# Eyes Closed — full public site guide > This document mirrors the public pages at https://www.eyesclosed.love for AI systems and assistants. For a shorter index, see https://www.eyesclosed.love/llms.txt ## About this site **Eyes Closed** is a platform devoted to helping people reconnect with who they are beyond the mind. It was founded by Sonika Cottman, an Awareness Guide and author. **Formless** is the title of Sonika's first book. It is not the name of the website. **The Practice** (`/work`) is the teaching area on the site. **Spirituality & Science** (`/science`) is the page that offers a rational foothold for minds that need science before they can let go. The site tone is calm, contemplative, and honest. There is no urgency, no conversion pressure, and no pop-up marketing. Content is offered for general educational and reflective purposes only. It is not medical advice, mental health treatment, psychotherapy, financial advice, legal advice, or any other professional service. **Contact:** hello@eyesclosed.love --- ## Home — https://www.eyesclosed.love/ **Eyebrow:** An Invitation to go within **Headline:** Remembering Who You Are Beyond The Mind **Lede:** The world teaches you to look outward for fulfillment. Eyes Closed points you inward. **Curtain section** Freedom begins the moment you observe the mind. Behind every thought is the awareness that sees it. That awareness is what you are, untouched and unharmed by any experience of life. --- ## The Practice — https://www.eyesclosed.love/work **Eyebrow:** The Practice **Headline:** Learn to observe the mind without becoming lost in it. **Lede:** Beneath every inner struggle is unconscious identification with thought. ### The pattern repeats until it is seen Outer circumstances change. The pattern remains. Four places in life where suffering often appears: **Relationships** - Insight: Every reaction in a relationship is a mirror of something unresolved within you. - Detail: Your partner, children, parents, and family become mirrors, revealing unconscious patterns you have carried from the past into the present moment. **Career & Financial Wealth** - Insight: When your job becomes a part of your identity, losing it can feel like losing yourself. - Detail: The fear around career and money comes from believing your worth depends on what you do, what you earn, or what you own. **Body & Health** - Insight: The body memorizes what the mind repeatedly lives in. - Detail: Stress, tension, exhaustion, and emotional pain become patterns the body learns to carry until they are brought into awareness. **Family & Origins** - Insight: Freedom begins not through blame or resistance, but through awareness. - Detail: Our earliest relationships shape many of the beliefs, fears, and emotional patterns we carry into adulthood. Awareness is where those patterns begin to lose their hold. ### The central insight You are not your thoughts or emotions. You are the one that observes them. You are awareness. The mind creates stories, beliefs, and patterns that shape how you experience life. The practice is not to fight the mind, but to become aware of it. As awareness deepens, the patterns begin to lose their hold. In that simple shift, a different way of living begins. --- ## Formless (the book) — https://www.eyesclosed.love/book **Eyebrow:** The Book **Headline:** The book is a doorway into the recognition of who you truly are. **Lede:** You are not your thoughts or emotions. Formless takes you within to discover what exists beyond them. **Waitlist:** Visitors can join a waitlist to be notified when the book is released. Releasing September 1. No spam; unsubscribe anytime. ### Three movements 1. **Pause.** For one moment, stop. Be here. 2. **Observe.** Notice your thoughts, emotions, and the story your mind is telling. 3. **Recognize.** You are not what you observe. You are the one observing it. ### Four recognitions **Awareness — You are not the mind.** Learn to observe your thoughts and emotions instead of identifying with them. **Presence — You are awareness.** Recognize the quiet presence that has always existed beneath every experience. **Peace — Peace is acceptance.** Freedom begins when resistance ends and life is allowed to unfold as it is. **Freedom — Life changes from within.** Bring presence into your relationships, work, and everyday life, supported by insights from both ancient wisdom and modern science. **Closing:** The practice begins with a single recognition. --- ## Spirituality & Science — https://www.eyesclosed.love/science **Eyebrow:** Two Languages One Truth **Intro:** The deepest truths about who you are do not require belief. **Title:** A bridge for the part of you that needs to understand. **Lede:** The teaching does not depend on science. But for the mind that needs a rational foothold before it can let go, here is one. ### Perception You don't experience life exactly as it is. You experience life through the lens of memory, conditioning, beliefs, and past experiences. Your brain constantly filters and interprets information, creating a version of reality based on what it has learned. Awareness allows you to notice the lens. When you see the lens, you are no longer identified with it. ### Neuroplasticity Your brain is not fixed. Every thought you repeatedly believe strengthens neural pathways. Likewise, every moment of awareness weakens them and begins creating new ones. The patterns you've lived with for years are not permanent. Change begins the moment you stop identifying with them. ### The Body Your experiences don't live only in memory. Your nervous system and body learn emotional patterns through repetition and memorize them. Your body is always listening. Awareness allows those unconscious patterns to become conscious. ### Consciousness Science continues asking one of humanity's oldest questions: What is consciousness? Some theories suggest consciousness emerges from the brain. Others explore whether consciousness is more fundamental than matter itself. Regardless of where science eventually lands, your own experience offers something immediate. Thoughts come and go. Emotions come and go. Sensations come and go. Yet something remains aware of all of them. That is the place this practice begins. ### Closing Science points to what the ancient teachings have known. You are not the mind's interpretation of reality. You are the awareness that sees it. --- ## About — https://www.eyesclosed.love/about **Eyebrow:** The Journey **Title:** About the Author Sonika Cottman is an Awareness Guide, author, and