ON SAVORING AN ACT
Why Do We Close Our Eyes While Savoring Something
Have you noticed when we taste a delicious food item our eyes get closed. And we are completely immersed in the tasting experience. This also happens when we drink water after being thirsty for a long time.
This happened with me today when I was drinking caramel coffee after so many days. I was so engrossed in the act of drinking that my eyes shut.
I have also noticed that listening to soulful music also makes me close my eyes and enjoy the music even more. The act of listening to music acquires another dimension when done with eyes closed.
Closing our eyes makes us enjoy the act more fully.
Why is that? Why do we close our eyes while enjoying something totally?
My take
When we use any of our senses we expend some energy. For eg. when we use our sense of watching through our eyes we are spending energy in some form (attention) in the process.
And when we are using several of our senses simultaneously our attentive energy is distributed more and spent in a scattered manner.
For eg. when we are scrolling through the Facebook feed while playing music in the background we are scattering our attentive energies into two acts- watching the feed and listening to music (eyes and ears). This scattering of energy means we are unable to enjoy either of the two acts fully.
So, it works both ways. Enjoying something fully leads to channelizing our energy (by the way of closing our eyes). For eg. drinking caramel coffee. And in order to enjoy something fully, channelizing our energy is required. For eg. switching off the music in the background to enjoy the Facebook feed.
All of our attentive energy needs to be focused on a single task/act in order to enjoy or feel it fully.
So, to answer my question, because we want to savor every morsel of our favorite food item we close our eyes. This way all our energy is channelized towards the act of savoring the dish.
What is your take? What do you think why do we close our eyes when we are savoring something delicious?
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