What if you had a tiny bento box of sure-fire ways to put your brain into alpha synchrony? And what if you didn’t have to sign in, remember a password or subscribe, or remember where you put it?
The Open Focus session starts at: 26:05.9
You’re in luck, my friend. Open Focus is but the first of these portable, easily-accessed trance technologies we’ll be exploring at Beyond Resilience.io and in our podcast. We use “trance” and “alpha, “synchronous alpha,” interchangeably. Alpha is the brainwave state associated with being both alert and relaxed – you are ready for relaxed action or a nap, and your mind and body can unwind. When all the areas of your brain are firing at the same frequency, that’s called synchrony and it enhances the effect of whatever frequency the brain is tuned to. In the case of alpha, this is: Relaxed muscles, a clear mind, no stress hormones being released. Imagine being in a stressful situation without the effects of stress: That’s the magic of alpha. Your shoulders don’t creep up to your ears, your heart doesn’t race, and your mind stays calm and clear. Alpha is where the brain absorbs and applies the new information it has been exposed to.
An even lower frequency called Theta is where the body and mind can heal from the effects of the stress response. It’s that delicious feeling you have as you’re falling asleep or just waking up. It’s a vacation on the inside.
Trance is a more ancient technology of accessing these brainwave states; Open Focus is a more modern approach. (Trance is part of what makes technology so addictive, and so dangerous: You’re a super-learner in alpha. It’s hard to see how having a ginormous, rapacious technology company in charge of what you’re learning would benefit you. On the other hand, having the means to enter a beneficial trance state whenever you want is definitely beneficial.
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?
0:00:18.1 Liz: I’m Liz.
0:00:19.6 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 Fehmi 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.
0:01:08.5 Liz: Hello, Kat. We’re gonna talk about…
0:01:10.4 Kat: How are you…
0:01:11.0 Liz: I think we’re gonna talk about Open Focus To Go.
0:01:15.9 Kat: Okay. Well I wanted to find out how you’re doing today first.
0:01:16.0 Liz: Well it’s The Bento Box version… So yeah you wanna find out about how I’m doing? [laughter]
0:01:21.1 Kat: Yeah. Why not?
0:01:24.2 Liz: Yeah. I am…
0:01:26.0 Kat: Go ahead.
0:01:26.8 Liz: Having a great summer of court actions and reactions and settling trust and it’s been a lot of fun interacting with the legal system and I just want to recommend it to everyone.
0:01:48.6 Kat: Yeah I’m sure. I’m sure. I know I’m…
0:01:48.7 Liz: It’s a great summer time activity.
0:01:50.9 Kat: I am in the process of beginning to get My Poop In A Group in order to buy a house and I’m not looking forward to it because I’ve done it once before and I’m like this is kind of rough process of it. But once it’s done it’ll be good. Once I find the house.
0:02:12.0 Liz: That’s right.
0:02:12.1 Kat: Yeah. All those…
0:02:12.3 Liz: That’s exciting.
0:02:12.6 Kat: All those little… All the things like the bureaucratic nightmares.
0:02:20.3 Liz: Yeah. I’m just getting the sense that neither of us are really big fans of the…
0:02:27.3 Kat: I will tell you though that one of the things that I had this week speaking of bureaucracy is that in two… I have a few different jobs ’cause that’s how I roll. And two of my jobs I ran up against the wall of people who were like I am the harbinger of bureaucracy. I will not bend. I find comfort in bureaucracy because bureaucracy hides very effectively my mediocrity. [laughter]
0:03:08.9 Liz: Yep.
0:03:12.5 Kat: And so… Yeah so I had two different experiences in totally different organizations about totally different matters where both of these people were basically like I’m gonna give you a response that is a non-response that is basically cloaking the fact that I’m doing whatever I can not to do any work and to be absolved of the requirement that I do of any work. You go.
0:03:38.5 Liz: While looking competent. Yeah it’s a lot of work to be mediocre and bureaucratic isn’t it.
0:03:45.5 Kat: I know I know. That’s the thing right?
0:03:48.8 Liz: Yeah. I do. I really do know.
