How to Deepen your Experience of the Present Moment
Working with the yogic practice of Pratyahara, and your vision, to See clearly
Of all the infinite energies of our environment, our experience of life is determined by what we choose to perceive. We notice our role in our own experience of life when we draw our senses back from their favorite reaches. And when we see the nature of our particular relationship dynamic with the sensory world, we are no longer burdened with the feelings of “why me” or “this is happening again”. Instead, we are empowered to explore who we are, and to be artistic in the way we shape our lives.
Humans are sensual: we live our lives through our senses, and each of us experiences the world differently, based on how we have trained and enjoy our senses, our sensitivities to colors, shapes, nuances of light, of movement — and this is just in our vision, which we can choose to deemphasize, as a musician may close her eyes to sing powerful high tones.
There is an energetic interplay between our senses. We can imagine our sensory cortices as a closed energy field — when one sense dominates our perceptual processing, the others take the background, become weakened, easily fatigued. Much like a hand with an overdeveloped texting-thumb, a mind that is overly emphasized on one sense, such as vision, will be well attuned to that single modality, leaving the perceiver less sensitive to incoming sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings.
Life is richer, the present moment more inviting, when we are attuned to the exquisite range of stimuli the world offers. But stressful conditions dull our senses and we can become weighed down by technology that desensitizes us to natural lights and sounds.
Humans are innovative: we have created a world of screens and we have co-evolved eyes that are strong, sure, and resilient at close distances, with bright light. When we have our screens on all day and night, our vision often overwhelms our other senses.
To compensate, our music has become louder and closer, pumping straight from earbuds to eardrums, as well as more synthetic, eliminating the nuances of live instruments in favor of computer generated perfect-predictability. With our minds freed from attuning to slight variations from expected patterns, we can devote all our attention to what we see, and what we want to see — the rabbit hole of the internet draws us in visually, energetically. Often we use our senses of taste, touch, and smell as “breaks” from our visual work, elements of “self-care” or respite for our overworked eyes.
Our threshold for sensory pleasure becomes higher, making us more easily bored by subtleties that we used to love, leaving us feeling unfulfilled but not knowing how to find fulfillment again. The answer is to become sensitive again, to notice the richness of life in the here and now.
Stepping into a mediative state, whether in yoga or art, is energetically rejuvenated because we take time to notice what we notice, entering a deeper experience of the present moment. This energetic rejuvenation, re-sensitization is one effects of practicing the yogic concept of Pratyahara, drawing our visual sense back into our conscious awareness so that we can choose how we experience the world, both no and off the mat.
Best appreciated when you feel mental but not physical fatigue, notice when your vision becomes fixed, dull, stagnant. Consciously revive your other senses — there is always something to feel taste, hear, smell — to return to the perceivable Here and Now. With time and practice, you’ll become more sensitive, with less effort, overcoming the positive/negative, pleasure/displeasure associations of stimuli to simply be aware of what Is.
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To practice your visual energy, consider that our vision evolved in expansive nature, when we were hunting and gathering in forests and plains. We have two ways of seeing the world: as hunters, with concentric vision focused on what is directly ahead of us, and as gatherers, broadly aware of the peripheral, aware of possibilities, alert to both desires and dangers.
There is also a way of not seeing: of having the eyes opened but glazed over as the mind works or wanders in thoughts of the not-present. Attention drifts in time and space, draining energy away from the here and now.
The magic of consciousness, conscious living, of opening yourself to the possibilities of the present moment, is choosing the style of vision you wish to cultivate. If you choose to think, then think, knowing that your sensory attention is inwards. But if you are interacting with the world around you, then make sure your eyes are alert rather than lost, and choose how to be alert: focused, concentric vision for a straightforward task, or a wide eyed receptive vision for a flow state of being.
Yoga philosophy has different terms for the different states of mind that these visions correspond to: dharana is the single pointed concentration when the mind is in steady and uninterrupted concentration; dhanya is the open minded, expansive awareness of the world around and within. The state of being lost in thought, eyes glazed over, disconnected mind/body, self/environment, is called ignorance, delusion, maya, tamas. It is a mental habit to recognize and release through meditative practice.
On the mat, we practice our vision to be expansive and attentive, alert but not alarmed. Notice, as you flow, what you see, and how you see it. Is one side of your visual field dominant? You may be aware of some parts of the room, or some parts of your body, but not others. Are you distracted by what you see, feeling your energy pulled outwards? Is your vision glued over as you spend half your energy thinking and the other half kind-of-paying-attention to your practice? Or are you aware of your inner work as you witness the world around you?
Off the mat, practicing concentric vision is excellent for focused work on the computer, while expansive, peripheral vision lends itself to the non-linguistic creative work of artists. For all states of being, choosing how we engage our senses is choosing to consciously engage in life.
