I Have Eyes in My Back

by May Ho

I went to the Esalen Institute for a workshop titled, Being All There: Sensory Awareness. Our leader, Charlotte Selver is ninety-eight years old. She has been working with sensory awareness for more than seventy-five years. Her aliveness is vibrant.

I have been studying with Charlotte for many years and she has invited me to become more loving, to engage mindfully with myself from moment to moment. One of my goals is to be living here in the now. Sensory awareness connects me through breathing, touching, sensing, and tasting, feeling and seeing. My attitude has changed in many ways. I heal my hurts and pains, I balance my yin and yang energy and I have learned to center my inner strength "to be all there" in my work or play.

Wake Up!

We learned to sense our breathing. We also worked on many ways to wake up our backs. We slapped each others' backs and said, "Wake up!" Then we stood with our partners, back to back, allowing our back energy to come alive. She said, "We often trust what is in front of us because we depend on our eyes. What is in the back of us we often neglect to feel or be aware of." Today while working on ourselves, we learned the importance of sensing "What is in our back?" She said, "We have eyes in our backs." I left the workshop exhilarated.

After class, I went to a store to buy a few things. When I prepared to pay, I discovered my wallet was gone. I thought, "It was in my coat pocket a few minutes ago," so I was quite upset.

I looked around and wondered, "Who has my wallet?" I also thought, "Who was behind me when I picked up my drink?" I remembered a well-dressed gentleman was close to me. Now he was standing far away from me with a cigar in his mouth and talking with friends. I took a deep breath and walked up to him.

With a smile I put my hands out and said, "May I have my wallet back?" He looked at me with shock and surprise. Then he smiled and put my wallet back into my hands.

I thanked him and walked away quickly, leaving the store. I was very grateful and happy. I realized that I trusted myself, knew and believed that I had eyes in my back. I thank God for this unique experience of sensory awareness. It was very powerful.