0:03:50.2 Kat: I guess maybe in those situations… Actually I just found the humour of it. I didn’t get angry and so I guess maybe I did have Open Focus on the go.
0:04:01.3 Liz: See?
0:04:01.8 Kat: I did have it in the moment because I just found it humorous and thought well, it’s funny that I’m asking you to do a job a task that is specifically named in the title of your job and yet you’re doing everything you can to explain why this is not in your wheelhouse. It’s like you coming back to me. The amount of time it took you to formulate this response you could have done the task.
0:04:40.2 Liz: Or could you have done the task? This is the question it raised right?
0:04:42.7 Kat: I don’t know. Probably not. Okay. I could have done the task.
0:04:44.9 Liz: Right. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly and you know what? I think I will. Yeah. Yeah I know. So humour is a really… Humour deals an Open Focus thing. It totally does. So it’s like [chuckle] Now I’m seeing not only this situation but how funny it is which means kind of by definition I have to be looking at it from a different point of view and not getting into emergency mode. So well done you.
0:05:10.0 Kat: Yeah I mean you have to in life?
0:05:12.1 Liz: It helps.
0:05:12.9 Kat: Find the humour. My great grandmother who I never met on my mother’s side who was German and she used to say life you either laugh or you cry.
0:05:28.0 Liz: Oh God. [laughter] I think she was onto something there.
0:05:31.3 Kat: Yeah.
0:05:32.9 Liz: I really do. You either laugh about it or you cry.
0:05:33.2 Kat: I’m always trying to remind myself of that. You either laugh or you cry. So when you talk about it the Bento Box version the on the road on the go the little travel sized pack of Open Focus what are you talking about? What does that mean?
0:05:55.0 Liz: So there’s this practice we do where you sit down erect so you don’t fall asleep and all that and then practice getting into… Flexing your attention. So going from narrow to broad and separate to immersed. So there’s this practice thing you do but it’s like Open Focus lab. Where’s the lab? Where do you start experimenting it? It’s like there’s a lecture in the practice that’s great but you wanna use this somewhere. You wanna have some practical application and that is the whole point of practicing is so that you can use it out on the road. And so your Bento Box could have a lot of different strategies in it and we practice them in the practices. We practice using the thumb and index finger ’cause it’s so highly mapped to the brain. It’s the quickest way to shift your brain is to imagine space in your index fingers and thumbs. It’s silly it’s simple and so effective. The other ways that we can practice broadening our attention or immersing ourselves in whatever it is we’re experiencing are something we’ve talked about also which is just to notice what you see in your peripheral vision.
0:07:25.9 Liz: So rather than the laser focus, fight or flight binocular vision where your vision narrows and intensifies on one thing. Just notice… As you’re looking forward notice also what’s in your peripheral vision so I’m looking at your image on this screen right now but also I can see the bookcase across the room to my left and I can see I’m not sure what that is on the wall to my right. Now I’m curious what is on my wall? I don’t know. But the minute I see I pick in my peripheral vision I notice that I’m in a three-dimensional space. And I didn’t know that just a moment before. Before I did that I thought it was just this laser focus this narrow band of attention. The minute I take in my peripheral vision I can do another Open Focus technique which is to make my experience multi-sensorial. So when I notice there’s something to either side of me, it’s a small step to realize there’s something behind me. And from there it’s a small step to think oh I’m in a three-dimensional bubble of space. My body starts to relax my brain starts to go oh yeah and then I can start taking other senses. What do I hear in this space? What do I… In addition to looking forward and seeing what’s in my peripheral vision and noticing that I’m in a three-dimensional space what do I hear?
0:08:44.8 Liz: What’s the taste in my mouth? What’s the sensation of whatever it is I’m touching or what does it feel like to be sitting in this seat? I can start to take in every one of those and the more sensory information we take in the more our attention broadens and the more immersed we become in our experience. So those things those little Bento Box sections are available to us all the time. And if you can’t access any of those in the moment let’s say you’re in a conversation with someone that is starting to make you tense up and get all fight or flighty another way to think about space is time. So just stop pause slow down don’t match someone’s quickened conversational pace. Slow down what you say. Pause before you speak. Give your mind a moment to think. That’s a way to add space. Silence is space in terms of sound and pausing is space in terms of time. So you can add all of those ways to broaden your attention out of that fight or flight mode.
