The meditation was a welcome reprieve from a full day of groundbreaking content and panels from the crème de la crème of the wellness world. It was fascinating but certainly draining, especially for an introvert! We settled in with a body scan. Most people remained seated, but I lay down for the first time in meditation all weekend, grateful to be surrounded by natural desert elements—warmth, beautiful birds chirping, and mountain-fresh air. After dropping in, Biet asked us to silently pair off with a partner, no talking at all, and I found a gentleman who, until then, I hadn’t seen on campus. He was slender with a radiant smile, bright eyes, and a long dark beard. Biet asked us all to point at our left eyes, the eyes into which we’d be gazing, and it began. She directed us to divide our attention, which is an unusual cue from a meditation teacher. Notice the eye, she said, but also feel the breeze, hear the birds, see into your periphery as well. Biet maintains that this is the way to bliss and present moment awareness, and I have to say I experienced it under her direction. Time slowed. I started seeing his eye anatomically, noticing where the light was shining, seeing individual blood vessels, a tear duct, eyelashes, and even how the pupil changed shape. I do love figure drawing, so I wondered if this was a natural instinct breaking a body down into simple shapes. Eventually, even those shapes faded as his eye lost meaning altogether, kind of like when you repeat a word like “oil” over and over again. I was simultaneously intrigued and impatient, wishing it was over and wondering what would happen to the world if we all did this once a week. It was the most attention I’d received or given anyone so intently in recent memory, and the effect was powerful—I’m better able to hold eye contact and attention now, after just one five-minute session. To me, this is a huge change that will guide me in making more authentic connections and also ground me in the present moment. When it was over, we hugged, and my partner asked what my experience was like. I told him about my fear of being truly seen and how everything became formless, feeling too overwhelmed and vulnerable (and let’s be real: self-righteous) to share my anxiety. He shared that he does these often and has developed an ability to hear people’s bodies and asked me if I’d like to know what he heard from mine. Naturally, I said yes. He said that he heard my heart, loud and clear. If you want to catch up on what else happened at revitalize, check out our coverage here!
