Shifting with joy

Last weekend was amazing. It's very inspiring and uplifting to not do this alone, and having the opportunity to meet with all the coursemates really helps. My favourite part, however, was Sunday morning outside, near the Palacio Royal. It was very cold but sunny, and we started the morning by doing the sunning exercise. What followed was my favourite activity so far - shifting. It involved slowly walking in couples and one acting as a guide while the other had all the time to enjoy gentle tracing with the eyes, nose and head every object that would catch the eye, without any need to constantly look down (which is something that people with eye problems tend to do too much of).

I absolutely loved it because for the first time in as long as I can remember I actually experienced a complete joy in seeing exactly just how I can see without any desire for anything to look different or be clearer. First of all it creates a feeling of ease - while trying to see with clarity causes tension, tracing objects (big and small, far and near, familiar and not) is simple. Therefore, it immediately creates an 'I can do this' attitude. It also makes me aware of just how many things there are that I can see - some of which might be blurry, but colourful, of a certain shape and size, and all very very interesting. I also like how that attitude of being interested in something actually makes me want to look for the next interesting object as well as become more aware of potentially interesting objects in my vision field. The movement of the head and nose as they follow the eyes creates a certain looseness in my neck and shoulders. The eyes and gaze feel soft, and it becomes very easy to have the attitude of a lazy person sitting in the back of the room and looking into the world through the windows. I noticed that since Sunday I hardly ever look to the ground which used to be my default staring position - instead now I seem to be always surrounded by interesting things to look at above and around me. And just as a side affect it appears that the vision temporarily becomes sharper as well. Let's keep shifting!