Seeing Through New Eyes

Every moment offers us the opportunity to see anew, both through our inner landscape and through our outer eyes. When we are living in the state of open and perceptive awareness, our curiosity is heightened and every thought, word, feeling and action serves as a new adventure.

Remember times as a child when exploring new terrain felt like you were conquering the world? Everything appeared new and fresh, bringing a sense of mystery and wonder. This inquisitive state is our natural way of being, so why is it that most of us get so caught up in our habits, rituals and conditioned ways of seeing and navigating in the world?

It’s as if we as a culture have bought into this rigid notion that we must “keep our eyes on the target” in order to succeed, thus remaining extremely unidirectional. Akin to the horses in urban cities that take tourists on buggy rides who wear blinders next to their eyes to block out all peripheral vision. The good news is that we humans have the ability to make conscious choices and distinguish in each moment as to what’s a distraction and what’s an enhancement in our daily life.

Traditional schooling taught us a very linear way of learning without a lot of pauses to smell the roses, watch the clouds pass by, or see the pain on a peer’s face.  In certain respects, it’s necessary that we break free of these old constructs in order to fully live and embody a rich sense of freedom, empowerment and fulfilling purpose.

Creating daily rituals that anchor us in designing new, inspiring ways of living can serve as powerful and effective ways of dissolving old habits that no longer support us.

•    Daily meditation
•    Inward journaling
•    Gratitude list
•    Learning (at least) one new thing daily
•    Visually seeing (at least) one new thing daily

Recently, I was driving up my country road one foggy evening. As I turned the bend, an enormous herd of elk were congregating in the center of the road. I lowered my lights and came to a slow stop directly in front of these majestic creatures. I chose to sit there and simply be with them as they gazed at me in a very quizzical way. Rather than seeing them as a nuisance, taking me off my schedule, I chose to be there with them in a high state of wonder and awe.  I was seeing with new eyes that felt their collective soul, and this encounter added a richness to my continence, my way of being in the world.

If you make a true intention to place your focus on seeing something new every day, your life will immediately open in richer, more expansive ways. Engage with others on what newness you’ve awakened to this day and encourage them to join you on this path of daily discovery. Once this becomes an ongoing ritual in your life, your eyes and your heart begin to merge and a richer state of gratitude, freedom, love, and sense of the sacred begin to envelop your life journey. Nothing appears ordinary as you become one with life’s constant diversity and beauty, for you are now living as the Awe, flying in the infinite realms, inspired, on-purpose and unstoppable….seeing through new eyes!