0:09:56.5 Kat: And I like the idea of the space of just talk… Because sometimes when somebody is really passionate or you feel like they’re attacking you go into that kind of defensive fight or flight and then obviously for me when I have those experiences I go into defense mode. So then I’m like I’m gonna attack back. But I have been trying not that it happens all the time but I’ve been trying when I’m in those situations where somebody’s coming at me that way I’m like okay this is… Whatever they’re talking about they’re really… It’s touching something and I just need to listen. And it can be really hard. If you feel you’re being attacked to not do that. And it has been really difficult for me to do it but I have been like no okay just actually hear this person. And a couple of times they have talked themselves out of the story by the end of it without me responding without me pushing back without me standing for myself doing all these things that I felt like oh I need to do as boundary setting and I’m not gonna be treated this way. All those kinds of things. It’s like just go and go and go. And then it’s like okay then they’ll come to okay all right. But I think that’s a really difficult place to hold within yourself and so Open Focus being able to create that space where… Yeah.
0:11:28.8 Liz: Well holding is gripping right? So that’s narrow attention. I love what you’re saying though it’s like as you’re listening to them you’re making space for them to talk kind of making space for them to listen to themselves is what it sounded like. Wait. Can I really… As I go can I really… Is this really what I think? Is this really where I am? So much of the time we’re responding to someone who isn’t… And I’m guilty of this. I’ll say something and it’s like someone will paraphrase it back to me and I’m like no that’s not what… I’m not saying that’s not what I said. I’m saying that’s not what I was trying to convey. And it’s so helpful when someone will do that. I’m like yeah I don’t know what I’m talking smack. I don’t know what I’m doing. Let me think about this for a minute. What am I trying to say?
0:12:20.3 Kat: Yeah and I think that’s the thing is that communication at the end of the day is a collaboration what you say and you’re bringing all of your history and perspective and lenses and I learned to say this thing this way etcetera years ago and then the other person or people obviously are bringing their own story to it. We see that all the time in not only interpersonal but social things too where somebody can say a phrase and somebody thinks it’s derogatory another person thinks it’s celebratory right? So I think that allowing for that space of saying there can be all these competing perspectives and the truth is what we agree upon.
0:13:19.2 Liz: Yeah. And oftentimes not what we thought. What anyone thought going into it. So all of that. The thing about Open Focus to go the Bento Box edition is that it’s important to always remember that it’s not what I’m paying attention to it’s how I’m paying attention to it. So how am I paying attention to this thing that’s coming at me? And if I’m already in fight or flight the quickest thing is to broaden my attention. So someone is jumping all over me and I notice a bird singing outside not as a distraction. I’m gonna have all my attention there but just as oh right that’s right. Nature. Here we are in nature. This is not the only thing happening and I may not be about to die even though my body is flipping out. So it’s how? How am I paying attention? How am I paying attention now?
0:14:18.7 Kat: I think I have been doing some interviews of students recently who’ve gone on international study abroad trips and stuff like that and several of them it’s the first time they’ve left the US. Some of them it’s the first time they’ve left the state. But one of the things that they talked about was also something that I experienced the first time I was privileged lucky enough to be able to go and travel to Wales with my mom on a study abroad trip when I was 11. And I grew up in a very rural kind of removed environment. I am introverted so I really had this little world kingdom of myself. And I remember when we flew into London the first thing that struck me and I carried with me for the first little week was… The first week… We were there for about a month total but the first week I was like there’s all these people doing their things every day every day all over the world. There’s people getting up and doing… And when I was talking to these students they always had that right? That they’re in Indonesia they’re in Ireland they’re in Namibia and they’re like… I go there and I’m like wow there’s every day. It expanded their sense of space.
