This week’s podcast contains our first Open Focus session. It starts at 16 minutes, 16 seconds.
It’s the ultimate oxymoron: Practicing Open Focus without effort. Listen or Read the transcript for Kat’s excellent take on this.
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Opening your focus is as easy as including your peripheral vision so you see what’s around you as well as the thing you’re looking at. It’s as easy as noticing that you are in a room or outside at the same time you are rabbiting around in your thoughts. It’s imagining space in and around and throughout parts of your body: These are the things that shift the brain into alpha. So simple, so easy. As kids, in nature, and during a massage are places we can have the effortless awareness that we are reclaiming with Open Focus. But we have some seriously ingrained habits of gripping with our attention to outsmart. Let’s get that effortlessness back, and learn how to access it anywhere, anytime. I hope you enjoy the practice!
And here’s the transcript:
0:00:00.3 Kat: In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller…
0:00:03.6 Speaker 2: Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
0:00:10.7 Kat: But is there an art, or a science, to stopping and looking around once in a while?
0:00:16.3 Liz: I’m Liz.
0:00:18.1 Kat: And I’m Kat, and this is Beyond Resilience. When Liz and I met during the COVID-19 pandemic, we discovered that we shared a passion for exploring accessible ways of experiencing and incorporating trance into our daily lives. In particular, we were interested in how different trance-inducing practices might promote physical, mental, and emotional healing, enhance creativity, and inspire liberation. So in the first season of Beyond Resilience, we explore Open Focus, a practice developed by Les Femi that helps us retrain our brains to access all the different types of attention available. Please join us as we explore Open Focus and learn about the benefits of daily practice. Hi Liz?
0:01:06.4 Liz: Hey Kat.
0:01:08.4 Kat: How are you today?
0:01:10.2 Liz: I’m so good.
0:01:11.1 Kat: Yeah?
0:01:12.0 Liz: So excellent good, yes.
0:01:14.5 Kat: I’m good too because we… I’m in the metro Detroit area and we are having a fake spring. And so it’s just sunny out and kind of warmish.
0:01:27.0 Liz: Now what does that mean? What does that mean? You have to relativize this. What does fake spring mean in Detroit?
0:01:36.4 Kat: Well, it’s like often, I’m an import here, so I can’t speak with like absolute authority on the history of weather in Detroit. But so in my experience in the last few years or several years, I guess now that I lived here, it’s often that if it’s sunny, it’s gonna be really cold ’cause there’s no clouds. And so it’s blue and crystalline and gorgeous and very inspirational when compared to the decades of soggy, gray, wet winters I experienced in Seattle. So, yeah, I mean, once I moved here, I really started to connect to there’s a Prince lyric that he sings. Sometimes it snows in April and it has snowed in every April [laughter] that I have been here. And I’m assuming it did for him quite often in Minneapolis. So, yeah, snow in April seems crazy to me. But no, so, yeah.
0:02:37.0 Liz: Yeah, that’s what I remember about that place that you are, that weather was changeable, very, very changeable. And so I’m thinking as you’re talking, I’m thinking, yeah, there’s the external weather, but there’s the internal weather, too.
0:02:48.6 Kat: Yes.
0:02:48.7 Liz: And it’s changeable also…
0:02:51.0 Kat: And they can they have… They can some interplay, absolutely.
0:02:54.0 Liz: They can.
0:02:56.0 Kat: So we have spent the last couple of weeks sort of going through the the skeletal structure, as it were, of Open Focus. It’s kind of background, what it is, how to do it, how you discovered it. And now today we’re gonna delve into first kind of discussing some of the experiences you’ve had over the past couple of years with your Open Focus Friday fans, cronies. And then we’ll actually go into our first session. So why don’t you talk to me about some of the things that you, that the group has experienced over the past few years?
0:03:44.4 Liz: Yeah. One of the things that’s that no one needs that absolutely no one needs is another thing on their to do list to either do and have great expectations of or maybe the wrong expectations of or to not do and feel bad about not doing. So why put this on your to do list at all? First of all, you’re gonna put it on your to do list in an effortless way and you’re gonna do it in an effortless way. It’s gonna involve space. So the Open Focus Friday group has been running for a year or two now. And things have evolved. We started out with a very general Open Focus practice, which is what we’ll do today so that you get the hang of it and you can recognize what an alpha brainwave state feels like and what a theta brainwave state feels like. So that you know what you’re shooting for.
