June 22, 2021 - EyeClarity Podcast
Open Attention. In this episode, we explore how to honor our limits and the art of Self-Regulation. Enjoy the show! If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
body, exercise, breathing, dissolving, exhale, work, feeling, breathing pattern, dissolution, self-regulation, inhale, nervous system, stress, dissolve, system, attention, giving, clarity, healing, lasers
00:05
Hello, everyone, its Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberne.com. Now, to the latest EyeClarity episode.
You go into something, the resting is called, the term that I use is called Open attention. Now open attention is a practice where you are listening to your body’s response to the stimulus that you just gave it. So if you’re making the sounds, and you’re moving, and you’re doing what you’re doing, when you’re finished, to build in this open attention, where you start listening to your body’s response, this does some very positive things for you. Number one, it helps your body absorb the really good things that you did, in making the sound and making the movement. It’s like a digestion. It’s like a metabolizing. And one of the problems that people have where they don’t embrace their health, is they don’t build in this rest and settle. They’re doing something, they go on to the next, they go on to the next. You know, about a year and a half ago, I was my friend invited me to a yoga class. So I’m in the yoga class and the instructor is this young man, he’s, you know, super exercise guy. And he’s putting us through these different postures one right after the other, after the other, after the other. And my own system said, I need to, I need to rest I need I it’s too much input. And so I started to lie down and I rested. The lady next to me says that’s a good idea. I’m going to do that to the guy next to her. So the teacher comes over says we can’t have this. And I said, Well, my nervous system can’t keep up with the barrage of asanas that you’re giving me. He says no, no, no, that’s not. And that’s the mentality of the exercise world, the fitness world. I even think it’s like that, in pretty much everything. We don’t spend time being able to integrate. And your system, when I say your system, I’m including your neurological system, your endocrine system, your digestive system, your nervous system, your fluid body, your fragile. You don’t need a million things coming to you all at once that you had that before you started working with me. And I’ve been very vigilant about only giving you a teaspoon at a time a little bit, letting you chew on it, letting you figure out okay, what’s enough for me. I felt beginning remember, remember the beginning we had the light sensitivity? And I said go get sunglasses? And you did and it helped you it was a resting for the eyes. So this open attention in your practice is a way for, number one, your body to metabolize, number two, for you to track or keep track of. Well, what are my sensations after doing all this sound? Gee, I’m feeling something in my throat. That’s interesting. Let me put my awareness there. Oh my god. Now it’s the energy is moving up to my eyes. I’m feeling some warmth. That’s interesting. that triggers a memory. Oh, I remember when I was a child. And my mother took me to the beach and we had such a great time. Oh, now I’m feeling this in my solar plexus. There’s a tightness there. Let me breathe into the tightness. So you’re unwinding your body by Putting your attention on how your body is talking to you.
05:05
It’s the art of self-regulation. So I’m going to define self-regulation as the ability to regulate yourself in moments of stress. And if you can master that skill, then no matter what comes at you, you could do a few minutes of resetting yourself. And the stress is gone. puff. Personal experience on Monday, I had some dental surgery. And it was really interesting because I work with a holistic dentist, and he was doing some gum work for me around inflammation to avoid periodontal disease. And he was using lasers. So instead of cutting and like the regular dentist, you know, he was using these lasers, and it was, it was intense, was really good. So after the procedure, I was feeling a little stressed. And he said, you know, do you know how to down-regulate? Do you know how to reset your nervous system? I said, Yeah, I do. And within 15 minutes, sitting in his waiting room doing some things, I was able to calm myself down, then I was able to drive and come home. So instead of taking drugs, instead of you know, doing all this crazy stuff we’re doing caffeinating ourselves over-caffeinating, you know, all of these things that we do, when you go into that open attention, you are practicing that skill of self-regulation, you spend a few minutes, I don’t want you to spend longer than say three or four minutes, because I don’t want you to be wandering in your attention way out there untethered. So after three minutes, I want you to come back to the structured exercise, and I want you to repeat it. So the exercise is giving you the structure to work through what you need to work through, you do the exercise, again, the procedure, the sequence, and then you go into the open attention the second time. Now, this could be very different than the first open attention. You might fall asleep, you might feel agitated. And whatever it is, it’s all accepted. Like you don’t have to be a certain way. And this is another very healing component, whereby you’re not being asked to follow what the teacher is saying. Instead, you are following you’re….
