Drishti — The Art of Still Seeing

When your eyes scatter, your mind follows. In yoga, Drishti (Sanskrit for “point of gaze”) anchors the mind through the eyes. It’s not about staring—it’s about directing perception. The steadiness of your gaze determines the steadiness of your inner state, which is exactly what drishti teaches us as we practice it.

In our 21-day Conscious Wellness Challenge, drishti is the first practice. Combined with diaphragmatic breathing, we feel its benefits in just 2-minutes of practice. Stare in the middle of a pulse and try it on!

When you hold your sight softly on a single point, your optic nerves stop constantly scanning. This sends a message of safety to the brainstem, which slows the heart rate, deepens the breath, and reduces mental noise. Your body literally settles into awareness.

Why It Matters

Every digital scroll and shifting screen trains the nervous system toward fragmentation. Drishti reverses that. By fixing the gaze while breathing steadily, you’re retraining the nervous system to stay in one moment long enough for the parasympathetic system—the calm side of your wiring—to take charge.

It’s micro-meditation through the eyes: still gaze, still mind, still breath.

Practical Benefits: How to Use Drishti in Daily Life

• In the car: Focus softly on the farthest point of the road instead of darting between mirrors. It steadies peripheral vision and calms driving anxiety.

• At work: When screens pull you in, pick one object on your desk—a candle flame, plant leaf, or pen tip—and hold your gaze for three breaths before resuming.

• During conversation: Keep your focus on the person’s eyes without strain. You’ll listen more clearly and respond from presence, not reaction.

• While exercising: Choose one unmoving point ahead of you. It improves balance and prevents dizziness during standing poses or strength work.

• Even washing dishes: Watch the stream of water hit one plate. Stay with that moment until it’s complete. That’s Drishti in motion.

Physiological Benefits

• Calms optic fatigue and improves visual coordination

• Stimulates the vagus nerve through ocular focus

• Enhances equilibrium and postural control

• Reduces anxiety by lowering neural overactivity

A Bit of History

Drishti appears in the Ashtanga Yoga system, described as a tool for ekāgratā—single-pointed concentration. Classical yogis used it to train sensory discipline so meditation could deepen beyond distraction. Today, it serves the same purpose in a louder world: teaching the eyes, and the mind behind them, to be still.