M5 : Lesson 3.1: Orienting Exercises #1 & #2: Environment & Dual Awareness
These orienting practices can be done multiple times throughout the day for 30sec-min.
I recommend adding any/all of these intentional orienting exercises to your daily “Awareness, Pattern Interrupt, Be Here” Practice as part of the ‘be here’ moment.
Transcript
Less than 3.1. Somatic orienting exercises number 12. These are the ultimate practices of presence. Of being here now, one of the most important aspects of nervous system regulation. So please make these exercises a life style habit.
Do them as much as you can. It’s so wonderful, and it results in massive changes of perceiving safety over time. Plus you’ll simply become a more present person. The first exercise is environmental orienting. I’ll tell you how to do this, and then I will walk you through it after that.
So we’ll first sit quietly in a relaxed position And then you’ll slowly turn your head to the left and let your eyes wander until you notice an object that you’re drawn to. And you’ll notice it with a sense of wonder as if you haven’t seen it before. Now I’ll show you how this looks. So it’s simple. Just sitting and very slowly turning your head.
And now I’m noticing a palm leaf in a tree outside my window. And I’m noticing it as if I’ve never seen a palm leaf before, all of its ridges and colors. And then after I’m done noticing, I simply let my head wander in the opposite direction. So now I’m gonna just slowly move my head over to the right until I see my door, my office door, and I’m noticing the ridges in the wood that I’ve never noticed before, and the cutouts in the door, and how actually beautiful the door is. In the color.
So it’s something simple. And then I let my attention wander again. And I simply repeat this going side to side. So let’s just have you continue with this for a moment. Rotating to the left until you notice something.
What do you see that you haven’t seen before in that object? What texture, color, or what kind of use might it have? What makes it beautiful? Be curious. And after you’ve connected for a moment, just let your gaze go and turn the opposite direction.
Maybe you even look up a little bit, up to the right, or down to the right, whatever you feel like doing. There’s no right and wrong. And find something to be curious about, to wonder about, to connect with. This is very simple. We do this because it’s one of the original reflexes, the orienting response, that we develop as infants.
If you’ve ever watched an infant that starts to get their sense of sight in touch, maybe, you know, four, five, six months old, you’ll notice that they start to look around the room, and they’ll just focus on something. Maybe it’s the fan above them or a light. And they’ll just stare at it. And then it’s almost like they forget it exists and they look in another direction. This is how a baby audience to their environment.
It’s how a baby’s nervous system finds safety and security. And it’s how we as adults can rewire safety into our own nervous system. Now let’s do orienting practice number 2, dual awareness orienting. Much like number 1, You’ll move your head maybe off to the left until you see something to focus your gaze on, find an object, taking all of your attention onto the object outside of you. Just for a few moments, just like before.
And then while you’re focusing with your eyes on the object outside of you, You’re still looking at the object, but now take your attention inside of your body somewhere and notice how maybe you’re being supported by the chair or the floor right now. Feel the feeling of your feet on the floor or your bottom on the chair. So your attention is internal, your focus, your eyes are external. Now, after you feel your body for a few moments, you’re gonna turn your attention and your focus back to the object, and then slowly move your gaze to your right until you find another object that catches your attention. And after a few moments, you’ll come back into your body, but keep focusing your eyes externally.
And feel something in your body that feels supportive or okay. It might just be your hand. Or your ankle or your breath. But your focus your you have your attention inside your body While your eyes are noticing something outside of your body at the same time, that’s dual awareness. So let’s do this together for a moment.
Again, wander your eyes maybe to the left and down or up, just to the side. It doesn’t matter. And focus on something. I see a pretty blue cup. I’m sitting here drinking my water out of, so I’m just noticing that.
What are you noticing? And just, again, How beautiful is it? How can you connect with it? And while noticing that, find your feet on the ground or your bottom on your chair. And just what does that feel like?
What does your feet and your bottom feel like? While you are looking outside of you at the same time, dual awareness, and then let go of your body, focusing back on the object and then letting your gaze move to another place. So you can look wherever, find an object. I’m looking at a picture of my wall. Looking for colors in the picture I haven’t noticed before.
This is working on your eye gaze stabilization as you’re focusing your eyes. And now bring your attention into your body. Maybe you feel the breath into your belly. Sometimes you might even notice things that are uncomfortable and that’s okay as well in your body. Just Noticing your body with neutrality, anything.
I’m actually just rubbing my fingers together like this. I’m just feeling my felt sense of my two fingers while I’m just looking at the picture. So you can do this in lots of different ways. And then, again, let go over your body and repeat. And you can do this back and forth for up to 3 to 5 minutes.
Again, I really like doing this just while I’m walking or as part of part c of ABC. A really simple exercise, and it’s a beginning exercise. So these first two orienting practices are beginning orienting exercises. The next one that will go over next is more internal and is more advanced for when you’re ready to start feeling the body deeper.