Week 4 Lesson Tips
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General Tips
- Do not allow the eyes to see clearly by tensing the eye muscles; this will only reinforce the bad habits and slow your progress. Let go of any tension you are holding in the eye muscles, back of neck and shoulders by using deep breathing and movements. Take deep breaths. Slowly move your neck, shoulders and eyes to look at different objects. These movements will help to keep the muscles from locking and slowly relieve the tension you hold.
- Try to be aware of any thoughts that cause your eyes to tense. When you notice a thought, pay attention to it for a little while and let it go by bringing your attention back to your breathing and what your eyes see.
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Step 1 Tips
- Intent is important. It prepares the mind to concentrate on the task at hand. Giving yourself a conscious instructions will help to keep your mind focused on what you want to do.
- When you start, you will experience many thoughts racing through your mind. For example, you may wonder if you have switched off the kettle, worry whether you can finish the report on time, or feel annoyed by the loud construction noise outside. It is quite normal. Simply acknowledge it by saying silently, “that is a thought” and continue on with the exercise with the conscious effort of not letting the mind dwell on anything but the task at hand. By being aware that you are having a thought is a good start to keep the mind focused.
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Step 3 Tips
- As you are practicing you may feel tension in and around the eyes, and back of the head, neck and shoulders. If so, it shows that you are holding stress and that you are trying to make or keep the image clear. Close your eyes for a little while and feel the rhythm of your breath, then open them and continue.
- During the practice, the image will clear at first for a split second and then become blurry again. Do not try to hold the clarity or force the eyes to see clearly again as this will create tension in the eyes, neck and shoulders. Pay attention to what the eyes see and the rhythm of your breathing. The clarity will come again and each time it will stay clear a little longer as you practice.
- Thoughts will continually flow in and out of your mind. It is likely that you will follow the thought without realizing that you are following it. If you allow this to happen, your mind will continue to jump from one thought to another. When you are lost in your thoughts, you unconsciously allow your habits to take over many of the muscle control that will lead you to unconsciously tense and strain your eyes. The more you let your mind wander, the farther and faster it will jump from awareness to thoughts. If you do not learn the skills to interrupt this continual thought hopping, you will allow all sorts of external factors and stimuli to influence your body and mind. These external factors dilute your mental focus and cause you to feel torn between many things. Thoughts and emotions can run wild. As a result, you will hold a lot of stress in the body and mind. Stress will eventually lead back to your eyes.
- As you practice to pay attention to your breathing and what your eyes see, you will be able to recognize faster and faster a thought interrupting your awareness. Just by recognizing the presence of that thought, you can stop it and keep yourself from following it.
- When the mind is too busy, we are not aware of the things we are doing. We are too distracted to notice. It is like trying to do your homework as you are watching TV, listening to the radio, playing video games, and eating all at the same time. We can have many task to do, but the mind works best and is most at ease when it works on one task at a time.
- Eliminating the many thoughts flowing through your mind will allow you to be more aware of the things happening around and inside you. When you are able to pay attention to the things you are doing, you can sense when thoughts and sensations trigger you to act. For example, you are working and a sweet smell reminds you of the waffle cone you had at the beach and triggers you to want to have some ice cream. If your mind was distracted with many things, you may feel like having some ice cream and automatically go get some ice cream without consciously deciding that you want it. However, if you are aware of when the smell triggers the thought, you can acknowledge the thought and decide whether to allow it through or let it go. By being aware, you get to decide whether to allow the trigger to convert into a craving, or continue with your work.
- Learning to be aware of the present will give you peace of mind and body because your mind is not being battered like a ship in a storm. As you experience all the emotions of anger, stress and joy, your mind can stay calm like being in the eye of a hurricane. This is the power of training the mind. This can be trained by simply paying attention to your breathing and what your eyes see.
- Awareness will also help you to recognize the tension you hold, so that you can consciously relax it.
- When your mind is too busy, it will have trouble getting back to the clear vision. Go back to the basics of the exercise. Take deep breathes, clear your mind and focus on the point your eyes see.
- When your mind is relaxed, the eyes will look at the points effortlessly as if placed on fast forward. The image is perfectly sharp wherever you look. You can easily switch from near to far without effort.
- Awareness, relaxation and consciously seeing are important factors for improving our eyesight. This mental training takes practice and it becomes easier as you do it more.
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