0:04:39.7 Liz: But of course, the goal of Open Focus practice is not to have an experience. The goal is just to follow the simple process and it’s super simple. So over time in the Open Focus group, the things that are pretty consistently reported are the people who already have a meditation practice, who are already practicing mindfulness. Add space and effortlessness and embodiment, the three hallmarks of Open Focus to their meditation practice, for example. And it shifts their meditation practice. It takes all the effort out, all the concentrate or thinking I have to herd my thoughts out of here in my meditation space. It gives them a lot more equanimity. People who are… Mindfulness is something that can get very grippy. I’m gonna be mindful of my… I’m really going to focus hard on this spoon of ice cream and I’m gonna have an experience every second. It’s like mmh.
0:05:36.0 Liz: Meditation and mindfulness shouldn’t be adding stress, [chuckle] right? It shouldn’t be making your mind work or your body react. It should just be completely frictionless. So adding space, effortlessness and embodiment to those practices are remarkable for people. The other place that people have had a lot of benefit is with pain, either emotional pain or physical pain. Building that refuge and having it to go to when you’re having pain just to be able to get good at shifting your focus away from it. That’s exactly the wrong thing to say. I can’t even believe I just said that. That’s not what I meant. It’s broadening your focus. Shifting away is just another version of narrow objective focus. It’s like I’m either going to focus on it or away from it. I’m gonna try to exclude it from my attention. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re adding space inside and outside things and noticing that space permeates everything.
0:06:43.6 Liz: And once you perceive things that way or suggest to your imagination that it might conjure up that perception, make it up, your brain unwinds. It’s like, oh, right. Okay. What’s happened over time with people is we focus more and more on taking it to the streets. How do you apply open focus in your life? And people have come up with all kinds of cool things that help them. Just little ways in. Back to my original question, why do this? That’s the point. It’s not to add something else to your to-do list for the rest of your life. It’s really not that at all. It’s to add something to your to-do list for a while. Practicing twice a day is great. Once a day is minimal. Three times a day is extraordinary. For a time so that you can access Open Focus all the time, anytime, anywhere, without effort, no matter what else you’re doing, right in the middle of that sales presentation, right in the middle of that meeting, right in the middle of testifying. Everywhere, anywhere, all the time, anytime.
0:08:02.0 Kat: I wanted to bring up a couple of ideas or thoughts that I had. And I meant to talk about this earlier. But I kind of have an issue with the whole back in my day kind of stuff. This generational shaming, we’re so much better because of XYZ. But this guy I saw in my little trolling of the interwebs, he made this comment where there’s such an obsession with mindfulness. Everybody’s talking about mindfulness, this and that, the other, and everybody, how they can use it in this. Mindfulness for executives and mindfulness for children and he said, I can’t remember ever hearing about that for a really long time. And then I thought to myself nobody told me as a child that I needed to be mindful because I spent most of my time kind of being forced to be mindful. I didn’t have access to so much stimuli. Many of us didn’t up until really what, maybe 20 years ago, 20, 30 years ago.
0:09:16.5 Kat: So there was kind of this practice that we developed maybe in our childhoods and things like that, that was about being in the moment. You kind of had to be in the moment. You couldn’t sort of do this distractive thing or get wrapped up in something else. I mean, I used to get wrapped up in books. So there’s that, right? But in kind of tandem with that is the idea of the practice and developing it kind of, and we talked a little bit about this last time as a muscle that something that took me a while to incorporate was like adjusting my breathing. And that’s a really good example of something like this where you, for whatever reason, kind of develop a breath practice, not even thinking about it. And then once you meet or learn something from somebody about like belly breathing, right? Really breathing in deeply and not in the shallow like upper like area of your lungs. I mean, it’s transformational, but originally you have to be very intentional and put effort into changing the way you do it.
0:10:39.2 Kat: But after enough time, it becomes sort of second nature, right? It’s just now the way that you breathe. And so I guess in some ways I’m equating that to yes, it’s going to be on a to-do list for you right now or for me, right? Where I do have it on a list. I’m like, I should have done that. I didn’t check it off. But the goal, right, is that eventually it is second nature. It’s not something that you even think about much. Right.
0:11:08.2 Liz: That’s a great, really good analogy. It’s kind of some analogies are less perfect than others. That one’s really dead on. That’s exactly ’cause you’re always breathing and you’re always paying attention to something. So how, how do you, how are you breathing is what you’re talking about. You changed how you breathe and that took some effort to do it. And then once it became second nature, you got to have the transformation of having that kind of breathing happening all the time.
0:11:37.3 Kat: Exactly.