0:15:41.8 Kat: And time considerably right? Oh wow. I am part of this larger… There’s all these people that every… I’m getting up and going to work every day and there’s all these people getting up and they’re doing their… And that completely different realities and stuff and… Yeah that kind of spaciousness that that kind of brings.
0:16:03.7 Liz: And we talk about travel that way that it’s broadening for people. It’s broadening. Yeah exactly right and it’s like suddenly oh… I had that experience in Myers-Briggs Type workshops where people are like… MBTI workshops where people are like oh not everyone needs to talk a lot. So sometimes when people are quiet they’re thinking? [laughter] You mean not everyone likes to go through the process of going through. Not everyone enjoys that. No and that’s normal for them? Yeah that’s right. The thing I like about MBTI and I know it comes in and out of popularity and right now it’s having a bad moment. I’ve watched this cycle now about three times where it’s like it’s great it’s Satan it’s great. It’s terrible. And so right now I’m taking a big risk talking about the Myers-Briggs.
0:17:02.9 Kat: It’s so problematic Liz.
0:17:06.8 Liz: But I’m taking the risk of that.
0:17:09.0 Kat: That’s what I love when people say.
0:17:09.9 Liz: So there are 16 types and it’s based on union psychology. It’s all about development which many people who do MBTI work don’t understand themselves. So it’s not here’s a box in your stock. It’s like here’s what you came in with. Let’s see what you’re doing with it is really… Would be a better way of talking about it according to the theory. But there’s 16 of those starting places let’s say 16 starting blocks for personalities. And people are like what 16 totally valid ways of being in the world that are… 15 of which are different than mine and sometimes diametrically opposed. Different. Completely opposite. And it’s fun to watch that hit people like oh I don’t have to then assert my opinion and worldview all the time. I could maybe say how are you seeing this? Or I could notice.
0:18:14.6 Kat: I think that’s one of those things around outsider perspective from my personal experience lived from a lot of my life and in different things because of who I am where I was not like the other people around me. So it was very easy for me to understand that people are not the same. And then when I encountered people in my life that lived in circumstances where they were largely the same as the cultural paradigm that they were a part of those people seemed to have a much more difficult time with variation and were like I am right my way or the highway. I am absolutely correct because I think they’re so used to being in the majority. Right? They’re so used to being part of that.
0:19:12.3 Liz: Yeah it’s like a lot of mirrors right, reflecting back their reality.
0:19:15.1 Kat: Yeah, so they’re like, of course I’m right, everybody around me acts the same way, and we all think the same way, and stuff like that. And so I think, there’s a benefit to being a queerdo, I think…
0:19:28.1 Liz: Queerdo?
0:19:29.2 Speaker 2: Because it enables you to kind of be on the outside and accept more variety of perspective, right?
0:19:36.0 Liz: Definitely. I’m with you. I love being a queerdo. Queerdo to the moon, baby. Let’s be queerdo all the way.
0:19:48.9 Kat: I will say that, the recent, like, we’re in August, so we’re coming up on the 2024 presidential election, and there’s a whole thing right now with the Democrats, and people are like, oh, Republicans are just weird. And I was like, guys, come on, don’t make weird a pejorative. Weird is awesome. Weird is cool. Weird is fun. They’re not weird. They’re like, you know, I don’t know, they’re creepy, or they’re, there’s something else But weird, making it weird is, I don’t know, kind of made me sad that they’ve really started to dive in and lean into that terminology, because I think, there’s so many weird kids, like I was, that are gonna hear that now and be like, oh, it’s bad to be weird.
0:20:32.4 Liz: No, well, then be a Queerdo.
0:20:35.7 Kat: Be a Queerdo.
0:20:36.6 Liz: If a weirdo is getting taken, go all the way gotta be Queerdo.
0:20:42.5 Kat: Embrace your queerdo. So our little, our little Open Focus on the road, our Bento, where can I do this? So you said, like, yeah, I don’t have to be, like, sit in your room and sit erect, and you know, can I do this in my car? Can I do this in the line at the bank? I mean, do people stand in line at the bank anymore? I don’t know, but.
