Welcome to our 10 minute screen release practice.
I'll invite you to do this practice seated.
You might be on your chair at your desk.
Find your version of a tall,
Neutral spine where you feel like you're sitting like yourself here,
Not too rigid,
But we are awake and alert.
And as you find this position,
I'll tell you a little bit about this practice.
Throughout the day,
Most of us are looking at our screens,
Often for hours at a time.
And while we need to do this,
It's also important that we give our eyes some rest.
In nature,
We would be looking around,
Up,
Down,
Near,
Far.
Our eyes would really be moving.
And just like any other area in the body,
It's important that we soften,
Stretch,
Move,
And release this space.
Often when we're feeling stress in the body,
We can kind of shut down,
We can freeze.
And when we freeze,
It doesn't let the stress leave the body.
So you might actually end up feeling a bit of stress release as we start to move the eyes,
As we start to mobilize this area a little more.
Before we begin,
I just want to remind you that this is your practice.
Everything I say is simply a suggestion.
Do what feels good in your body and take rest when you need it.
And as we are working with the eyes,
We're not aiming for a ton of feeling here,
Just nice and gentle.
I'll invite you to take a full breath in and breathe out,
Let the shoulders melt down.
We'll be breathing through our nose for this exercise.
When you feel ready,
Bring your palms together and start to generate a bit of heat between the hands,
Rubbing them.
Rub the hands a little longer.
And once you feel enough heat there,
Separate the hands and bring the palms over your eyes.
Your fingers could be separated or together depending on how much light you want and feel that heat radiating from your hands to the muscles and skin around the eyes.
We'll do that again.
So we'll rub the palms together,
Generating some heat.
Keep rubbing the hands for three,
Two,
One.
Separate the hands and bring them lightly over the eyes,
Feeling the muscles soften,
The eyes sinking back into the head.
From here,
Let's slide our first finger and middle finger to the temples and make some little circles there.
Gentle bit of self massage.
And when you feel ready,
Let that go.
Let your hands rest,
Maybe on your lap.
We'll let the eyelids get a little heavy here and we'll start with the gaze down towards your knees or maybe even towards your cheeks.
Let this be soft.
Imagine smoothing the brow,
The forehead,
The space between the eyebrows that hardens as we start to concentrate,
Softening the skin around the eyes.
And then we'll slowly move the eyes to look towards your right ear.
And then gently bring your eyes to look up towards the ceiling.
And over towards the left ear.
Back down towards your cheeks.
And then I'll invite you to bring your right thumb up so you're making a thumbs up and you can look at the back of your thumb towards your thumbnail.
And then keeping your head in center,
Slowly bring your right arm out to the right side and let your eyes continue to follow your right thumb.
Your arm might move way out to the side and you might find that you're just able to see your thumb with your peripheral vision.
There will be a place where you can't see your thumb anymore Not straining the eyes,
Just inviting a bit of movement.
Then we'll bring the thumb nice and slowly back out in front of us in front of the right shoulder.
Let the thumb come down.
And we'll try the same thing on the left side.
Bringing your left thumb up,
Making a thumbs up.
Left arm is right in front of the left shoulder.
Keeping your head facing center,
Let your eyes follow your thumbnail as your left arm tracks out to the left side.
Try not to move the head,
It's harder than it seems.
And there will be a place where you can just see your thumb with your peripheral vision.
We'll slowly bring the thumb back to center and let go.
You could let your eyes soften and close once more.
You might take this time to rub your hands together again and place them over the eyes.
Maybe that bit of self massage of the temples felt good.
And then from here,
We're gonna bring the hands together,
Interlacing the fingers so like you're holding hands with yourself here.
And the arms will be out in front of the shoulders,
Maybe in front of the face.
And we'll slowly make some very small figure eights moving the wrist.
And let your eyes follow your interlocked hands as they continue to make a figure eight.
And your figure eight might get bigger,
Taking up more space and your eyes keep following your hands.
That figure eight might get even bigger,
Moving the shoulders,
Moving the arms.
Keep following your hands with the eyes.
Then eventually make the figure eight in the opposite direction,
Let the movement get smaller and smaller and eventually release the hands and let them land on your lap.
The eyes could close once more.
From here,
Let's squeeze the eyes shut,
Really squeeze them tight and then soften the eyes,
Letting them stay gently closed.
So you might involve your whole face in this.
Squeeze the eyes closed,
Maybe squeeze the mouth,
Squeeze the nose,
Hold that squeeze in the face for three,
Two,
One and soften it,
Let it go.
Feel that relaxation spread throughout the face.
You could do that again,
Squeeze the eyes,
Squeeze the mouth,
The whole face,
Almost like you ate something sour.
Squeeze your shoulders up to your ears and hold it for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Let it go,
Let it all melt down,
Soften,
Noticing the difference of feeling tension and relaxation.
Let the eyes stay gently closed and we'll do one last warming of the palms together by rubbing.
Let your hands land over the eyes.
Feel that softness,
Feel that heat,
Gently cupping the eyes with the hands.
On your own time,
Let that go.
We'll slowly open the eyes.
Notice how the eyes are feeling after that 10 minute practice.
Take care and stay well,
Thank you.
