Eyes in many directions, 33 min
If you like this lesson, find 41 more lessons on the jaw, eyes and neck in the Treasury!
The complexity of any act can be infinitely multiplied, diminishing its quality. It is like this with the eyes: When we unconsciously link the eyes to unnecessary muscular efforts throughout the system, we feel clunky, unstable, and heavy.
Eyes get into a personal rut of organization just like anything else. They can become fixed in the way we use them, to the exclusion of looking in all directions.
If they are stuck, rigid, co-dependent, or habituated to sitting at a computer, it becomes more and more difficult to move off center and come back because we cannot make the required adjustment in gravity.
Eyes can get into a position equivalent to a scoliosis. You can take this away after some work with the eyes and the neck. Try this lesson to begin to unravel rigid muscles in the eyes. You might be surprised!
I always feel calmer after moving the eyes; others feel agitated. Please be careful and rest often, especially if your stomach feels queasy. That means you’re disturbing the vestibular system (balance) and you need to go slower.
Thought for April 19th: A new stability
Every morning, I stand in the same place in the kitchen pouring my coffee as the dog wanders in for a back scratch. Every morning, I make ever more elaborate, food-magazine-worthy breakfasts.
Sandwiched between two snowy days, I sneak out for a long walk where I can look out over rolling fields. People trot by on horses, framed by snowy peaks and a shimmering blue sky.
Stability
The horses are oblivious, but I feel unnerved. The transition from instability to stability is edgy and unsettling, like the shift from crawling to walking.
We hold onto the furniture, wobble for a moment, and then plop down on our rear in surprise. Eventually, we get our feet under us and propel ourselves forward a few steps before falling down again. Such is the nature of transition.
Now, instead of asking the question, “How can I get through the shut-down?” The question becomes, “How can I pivot my entire life?”
It's a more satisfying mental space.
Balance
I am working on the Balance section of the Feldenkrais Treasury with lessons that challenge the nervous system’s assumption on every level about space, uprightness, orientation, and support.
We can’t stay the same and also find new balance. The two are mutually exclusive. Life shifts endlessly. Hang onto the furniture.
quote(s) of the week:
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
― Henry David Thoreau
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
― George Eliot
“A man on a thousand-mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I'm going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.’”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace