For the first time, when I went to rub my eyes I actually felt how naturally soft my skin is and the delicate tenderness of my fingers touching and connecting with my skin.
It was like discovering all over again how lovely and precious that area is… this must be how babies feel when they discover they are in a body – feeling their beautiful, velvety skin. It’s an exquisite feeling, even just for a moment.
Up until this point, the awareness I had of the skin around my eyes was prompted by the need to attend to the discomfort of dry, itchy feelings that were present in my eyes.
Coming to this realisation of how precious the skin is has been a wonderful way for me to feel that looking after myself and caring for my body isn’t only about going straight to the relief and cure of eye drops and creams.
- While topical aids are great, there is another level of caring and being able to truly feel the natural beauty held in that area and connect with that.
- With being able to feel the natural lovely feeling that is in and around my eyes, I now approach caring for them in a deeper, gentler and more honouring way.
Meaning, I don’t just rub my eyes to relieve the itch as an automatic response to their being itchy, then reach for the drops. I respond to my eyes with a greater awareness and care, knowing that they also need regular drops, not just when they’re itchy.
When I do touch and rub my eyes I know that they and all of me are exquisite and worthy of deep tender loving touch just like a newborn. In fact, I love the feeling of connecting with my eyes and any part of me just for the simple beautiful being I am, before the mind can start giving commands of do this, that or the other.
When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others. We come to know that this tenderness is always with us – just as it is in a newborn. Health conditions can develop bringing along their symptoms and issues, but when we connect to the tenderness within, we then approach these health issues in a very different, more caring way.
Inspired by the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Sandra Williamson
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
I loved reading this statement, “Health conditions can develop bringing along their symptoms and issues, but when we connect to the tenderness within, we then approach these health issues in a very different, more caring way”. This is such different perspective in viewing our health issues, instead of being identified by the health issues. That tenderness within a newborn is still within us despite our numerical ageing body.
It’s a great reminder that we can always bring tenderness any time in our lives and when we do, we live and view our lives from a different pair of eyes…
And a double joy when we are so used to living from the head like is and has been my case. When we live from the head, we disconnect from the body and forget the power of the tenderness and delicateness we can actually feel. So when we learn to be OK with feeling the body and get past any feelings of anxiety, pain, discomfort or hardness we have been holding, then we do get to feel a yumminess in the body, a warmth and a holding that is the connection or bridge to our essence.
Holding ourselves tenderly or being tender in the way we are with things around us is a powerful reflection to others to come back to the same tenderness that lies within us all. And this can inspire others to do like wise. The power of true change comes from inspiration from one who lives the change they would like to see.
The area and skin around the eyes is super delicate and tender. And so is the area and skin in other areas of the body too. But to feel this tenderness comes from the willingness to feel it and also letting our hands be the recipients of this tenderness as well as the deliverers of the tenderness. As we use our hands so much, they can tighten and harden if we are not aware of how we are doing things, and then we can lose some of the sensitivity that we normally hold. So when we allow our hands to be sensitive and delicate, then we are more open to feeling the tenderness of the body that is naturally there when we allow it to be. What a gift and blessing in a world that can be so lacking in the actual delivery of tenderness.
A gorgeous sharing Sandra – thank you! And I love the gold you have shared here: “Health conditions can develop bringing along their symptoms and issues, but when we connect to the tenderness within, we then approach these health issues in a very different, more caring way.” – the body communicates to us in a variety of ways including health conditions and so when we approach this as the communication it is rather than seeing something as ‘wrong’ it completely changes the way we see things and work with things.
We deserve a stop moment to feel the delicateness and tenderness we all naturally have, ‘When I do touch and rub my eyes I know that they and all of me are exquisite and worthy of deep tender loving touch just like a newborn. ’
Thank you Sandra, it is amazing to feel the tenderness of a loving touch and adding to what you have shared I can also feel how important it is to have gentle thoughts that are also loving so we do not become abrasive in our heads as they also hurt!!!
Love begets love. Gorgeous to feel how more is offered in simply recognising and surrendering.
Simple, but True Fumiyo, and being Loving deepens our level of Love, which is felt by others offering them the opportunity to also beget more Love.
I don’t feel we realise how rough we are with ourselves, and how harmful this is for the body, as our own treatment of ourselves becomes something we have to recover from when we could be thriving. Taking the time to be tender and delicate with ourselves is like a revelation as the body responds so well to this treatment. It’s interesting that the delicate and tender self care the body thrives on is countered by ideals that produce the exact opposite behaviour, such as “toughening up”, not being “a wuss”, and placing others before ourselves.
I noticed how roughly an old person rubbed their eyes recently, it felt very disregarding of the natural delicateness we all have in that area.
