On Friday, I felt like a little kid that was going to school for the first time. It was scary and exciting and I just couldn't wait to leave work and go to meet my fellow TT's.
It was a weekend of lots of yoga practice, learning some ayurveda, discussing how to add poses to certain pose sequences and teaching sun salutations!
The part that really stood out to me though, was the eye gaze. (Although, this may be because it was the last thing we did on Sunday).
Maintaining eye contact is something that is very tough for me (and something I'm working on) especially when I'm feeling emotional; angry, sad, ecstatic. So gazing into someone's eyes for minutes at a time was very uncomfortable for me at first. BUT the best way to describe what happened is this:
"the eyes are the windows to the soul"
It's amazingly true. And if you haven't experienced it before, then you should try eye gazing. Let me warn you though, it's an incredibly personal and intimate thing. I practiced this with one of my other TT's, but you may want to try it with you significant other, parent, child...someone you are comfortable with.
There is not a lot of eye contact in our culture. I've feel like I've been conditioned to avoid it. I spend so much time behind my computer, behind my twitter handle or facebook profile or email that it feels almost foreign to really connect on that level.
A little how-to on the eye gaze:
- Sit cross legged on the ground facing your partner. Close your eyes.
- When you're both ready, open your eyes. Focus in on your partner's left eye (because it's the receptive eye).
- Let whatever comes up happen; laughter, tears, whatever. Just continue to focus on their eye. If you want to switch from the left to the right eye - do it! As my teacher kept saying all weekend; "svaha - so be it"
- Place your right hand on your partner's heart and your left and on top of your partner's hand on your heart.
- Again, svaha. Let whatever comes up just happen. When you are finished, slowly drop your hands and close your eyes and just let it all soak in.
- Share your experience with your partner.
Try it, and please let me know how it goes. It can be a really powerful experience if you let it be.
