This Week’s Intention
To see ourselves, one another, and the world with greater clarity, awareness, and openness to the sacred.
What might we notice if we learn to see differently?
This week in our Essential Spirituality journey, we’ll explore Walsh’s practice of awakening spiritual vision—the cultivation of awareness that allows us to see more clearly and recognize the sacred in the ordinary.
Through practice and reflection, we’ll experiment with bringing a deeper quality of attention to our experience and opening ourselves to the possibility that there is more to see when we truly pay attention.
This Week’s Reading
Read chapters 22-26 in Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind.
Carrying It Forward
Spiritual vision invites us to look beyond our first impressions, habitual judgments, and familiar ways of seeing. When we slow down and pay closer attention, we may discover new perspectives, recognize qualities in others we hadn’t noticed before, and find meaning in moments that might otherwise pass us by.
This week, we explored how awareness can transform not only what we see, but how we experience the world around us. The practice is less about finding something extraordinary and more about becoming present to what is already here.
Want to revisit the experience? Watch Sunday’s message on YouTube or listen to the podcast, then carry the practice into your week.
Continue the Practice
Five Minutes of Seeing Anew
Choose an ordinary moment in your day—a walk outside, a cup of coffee, the view from a window, or a conversation with someone you know well.
For five minutes, practice seeing with fresh eyes.
Pause. Take a few slow breaths and let your attention settle into the present moment.
Notice. Observe what is around you without immediately naming, judging, or dismissing it. What colors, sounds, textures, expressions, or small details catch your attention?
Look again. Choose one thing or person and give it your full attention. What do you notice now that you might have overlooked before?
Recognize the sacred. Consider what qualities, beauty, connection, or possibility are present in this ordinary moment.
Carry it with you. Take one final breath and move into the rest of your day with a little more openness.
You don’t have to find anything remarkable. The practice is simply to be present enough to notice what is already here.
Reflection Questions
When did I recently see a familiar person, situation, or experience in a new way?
What assumptions or habitual judgments might be shaping how I see myself or others?
Where in my everyday life might I be overlooking beauty, connection, or sacred qualities?
How might bringing greater awareness to what I see change the way I respond to the world?
Affirmation
I open my awareness to recognize the sacred in all things.
Looking Ahead
Next Sunday, we’ll continue our Essential Spirituality journey by exploring Cultivate Spiritual Intelligence: Growing in Wisdom with Dr. Nancy Little. We’ll consider how spiritual awareness can deepen our understanding, guide our choices, and help us meet life with greater wisdom.
Essential Spirituality
Join us for Essential Spirituality, a seven-week book study and journey exploring practices designed to help us awaken, grow, and live more fully.
About Rev. Aliza Bloom Robinson