0:11:38.4 Liz: And that’s exactly the same. Yeah. You spent some time learning how to get there, how it works, what the mechanics are and how to apply it in various situations. And pretty soon you’re walking around with the question that we started working with last Friday. How am I now paying attention? How am I paying attention right now? And now? And now? Not, you should be, you should be breathing differently. Then you get all tight. That doesn’t work. Same thing with attention. It’s not, how am I now paying attention? Oh, I’m wrong. I have it wrong. No. How am I now paying attention? I’m just gonna include what’s in my peripheral vision in what I’m experiencing right now. I’m gonna include the sounds in my environment in what I’m experiencing right now. If I just add one more sense perception to what I’m experiencing. It automatically broadens my attention ’cause I’m not paying attention to just one thing. And you’re on your way to Open Focus. And for me, I do those two things most often.
0:12:51.1 Liz: I broaden, ’cause I’m often looking at something too, right? I’m always paying attention. I’m always looking at something. And I’m aware of that. So I just open my awareness to include what’s in my peripheral vision. And then I automatically start hearing more. And that leads to, oh, I’m in a room. It’s not just this tiny whatever I’m attending to becomes my entire experience. That’s not true. And my brain starts to unwind. So yeah, it’s exactly, it’s a great analogy.
0:13:27.0 Kat: So do you wanna go into our first session?
0:13:30.3 Liz: I do.
0:13:32.9 Kat: What’s the, I guess, the topic or the focus of this Open Focus? What are we focusing on, Liz? [laughter]
0:13:43.1 Liz: This is just gonna be a general session. We’re gonna rely on the three pillars of Open Focus, right? So it’s gonna be effortless. You’re gonna use your imagination. And we’re gonna use our bodies as a reference point. So I’m gonna ask a series of questions. They’re gonna mostly start with, can you imagine? Or is it possible to imagine? And don’t answer that question. [laughter] We’re not looking for no or…
0:14:12.8 Kat: Keep it to yourself.
0:14:15.5 Liz: Yeah, sure. It’s okay. We’re not looking for a verbal response. We’re not looking for a yes or no. It’s just respond to the question. Let your imagination respond to the question. There’s no right or wrong way to imagine. You can expect your experience to start out a little fleeting. And maybe you start to question, really, am I doing this or not? That’s great. That’s great. Can you imagine doing it? Everything can be responded to. Well, can you imagine that you’re doing it? Oh, yeah. You’re just gonna make this up. So your experience may start out vague, and you really may question whether or not it’s happening.
0:14:56.8 Liz: The value of practice is that over time, and it’s really a very short time, you’ll start to know it’s happening. Okay. The experience of imagining… It’s like any muscle, right? Imagination is just a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. So the more you use your imagination in this purposeful way, the better your imagination can serve you. It gets stronger. It’s like, oh, yeah, I can do it. Sure, I can probably do that. So we’ll start out with just one thing at a time in this Open Focus. As you progress in Open Focus, a couple of things happen. You start imagining several things at once, simultaneously imagining this and this and this. And we’ll start out practicing with our eyes closed, sitting upright with an erect posture or standing. And over time, you’ll begin to open your eyes slightly. Right now, visual cortex is too grabby, too grabby. It’s gonna narrow your attention.
0:15:54.2 Liz: So we start out practicing with our eyes closed, imagining one thing at a time.
0:16:01.3 Kat: Okay. All right. My goal is to not fall asleep.
0:16:04.9 Liz: Hence the sitting erect, right?
[laughter]
0:16:08.3 Kat: I’m gonna try. Let me lean back.
0:16:09.7 Liz: Sitting up so you can’t fall asleep.
0:16:12.5 Kat: All right. So are we ready to go?
0:16:13.8 Liz: We are. Yeah.
0:16:15.1 Kat: Okay.
0:16:16.2 Liz: Okay. Sitting comfortably erect with your eyes closed. Can you imagine the volume of your thumbs? That is the space that is described by the skin all around your thumbs. Can you imagine the volume of your thumbs full of space? Just make it up. Effortlessly imagine your thumbs are full of space. Full of space. Just make it up. Effortlessly imagine your thumbs are full of space. And can you imagine the volume of your index fingers, the index fingers or pointer fingers on each hand? Can you imagine the volume of those fingers? Can you imagine your index fingers full of space just as your thumbs are full of space? Can you imagine the feeling of space filling your thumbs and index fingers? Is it possible to imagine the space around your thumbs and index fingers? So that’s the space that is touching the skin all around your thumbs and index fingers. And because you can’t feel anything that isn’t innervated, imagining the space around your thumbs and index fingers can feel a lot like imagining an absence, a nothingness, a space that you can’t have any sensory experience of.
