Notice the moments you focus on how things look in your practice--toenails, clothing, mat, veins, the person in front of you, the teacher's outfit, even how your pose looks from the outside. Each time you find yourself caught in a thought about how things look, turn your awareness to how you feel. Notice the movement of your breath again. Notice the areas that feel open and any that feel tight or closed. Create actions that respond to those sensations rather than any observations or judgments of how things look. Rest your eyes on one point and let your vision become peripheral...not the center of your awareness. Or close your eyes.
Looking and being looked at are not bad things. At certain points in the process of learning yoga postures, they may be quite helpful--for instance, using a mirror or looking directly at a body part to see what it's doing and how it is aligned. Yet an overemphasis on vision can dull our other senses, and often we're already letting vision be our dominant sense throughout the day. So for your practice today, let go of how things look. Bring your attention back to how they feel.
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