The eyes have it
The way you blink your eyes will change after you learn mind-body arts. This is not an exaggeration. I know this to be true, because it is a matter of becoming aware of your ability to blink and recognizing that blinking is controlled by the central nervous system. This means that, like breathing, there is an aspect of blinking that is automatic and reflexive (as when you blink when startled by a loud noise), and there is an aspect of blinking that is under conscious control. But like breathing, there are blinking patterns that indicate the state of your mind and body. For example, when you are sleepy and tired, you tend to blink more. When you are stressed or focusing on something intently, an object, a book, or a movie, you blink less. Blinking patterns can also indicate the state of a person’s health (see this Washington Post article via this gift link for examples).
Then there is the simple act of closing your eyes on purpose for a few moments. This is what you might do during mind-body practice, like meditation or Yoga or Qigong, when you make genuine contact with the depths of your soul and being. This is not just restful, but perhaps even transformative.
Vision is not just literal use of your eyes: vision is how you see the world, your perspective, and this affects how you think and act. In language, you can substitute the sense of vision for understanding and attention. Here are some examples:
“I see what you mean.”
“I don’t see your point.”
“I missed the mark.”
“I am looking for the meaning.”
“I believe you are seeing things.”
The sense of vision is energetically connected to attention and understanding. It is a matter of what you see and how you see. In Chinese Medicine, the energy channels are information networks in the body, and almost all of them have branches that go to or through the eyes. Our personal energy can be expressed through the eyes and what we do with the eyes, where we look and how the eyes change in shape and appearance when we experience emotions. All these things speak to the complex relationship that ties vision, experience, and understanding together. We can have bright eyes when we are happy, cloudy eyes when we are stressed, tearful eyes when we are angry or sad. It is no wonder the phrase, “eyes are the windows of the soul,” feels true to us.
There is a lot of life in the eyes.
The eyes also experience a lot of ordinary everyday stimulation from the environment as pain. Eye pain can happen when ordinary cold air, bright light, tiny grit, and conditions involving pressure changes happen in the course of everyday living. These things affect the protection and moisture of the eye. Other conditions that cause eye pain are more serious, and these include allergies, migraine or cluster headache, glaucoma, corneal abrasions, infections, foreign objects, and injury. Protecting the eyes is always wise. Protecting your physical eyes is a gesture of protecting your attention. Going further, protecting the eyes is also involved in choosing wisely what you take in regularly. There is a popular cultural expression of seeing things that cannot be unseen, which means there are things that, once you see them, change your understanding from that day forward.
We live in a highly visual culture that features images, symbols, and signals that can be interpreted in many ways. Simply being in the world, you are engaging your capacity to take in information for processing and consideration. There is an information and energy exchange in the eyes. Think also of things that clamor for your attention and make demands on your energetic eyes and how you see the world: these include screentime, entertainment, gaining knowledge and information, socializing, and, of course, your art and work. The eyes can be on and engaged for long periods at a time, and there is a need to rest the eyes, and not just when you sleep.
Simple Qigong for the Eyes
To balance the high levels of acitivity of the eyes, there is simple Qigong for the eyes. The Qigong for the eyes is a way of momentarily working with the energy and capacities of the eyes naturally. This means moving the eyes, blinking the eyes, and finally soothing the eyes. During breaks from making your art or doing close work at the computer or devices, you can do this very simple practice of actively and consciously resting your eyes. Taking small breaks to look away from the computer or screen for a minute to rest your eyes every few minutes is the idea. When I do this practice of taking frequent mini vision breaks while still staying on task, I feel that the work is lighter, as if it becomes more like play.
Here is a simple routine for resting the eyes that you can do in a few minutes to take a mini-break as you work. You may want or need to wash your hands first.
To begin, take a few breaths to shift your focus and bring your awareness to your body and breath and mind.
Blink your eyes rapidly imitating the movement of a butterfly’s wings as it flies from flower to flower. Do this for a few seconds and spontaneously change your focus from close to far as you do this.
Next, gently move your eyes in various directions: up and down and side to side, and then make a few circles in one direction, and then the other. Your breath may coordinate with your movement, or you simply breathe slowly and deeply as you do this. Do this just one or two times, because a little is enough for the small muscles that support eye movement.
Finally: palm your eyes. Your arms may get tired when you do this, so you may want to do this exercise lying down if you can, so your arms can be supported. Doing this exercise sitting or standing is also okay. Here are the steps, which encourage you to savor the experience and go slowly. Start this exercise by rubbing your palms together to generate heat, and when you feel your hands are warm, bring them gently to cup around each eye with very little pressure. Keep your hands here for a moment so that you let your eyes feel the warmth and the increasing circulation around the eyes. Notice if you see colors and lights against the darkness that might seem thick and velvety. Be there until there is mostly darkness (sometimes the lights and shapes persist, which is okay). Notice if and when you take a slow breath as you bring your awareness to this darkness. Then, slowly lower your hands by letting them melt off your face: soft relaxed fingers encourage shoulders and body to relax.
Energetically, this can be a sort of kinesthetic metaphor for choosing to turn your attention away from the busy world. This is blinking by choice, a sort of “Power Blinking.”
In this place of what may seem like physical and literal darkness, you may notice things get quiet. You are quieting the sense of vision, and also doing a tiny letting go of managing experience and evaluating experience. Just for a moment, you can experience a simple state of returning to what some teachers call the Ground of Experience or even the Womb of the Universe. For a moment, you can sense your essence as spacious energy that includes your physical body and all the Universe. Rest here: Even one minute here is amazing.
Blinking your eyes can be a way of remembering and touching into a small and temporary darkness that is restful for the body and mind. Rumi calls it “The Dazzling Dark” in his poems. When you are face to face with this dazzling and velvety darkness, you can consciously step out of time and step out of the physical, mental, emotional things of life. For a moment, you can touch into a feeling of space that holds the constant and glorious hum of existence, what the Daoists call the Mystery of Being, a sense of pure possibility and pure potential. Rest there. Before you have another thought, before you have another experience, and before you get back to the clamor of the internet and the 10,000 details of your life, you can be in this place that is between and before being and nonbeing. Total potential. This is Wuji, the vast space or void represented by a lone empty circle which holds the swirling and constantly transforming Yin and Yang.