There is a direct correlation between tension in and around the muscles of the eye and tension in the rest of our bodies.
Soft Eyes
Softening the eyes helps us dissolve highly concentrated patterns in the use of our eyes, just letting the eyes do their job reflecting that vision does not require work or tension, you don’t have to do to see, it just happens when your eyelids are open.
Isn’t it strange that drivers in a hurry lean six inches closer to the windscreen as if pulled forward by their eyes in order to try and speed up their journey? Tension in the eyes sets up the tone for the whole nervous system, it’s almost impossible to be physically and mentally relaxed when your eyes are in hard narrow focus mode.
It’s not just a matter of thinking of the eyeballs being softer, think of the eyelids softening, the muscles within the eye orbs even behind the eyeballs, its amazing just how many of the small delicate muscles in this area become entrained and almost supportive of any tension, letting go and softening the eyes helps dissolve patterns of tension all over the body and mind.
Soft eyes does not mean fuzzy vision, letting it all ‘blur’ it’s not about zoning out, going back to the section ‘Hunters Eyes”, a hunter is very much aware of everything that is happening around them. Awareness and attention are different in nature, awareness is wide and open but is an effortless type of experiencing, attention is more associated with tension because it implies focus on something specific and probably small in the bigger scheme of things, we say things like “I am trying to concentrate” when what we really mean is that we are experiencing mental and often physical effort maintaining a narrow field of interest. The facial tension people display when trying to solve a mental puzzle shows just how confused we are when demands on our mental faculty display as physical tension.
So awareness is about allowing our senses to open without effort, it’s about experiencing what is going on all around us in an effortless way.
Next time you find your eyes are hard just ask yourself if that eye effort is making anything happen faster, is it helping in anyway at all? Remember as long as your eyelids are open the light flows in without any effort on your part, so let the light come to you, you don’t need to reach out with your eyes.