0:21:05.7 Liz: Well, if you’d end up there. Yeah. People are still standing in line at the post office, waiting for the DoorDash driver, checking your phone 90 times to get your Amazon delivery. It’s like, that’s just, that’s a great, this phone, anytime you’re picking up or looking at a phone, it’s a great opportunity for, so the answer, of course, is you can do it anywhere, which is not much of an answer, because, give me some specifics. This phone is great. It’s super narrow. A phone, any mobile, any cell phone. It’s rectangular. It’s longer than it is wide, taller than it is wide, and it automatically narrows your vision when you look at it.
0:21:50.8 Liz: So we tend to do two things, narrow our vision and then slump down to look at it, as though the phone were too heavy to pick up. Pick up your phone, bring it to eye level, so you’re not destroying your posture as you’re doing it. I’m only saying this so I’ll hear it, because I need to do this, so thanks for listening. [laughter] But one way to broaden your attention, ’cause it’s designed, this is designed to narrow your focus and have you exclude everything else. It comes with something that will help you, a frame. It is framed. It’s framed in a case, it’s framed in the edge of the phone, it’s framed in black, whatever. So the very first thing you can do to broaden your focus when you’re looking at your phone is notice that it is, pay attention, as much attention to the frame of the phone, the outside edge of the phone, as to what’s on the screen. And then from there you can notice your fingers peeking over the side. Taking your fingers, and then it’s a really easy thing to notice that your fingers are attached to a hand, on a good day, which is attached. [laughter] We’re pulling for you on this. Which is attached to…
0:23:00.5 Kat: If the fingers you’re looking at at the edge of your phone are attached to your hand, Open Focus isn’t gonna help you in this situation, so.
0:23:06.3 Liz: Get to the ER. [laughter] So from there it’s like obviously it’s pretty easy to take in, again using your peripheral vision, that you have an arm that’s attached to the hand that’s attached to the fingers that’s attached to the phone. And then as soon as you do that, you are defeating the attention gramming technology that you’re holding on to. So it’s super easy from there to notice that your hand is in space. It’s in space. Your hand is connected to your body, but it’s holding up the phone in space, and then you can start to notice the three-dimensionality of space. So I’m holding my phone up right now, it’s in front of the screen where I’m seeing you, and I get a sense of your background, right? So I can see that you’re in some kind of three-dimensional space. It may actually be space, I don’t know. But I have now several levels of space to be aware of, and then I have the space behind my computer monitor. So any way you start opening, broadening your attention leads to more broadening, and I’m still looking at the phone.
0:24:08.4 Liz: So as you’re doing anything on your phone, texting, reading emails, emailing, whatever, watching Instagram videos, don’t pretend you don’t do it. I know you do. We all do. Maybe it’s just me. Am I confessing?
0:24:23.2 Kat: No, no, no. I can’t, I have friends who send me TikToks, and I only go on there once a week to look at the messages that are sent to me, because I know that when I go there, I’m gonna be there for two hours.
0:24:39.5 Liz: Right, it’s gonna take over your life for just a little while.
0:24:41.6 Kat: Exactly.
0:24:42.8 Liz: So your cell phone is a great way to start practicing Open Focus. And it’s a great place to do it, because everything is working against you. So learning how easy it is to broaden your attention using a device that was designed to steal your attention and give you narrow, hyper narrow focus, and drive your behavior into I must have this, right? It was designed to drive you into fight or flight, into narrow objective focus. So notice the frame, notice the fingers, the hand, the arm, the space around. Engage more of your peripheral vision.
0:25:19.4 Kat: How it feels to hold it in your hand.
0:25:21.4 Liz: How it feels, exactly. Yeah.
0:25:25.0 Kat: Yeah. Okay, so do you wanna dive into a little Bento session?
0:25:29.6 Liz: We’re gonna Bento our way through this now, yeah. It’s Bento time. So if sitting upright or not, you can stand.
0:25:37.1 Kat: Or standing.