founder of Eyes Closed, a platform devoted to helping people reconnect with who they are beyond the mind. Born in Winnipeg, Canada, to immigrant parents from Punjab, India, Sonika is the youngest of three. Raised in a bilingual household, she learned to speak Punjabi from an early age and has a basic understanding of Hindi. At the age of twenty, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she has lived ever since. Over the past twenty years, she has built a successful career in Human Resources, spending the last thirteen years in the technology industry helping people and organizations navigate growth, change, and transformation. For much of her life, achievement, success, and external milestones shaped the direction of her path. In 2023, however, a profound shift in awareness changed the way she viewed herself, her relationships, her work, and life itself. What once drove her no longer held the same meaning. The pursuit of external success gradually gave way to a deeper desire for peace, freedom, and understanding. That transformation led to the creation of Eyes Closed and inspired her first book, Formless. Today, Sonika shares what she continues to discover through writing, speaking, and creating content centered on awareness, presence, and inner transformation. Her work is grounded in a simple message: lasting peace is not found outside of us, but through recognizing who we truly are beyond our thoughts, emotions, and conditioned identities. When she isn't writing or creating, Sonika enjoys spending time with her two children, taking walks in nature with her partner and their two dogs, listening to handpan music, meditating, and exploring the intersection of science, spirituality, and human potential. ### What is unfolding The beginning of something larger. - **Talks & Gatherings:** Intimate spaces where the teaching is shared in person. No stage performance, just presence. - **Retreats:** Days of silence and gentle guidance. A chance to go deeper without distraction. - **Community:** A quiet circle of people walking the same path. Not a platform, but a space for honest recognition. - **Deeper Teachings:** Material that goes beyond the book. For those who have begun to see and want to see more clearly. ### Stay Close Return when you are ready. Receive reflections, notes from the desk, and the occasional silence. No urgency. No pressure. Just a quiet thread when there is something worth sharing. Visitors can sign up on the About page (`/about#stay-close`) or email hello@eyesclosed.love. No spam; unsubscribe anytime. --- ## Privacy Policy — https://www.eyesclosed.love/privacy **Effective date:** June 29, 2026 Eyes Closed operates this website and related communications about inner awareness, the Formless book, and future offerings from Sonika Cottman. **Information collected:** Email address and signup source when joining the book waitlist or Stay Close list; basic technical information (IP address, browser type, device type, referring page, pages visited); messages sent directly by email. **How information is used:** To send requested book release updates and occasional reflections; operate, secure, and improve the website; respond to questions; understand general site usage through analytics and similar tools. **Cookies and analytics:** The site uses cookies and similar technologies for functionality and to understand aggregated usage patterns. Analytics data is not sold. **Sharing:** Eyes Closed does not sell personal information. Data may be processed by trusted third-party service providers for hosting, analytics, email communications, and data storage. **Your choices:** Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time. Contact hello@eyesclosed.love for access, correction, or deletion requests where applicable. Full policy: https://www.eyesclosed.love/privacy --- ## Terms of Use — https://www.eyesclosed.love/terms **Effective date:** June 29, 2026 These Terms govern use of the Eyes Closed website and related online materials. **About the site:** Eyes Closed shares teachings, writing, and information related to awareness, presence, and inner transformation, including content about the book Formless by Sonika Cottman. **Educational content only:** Content is informational, educational, and for personal reflection only. It is not medical, mental health, or professional advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical or mental health condition. Nothing on the site creates a therapist-client, doctor-patient, coaching, or other professional relationship. **No guarantees:** Individual experiences will vary. Eyes Closed makes no guarantees regarding personal, emotional, spiritual, financial, or other outcomes. **Intellectual property:** Site design, text, images, logos, and other materials are owned by Eyes Closed or Sonika Cottman and protected by copyright. Personal, non-commercial viewing is permitted. Nothing in the Terms grants ownership rights in the website or its content. **Governing law:** State of Nevada, United States. Questions: hello@eyesclosed.love Full terms: https://www.eyesclosed.love/terms --- ## Disclaimer — https://www.eyesclosed.love/disclaimer **Effective date:** June 29, 2026 The Disclaimer applies to all content on the Eyes Closed website, including articles, videos, audio, guided practices, courses, and other materials. **Purpose:** Content is for informational, educational, inspirational, and personal reflection purposes only. **Not professional advice:** Content is not medical, psychological, psychiatric, therapeutic, legal, financial, or other professional advice, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical or mental health condition. **No professional relationship:** Nothing on the website creates a therapist-client, doctor-patient, coaching, or other professional relationship. **Your responsibility:** You are responsible for your own decisions and well-being. Seek appropriately qualified licensed professionals when needed. **No guarantees and use at your own risk:** Eyes Closed makes no guarantees regarding outcomes from use of the site. Use is voluntary and at your own risk. Full disclaimer: https://www.eyesclosed.love/disclaimer --- ## Pages not intended for public indexing The following routes exist but are excluded from search indexing and are not part of this public guide: `/login`, `/signup`, `/account`, `/auth/`, and internal design or development pages such as `/design-system`, `/moodboard`, `/brief`, and similar paths. See https://www.eyesclosed.love/robots.txt