Sometimes You Have to Close Your Eyes to See

Sometimes, to be able to see, you have to close your eyes and open your heart. Only then will you be able to discover what’s truly important, what really counts. Because when you open your inner eyes and satisfy your soul, your horizons will widen and and new possibilities will arise.

According to neurologists, we generate around 50,000 thoughts per day. However, most of them are mechanical and repetitive. Due to the immense amount of information we receive from new technologies and environmental demands, we’re suffering more and more from mental exhaustion. We’re so overwhelmed by the outside world that we’ve completely neglected our inner world.

Sometimes we get carried away by obsessive and debilitating trains of thought, to the point where we neglect our priorities and stop listening to ourselves. We’ve focused our gaze so intensely on the outside that we’ve become emotionally nearsighted, like we need to wear glasses to find happiness.

When the eyes get tired of seeing

Believe it or not, the mind is very used to internal conflict. This is because the brain must continuously adapt to each situation and stimulus it’s presented with. Pressure at work, family problems, one’s own aspirations, social relationships. There are always issues to resolve, anxieties to calm, empty spaces to fill, and fires to put out.

The mental noise produced by all of these issues can become relentless and unforgiving. This is when stress begins to leave its mark on the brain, when the eyes simply lose focus. They forget to look inwards at one’s own conscience to see what’s really important.

It’s interesting to note that if  you experience long periods of stress and anxiety, the amygdala, which is the area of the brain associated with fear and emotion, starts to shrink. This change in structure directly affects the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with superior brain functions like awareness, concentration, and decision-making.

This means that when we go through difficult times dominated by worry, stress, and irritating mental noise, it becomes really difficult to connect with ourselves. We break the invisible link between ourselves and our own conscience due to a small change in brain structure.

But don’t forget about the power of neuroplasticity, or the brain’s subtle capacity to restructure itself. Thanks to exercises like meditation, mindfulness, and other strategies, we can direct our eyes towards our inner selves again.

A grateful mind is a well-rested mind

A grateful mind is a well-rested mind that will let you see what’s truly important. This sentence might seem a little too poetic or out-of-context. How can you be grateful for something if you feel so dissatisfied, heartbroken, or sad? The first logical step is to free yourself from all internal conflict.

Once you put an end to all those emotional battles, you’ll feel the clear-headed energy that you need to free yourself from external constraints.

Everybody wants happiness without pain, calm within a storm, and good feelings instead of resentment. But you have to understand something essential: you’ll never be able to see a rainbow without a little bit of rain.

Close your eyes so you can see

The first step is to learn how to control your thoughts. Don’t forget that your thoughts directly influence your emotions and perception of reality. Practice the following:

• Close your eyes and prohibit the conditional tense from appearing in your thoughts: “if I had been there,” “if I had done that,” “when he tells me he loves me I’ll be happy,” “when I have that I’ll feel better,” etc.
• With your eyes still closed, promise yourself that you’ll start to communicate with yourself in the present tense: “I want,” “I can,” “I’m going to,” etc.
• To close your eyes and be able to see what’s really important in your life, you can’t leave your mind blank. Not only is it impossible, it’s useless. You must fertilize your mind with positive, inspiring, and beneficial thoughts.
• Think and reflect positively. Thinking this way doesn’t blind you to reality or truth. Rather, it involves revitalizing your mind and soul to promote self-confidence, and breaking the flow of negative or limiting thoughts.

Give it a try. Dare to close your eyes so you can see, to ignite the light in your heart and take care of the needs that you’ve been neglecting, as if they were old toys.