Relax your eyes - or eyelids?

[rust]

Hello,

I am a bit confused about the instruction to "relax your eyes". I always seem to relax my eyelids and other (facial) muscles instead of my eyes. Is that a good start after all or am I getting it completely wrong?

Many thanks for your help!

Kind regards and perfect vision to you all

[Oleg K.]

For me, relaxing the facial and eyelid muscles is the first step in relaxation (although I think the connection is not direct and people with normal sight may be able to strain their facial muscles without losing their vision). On the second step, you need to relax your mind. The instruction to "relax your eyes" is misleading because there's no direct way to do it, unfortunately. Instead, to relax your mind you need to apply the techniques described in the original Bates book - memory, imagination, central fixation etc.