0:25:37.5 Liz: You can do this while you’re walking, ’cause we are talking about the Bento Box version. There’s no reason you can’t do this in motion. Not at all. So wherever you are, the real goal here is not to fall asleep. So driving, do this at stoplights, not while you’re actually driving, right? So narrow your focus and then drive. You’re gonna kind of broaden your focus when you drive anyway, if you’re a good driver. You’re looking in front of you and around you.
0:26:03.8 Kat: To be aware of what’s going on.
0:26:05.9 Liz: Yeah, it’s one of those one of those freebie Open Focus things. All right, so feet flat on the floor, hands free for this induction into Open Focus, because we’re going to start there with the three hallmarks of Open Focus, which are effortlessness, space, and the body, embodiment. So we’re gonna start with a body part and make it effortless by using our imagination. So we’re just gonna make it up. We’re gonna start with the three hallmarks of Open Focus, which are effortlessness and space and embodiment, using the body.
0:26:49.0 Liz: So we’re gonna start out with using our imagination to make it effortless, because we’re just making it up. When I ask the question, can you imagine? I’m asking you to make something up, to pretend. Can you imagine the space in your thumbs and index fingers? And if you’re trying too hard, make it effortless. Can you imagine the space in your thumbs and index fingers? And at the same time, the space around your thumbs and index fingers? Just noticing what that is. What are you making up about that? Is it a sense of presence inside your thumbs and index fingers and a sense of absence in the space around them?
0:27:58.1 Liz: Or is it something else? Can you imagine that same felt sense of space in your thumb and index fingers? Also including all of your fingers, all 10 fingers and your palms, from the back of your hand to the front of your hand, all the way down to the wrist, full of space, surrounded by space, permeated by space. And if there are thoughts running through your mind, that’s okay. They can be here too. You’re just adding the awareness of the space in your index fingers, thumbs, the rest of your fingers, your hands and wrists, and the space all around them.
0:29:02.6 Liz: And can you imagine the space inside your arms, all the way from your wrists up to your shoulders? It’s full of space, surrounded by space, permeated by space. And everything else in your awareness is welcome. Can you imagine your entire torso, from your shoulders down to your sits bones, full of space, front to back, side to side, top to bottom, connected to your arms, which are full of space. Now let’s add your neck, which is full of space and surrounded by space.
0:30:16.9 Liz: That entire region, your torso and hands and arms and neck, permeated by space. Because we’re just making it up, can you imagine your head full of space? Every bit of it, front to back, side to side, top of head to bottom of chin, full of space. All of the structures inside, your eyes and eye muscles, full of space, surrounded by space. Your jaw and jaw muscles, full of space and surrounded by space. Your ears and sinuses, mouth and nose, cranium, all of the skin on your head, and even every little hair, full of space, surrounded by space. Can you imagine your thighs, knees and lower legs, ankles, feet and toes? So that is your entire body, full of space, surrounded by space and permeated by space.
0:31:46.3 Liz: And can you imagine a situation typical of your life? Maybe it’s waiting in line, maybe it’s waiting on hold, maybe it’s using your cell phone, staring at it, maybe it’s having a conversation with someone, either in person or on that phone. Can you imagine how easy it is to broaden your attention, to change how you are paying attention, either by just imagining the space in your thumb and index finger so briefly, or the space that surrounds them, by taking in the visual information in your peripheral vision, maybe starting with the frame of your cell phone. It’s so easy to notice, to add things in your awareness.
0:32:52.7 Liz: Maybe you notice the heaviness of the phone in your hand. Maybe you notice the colors and how pleasing they are. Maybe you notice that you’re standing by a tree in its shade and you have a feeling of gratitude. Maybe you notice a thought of stress or time pressure. Even that can broaden your attention. If you welcome that thought, just imagine yourself welcoming that thought into your awareness, not centering on it, but just as part of what you’re paying attention to, the way you are paying attention to it includes even a stressful thought, even a random thought.
0:34:05.7 Liz: Can you imagine also including any information from your five senses? We’ve talked about peripheral vision. Can you imagine hearing something, a bird song, a leaf falling, a car going by, a plane overhead? All of those things are happening in the space around you. Can you imagine noticing that there are three dimensions to what you’re looking at? Beyond the phone in your hand is your fingers.
