Releasing the Eyes

By Paul Cavel, Posted September 2009

I don’t have to tell you that during the day, stress and tension have a way of building up. In our extremely visual world—with books, television, signs, cell phones, computers and all kinds of gadgetry—a lot of the tension ends up in our eyes and nervous system. I’ve got a few exercises that will help you recognise when your eyes are becoming overloaded and what to do about it.

The first two exercises are only meant to be done once or twice in order to recognise what is happening inside you involuntarily on a daily basis. The third exercise is the one you’ll want to practise a lot in order to reduce the tension in your eyes and central nervous system.

Start from a relaxed and comfortable position and only do the first two exercises enough to get the point.

Exercise 1

First choose an object close to you, fix your eyes on it and stare at it. Notice what happens to your body, nerves and mind. They become tense, don’t they? Now relax your eyes for a minute or two.

Exercise 2

Try focusing again and, this time, go out to the object as if you were trying to reach it with your mind through your eyes. Feel the intensity of your action. Then completely relax your intent, your eyes and your mind.

Bring your mind back inside your body, soften your stare to a gaze and allow the object to arrive at your eyes. Breathe smoothly and totally relax your eyes. If you need to close your eyes to relax them for a few minutes, I don’t think anyone will mind!

The intensity or tension you feel from this exercise also happens involuntarily during times of stress and anxiety—whether you notice it or not.

Exercise 3

When your eyes are back to normal look at your object once again, but this time with soft eyes. Allow your eyelids to close a quarter to two-thirds of the way—not more or you will go into all sorts of visualisations. As your eyes soften even more, open up your peripheral vision.

If you can go behind your eyes to the optic nerve (where all visual information is passed to the brain), feel that space. Try to let go and relax the optic nerve. From here you can relax the whole nervous system and deeply release the eyes. Now, allow the object to come to you rather than you projecting out to it.

I’ll guess your object of choice is still there, but you also have peripheral vision and you can feel what is going on in your body. All this can happen whilst remaining relaxed.

Practise this exercise as frequently as you can, especially when you notice yourself getting stressed and revved up. Have you ever noticed people’s eyes bugging out when their tense about something?

If you practise releasing the eyes before your regular practice, you can calm down the central nervous system and soften your body. Use this exercise in your standing posture before practising your forms, during your forms and at intervals during your day to stabilise your insides.

Happy practising,
Paul

Any physical and/or energetic exercise can carry risks. Do not attempt these exercises if you have any physical, emotional or mental conditions that may make you susceptible to injury.

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