Hi,
I'm Diana Pereira,
Telling Grace practitioner and somatic teacher.
Welcome.
Let's begin.
Today we're working with something you've probably never thought of as a somatic tool.
Your eyes.
Not what you see.
How you see.
The muscles that move your eyes,
The quality of your gaze.
The relationship between your visual field and your nervous system's sense of safety.
This one might surprise you.
Your eyes are not separate from your nervous system.
They are an extension of it.
Literally.
The optic nerve is the only cranial nerve that is actually brain tissue extending outward into the world.
This means that how your eyes are moving or not moving directly reflects and influences your nervous system state.
When we are in fight or flight,
The eyes narrow,
The gaze becomes fixed.
Tunneled,
Locked into the perceived threat.
Peripheral vision collapses and everything outside that narrow beam of focus effectively disappears.
When we are safe,
The opposite happens.
The gaze softens.
Peripheral vision opens.
The eyes move freely with curiosity rather than vigilance.
And here's the important part.
This works both ways.
You can use your eyes to signal safety to the nervous system,
Not only the other way around.
Slow,
Deliberate,
Gentle eye movements tell the brain there's no predator here.
I can look around.
I am free to take in the whole picture.
And the nervous system receiving that message begins to settle.
Moshe Fehlingreis was deeply interested in the relationship between eye movement and the whole body.
He understood that that the eyes don't move in isolation.
When the eyes move,
The head wants to follow.
When the head moves,
The spine responds.
When the spine responds,
The entire postural system reorganizes.
This is why eye movement Dance slowly and with awareness.
Can release tension in places that seem completely unrelated.
The jaw,
The base of the skull,
The shoulders,
Even the hips.
And your ankle.
The eyes are connected to everything.
And when the eyes find ease,
That ease tends to ripple.
Some people experience mild dizziness or slight disorientation with eye movement practices,
Especially if they spend a lot of time staring at screens.
If that happens to you,
Simply make the movement smaller or pause and let the gaze rest softly on one point until it passes.
In between eye movements,
When we are resting,
If you are on your back you can cover your eyes with your palms.
Without applying any pressure on the eyeballs.
This has two main benefits.
One,
It's going to rest your eyes and the field of vision will expand.
2 is going to show you the state of your nervous system.
You can try it right now.
Cover your eyes,
Gently crossing your fingers at the forehead and creating cups for your eyeballs.
No pressure on the eyeballs.
And notice what you can see when you block all the light.
The more flashes of light.
Color.
Or sharp light coming in from the visual fields.
Is signaling nervous system activation.
The darker,
More fluid,
Almost wet velvet quality of the visual field with your eyes closed.
Shows you calm.
Resting nervous system.
Now let's begin the practice.
Today we are going to work mainly on your stomach.
We begin on your back.
And you can do this on the floor or on your bed.
As you lay down,
Begin by paying attention to how does it feel to close your eyes.
Especially if you don't do this often.
Notice the tension or the state of the musculature around the eyes.
And see if it's easy for you to have a soft,
Unfocused gaze to relax the eyes.
And let them take in the whole visual field.
Eyes open or closed.
If you could see.
In the area around your face,
Around your body.
And now gently roll onto your stomach.
Lie on your belly.
I'll guide you with my voice so you don't need to pay attention to the video just keep me close and follow my instructions.
Lie comfortably on the floor.
Belly down,
You can place two palms one on top of the other and your forehead on the palms so your head is looking down your eyes will be closed and there's enough space between you and the floor that your nose isn't touching and you can take a nice deep breath.
If you need more support you can put a blanket or a pillow under your chest.
And now in this different configuration begin to observe the sensation of gravity.
On your face and eyes.
Gravity as always pushing down can allow your eyes or invite your eyes to move downward towards the floor even more.
So use the movement of gravity to let your eyes sink down,
Down,
Down,
Deeper and deeper.
As if you could see the core of the Earth.
Letting your eyes sink.
And see if it's easy for you to do this.
Now picture a little marble or pearl in front of your face.
Allow your eyes to see it clearly.
And gradually play with the distance of this marble.
Move it further and further away from your face and follow it with your eyes.
Let your eyes track.
The little ball.
Or pearl all the way down to the core.
Of the Earth as far as you can.
Follow it to the point that you don't see it anymore.
And then gently allow it to return to the center.
Getting closer and closer and you are following with your eyes closed.
Imagining this marble getting closer and bigger bigger and bigger almost as big as your whole face It's a gentle,
Friendly.
Marble.
Nothing scary about this.
You're simply letting it to get really really close,
Really really big.
And then gradually,
Slowly making it smaller and letting it travel further down,
Down,
Down,
Down and following it with your eyes all the way down.
Until it's very very tiny almost out of sight and do this a couple times without holding your breath.
Very important that you keep your body relaxed.
Your hands,
Your feet.
And notice that it becomes easier for you to track this.
Marble this imaginary pearl all the way down and then all the way up and then let this go and take a little rest.
Now picture the marble again somewhere mid-distance between the furthest point down and all the way to your face.
So some place in the middle where your eyes can softly rest there and you imagine the marble in the middle and now allow it to move all the way to the left if you could nudge it and let it roll to the left and you follow it with your eyes closed Your forehead is on your palms,
Your face down on the floor so you won't really move much and you let your eyes move to the left,
Track the imaginary ball.
And then let it come back to center and move it all the way to the right,
Letting your eyes track.
Follow it.
All the way to the right as far as you can imagine it.
And then back again in a slow,
Smooth line.
And here it's not that important how far you go with it.
But the quality of the movement.
That is a smooth and continued line all the way to the side.
Then you bring it back smoothly all the way to the center and to the right looking for quality over quantity.
And when you're ready,
Bring it to the center again,
Put it down.
Let it go,
Take a rest Observe any new sensations.
When you are ready,
You can roll over to your back.
You can cover your eyes if you want to,
Like you did at the beginning,
Observing.
If there's any change in your visual field.
And once or twice,
Lay your eyes sink down now,
Down,
Down,
Down towards the back of your head.
As if you could let gravity now that you're face up Also move your eyes down and let them expand.
In their sockets.
You can even picture them resting in hammocks.
Resting.
The musculature around the eyes being this imaginary hammock.
That hold the eye.
Or floating in pools of fluid.
And let that sense of expansion and rest.
Relaxation.
Stay with you as you notice.
What other thing is different?
What other sensation?
It's new.
Yourself.
The sides maybe.
Any change in your face or your eye tone,
Your visual field.
Now,
Very gently,
As if you were lifting curtains slightly to let the light back in.
Open your eyes.
And observe.
The space around you.
A little to the right,
A little to the left move the eyes in a circle.
See if it's easier,
There's something lighter,
Less tense.
About dry movement.
And when you're ready,
You can gently roll to one side.
Stand up.
Take in the space around you and see if there's something different about it.
The speed of your eye movement or how much you can see in your peripheral vision.
The softness of your gaze.
Maybe the clarity of color.
Walk around if you want to.
Taking any new information that is coming through this renewed nervous system.
Remember to come back to this practice often,
Especially if you've spent a lot of time looking at screens.
Or if you're feeling activated or under a fight or flight response.
Thank you so much for being with me here today.
I really appreciate your attention.
It's an honor to practice with you.
I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
In the meantime,
Much Love!
