Ease Your Gaze

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse, and you're listening to the podcast One Life Ease your gaze. Have you wondered why whenever you try to hold on to something tight to make something happen, it usually doesn't happen or the thing doesn't fall into place? And why is that? The reason is because you're holding it so tight, you're not giving any room for the thing to breathe, any room for it to develop its own legs, and partially because you have just such a focus on how things are supposed to unfold that you leave no other room for possibility. But also when you're holding something so tight, you're actually resisting it by holding it tight, you're actually preventing it from coming forward, preventing it from being seen. In the example I'm about to give you, I was in Puerto Rico visiting while I was with a friend traveling across Puerto Rico over to Rincon. And while I was in Rincon, I actually was visiting a friend. So I don't know. Just to kind of lay the foundation, there's something called the green flash. If you've ever seen a sunset over the water, there's this phenomenon called a green flash. And the green flash is what happens when you. Right when the sun is supposed to dip right beneath the surface of the, like, beyond the horizon, this green, there's like a. Like a quick spot of green right where the sun was. If you've ever been to San Diego, there's a place called the Green Flash on Pacific Beach. So my first experience with this thing called the green flash was in San Diego. I was with my friend Kumara, and we had met these. These kind of like aborigines, or not really aborigines, but like these locals, like, who were surfers and just kind of literally drove up and down the coast trying to find the best surf. And one day we're all sitting by this fire pit and we're looking out as the sun's setting and as it's setting down, they're like, oh, well, maybe we'll see a green flash looking out there. I was waiting for it and I was, you know what? If there's going to be a green flash, I am going to catch it on camera. So I was sitting there with my camera snapping, snapping, snapping, snapping. As the sun was going down, as the sun dipped below, everyone was moaning with or saying, oh, my God, this is the best thing I've ever seen. And I missed it. I missed it. And I didn't see it for the entire trip. I was there. I didn't know what the reason was, why I couldn't see it. Fast forward. So now I'm in Puerto Rico. I am in Rincon. So I did. During this trip, mind you, I did two separate trips. I was in San Juan. I drove over to Rinconado with my friend from England, my friend, oh, my God, I just lost the name. My friend Greg. And then I drove back, and then I drove over again with my friend Olivia and then drove back. When I was with Greg, we were sitting out at this. This. This. Like a lighthouse, and we're sitting there watching the sunset. And I was, you know what? I really, really want to see the. The green. See if I can see the green flash. But I had. There's. There was a feeling, a thought that came into my mind. I said, but you know what? But rather than strain, because the sun's going down, as the sun's coming down, it gets brighter and your eyes start to hurt, and it starts to get hard to open your eyes. So as I was there, I was looking at it, looking at it, looking at it. And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm going to ease my gaze. I'm going to calm my. I'm not going to try to focus on so hard or it's going to strain. And just to kind of see. I feel like maybe that will allow me to see the green. The green flash. So the sun was going down, down, down, down, down, down. Right when it did, below the horizon, pow. This green flash went off. I know. It was like, whoa, my God, the green flash. I finally saw it. After years, I finally saw the green flash. He didn't know what the heck I was talking about, but I saw it. Yeah, I saw it that time. And then fast forward to the second trip. So I went with my friend Olivia. I saw it a second time, and I was like, all right, well, now I actually know the formula. I know how to see the green flash. I met up with my friend Margaret and her husband, and we went to the same tower, the same lighthouse to watch the sunset. And as we were sitting there, I said, hey, Margaret, have you ever heard of a green flash? And she goes, no. What the heck is a green flash? It's this phenomenon that happens right when the sun dips below the horizon over the water. You can see this quick splash of green. It literally could be. Sometimes it's a line, other times it's a little speck and then it's gone. It literally lasts about a second. She's like, oh, no. Well, you Know, how do I see it? So I told her, I said, listen, you look at there, you look at the horizon, you look at the sun's going down, but when you're looking there, you relax your gaze. You relax it. So this way you're not, you don't stare straight at the sun because otherwise your eyes are going to tire. So you kind of look off without looking straight at the sun. And right when it's about to dip, you start to slowly and relax again. Relaxed. Stare at it as it starts to dip below the horizon. So she, listen, she followed my instructions. She was looking, looking back, looking, relaxing, her eyes, feeling relaxed. And then right when it hit below, right when it dropped below the horizon, pop, it went. And she said, oh, my God, I saw this. I saw it, I saw it. She had never seen