To come to truly acknowledge that every single part of this amazing body of mine is “exquisite and worthy of deep tender loving touch just like a newborn” has definitely changed the way I am living. Gone are the days when I had little or no regard for my body, simply taking it for granted and wondering why it kept ‘breaking down’. To deeply respect, honour and embrace the delicateness of our body as much as the body of a newborn is actually the most the natural way to live.
Whenever I treat my body in a precious and tender way it feels so beautiful, I don’t live this consistently so I am inspired after reading this blog to make this a very ‘normal’ part of my every day.
How lovely Sandra, I haven’t read this in some time but I remember the impact it had on me then, and the realisation of the possibility of being tender with myself. I recently have experienced some redness and eczema like skin around my eyes, but I hadn’t remembered to feel the lovely quality of me in those areas of my body I had only been feeling the disturbance there. Thank you for the reminders.
Nothing replaces the loving touch of the finger tips.
A couple of eye issues at the beginning of the year served to bring my attention to how I had been treating my eyes and that maybe it was time to deepen my care for them. Like many parts of our body we can slip into complacency about their care that it is until something goes ‘wrong’, and then we usually want the healing stage to be as short as possible so we can get on with our lives and probably changing nothing in the process. But instead, as you have shown, we can actually embrace the lesson that is being offered to us, and in my experience there always is, and take the lesson and really appreciate it.
Well said Ingrid – every part of our body works hard and serves us well. It is also for us then to appreciate this and look after each part with immense care and adding the tenderness to our way of looking after the body is a bonus worth celebrating deeply.
That is so true at the end. In connecting to that tenderness and beauty we fight or resist illness less. Our body doesn’t fight illness it uses illness to help us. Stop, reassess, reflect, what is being communicated?
Reading your words about rubbing your eyes made me realise that often I do just this, totally disconnected to the delicateness of these parts of my body, and I know how disregarding that feels. Conversely, I also know that if I bring tenderness to touching the areas around my eyes, in fact any other part of my body, the feeling is one of immense love and respect, a feeling that then flows naturally throughout every other part of me.
Connecting to the skin around our eyes or the feeling of the bottom of our feet touching the ground nurtures intimacy that supports us to feel how much more tender or gentle we can be with ourselves. Just yesterday after putting on face cream I realised I don’t think about the skin around my eyes needing moisturizing as well, and how harsh it must feel to that skin when I just apply eyeshadow and powders without there being any barrier. So I applied eye cream and then applied eyeshadow and it felt lovely making that change.
I love how every intricate details of our make-up reveals its exquisite beauty when space is given, and we connect to its preciousness and there’s a whole lot more to be appreciated.
The more tender we are with ourselves the more tenderness we see reflected back to us.
Re-discovering and re-connecting to our tenderness within will go along way to arresting and turning around the present harsh and intensely emotional reality of human life today.
Re-connecting to our innate tenderness, bringing that into all we do is a very loving choice to make.
Beautiful to read Sandra, the exquisite tenderness you spoke of is so gorgeous to feel, we are in fact gorgeous when we choose to tenderly care for ourselves as we would a baby.
And very often when we do pay attention lovingly to the body the symptoms disappear. It is incredibly beautiful how the body lets us know and communicates with us the disregard we have been living in.
As we leave ourselves, we forego our beauty. As we start returning to ourselves we re-discover the beauty that was left behind but that was there all the time waiting for us to be at one with it.
Thank you Sandra, this is a great example of caring for ourselves with the same preciousness we would a baby, and it does feel amazing to treat ourselves this way. The body responds beautifully to tenderness and care.
When we treat one area of our body with tenderness we then realise that we can treat our whole self with equal tenderness.
Just reading the first line I gently touched my eyelids to feel what it was like and it was so delicate and precious. It stopped me in my tracks because I realise that if I ever do rub eye cream around my eyes it is mostly functionary and with the intent to erase wrinkles. There is so much preciousness we can connect to when we stop and actually feel.
I had a stye on my eyelid a few years ago and it made me much more aware of my eyes and eyelids. At the time I was very conscious of the fact that many people take a lot of care over their teeth every day, brushing them perhaps twice a day and flossing, etc. How would it be if we took as much care of our other sensory faculties like our eyes and ears too? And even maybe our inner self too, our organs for example? Drinking more water and less alcohol for the liver maybe? Less if any sugar for the pancreas…
Richard it’s a completely different way to have a relationship with our body.
It is isn’t it. I suspect many take care of our teeth because it looks bad if they don’t. And of course, the experience of toothache is pretty strong motivation too. I have found that the more I take care of my body, the more delicious it feels. This for me is pretty powerful motivation.
A beautiful testament to the truth that developing a loving connection bodies is the gateway to knowing and embodying the truth of who we are in essence, our divinity.
Exactly when we are tender with ourselves — everything is more rich and so different.. No mind can comprehend tenderness only our Soul does.
