All this mask wearing has me thinking about the potency of working with the eyes..

Visual Orienting Exercise: Simply looking around the room & tracing objects and horizontal lines with your eyes.

See if you can track your breath while doing this or notice internal sensations while orienting in the room.

Why: the ocularmotor nerve (nerve of eye movement) is parasympathetically innervanted which helps to disinhibit fight/flight responses. (Stress!) It’s also changes our field of view from a narrow “sympathetic” focus to diffuse focus, safely orienting in space. To expand on this you can practice alternating visually tracing distant field of view (like the horizon) and close up (like your nose on your face.)

When to do this:

- After working on the computer- which trains us to a narrow focus feild of view which mimics sympathetic states.

- When feeling acute stress/anxiety & getting up/moving might not be available

- during a meeting, in class, in line at grocery store. (Or if your mobility is varied)

- When feeling disassociated/disconnected from feelings & emotions - cranial nerves involved in this movement light up the midbrain used for emotional processing.