“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added.” This saying is as profoundly true on the plane of the psycho-physiological skills as it is upon the planes of spirituality, ethics and politics. By seeking first relaxed visual functioning of the kind that Nature intended us to have, we shall find that all the rest will be added to us, in the form of better sight and heightened powers of work. If, on the contrary, we persist in behaving as greedy and thoughtless end-gainers, aiming directly at better vision (through mechanical devices for neutralizing symptoms) and increased efficiency (through unremitting strain and effort), we shall end by seeing worse and getting less work done.
Where circumstances make it difficult or embarrassing to assume the attitude of palming, it is possible to obtain a certain measure of relaxation by palming mentally—that is, by closing the eyes, imagining that they are covered with the hands and remembering some pleasant scene or episode, as suggested in an earlier paragraph. This should be accompanied by a conscious “letting go” of the eyes—a “thinking of looseness” in relation to the strained and tired tissues. Purely mental palming is not so beneficial as palming which is both mental and physical; but it is a good second-best.
CHAPTER VII, Blinking and Breathing
It is hard to say whether the kind of relaxation achieved through the techniques described in the present and subsequent chapters is predominantly passive or predominantly dynamic. Luckily, it is of no practical importance how we answer the question. The significant facts about them are that all of them are designed to relieve strain and tension; that all may and should be practised as relaxation drills in periods specially set aside for the purpose; and that all may and should be incorporated into the everyday business of seeing, so as to produce and maintain the state of dynamic relaxation associated with normal functioning. I shall begin with a brief account of blinking, and its importance in the art of seeing.
Normal and Abnormal Blinking Habits
Blinking has two main functions: to lubricate and cleanse the eyes with tears; and to rest them by periodically excluding light. Dryness of the eyes predisposes them to inflammation, and is often associated with blurring of vision. Hence the imperative need for frequent lubrication—that is to say, for frequent blinking. Moreover, dust (as everyone knows who has ever cleaned a window) will stick to even the smoothest surface, and render the most transparent material opaque. The eyelids, as they blink, wash the exposed surfaces of the eyes with tears, and prevent them from becoming dirty. At the same time, when blinking is frequent, as it should be, light is excluded from the eyes during perhaps five per cent or more of all the waking hours.
Eyes in a condition of dynamic relaxation blink often and easily. But where there is strain, blinking tends to occur less frequently, and the eyelids work tensely. This would seem to be due to that same misdirection of the attention, which causes the improper immobilization of the sensing apparatus. The inhibition of movement, natural and normal in the other parts of the body, is carried over, not only to the eyes, but to their lids as well. A person who stares closes the eyelids only at long intervals. This fact is a matter of such common observation that, when novelists write about a stare, they generally qualify the word with the epithet, “unwinking.”
Movement, as the psychologists have long been insisting, is one of the indispensable conditions of sensing and perceiving. But so long as the eyelids are kept tense and relatively immobile, the eyes themselves will remain tense and relatively immobile. Consequently, anyone who wishes to acquire the art of seeing well must cultivate the habit of frequent and effortless blinking. When mobility has been restored to the eyelids, the restoration of mobility to the sensing apparatus will be comparatively easy. Also, the eyes will enjoy better lubrication, more rest, and the improved circulation that is always associated with unstrained muscular movement.
Those who blink too little and too tensely—and they comprise a majority of the sufferers from defective vision—must consciously acquire, or re-acquire, the habit of blinking often and easily. This can be done by pausing every now and then to perform a brief blinking-drill—half a dozen light, butterfly-wing blinks; then a few seconds of relaxed closure of the lids; then more blinks, and another closing. And so on for half a minute or a minute. Repeated at frequent intervals (say, every hour or so) these drills will help to build up the habit of frequent blinking during the rest of the day.
A person who has become “blink-conscious” will also be conscious of his own tendencies to immobilize the eyes and lids, and will be able to check the incipient stare by frequent and easy closures of the lids. Frequent blinking is especially important for those engaged in any form of difficult and detailed work, requiring close attention. When busy with such tasks, it is fatally easy to fix the eyes and lids, with resulting strain, fatigue, dryness of the cornea, inflammation, and impairment of vision. Frequent and easy blinking will often bring a measure of relief that seems out of all proportion to the simplicity of the means employed.
Besides blinking, one may, with advantage, periodically squeeze the eyes tight shut, reinforcing the action of the lids with that of the other facial muscles. This should be done on all occasions when one is tempted to rub the eyes—a barbarous and brutal method of doing with the knuckles what the beautifully adjusted eyelids can do much more safely and just as effectively. It may also be done occasionally, even when there is no itching or other discomfort in the eyes—merely to increase local circulation and stimulate the secretion of tears.
Massage of the eyes themselves is always undesirable; but a gentle rubbing of the temples will often be found soothing and refreshing. Eye fatigue may also be relieved by rubbing and kneading the muscles of the upper part of the nape of the neck. (In certain cases of defective vision, appropriate treatment by a capable osteopath will often produce excellent results.) People who are subject to eye-strain may profitably use this rudimentary kind of massage upon themselves two or three times a day and follow it up by a period of palming.
Normal and Abnormal Breathing Habits
As was pointed out in the first section of this book, experimental psychologists have noted a fairly regular correlation between the state of attentiveness and a modification of the normal rate and amplitude of breathing. To put it more simply, they have noticed that, when we look at something attentively, we tend either to hold our breath for many seconds at a stretch, or alternatively, if we do breathe, to breathe less deeply than at ordinary times. The reason for this is that, when we are trying to concentrate our attention, we find that the sounds and the sense of muscular movement, associated with breathing, are sources of distraction. We try to get rid of these distractions, either by breathing less deeply, or by suspending our breathing altogether during relatively prolonged periods of time.
In their strained effort to see, people with defective vision tend to carry this normal interference with breathing to entirely abnormal extremes. Many of them, when paying close attention to something they are particularly anxious to see, behave almost as if they were diving for pearls, and remain for incredibly long periods without drawing breath. But vision depends to a remarkable extent upon good circulation; and circulation can be described as good only when it is sufficient in quantity (which it is not when the mind is under strain and the eyes are in a condition of nervous muscular tension), and at the same time of good quality (which it certainly is not, when restricted breathing has left the blood imperfectly oxygenated).
The quantity of circulation in and around the eyes may be increased by means of relaxation, passive and dynamic. The quality can be improved by learning consciously to breathe, even while paying attention. Some of the techniques of relaxation have already been described, and I shall have occasion, later on, to mention several others. In this sub-section our concern is only with breathing.
In correcting abnormal breathing habits, the first thing to do is to become aware that they are abnormal. Impress upon yourself the fact that, among persons with defective sight, there is a regular correlation between attentive looking and a quite unnecessary, indeed positively harmful, interference with breathing. Kept in the back of the mind, this thought will periodically pop out into consciousness; and if it does this at a time when you are paying close attention to something, the chances are that you will catch yourself behaving as though you were a pearl fisher ten fathoms under the surface of the sea.
But you are not a pearl fisher, and the element in which you live is not water, but life-giving air. Therefore, fill your lungs with the stuff—not violently, as though you were doing deep-breathing exercises, but in an easy, effortless way, expiration following inspiration in a natural rhythm. Continue, while breathing in this way, to pay