The tenderness of how we are with ourselves sets the stage for being tender in our lives, and lets face it who wouldn’t love to meet someone who is tender with them? Tenderness is a powerful state that offers inclusion to all it meets including ourselves.
It’s amazing to read an article like this and immediately consider how we touch our eyes and skin. Just from reading this the way I am approaching my touch has changed, like my awareness has grown for no other reason but for how it feels to me. I can sense how everything is connected and the way I am with my fingers allows the rest of my body to settle. The continual awareness of how we truly care for ourselves is certainly something worth considering.
Yes isn’t it amazing Ray, it shows how powerful it is when we share our wisdom or understanding we have come to about anything in life.
Take note like I will the next time you touch any part of your body let alone your eyes. I noticed this morning how I was cleaning my teeth and it was more of a scrub then a brush. It’s been amazing for me to see how I treat myself at different times and that’s before looking at how the world is. If we are part of the world which we are then what if we took a real true care of our part? Would that be a living message to the world to also take that same care? It would be a yes from me and the only way to bring change to what you see is to live that change yourself and then no matter what you do or say it’s all there with you.
I agree Sandra, tenderness is transformational in terms of how we care for ourselves. This is a great line “When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others.” This sentence really awakened me to a deeper appreciation of these moments, and how much joy they bring me. Thankyou Sandra.
I share your amazement of the tenderness there is in our body. I was feeling a bit tired today and just sat and massaged my eyes for a while and could feel how very round and delicate my eyes are and how very soft the skin of the eyelids is. There is much to explore about our own body and beingness.
Being tender and respectful of my body’s natural delicateness is something I am choosing to deepen with myself.
It’s always like a star falls from the sky when you read a blog with a simple act or message to be more aware of. The beauty is in the simplest of the things.
Dong a similar gentle thing with your throat works wonders. So that when your throat is sore you do not cough and it works amazingly well because if you cough you rasp your throat red raw. So what I started to do was the “uh hums” to clear my throat and this was being very tender on my throat so it never got any worse. And of course there are times when you cannot avoid coughing but I always leave it as a last resort so that I heal a lot sooner.
Taking a moment to appreciate our innate tenderness and delicateness is always lovely, ‘When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within.’
I can tell that you really respect and appreciate your body Sandra.
It is lovely when we start to reconnect with ourselves and rediscover and appreciate how tender and delicate our skin is, as is the whole of our body, and we notice how soft our skin is, and we are drawn to treat it more delicately.
It seems just so nonsensical how we numb or overload ourselves with stimulation and miss out feeling this gorgeousness you describe here and is available for us all – but we do.
Our eyes are so obviously very precious parts of our body, but then so are all the other parts just as precious. So why is it then that we, more often than not, treat our body as if it wasn’t ‘breakable’? How amazing would it be if we were encouraged right from young to bring such tenderness as we would bring to the care of a baby to the care of each and every precious part of our wonderful body?
How far we have strayed from the tender relationship with ourselves that you so lovingly describe here Sandra… When we should all hold ourselves in this way, every single day of our lives.
If we did so, our world would change – and change immensely…
‘When I do touch and rub my eyes I know that they and all of me are exquisite and worthy of deep tender loving touch just like a newborn.’ I love that you do this Sandra, we treat babies with such tenderness and preciousness why would I not choose this for myself as well?
Bringing this exquisite tender touch to our eyes, or in fact any part of our body, has the potential to change the relationship we have with our body. To develop this intimacy naturally allows us to be aware when something is not quite right within us, to then make the choice to understand what it is and why it is happening, and then to bring even greater care to ourselves in response to our body’s wise message.
A gorgeous reminder of just how incredible our bodies are – thank you Sandra. Through every part of our body we have the opportunity to deepen our connection to our tenderness, our stillness within, our true intelligence so that we can embody more of who we are and live the fullness of our sacredness.
As I was reading this my body gave a big sigh as it continues to wait patiently for me to connect to my exquisite tenderness.
I love that the awareness and tenderness that you can bring to your eyes can be applied to every part of us to truly honour how exquisite our bodies are and deserve to be treated as such.
At around the age of 14 all of a sudden I needed glasses, as I couldn’t see the blackboard at school any more. I have needed glasses ever since. Recently I have experienced not rubbing my eyes as there was a concern in one of my eyes that rubbing it could have agrivated. In this time of not rubbing my eyes I have felt a deep sense of appreciation for them, to the degree that I have felt that there is actually no physical reason I need glasses, that the fact I need glasses is due to a very real choice of not wanting to see and feel what was/is going on in my life. Much to ponder here and to accept that it was by choice that my eyes began to deteriorate. So is it possible for them to again return to full vision? A wonderment I am willing to explore.
It is the appreciation we have for our body that determines the care we take. This is inspiring, we all can care deeply as we are all deeply beautiful.
