During meditation, practitioners are usually instructed to either sit with a lowered soft gaze or close their eyes. We discussed this in a previous article on “Meditation: Eyes Open or Eyes Closed” and how practising with eyes open might be difficult initially because of the tendency to get lost in visual distractors. Sprawson et al. (2020) wrote how,
“Indeed, one particularly relevant factor that may influence the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions includes the surrounding visual environment, and the ability to sustain focused attention on the present moment.” (p. 370)
Considering this, it is sometimes suggested that beginners start practising with closed eyes. Why? It might sound like a simple thing to do to sit with eyes open in meditation and be aware and accepting of whatever is happening including any visual distractors in our environment and not engaging with them. However, this might hinder meditation practice. Sprawson et al. (2020) argued that, ……….. You can read the rest on the substack “Now About Meditation” by clicking below.