0:19:14.5 Liz: Can you imagine that as you move your thumbs and index fingers toward each other just a little bit, and then away from each other again to their original position, just doing that a few times. Can you imagine that your thumbs and index fingers are full of space and moving through space? Can you imagine those moving thumbs and index fingers permeated by space? So they’re full of space, surrounded by space, and now permeated by space. The space inside the thumb and index fingers and the space outside are one space with your thumbs and index fingers, a cloud of particles in space. Can you imagine moving your cloud of particles in space through space? Can you imagine using your thumb and index finger as a kind of model? Can you imagine this space inside the rest of your fingers, your middle finger, ring finger and little finger so that all your fingers and thumbs are full of space, surrounded by space, permeated by space? And can you imagine your forearms and elbows are also full of space, surrounded by space and permeated by space? Can you imagine that now your upper arms and shoulders are full of space, surrounded by space and permeated by space?
0:22:23.2 Liz: Can you imagine your neck and head full of space surrounded by space, permeated by space? And can you imagine the distance between your eyes? Just make it up. It’s not a number, it’s an imagination. Can you imagine the distance between your eyes? Can you imagine your entire mouth, that cavity is full of space surrounded by space, your teeth and gums full of space, surrounded by space, permeated by space? Can you imagine your jawbone and all the muscles that make your jaw work, your jaw muscles are full of space surrounded by space and permeated by space? Can you imagine that your ears, ear, drums, inner ear, middle ear, outer ear are all full of space, surrounded by space, coated with space, and permeated by space? Is it possible to imagine your eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, that little place in the middle that sometimes furrows when we’re thinking and think all the eye muscles that control your eye in your eye socket and beyond, can you imagine all of that full of space surrounded by space, permeated by space? Can you imagine that your entire torso starting with your neck down through your shoulders, mid-back, lower back, your abdomen, your chest, your torso is full of space, three dimensionally, its entire volume is full of space, all the way from the base of your skull to the tips of your sits bones, everything in between full of space, surrounded by space and permeated by space effortlessly?
0:26:52.3 Liz: Just making it up. Can you imagine the feeling of space inside your thighs, knees, lower legs, ankles, feet, and 10 toes? Can you imagine what space inside all those structures feels like? Can you imagine the space around your legs, feet and toes? Can you imagine space permeating your entire lower body? Can you imagine the distance between a point at the center of your chest and the wall in front of you? Can you imagine this distance between that same point and the wall behind you? Can you imagine the distance between the center of your chest and the walls to either side of you as well as the floor and the ceiling so that you’re imagining yourself in a three dimensional space?
0:29:04.6 Liz: And can you imagine this space, a three dimensional space that is the room you’re sitting in is the same space as the space inside you, the same space that’s permeating all of your body structures, just allowing them to dissolve ever so slightly into space just to relax into space. Just being a part of the whole picture, not the whole picture. Can you imagine that space in your room expanding three dimensionally in all directions out as far as the city limits of where you live, up in the sky to the edge of the atmosphere on all sides going out, out, out as far as you wanna take it? Whatever you wanna imagine, all the way out to the Milky Way, if you like. Keeping your attention centered in the experience you’re having, the way space feels, the way it sounds to you, the way you’re imagining it. Can you imagine using these tools of imagination and space starting inside your body and around your body, adding space, noticing space, feeling space, imagining space? Can you imagine closing your eyes and imagining space at least once a day? Just imagine it. Can you imagine it? Let that imagination unfold. Can you also imagine doing it twice a day? Again, you’re effortlessly imagining, not assigning, Just making it up.
0:32:14.1 Liz: Can you imagine effortlessly shifting your attention, broadening it, immersing yourself in your experience, adding space to that experience? Wherever you are, anywhere, everywhere, anytime, all the time. Opening your focus. I’m gonna stop now and invite you to take this sense of spaciousness with you into your day.
0:33:15.4 Kat: Thank you, Liz.
0:33:20.1 Liz: You’re welcome. That was good for me too. [chuckle]
0:33:25.4 Kat: I’ll see you next week.
0:33:27.5 Liz: Alright, thanks a lot. Kat.
0:33:29.9 Kat: Are you interested in learning how you can incorporate Open Focus into your daily life? Consider joining us for our weekly Open Focus Friday group session at 12:00 PM Pacific on Zoom. Registration details and more information on Open Focus are available on our website www.beyondresilience.io.
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0:33:52.7 Kat: Thanks for listening to Beyond Resilience, which is hosted by Liz Williams and Kat Oak and produced by Liminal Nation. Neither Liz nor Kat are trained medical or mental health professionals, and all of the of the ideas, techniques, resources, and tools we explore in the podcast reflect our own personal perspectives. Special thank you to Stephen Carey for our musical ambiance and to John Hughes and Paramount pictures for the excerpted audio of the preeminent philosopher of late stage Capitalism, Ferris Bueller. All rights where appropriate are reserved. Until next time, stay open.