Our eyes are very delicate . . . so it makes sense to treat then with utmost tenderness . . . as it makes sense that we extent this tenderness to every part of our precious body. Thank you Sandra.
Tenderness is such a beautiful quality to feel in our bodies. Thank you for sharing this Sandra.
Right up into my twenties and even early thirties I would rub my eyes so much sometimes that they would feel like they had grit in them – from me damaging them. It would take several hours for that feeling to disappear but even then my eyes would be raw and sore for the rest of the day and the day following on some occasions. It’s staggering how much disregard we can have for our bodies that we can abuse them in an infinite number of ways and just expect them to pick up the pieces and carry on as if all is back to normal. Its very humbling to reconnect to our body as if it were still the body of a newborn baby. How could we do harm to ourselves if every choice we made for ourselves had this front and centre of our awareness?
Wonderful tender Sandra – I love what you have shared: “I love the feeling of connecting with my eyes and any part of me just for the simple beautiful being I am, before the mind can start giving commands of do this, that or the other.” It is for me always a great joy if my mind is not so quick in commanding what I am doing or what I have to do because without this inner commands I can feel that I am more in a flow and that is really absolute smoothing or flowing feeling and not in any way hard or controlling at all.
I love the notion you bring in here, to take loving and tender care of your eyes and yourself not only when they loudly ask for it but as an everyday rhythm of appreciation. I can feel how this brings me back from the edge of my seat allowing for the space there is to perceive and consider the whole. It is so easy to get caught up in the push and drive of life and meanwhile forgetting and losing touch with the magnificence and richness of every moment.
I love this. Here you are talking about something that happens within a very short span of time, in fact, a moment – yet there’s so much to be aware, feel and appreciate. It’s like when we put things under a microscope, we get absolutely fascinated by the exquisite intricacy that is underneath the surface we have taken for granted.
I was people watching today and I wondered how we would move if we knew we were carrying the most precious thing ever inside us. It’s the same as you’re describing here – have we really felt how precious we are? And how delicate our bodies are?
Dear Sandra,
I never knew how much I rubbed my eyes, until it was suggested that I don’t rub them. There are so many times in my day where I want to rub them. Why, because I may feel tired, they may be itchy, strained or blurry. It has been a great lesson in eye awareness in not rubbing them. Also in not ignoring how they feel. My eyes have much to say, as I begin to listen.
I love this Sandra, thank you. It brings to the fore how much there is to enjoy about ourselves.
I have been amazed and in awe of my own delicateness at times too. Touching especially my arms and breasts there can be such an exquisite quality which reminds me then to be oh so tender with myself and how I move and choose to live.
Thank you for sharing, it has allowed me to reflect on my movements and how I honour to my body. Tenderness is something I am working on, as I use to live in the momentum of hardness.
I can relate Amita, I have been releasing alot of hardness from my body for years, it is more obvious now when I go into this and more delicious when I make my movements more tender and gentle.
“When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within…”
This is very true and something worth practicing as this feeling of tenderness and exquisiteness is so, so beautiful.
“Health conditions can develop bringing along their symptoms and issues, but when we connect to the tenderness within, we then approach these health issues in a very different, more caring way.” That is very inspiring Sandra as this way of being with ourselves seems to be very supportive way for our bodies to heal more deeply.
Interesting I return to this blog today, when my eyes are quite sore this morning, its brought great awareness of how tender that whole area is – thank you.
I am finding that auto pilot is the greatest tragedy. My body so surrenders, appreciates and rises in its fullness to each moment that I move in tenderness and my natural grace. However the moment I go into auto pilot in what I am doing, the tenderness is no longer present and I immediately revert to doing things in the same way I have done them all my life. So begins my own journey to make auto pilot redundant and instead, deep care, honour and love, the way I move in my body.
When we say the word ‘tenderness’ it brings with it a deeper level of exquisite tenderness to our touch and how we see ourselves and others.
Recently in an Esoteric Yoga session the practitioner asked the students to raise our hands and gently cup our face, it was such a beautiful and tender experience that I now do this more regularly and can feel how supportive and honouring this movement is to the body.
Connecting to the tenderness that we have before going into the reaction of fixing brings a whole new level of care to each moment and each movement.
Thank you Sandra for sharing this. The last paragraph really confirmed what I have recently experienced that when we start to slow down and especially when we stop can we open up to the possibility of changing our direction in life. When frantic often we are unaware of the quality of our life until it gets extreme. Coming to a stop allows us to come back to our true quality.
I have begun to appreciate how lovingly exquisite it is when we are tender with ourselves, and it has really allowed me to feel how delicate and fragile we truly are, when we allow ourselves to truly feel our own tenderness.
‘When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others.’ Sandra this is so true and as we deepen our own tenderness there is a deeper connection with others too.
