Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE

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Lazy eyes

Child looking up with natural head balance and a free neck

It's interesting that most of us seem to become rather lazy in our eyes as we get older. What I mean is that we tend not to turn our eyes much inside of our heads and resort to turning our whole head or even our whole body to the left or right in order to see. A stiff neck could partly be blamed for the lack of mobility, but we would also appear to have stiff or lazy eyes.

How can we possibly have stiff eyes, some may ask? But in truth, this is no more difficult than stiffening your arm, shoulder or any other part. There are six muscles attached to each eye which collectively enable upward, downward and sideways movement. Muscles by their nature are designed to contract, and if we contract them all we can become 'fixed'. Alternatively we become lazy and don't bother using these muscles at all. So in order to look around, we turn bodily, but there is nothing 'lazy' about that as clearly to do so involves far more muscles using far more energy than is required. We no longer use our eyes as we did when we were children.

If you have the opportunity, watch a one or two year old looking around themselves. They turn their eyes far more than we do. If a young child looks up, they raise their eyes more than adults do without stiffening their neck. At that age their heads are very large in proportion to their body (and heavy) and with neck muscles that have not yet developed in strength, their instinct is to not upset the balance of their head which just teeters freely on top of their spine. Indeed this is how we should all be, even in adulthood. For healthy poise, we need to let our heads teeter freely and our necks should be as free as possible.

As it happens, how we use our eyes is directly linked to the condition in our neck. Indeed a tense neck will affect our eyes so we don't move them much, and also if we 'fix' our gaze and don't use our eyes much, we add to tension in our neck. the nerves from our eyes pass between the neck muscles and one can affect the other. It is therefore a good idea to get used to moving your eyes more inside of your head to look up and around as this will actually help free your neck from unwanted tensions.

Many adults also have the tendency to stare or fixate on small items. This can be a hard and intense stare that is narrow in focus. It is possible to relax our gaze so we take in more of the peripheral area around. Try softening your gaze so you are more aware of a larger area to left and right of centre at the same time. Peripheral vision is helpful in many activities such as driving and particulary for footballers who need to know where each player is at any given moment. They get training in widening their peripheral vision.

If you intend to look to the left or right, experiment with looking in that direction with your eyes first, then just let your head follow. Think of it in terms of looking first then just 'giving permission' for your head to turn in the same direction. Notice if you have a tendency to close your eyes and turn your head first before looking. Do it the other way around. Eyes first, then your head can follow.

In order for our head is truly balancing freely, it is likely we need to let our head roll forwards just a little on the top of our spine. Neck tension tends to pull our head backwards so we are facing up. This tendency may also be accompanied by a slouch or stoop so the tendency is not so apparent. Let your nose drop a few millimetres without tucking your chin in or dropping your neck forwards like a giraffe. Your neck is a continuation of your spine, so think tall, then let your 'nose drop' so your head rolls forwards just a little. Think your neck free. If a child with good posture held their head in the same angle as an adult with habits of stiffening their neck, they would be looking at the ceiling. But when we let our heads roll forwards to stop doing this, and if we have become more upright, our face will be looking straight ahead, although it may actually feel like it's looking down. This is an illusion based on our habitual way. We then need to raise our eyes, but as we may be lazy with them, it feels unnatural and possibly like Diana's coy look. But this is unlikely to be the case. It just feels like it.

By learning to turn our eyes more we an help our overall posture. Experiment with looking first then 'giving permission' for your head to follow. You are likely to find that your neck becomes freer too.

Posted by Noël on October 18, 2006 8:33 AM | Permalink