Sometimes, in order to see, you have to close your eyes and open your heart. Only then will you be able to discover what’s important, what counts, and what’s real. Because it’s only when you switch on your inner vision and satisfy your soul, that your horizon widens and new possibilities arise.

As neurologists explain, we generate about 50,000 thoughts a day. However, most of them are mechanical and repetitive. There’s also a great deal of ‘hyper information’, new technologies, and demands from the environment which means you suffer increasingly from mental fatigue. In fact, you’re so focused on the outside that you’ve completely neglected your inner world.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

–Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)-

Sometimes, you get carried away by this kind of obsessive and debilitating train of thought to the point that you disengage from your priorities. You no longer know how to listen to yourself. You’ve focused your eyes so intensely on the outside that now you’re almost emotionally myopic and searching for the spectacles of happiness.

Think about it.

When your eyes get tired of looking and mental noise appears

Your mind, believe it or not, is extremely prone to internal conflicts. That’s because it has a vital need to continuously adapt to different contexts and every stimulus you receive. For example, the pressure of work, family problems, your aspirations, and social relationships. Indeed, there are always doubts to be resolved, anxieties to calm, voids to fill, and ‘fires’ to extinguish.

This mental noise can become incessant and unpleasant. That’s when stress appears in your brain and your eyes simply lose their way. They forget to rest and see what’s really important.

Interestingly, if you experience long periods dominated by stress and anxiety, your amygdala, the area of your brain associated with fear and emotion, shrinks. Its change in its structure will directly affect your prefrontal cortex which, in turn, is associated with higher brain functions such as awareness, concentration, and decision-making.

This explains why, when you experience complex moments dominated by worry, stress, or annoying mental noise, it’s difficult for you to connect with yourself. Because you’ve broken that invisible bond with your consciousness due to this small change in your brain structure.

However, we shouldn’t forget the power of neuroplasticity and your subtle ability to restructure these internal architectures of your consciousness. Indeed, thanks to exercises such as meditation, mindfulness, or other strategies, you’ll be able to reorient your eyes inward.

A grateful mind is a rested mind

A grateful mind is a rested mind, one that’ll allow you to see what’s really important. You might think that this phrase sounds rather poetic or out of context… after all, How can you be thankful for something if right now you feel so dissatisfied, desolate, or sad? Obviously, the first step is to free yourself from all internal conflict.

Once you extinguish your emotional battles, a serene kind of energy will emerge that’ll allow you to free yourself from any external constraints. Next, we’ll explain how to achieve it.

Everyone wants happiness without pain, calm when there’s a storm, or well-being when only grudges exist. However, there’s something you must understand. You can’t have a rainbow without a little rain

Close your eyes so you can see

The first thing you must learn is how to control your thinking. You mustn’t forget that a thought is a direct facilitator of an emotion and this, in turn, sculpts the way you perceive reality. Therefore, keep the following points in mind:

• Close your eyes and tell yourself that, from now on, you won’t use conditional tenses in your thoughts. For instance, “If ‘I’d been there”, “If I’d done that”, “When he tells me he loves me I’ll be happy” or “When I have that I’ll feel better”, etc.

• With your eyes closed, make a promise that you’re going to start communicating with yourself in the present tense. For example, by saying “I want”, “I can”, “I will.” etc

• In order to close your eyes and be able to see what’s important in your life, you mustn’t leave your mind blank. As well as being impossible, it’s not useful. You must ‘fertilize’ your mind with positive, inspiring, and beneficial thoughts.

• Deliberate and reflect positively. Don’t imagine that by thinking in this way you’re closing your eyes to reality or the truth, it simply involves revitalizing your mind and soul to promote your self-confidence, thus breaking those negative or limiting thoughts.

Take a chance and do it. Dare to close your eyes so you can see, turn on the light of your heart, and take care of those needs that you so often discard and neglect, almost as if they were old and broken toys.

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