it before. She never even heard of it. But then I thought, how true is that of life, right? Whenever we hold on to things, we really, we don't allow them to flow. Just like seeing that green flash, I tried so, so hard to try to see this green flash. And as a result of that strain, I, I actually give myself a scotoma. I couldn't see it. Now bring that back to life. Like, how does that play out in your life? What are the things in your life where you try so hard to control or you're trying so hard to move it forward that you end up just kind of hitting against that wall? You don't get beyond that point. A friend of mine, my friend Marissa, was talking about, I think Lady Gaga and like some other artists, she was saying how when they create the song, they're not creating the song with the intent of it becoming a bestseller. Right? You don't. Or not. Or a number one hit, because otherwise it takes one. It puts so much pressure onto it. Right. It's like the one hit wonders. When they try to recreate another hit album or another hit song, it doesn't happen because now they've. Rather than put the effort in, the creativity and saying, this is what I'm creating because this is what's aligned with my heart. They're too busy focusing on the end, saying that this has to happen this way. And as a result, they come against that wall, as a result, they miss that green flash. So what happens on the other side? What happens when you, when you open up, you loosen your grip. Now you allow other things to flow into you. Right. It's a. I know. Hopefully the analogy is making sense. What I'm trying to say is don't hold on so hard. Yes, it's okay. You want to have the dreams. You want to know the goal. You want to know the thing that you're going after, but you want to let it go as well. You want to pursue it with your hands open because a clutched hand cannot receive. Just like an eye that's so fixated on one thing gets tired and it can't see. But when you open the hand, you allow other things to flow through. So I don't know where you are. Maybe it's when you're with your work, maybe you're wanting a change. Whatever it may be, allow yourself to just put the intention out there and trust that the answer is going to come to you. So for the homework that I'm going to give you, as I give you for every episode, what is that one thing that you're going for and moving towards where it just seems like you keep hitting a wall or it seems like it's never going to happen? Write it on a piece of paper. When you do that, write down on the second question. Say, what would it feel like if I just moved forward with faith and trust, easing my, easing my gaze, easing my hold on that thing? What if I just trusted that it would transpire the way I wanted it to, it would unfold the way I wanted it to? How would I feel what other opportunities may come as a result of that? So often we get fixated on one path towards the thing we want. When the universe, God, whatever you want to call it is, well, how about this? How about this, how about that? And there could be thousands of ways of getting that thing we want. But yet we're so fixated on the one we can't see that there's all these other shortcuts to get it. So I want you to open your mind. I want you to whatever it is that you're holding onto, I want you to just kind of let it go and have faith and trust. If there has been one learning experience from this trip, I'm currently in Palm Beach, Florida visiting a friend. If there's been any realization that is just kind of letting go and getting out of your own way. So get out of your own way. That's my advice to you guys. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. Please give it a Share Invite your friends to subscribe to One Life Podcast with Donnie Rouse. Again, One Life Podcast with Donny Rouse. If you enjoy awesome coffee, try out my Rous Coffee company R A U S Coffee dot com. Use the Discount code onelife to get a discount on your first order. I am an espresso sommelier, espresso expert, and my coffees are exceptional because I know how to pick exceptional beans. And very few people have the training that I have. And as a result, you will find that in my coffee. But really, more than anything, it's about that moment. It's about taking that moment, taking that moment for yourself to just stop to be. To enjoy. Too many people, they're running around with their heads, you know, crazy. They don't have time for this. They don't have time for anything. They don't have time for themselves. This is the moment for you to just stop, to give yourself the time to. Maybe, maybe it's just quiet time, but maybe it's saying, well, what do I want to create in the next day, week, year? What do I want for my life? Am I going in that right direction? Ultimately, I believe in following your dreams, because now is the only time you have. One of the reasons why I travel twice a year and I try to see, I want to eventually want to hit all 200 and I think 30 countries there are. But that is one of the things that lights me up because it gets me out of the head, it gets me out of the ordinary, and I start to open up my mind, appreciate and see life differently. And as a result, I come back more enriched. I bring all the coffee stuff that I learned abroad and I bring it back into my own business. So that is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this again. If you did, please give it a thumbs up, give it a share. God bless and I will see you again next week.