Thank you for the beautiful reminder to add tenderness to the mix and also appreciation of my eyes and from there other parts of my body that I have tended to be functional with when attending to their needs rather than approaching these tasks in tenderness and the joy of re-discovery.
Your blog is a lovely reminder to mirror the tenderness and delicateness that is my body, with every action I make towards it and with it.
A beautiful sharing Sandra. Tenderness is something I am being reminded to be aware of and offer to my body in recent weeks. Your blog reminded me to keep appreciating with tenderness my own body and how often what it does for me is taken for granted !
Thank you Sandra for a beautiful blog, and a very timely one for me. At present I am having hay fever, with very itchy eyes, that I keep rubbing, your blog is a reminder to me to be gentle and tender with my eyes and the delicate skin around them. And that this relates to the rest of my body and how I treat it. Much more loving care needed.
“We come to know that this tenderness is always with us”. This is great to understand Sandra. Whenever we are not connected to it we can understand that we have gone into function, push or hardness and can choose coming back to it. And we can choose to move in a way which is ever deepening our quality of tenderness we feel in our body. Beautiful to start honoring ourselves in our innate qualities.
Beautiful expansion on this lovely blog thank you Janina.
Beautifully expressed Sandra; so simple yet so powerful, thank you;
“When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others”.
Beautiful blog Sandra! Our skin and face is so precious! I know for many years I still didnt have any regard for my face or my eyes and it would only be to “get the dry stuff out’ like you mentioned. Taking my appreciation and level of care to a whole new level has been amazing and is always re-vitalising, regenerating and re-newing.
With becoming more honest I am discovering the deep level of disregard I had towards my body. Why do we react to the tenderness we truly are? I have the choice to follow my familiar pattern of overriding what I feel or to choose this innate tenderness and build a loving relationship with my body.
Beautiful Sandra, I am only beginning to realise how the innate tenderness and delicateness we all had as newborns has never left us but rather lays dormant waiting for us to reawaken and reconnect to.
Great blog gives a new level of appreciation for the body we all have.
Something similar occurs between me and my feet. I don’t get to see them much, given they’re covered most of the year – and at shower time they tend to be inconveniently distant plus I don’t have my glasses on, so our eyes don’t meet across a water-crowded cubicle. So when we do actually get a moment to connect, I love exploring the different contours of their shape and the delicateness of the skin in all its differentiation. I also get to feel enormously humbled at what they do for me and experience an accompanying wave of deep appreciation.
I love to massage my feet every evening before I go to sleep, really appreciating what they have done for me all day long. My whole body is responding when I am truly present in my hands touching the skin of my feet and it makes me aware of how important it is to take these moments of cherishing ourselves.
Thanks Cathy for offering a deepening awareness to the tenderness of feet. I have been connecting to my feet in the evenings and massaging cream etc. because they are sore and do an enormous amount of loving, committed service on behalf of me and my request of them to do so. But actually putting ‘tenderness’ into the package was something I missed to appreciate. Now I will 🙂
Written with tenderness Sandra , thank you. It seems when we bring tenderness to one part of our body it ignites that tenderness into all parts of our whole being.
‘When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others.’ – Thank you Sandra for this simple and beautiful reminder to enjoy and appreciate our tender gorgeous selves.
I was recently asked to focus on massaging a very small and precise point on the cheekbones – an unusual request at first but as I started doing it I was struck by how delicate the area is. And by doing the massage, I could not help but become more tender in my approach, to match that delicateness. Yet I have walked around for 40+ years not really paying any attention to the area at all!
Amazing Simon! I think this is the case for the majority of people! Most people just don’t know and have forgotten/are avoiding that level of connection with themselves. Beautiful to hear that it is working for you! Looking after our face has an effect on our whole body!
Sandra thank you for reminding me that I am as worthy of tenderness and delicateness as a new born. Why indeed not marvel at the exquisite softness of my skin the way I do that of a baby?
Sandra your post has again created a moment for me to stop and re-appreciate my eyes, the gift of vision and the wonder of all my senses. I’m deeply confirmed in my connection to God through my body in the glory of all its amazingness.
Thanks Sandra for bringing our awareness to Tenderness, it feels to me that this beautiful quality is not celebrated enough.
Thank you Sandra for this great reminder. Feeling the exquisite delicateness of my finger tips as I type this comment. I should definitely do this more often.
I loved coming back to this blog Sandra. When we allow ourselves to feel that one part of us can act and be treated tenderly taking it further shows that the tenderness in one area actually is the same for everywhere else in the body. Often when I feel that warmth in my hands it is also in my heart and if I focus, it can be everywhere else as well.
We are so worth caring for in every moment – this shouldn’t stop just because we have ‘grown up’.
Thank you Sandra, your words inspire me to take time to feel the tenderness and delicateness of my body and to treat it with loving care.
