Eyes-open meditation can sound like the worst idea if you’re used to practice as a private escape. Then Susan Piver walks us through why keeping the eyes open may be the most direct path to mindfulness in real life, because you don’t have to “come back” when the sit is over. We talk about the simple mechanics of resting the gaze, why distraction and tired eyes are normal at first, and how the nervous system settles when we stop trying to force focus. 

From there, the conversation turns to what meditation is really for. We’re not training to be impressive meditators. We’re training to be more awake, more patient, and less ruled by triggers when life gets loud. Susan shares a teacher’s perspective on why the benefits often don’t appear during practice, how expanded heart shows up on its own, and why “attention is the most basic form of love” is more than a nice quote, it’s a map for how mindfulness practice changes relationships. 

We also zoom out to the stress of the present moment on planet Earth, using Tibetan Buddhist “six realms” imagery to describe conflict, power grabs, and the exhausted feeling of fighting battles with the wrong tools. The takeaway is grounding and practical: strengthen the human realm by teaching people to work with projection, story, and reactivity, and keep your classes clean, inclusive, simple, and honest. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs steadiness, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re practising this week.

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Explore 3,000+ free guided meditations, scripts, and worksheets — for your own practice or to share with the people you teach. → https://mindfulnessexercises.com/free-mindfulness-exercises/

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ABOUT THE SHOW

Mindfulness Exercises with Sean Fargo is a practical, grounded mindfulness podcast for people who want meditation to actually help in real life.

Hosted by Sean Fargo — a former Buddhist monk, mindfulness teacher, and founder of MindfulnessExercises.com — the show explores how mindfulness can support mental health, emotional regulation, trauma sensitivity, chronic pain, leadership, creativity, and meaningful work.

Each episode offers a mix o...