Look Closer! What do you see?

CHANGE HOW YOU SEE, NOT HOW THEY LOOK

Scroll slowly through each picture below.  Watch your reactions with each one.

• What are your immediate thoughts, feelings, or judgments?

• Do you find yourself wanting to look away, or find out more?

Now scroll through again.  Look right INTO their eyes.  Let them into yours.

• Is that easy or difficult for you?

• What feelings did this elicit?

• Did any of your previous instantaneous judgments change?

• Did you notice the last two slides were the same person just with different teeth, makeup and accessories?

“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.” This includes eye contact.

Eye contact is not always so exciting – it’s a natural part of most casual conversations, after all – but it is nearly always important.

We make assumptions without clarifications about other people’s personalities based on how much they meet our eyes or look away when we are talking to them. And when we pass strangers in the street or some other public place, we can be left feeling rejected if they don’t make eye contact.

Try it anyway, and don’t take it personal. They could be having a not so great day, and you may have just let them know they were seen in this world.

So wherever you are over the next few days, I challenge you to commit to looking up and making more eye contact when someone is talking to you for at least 5 seconds (or ideally longer) instead of having your head buried in your device or whatever else you are doing.”

P.S.

Eye contact and connectedness also includes eye contact with yourself so try this right now:

Go find the nearest mirror. (Don’t use your phone camera, that’s too much like a selfie. Go find a good old fashioned mirror)

Look into your OWN eyes and let yourself in.

Is this comfortable or uncomfortable?

Why or why not?

What do you see?

WHO do you see?

WHO ARE YOU?