Just that little bit of time, a commitment to looking after myself and not just focus on all the things around me that need looking after. It makes all the difference to a day (and a life).
“…I love the feeling of connecting with my eyes and any part of me just for the simple beautiful being I am…” Feeling our own tender loving touch, our own gentle expressions of love and care, and looking into and connecting deeply with our own eyes is a most wonderful conformation of the absolute amazing glory of who we truly are. We are all precious gifts to be deeply cherished.
Thank you Sandra for this simple and deeply beautiful reminder of the tenderness and exquisiteness we are within and the delicateness our bodies are. I have also discovered that this quality is absolutely worth appreciating. As when we connect to our tenderness we then bring this quality to the things we do and to all we are with honoring who we are and can then appreciate the same delicious quality in others.
Tender Sandra this sentences I found very helpful: “. . . but when we connect to the tenderness within, we then approach these health issues in a very different, more caring way.” I normally override my tenderness with action and so my health issues are not treated with care. I will take your beautiful blog as a great reminder . . .
I love the exquisite touch I feel from your writing Sandra. I have a new appreciation of the small details. Thank you.
The eye area is very delicate and whilst reading this I felt inspired to touch my eye area in a very tender and gentle way – truly beautiful to connect to myself in this way. Thank you Sandra for this lovely reminder.
So exquisite Sandra, how you share about the tenderness of your skin particularly around your eyes. This gave me a different awareness of my own eye area and the way I apply my eye cream.
This blog is like a little blessing for my eyes, a message to honour their delicate quality. This is also a message for how we can be with our whole body, to attend to our whole body with tender care rather than just perfunctory care or when medical care is needed. Tenderness in the everyday sense can also include drinking before getting too thirsty, eating foods that will support me to stay tender with myself and even tender on my digestive system, being responsible to tenderness in each moment so that I don’t hit a wall of exhaustion later in the day. It is difficult to be tender when there are things to attend to and my body has not the physical energy – at this point the activity becomes a push (think of tidying the kitchen after dinner when really tired) – I wonder what would happen though in these moments to surrender into deeper tenderness?
Thank you Sandra for a beautifully tender blog, I need to put eye drops in my eyes daily. I am inspired by what you shared to be more tender with my eyes, when doing so.
Whilst reading your blog Sandra I found myself touching my eyes very tenderly; something I do not normally do.
You have inspired me to treat my eyes; and in fact my whole body; with so much more love and tenderness.
I am acutely feeling the lack of care, love and tenderness I afford my body on a consistent basis.
Time for me to take greater responsibility for being more tender and loving with my eyes and with me.
For so many years I felt my body was a burden. The depth of majesty and beauty in the body, when I live in a supportive and loving energy, is eternal and so enjoyable.
Thank you Sandra for your blog. Tenderness is such a lovely feeling, so gentle light and gracious when we use it on our bodies, and they thank us for the blessing they receive. I have been learning to connect to the tenderness within me more of late and the results are always noticeable.
Treating our bodies with loving tenderness is showing true regard and appreciation towards ourselves.
Similar to you you Sandra, and since arriving in Singapore with the heat and aircon, I have discovered these past two years the soothing effects of applying eye drops every evening, and i gently rub them afterwards. It’s such a wonderful refreshing feeling to tend to this delicate part of our body, for our eyes play a tender part in what we see (or choose to not see).
I love this, Sandra: “there is another level of caring and being able to truly feel the natural beauty held in that area and connect with that.” That other level of caring is one that my body responds to beautifully. It is so lovely to be tender with my body.
Thank you Sandra, for your exquisitely tender blog, and for bringing our attention to this exquisitely tender area of our bodies!
When we rub our eyes, although it gives us relief for a moment, it can leave marks on the surface of the eyes that can be seen by an eye specialist such as myself for 24 hours.
A lovely way to feel the tenderness of our eyes and to treat them in a way that honours that tenderness, is to close them gently and cup them with our palms, bringing the warmth and love that we are to this beautiful part of our bodies.
Anne Malatt – that is incredible – our eyes are so delicate that rubbing our eyes leaves marks on the surface of the eye for 24 hours afterwards- that calls me to be far more present and tender with my eyes! I have noticed lately I have become quite good at being gentle without my full presence and to be truly tender my presence needs to be much more with my quality and my body than the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude that comes when my actions are about ‘getting it done’.
Great tip Anne, thank you for sharing.
It could be said that we have many ‘delicate’ parts to our body. Some more than others! When we honour the delicateness of who we are inside, the whole body surrenders to the same level of delicateness – from elbows to toes to dangling bits. Then the relationship with the body becomes precious.
How beautiful! What a simple blog. It’s a great reminder to me to feel my preciousness in every part of my body, and to offer that tenderness to myself in the same way as I would a baby.
