Eyes-Open Mindfulness

Eyes-open meditation can sound like the worst idea if you’re used to practice as a private escape. Then Susan Piver walks us through why keeping the eyes open may be the most direct path to mindfulness in real life, because you don’t have to “come back” when the sit is over. We talk about the simple mechanics of resting the gaze, why distraction and tired eyes are normal at first, and how the nervous system settles when we stop trying to force focus. 

From there, the conversation turns to what meditation is really for. We’re not trai...