Theme: I See
Acknowledging the visible and invisible world
Chapter 2: Meditation & Contemplation
Have you ever looked straight into someone’s eyes for a prolonged amount of time? It’s really eerie. It makes most people uncomfortable and they usually start laughing from nerves to break the tension, fidgeting, looking away, or even crying. A very public example of this is Marina Abramovic’s 2010 installation/performance at the MoMA called “The Artist is Present.” People who sat to face her described feelings like time changing speed, or like prayer. No one could imagine at the time why people would want to come to a museum just to sit and look into the eyes of a stranger. But for 8 hour days for almost 3 months, lines of people waited, craving this peculiar human contact: to have someone look at them.
New York Times article
artnet.com article
MoMA.org article
I couldn’t tell you the eye color of most of the people I know. Staring into someone’s eyes feels like an invasion of privacy without consent; too personal; too dangerous. Even staring at my own eyes in the mirror has an other-worldly feeling like if I look too long, some portal to something I’m not prepared for will open and demons or something will gust out. It’s a curious thing: to see, and be seen.
“Everyone around you can see you.” That sentiment makes some people feel important. And it makes others wish they were invisible.
“The overwhelming majority of people you will encounter don’t give you a second thought. You are a blip on their radar from their perspective, with their busy lives and busy minds.” That sentiment makes some people feel worthless. And it makes others feel wonderfully light and free.
Both statements are true, but honestly neither of them have anything to do with you or your feelings.
Being seen and being important are not the same thing.
You can change the way you look or change your behavior to become more or less noticeable. You can be noticeable in a good or bad way. You can be noticeable IRL or online.
None of those things make you important. You just are.
You exist. You feel. You do things that cause repercussions, both good and bad. You love. You communicate. You create. You see the world around you and glean information from it. You have an effect on the communal energy pool that surrounds us all. What do you see around you? What energy do you feel around you? How do you want to be seen? What energy do you want others to feel when they are near you?
Meditation
Take a big breath of air and imagine consuming a huge gulp of stray random energy particles. Hold it for a couple seconds. Think about what you want the energy around you to feel like and imagine breathing that type of energy out in a thick gust as you exhale. Imagine the air you breathe out making a circle cloud that settles around you on the floor. Breathe in again, and repeat a few times until you can imagine all these air circles stacking up around you as far as your arms can reach made of the thick energy cloud blanket you are creating. Calm your breathing back down until it’s just gentle small breaths through your nose. Sit in your energy circle for a moment. Safe. When you’re ready, close your eyes, draw in one slow breath through your nose, feel the energy circle around you prepare for action, and when you breathe out hard imagine your energy cloud burst away from you. It leaves you as it grows and spreads and thins. Your energy spreads ripples out in all directions. It smacks up against someone outside taking a walk. Goes through some neighbors. Some trees. Some small animals. Part of your energy touches someone so desperately lonely. Someone else in pain. Someone cold and lost and hungry. A pet waiting for their person to come home from the store. Further to the woods. To the ocean. To a building full of people. Through an empty train car. It catches the winds and crosses grass fields. It blows up the side of a snowy mountain. Past some hikers and a goat. It slows and spreads apart. It settles and mingles with the breath and energy of a million other people. You. Are made of energy. Your energy touches everything around you for thousands of miles. What do you want to be sending out? You don’t need words as you think about this. Just feel the energy in your body, and imagine what you’re radiating, and what you want that energy to do in the world around you. If every particle you sent out for the rest of your life had your name on it that anyone could see, what would you want them to go and do?
This week’s exercises are cervical flexion & extensions: the balance between looking at yourself, and then outwards; down and up; foundation to aspirations; root up through crown; past to future.
Jet Tries 