Thank you for reminding me that it is so simple to connect to my own tenderness Sandra.
Touching or rubbing my eyes will never be the same after reading this blog. Thank you for the timely reminder of tenderness.
Such a beautiful blog to read as I start my day – the tenderness of our touch, connecting to our bodies, feeling the body’s response to this gentleness, is gorgeous. Thank you Sandra – a reminder for us all to stop and be still and truly feel what our amazing bodies reveal to us.
Beautifully expressed. If we treated ourselves like newborns how tenderly we would treat ourselves every day. Our eyes are so precious I’ll be aware of this when I next go to rub my eyes. Thankyou Sandra.
Hi Sandra, I too often have very itchy eyes, and reading your blog has made me realise that when I rub them, I am doing so because I feel irritated and a little stressed about the discomfort. Of course this delicate area of my body is asking for more tenderness, especially when it feels like this, so thank you for sharing such a gorgeous experience, as from now on when I feel the irritation in my eyes, I will attend to them with much more care, understanding and a loving touch.
Your article is a great reminder of the absolute love that we all are when we connect with ourselves. It is wonderful to be fed back our own love and tenderness.
Very true Sandra!The tips of our fingers have an exquisite sensibility that we can feel if we allow ourselves to when touching delicately any other part of the body. Feeling this exquisiteness is simply divine; a true moment of connection with ourselves.
Sandra your Blog is beautiful. ‘When I do touch and rub my eyes I know that they and all of me are exquisite and worthy of deep tender loving touch just like a newborn.’
Imagine if we all connected to our bodies in this way? Treating ourselves as we would a newborn is wonderful way to self care and we are worth it 🙂
Yes we are so worth treating all of ourselves with the utmost tenderness.
reading your lovely blog Sandra i was reminded of how often in my life i have rubbed my eyes quite crudely and without even really feeling anything other then the discomfort and or the relief. How beautiful to bring such and exquisite focus to something seemingly so small but with the awareness it brings it becomes so huge.
That’s quite sweet, I was touching my eye lid over my eye very gently as I read this blog (couldn’t help it) and it is so tender and delicate. What a great reminder that I am tender and delicate and eye deserve to treat myself that way. (pun-absolutely-intended!)
It was lovely to feel the love and care you describe when touching your eyes and how it no longer is just a functional approach towards your divine body. Thank you Sandra for sharing this and allowing others and myself another possible way of relating to our bodies.
I absolutely agree with “when we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others”. Thank you Sandra for writing this.
Ryoko I love how you have written “…the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within.”
The exquisite connection within can be felt through you words. Thank you.
Thank you Sandra for the reminder that the more tenderly we treat ourselves the more tenderness we feel in our body so that we no longer want to treat it roughly.
As I re-read this Mary I can also feel the preferred choice to be absolutely tender with all of me. The rough seems to belong to something else that isn’t innately me any more.
Thanks for sharing your blog Sandra. To stop and feel the tenderness we are that allows us to be aware of all we feel is a grace to be free of our constraints.
Thank you Sandra for bringing to my awareness that tenderness really does start with the application to self first. It has never occurred to me to be delicate with my eyes when they are itchy. It just tended to be the reflex action of ‘have itch’ then ‘must rub’ response, and without any ‘presence’ involved.
While re-reading the blog again, I connected to the tenderness of my own body, my fingertips and feeling the gentle areas around my eyes. I realized that I often when I put cream my face I “do” it and not connect to my own tenderness and this blog reminded and invited me do go deeper and honoring myself and others with a deeper tenderness.
Sandra, how beautifully written in tenderness. My fingers are typing very tender at the moment. Fingertips are for my a great reminder to connect back to my natural tenderness.
Monika this is beautiful. I’ve got the Tenderly Typing Finger Tips Too! The TTFT’s 🙂
Sandra, thank you for the tender reminder of how precious and tender we all are.
Beautifully expressed Sandra and a timely reminder that deeply caring for ourselves doesn’t just have to be in response to some condition we have manifested. Life has a habit of disconnecting us from our natural tenderness so creating routines of care and nurturing will help to reclaim and maintain that exquisite tenderness that we were born with.
Tim I agree what you say about having a routine. Consistency is a key part of being able to feel the tenderness. If I skip attending to my eyes then the next time I can find I approach it in more of a functional way and I’ve moved a step or two away from the tenderness. And so this moving away can continue and it reverts back to automatic pilot so to speak. It’s a choice to take a moment and feel my eyes and my movements to care for them consistently with tenderness.
This is a gloriously tender piece of writing, Sandra. Thank you and thank you for the reminder, “When we choose to stop and be still for a moment we can become aware of the tenderness and exquisiteness we have within, and can appreciate this quality in ourselves and in others.”