08:04
I want to follow the teacher though,
08:07
Well, you are following the teacher, and the exercise. So I’m the teacher and I’m saying this is the exercise you need to do. Now within that exercise, there’s a part of it, where I want you to follow yourself. And remember, you’re only doing it for two to three minutes. And then you’re back hooking into the teacher. But okay, that that point of saying, but I want to follow the teacher. Ultimately, ultimately, I believe the true health comes from when you’re able to follow your inner guidance. And you’re not following something outside of yourself as an authority. Who doesn’t know you as well as you do. Now, that’s a very advanced way of being. And it takes many years to develop that. But at the same time, I can list a few of the people you went to before. And when you first met me, that screwed you up, because they weren’t really tuning in to where you were. You remember when we started. I didn’t give you a lot. And you responded very positively outside the sessions because I was tuning in to you. And I wasn’t basing it on some textbook idea that I learned in school. Oh, that’s what she needs to do because I learned that in school. Instead of tuning into the textbook, I tuned into your energy. And to me, your energy now is feeling very different. When we started, you have done incredible healing. Now, are you still gonna get bumps in the road? Are you still gonna have setbacks Are you still gonna, that’s part of it, you’re always gonna have that? But it’s how you manage it, and how quickly you can navigate through it and around it. So back to the exercise, you do the exercise, open attention, the exercise, open attention, round two, then you do the exercise, open attention, round three. Now, I didn’t say this at the beginning, and I may not have included this, but I want to include it now. And what I want to include is as follows. When you start this exercise, whichever one you decide to do, one of the markers, I’d like you to measure at the very beginning, and at the very end, is your breathing rhythm. Because the breathing, the breathing pattern tells us everything about our stress level. When I was in my trainings, different somatic body center trainings, we would always examine a person’s breathing. Now, what were we examining? Well, one thing we were examining was, how fast they’re inhale and exhale was another one was, were they breathing just in the chest? Or were they breathing? down into the diaphragm? Either, if you can see my hands? In other words, was the breathing really localized? Or was there more breathing? Another aspect of the breathing is my doing more inhale, and less exhale. Why am I doing more exhale,
12:16
and less inhale. You want to have a balance of that. But you’re just observing, we’re not asking you to change anything,
12:27
we’re just asking you to notice, what’s my breathing pattern. That’s a baseline. So in science research, we take baselines of our subjects, you’re a subject of yourself a specimen. So research project. Then at the very end, after you’ve done three rounds of the of the exercise, and you’ve done your last open attention, I want you to take a final baseline. And here are some things to look for is my breathing slower, probably will be if your breathing is slower, that’s a measurement that your nervous system is more relaxed. When your nervous system is more relaxed, your body is in a better position to heal. When your body is working at a fast pace, compression speed can heal, you can’t absorb the medicines that you’re being exposed to, because your body is compressed. But when you slow down and you get out of the fear and you get out of the stress and the tension and the worry and whatever we do, now you can receive. Another thing to look for in the breathing is this slow breathing, full-body the better you’re able to oxygenate your your blood, the better everything is. One of the keys in disease is we’re not oxygenating enough. And when you don’t oxygenate enough, a higher degree of inflammation. higher degree of free radicals are oxidative stress. So that slow, long, deep breathing that comes from doing all those sounds and all that pausing. You are healing yourself every time you do this. That’s why you’re getting better because you’ve created a momentum that Your system is now operating at a higher level than it was at the beginning. vibrationally. Last point about sorry. I said, That’s exciting. It’s exciting. Yes, very exciting. Now there’s one last point I want to, and this is a nuance. But we’ve been working together for a long time. So I want to bring this up to you. So here it is. on a cellular level, we have a cell, we have millions of cells in our body. In the cell, there is something where we take the energy in, we take the food in, that’s the inhale, then we expel the waste products. That’s our exhale. So we have an inhale, where we resolve, we have an exhale, where we dissolve. And the better the cell is able to resolve and dissolve. That’s going to give yourself more energy and more vitality. Now, just some metaphors about dissolve. dissolving is a letting go. It’s a surrendering, it’s a dying, something is dying. And we’re in rebirth and death. On every breath. We’re birth, in the inhale. We’re dying on the exhale. But the thing about dissolving is in a dissolution, it can be disorienting, things are falling apart, I’m out of control, there’s uncertainty. And yet, if you ride the dissolution, the exhale the dissolve, it’s going to reach an endpoint. And then it’s going to bounce back to resolve. And in some of my own personal practices, and also my teachings, we will do a very long dissolution,
17:37
very long dissolving could be days of dissolving, especially on retreats. And the wave that your body starts feeling in the dissolving, is a very slow, long, extended suspension. And your system gets to recharge in that suspension. In craniosacral therapy, they call it the still point where you’re in silence, you’re in stillness you’re in, you know, you’re in all this, right? So, so this is an idea. And I certainly don’t recommend or suggest you
18:33
amplify, dissolving and dissolution. Just ride the wave. So a lot of times in craniosacral, and I do this too. Let’s say somebody comes in and they have a screaming headache.
18:47
migraines, you know, all kinds of stuff. Sometimes I’ll actually start by working at their feet. Okay, and they’ll say, you know what, not a bad thing. Not only is it not a bad thing, I’m sure she’s, she’s at some level reading you to find out okay, what is it that I need to do here today with this person. Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.
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