0:34:53.9 Liz: Beyond that is space. Between you and the computer you’re looking at, if you’re on a Zoom call, there’s space. There’s dimension. There can’t be three dimensions only in front of you. If there’s depth, there’s depth behind you too and under you and over you. Any tiny noticing is an invitation to broaden your attention effortlessly by just imagining the space in, around, and throughout everything in your awareness. If you’re taking a walk, can you imagine noticing the rhythm of your footfalls, that there’s space between each step? Can you imagine feeling the air on your skin even as you may be talking to a companion? Can you imagine also noticing the clouds in the sky way above you in space, the way you take in your surroundings?
0:36:37.0 Liz: Without effort, can you imagine being on that walk, noticing effortlessly, imagining the space behind you, the space underneath your feet, the space on top of you, stretching all the way out into space, out of space? Can you imagine sitting in a meeting, noticing, imagining the space in the room, imagining the space outside the room, imagining the sounds outside the room, imagining the sounds of your own digestion or heartbeat? Can you imagine being aware of sensations in your body, your feet on the floor, your rear end on the chair, your back against the chair, your elbows on the table? Can you imagine noticing the space in those elbows and around them? Can you imagine taking in your peripheral vision even as you center your attention on what’s being said?
0:38:21.0 Liz: Can you imagine comfortably entertaining the thoughts in your head at the same time as you’re centering your attention on the meeting and feeling the space all along your arms, the space in that room where it meets your arm? And can you imagine effortlessly employing one of these strategies or another one, peripheral vision, imagining space around you or inside you, using your thumb and index finger, the space inside them, as a cue to remember the space inside and around everything? Can you imagine using a space and time which we’ll call a pause, a silence, a beat where you notice and invite the space in conversation?
0:39:50.6 Liz: Can you imagine starting right where you are, whether it’s with the phone in your hand, with the pencil in your grip, using that thing as a platform for broadening your attention? Can you imagine that all of this happens effortlessly, so easily that you’re just making it up? You’re not trying. You’re not efforting. You’re just noticing, how am I paying attention now? How can I broaden my attention now? How can I immerse myself in my senses now? One tiny step. Can you imagine taking one tiny step to broaden your attention in any situation, alright.
0:41:36.6 Kat: Thanks, Liz.
0:41:38.3 Liz: You’re welcome.
0:41:40.0 Kat: That was really cool. I kind of went on a little bit of floating up into the clouds and into space.
0:41:48.2 Liz: Ooh.
0:41:49.3 Kat: Yeah. Kind of like as I was going wider and wider and wider. And then I was sort of like, yeah, it was cool.
0:41:58.5 Liz: That’s really fun. That’s a super fun way to be where you are and be in space at the same time. Why not? Why not? You can make up anything.
0:42:11.8 Kat: Yeah. Like the way they like have angels, “like chilling on puffy clouds”.
0:42:20.5 Liz: Right. Exactly.
0:42:21.8 Kat: That’s kind of what I was doing.
0:42:25.1 Liz: Fantastic. Chill on your puffy cloud.
0:42:28.2 Kat: All right. All right, Liz. Thank you very much for our Bento…
0:42:32.1 Liz: Yeah, my pleasure.
0:42:33.4 Kat: Box on the go. And this is our last episode of the Open Focus focused season of Beyond Resilience. So yeah, we’ll be back for a second season with a totally different way to incorporate Beyond Resilience.
0:42:57.1 Liz: Yeah. So get good at Open Focus ’cause we’re just adding things on.
0:43:01.8 Kat: Exactly. Different tools, different tactics.
0:43:05.1 Liz: That’s right. In an effortless and easy way. That’s our commitment.
0:43:10.4 Kat: Yes. All right. Thank you, Liz. I’ve enjoyed this and I’ve learned a lot.
0:43:14.8 Liz: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.
0:43:17.3 Kat: All right.
0:43:18.4 Liz: Bye.
0:43:19.0 Kat: Bye.
0:43:19.7 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.
0:43:45.0 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 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.