Thank you Sandra, it is so important to remind ourselves again and again to treat our own body and everybody else with love and tenderness and allow ourselves to deepen these qualities. To break through ideals and beliefs which stop us being truly tender and loving with another; to treat all people equally and loving – no matter if it’s my partner, a client, neighbour or somebody I just met for the first time.
I agree Janina it is absolutely essential that our tenderness with ourselves and everyone is constant and equal.
Re-reading this piece today has been a lovely re-reminder of how I’m delicate and I’d forgotten it – and forgotten then that I’m so much more than what I do. It’s that exquisite quality of delicateness that I, that we all bring, that I’m remembering and feeling again – thank you Sandra.
Sandra I agree that we can be so much more caring and tender with our bodies, and not just when something is wrong, but all of the time.
It’s true Meg – it’s easy to be tender and gentle when something is wrong but to treat ourselves this way all the time is a loving way to be.
I agree, it’s definitely easier to be tender and so much more caring with ourselves when something is wrong or we are ill, I’m just learning to treat myself with the same love and respect all the time, and the world of difference that makes.
So delicate and gorgeous Sandra, I can feel the tenderness as the quality you’ve built with you, how it’s no longer just about function and fixing things but about feeling and connecting to the delicacy you are. You prompted me to stop and feel how tender I am and can be with me. Even how I type this for instance, which is just lovely; a beautiful reminder to stop and feel, and express from that tenderness of feeling.
It was a great reminder for me too, how tender and precious we are, it’s so easy to forget when we get swept up in life and everything that needs to be done, how exquisitely tender we naturally are.
After reading this I stopped for a moment to feel my eyes . I feel inspired to stop and consider next time how I am interacting with my body on a regular basis.
Even the way you have written this Sandra is with tenderness. Thank you. I will take tenderness into my day.
A truly tender article. And thank you, Ryan, for expressing so clearly what I also feel.
Beautiful, Sandra, I can feel the tenderness you have developed and embraced for yourself. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Sandra for sharing your discovery of tenderness. So beautiful to read your words and feel the tenderness shining through.
Sandra, this is a great reminder for us all to not so quickly go for the relief of a symptom from our body, but to at least pause and feel first just how delicate we are. Our eyes are obviously super tender, (they’re direct extensions of our brains after all) and I too have noticed how rough I have been with them when they are dry or itchy and I have rubbed them too hard.
What I noticed is that the more I have focused on doing self-loving things throughout the day, (like wearing sun screen, sunglasses, dressing warm enough when it’s cold, using lip gloss, etc.) I have begun to see how truly harsh I had been with my body in the past, and just how tender my body is. It’s almost like a wake up call saying “Hold on, this is the only body you have right now, so you better take care of it as it’s not indestructible, after all.”
As a man, we are told by society in so many ways to be tough and “boys will be boys” when we grow up playing rough because that is what is expected of us. But I don’t feel boys are born that way, and I am now living proof of that.
Awesome Michael. What a great role model you offer for the young generations in society.
Beautifully expressed Michael… the tenderness of men and boys, lovely.
That is very true, young boys are so often treated in a way that is harsher and rougher than the way most girls are treated, yet everything about them is so tender and sensitive, and no different to the tenderness of a girl. It is so awesome you live this fragility as a man, so all other men know it is ok to feel and express their own gorgeous tenderness – unreservedly.
Its great to see us men taking more care of ourselves – I’ve noticed a big change in the last 30 years, more products available, a greater acceptance of self care. Long may it expand and continue!
I agree – it’s awesome and so important for men to take equal care with themselves, it doesn’t make any sense that it has been accepted for women to take better care of themselves than men. Men are equally as precious 🙂
Isn’t it strange the way we have allowed the division between men and women? We all come in the same way with exactly the same qualities. Why would one gender be labeled as being needed to be rough and tougher than the other? Thank you Michael for clearly stating and claiming that men aren’t different from women, boys are just as fragile and sensitive as girls.
So true Sandra. Lately I have been noticing and observing boys, in particular under the age of 5, they are extraordinarily gorgeous, sweet, tender and delicate even. It is heart breaking then to consider how much we shut this down as boys grow into men while at the same time if I pause, I feel all of these qualities are still there in men – what is heart breaking is most men are not getting to enjoy this within them-selves.
Hi Sandra, I too have noticed how soft my skin is and how delicate my eyes are. I am aware of this when I put make up on my eyes especially. If I am not delicate with myself it really hurts my eyes.
I can really feel in the way you have expressed this, the simple nourishment being tender with our bodies like this can be for us. I have been exploring and deepening recently my own relationship with BEING in my body and the complete-ness and joy this can bring to me and to everyone around me. The way you have expressed this feels so lovely — another inspiring way just to be. Thank you Sandra.
This is so expressed so lovely and tenderly, how simple it is to feel our tenderness, if we just open up to it… thank you Sandra.