Seeing Clearly: Our Eyes & Life Itself
My reflections right now are about our EYES – and how our relationship to Vision can influence how we live our lives.
Whether or not we have a particular condition that impairs our vision a little or a lot, or whether we choose to notice or not, our eyes are inevitably connected to how we experience our bodies and ourselves. And our eyes, whether closed or open, are always an integral part of any Yoga or Feldenkrais sequence but they aren’t always treated as such. There are so many things I could include here but I’ll limit these reflections to how sore and tired our eyes can become and to the sense that our Vision can far outstretch our eyes as light transmitting organs to the brain.
Have you ever noticed how busy your eyes are and how tired they can become? Have you noticed how you tend to focus in on close details and perhaps enjoy less the full expanse of your peripheral vision? How, for example, in a body-mind practice such as Yoga Nidra, when you hear a voice inviting you to drop your attention into a part of your body, your eyes seem to have to get involved? Even behind closed eyelids, our eyes seem to search for the sole of the foot, or the weight of the sacrum. Most of the time we don’t notice, but then have you had a go at resting your eyes, even having a sense that they’re softening deep into your brain, as you simultaneously feel into physical sensation in another part of your body? This separating the eyes from everything else can be challenging, but with practice, allowing the eyes to be off duty can be a hugely refreshing and relieving thing to do. I recommend it!
“Eyesight and vision are not the same thing ....Vision includes not only what we see in the physical world around us, but it incorporates our inner hopes and desires. Vision is an amalgam of the tangibly visible, sensory experience, emotion and atmosphere and it exists both in the present and the future” (p. 176)
Peter Grunwald
And there’s more to this, and perhaps someone I’m reading – Peter Grunwald - says it most clearly;
“Eyesight and vision are not the same thing ....Vision includes not only what we see in the physical world around us, but it incorporates our inner hopes and desires. Vision is an amalgam of the tangibly visible, sensory experience, emotion and atmosphere and it exists both in the present and the future” (p.176)
Seeing Clearly for Grunwald is about Living with Clarity – and I think I know what he means. I’m focussing a lot these days, whether on the mat or just out and about, on noticing when I tire my eyes with too much restricted focus and then I try panning out to a wider sense of what’s around me.
Grunwald points out, for example, that our eyes are the organs our brains use to receive light. Our eyes do not see as such. Seeing happens in the brain – the visual cortex at the back of the head. It can be very interesting to have a go at seeing not with the eyes, but from just behind the back of the head. Just see what happens.....For me, I feel more relaxed, more expansive, I feel a peace and clarity and in tune with a spacious sense of the world around me.
Erm.... this is pretty much what I hope for when I practice Yoga, Meditation and Feldenkrais... Oh and my eyes are much happier.
Again in Grunwald’s words;
“Within Consciousness lies the ability to be present – this is what creates the possibility for change. Out of presence grows the opportunity to be free from attachment to past experiences and memories that so often keep us bound and stuck........[our] original, essential, or soul qualities – such as trust, love, or nourishment, that are mysterious yet elemental, relevant and necessary in our lives. These qualities bring subtle energetic components to not only the fluids and structures of the eye, but also to life itself” (p.15)
And I thought that all I wanted was a bit of relief from sore and irritated eyes!!!
Things seem to come together – during this time of refreshing my interest in eye-body-awareness, I noticed an article in the Cornishman Newspaper about the charity iSight Cornwall - https://www.isightcornwall.org.uk - that supports the thousands of visually impaired people in Cornwall. I’m really looking forward to sharing some eye awareness/rest work as part of a fundraising event for the charity @ The Centre of Pendeen on Saturday 18th November 10am - 12noon - as well as offering some bespoke sessions to anyone interested who is in touch with iSight Cornwall. HERE is the JustGiving page where, if you want to, you can donate and in so doing register an interest in coming to the Session on Saturday 18th November. But please email me to confirm that you are coming. Thanks.
My initial plan is to offer the fundraising sessions face to face in Pendeen, but if there are people around the country who are interested, I would love to also share these practices on Zoom. Please get in touch to let me know!
…..
And 2 other fantastic resources - if you’re interested in eyes and vision:
- A chapter about David Weber - ‘A Blind Man Learns to See: Using Feldenkrais, Buddhist, and Other Neuroplastic Methods’ - this is in Norman Doidge’s brilliant book - The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity (2015. Penguin Books)
- Raz Ori - a Feldenkrais teacher on the great site Feldenkrais Access - here’s a link to a Free Introductory Session to his course on Healthy Eyes and Vision