When I notice, that I am straining my eyes, I usually try to relax them by imagining a state of complete relaxation - just before I fall asleep.
My eyes then turn slightly inwards and almost reach a position of 'sqinting'. When hold this position with partly closed eye lids for a short time, I feel some eye muscles relax and my eyesight becomes clearer. But it feels a bit odd, as it is so close to squinting.
Now I discovered, that it is even more relaxing for the eyes to do just the 'oposite' (or combine the above 'method with its 'opsite'), that is the 'state of waking up':
Almost completely close your eyes (in a relaxed way, as if you wanted to go to sleep) and hold the eyelids in this position - to prevent them to close completely - for maybe 30 seconds. Then try to look through the small open space while holding the eyelids in the almost closed position; the eyesight will become very clear.
Then very slowly open the eyes , imagining that you just wake up after a very deep and restful sleep and it is difficult to open the very heavy and still relaxed eyelids. The eyesight will remain clear until you have almost completely opened the eyes and you get a feeling for the eye muscles which need to be 'used' to get relaxation for the eyes.
The more you get aware of the muscle movement during the relaxation (which is usually not consciously noticed), the more you become able to use these muscles deliberately to achieve a clearer sight and avoid straining the eyes instead when you need or want to see something very clearly.
Nini, thanks for this, since I've been playing with something similar. I tried your method of closing the eyes almost all the way, and for me it didn't seem to give good results. The biggest problem I had is that I had to strain to keep my eyes open since they wanted to close all the way. Plus so little light got in since only a slit was open in each eye, and I couldn't see anything higher than my nose, I kept wanting to tilt my head back to see more and to let in more light. My slit-view never cleared up, so when I opened my eyes wider it wasn't any clearer than usual. I am probably doing something wrong so will try this again.
I sometimes imagine my eye muscles melting and softening, and also imagine a baby's open relaxed face, eyes eager to see everything, as models for myself. I've just recently noticed a grabbing at the outer corner of my right (dominant) eye. A few days ago when I was paying attention to this doing the eye chart, the left eye corner suddenly started grabbing strongly, as if to say "Don't forget about me!". I was never aware of grabbing here before so this is good. The more I am aware of the strain in my eyes, the more I'll be able to let it go.
Nancy Wrote:The biggest problem I had is that I had to strain to keep my eyes open since they wanted to close all the way.
According to the author of this:
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video (her first relaxation exercise), the 'struggle' against this impulse relaxes the eyes; she says, that you should try prevent your eyelids from trembling in order to relax them.
But I found it more relaxing to try to see against the 'imagined resistance' of the 'heavy' eyelids.
Perhaps my description was not clear enough; it's a bit difficult to put into concrete words what's going on in your imagination.
Quote:Plus so little light got in since only a slit was open in each eye, and I couldn't see anything higher than my nose,
I did this 'exercise' lying down in a comfortable and relaxed Position, so I did't have this problem...
Nini, OK, thanks for the reply -- I watched the video and got a little success with the half-closed eye technique this time. My eyes do want to squint and scrunch up as you said. so I have to really pay attention to prevent this automatic reaction. Plus I learned that as soon as I start to close my eyes at all, my gaze drifts downward which I guess is more relaxing, so I had to keep it straight out which took some attention too. Finally, it was difficult to keep my forehead relaxed, maybe more of the trying-to-squint reflex. There's no logical reason to wrinkle my brow when I half-close my eyes! Thanks -- I'll keep playing with this.
