enjoy. Aren’t they just amazing?
Let’s Pause to Sense Them
Let’s take a moment to tune in. How do your eyes feel? What do you sense? What if you close your eyes, take a deep breath, and then -when you open them again- soften and expand your gaze? How does that feel in your eyes? How about the rest of your body?
Dancing & Freeing Your Eyes In Class
This week in class, we’ll be exploring and experimenting with a few of my favorite ways to dance and free our eyes. We’ll practice techniques such as:
Looking away from the teacher. We’re trained from an early age to pay attention to the teacher, but in this class, please feel free to let your eyes dance all around the room. As you practice this, notice how it feels to give your eyes permission to be free.
Letting your eyes rest. At times, you may even want to tune everything else and dance with your eyes partially (or completely) closed so you can really experience your other senses. What’s that like? Does it change anything?
Looking up to the sky. Often, a natural tendency can be to look down to tune out stimulation; however, looking upward is also available (and is a really lovely and liberating option). This can help open up our posture, free our shoulders up (so we can still dance our arms), and help counter the amount of time we spend looking downward at devices. Yay!
Following your hand. One of my favorite techniques to free up my dance is to follow (“track”) my hand with my eyes. Simply focus on watching your hand, and this will engage your head and neck intuitively as well. And then notice, what do you sense in your head, neck, and spine?
Exploring eye contact. How does it feel today? Or somedays give yourself permission to not make eye contact. That’s ok too. Connect more outwardly or more inwardly anytime. It’s all welcome.
Letting your gaze soften & expand to take in more of the beauty all around you. What happens if you allow in (even just a bit) more of the room, the light, the shapes, the colors? What if you let the space itself be your dance partner? What’s that like?
With any of the practices above, we can then notice: What do you sense? Do any of these practices help you experience more freedom?
Beyond Class
This week, take moments throughout the day to tune into your eyes. When walking outside, let yourself soak up the colors and textures around you as if seeing them for the first time. Or shift your focus between things that are close vs. far away. Perhaps just notice and be present with light, movement, and shape. Sometimes pause to really notice the beauty - the colors of the sky, the way light filters through the trees, someone’s loving expression. Maybe simply pause and enjoy whatever your eyes are helping you to connect with. Sometimes, close your eyes, rest them, and give them a loving little break.
Loving & Caring for Our Eyes
Speaking of loving little breaks, our modern world often encourages a locked-in focus—screens, reading, driving. But our eyes thrive on variety and movement. It can be helpful to take some time to tune in to see what sort of care your eyes might be craving.
• As you tune in and sense them, what are your eyes telling you?
• What do they want more (of less) of? A change in lighting or scenery? A change in screen brightness? A change in distance?
• Could they use more sleep? More hydration? A change in focus/activity?
• How might you show your eyes some extra love this week?
Thoughts?
Do any of the above thoughts or practices sound especially good to you? What’s your relationship with your eyes like?
Personally, mine's been a bit rocky over the years. I’ve worn thick glasses since a very young age. For much of my life, I held a lot of shame and insecurity around what I thought were my “bad” eyes, and my “inability” to see. Slowly, however, I’ve been healing my relationship with my eyes. These days I approach my eyes with much more love, care, and gratitude than I used to, buuuuuut I'm definitely still a work in progress. I do have a lot more respect and gratitude for them than I used to though. Woot (baby steps)! There’s so much beauty to see in the world - such as the way you light up when you dance - so I’m really looking forward to giving my eyes some extra love and care this week. How about you, friend? I’d love to hear.
As always, I can't wait to see what we discover together this week. Thanks so much for reading!
*See* you soon! :)
💛 Dani
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