E=Motion is a bimonthly newsletter about The Feldenkrais Method® and movement education, including posture, gesture and its relation to health. Presented by Lavinia Plonka, certified Feldenkrais teacher and author of What Are You Afraid Of? E=Motion is distributed by subscription only. To subscribe, use the sign up box below. To unsubscribe please scroll to the end. Feel free to forward this newsletter!

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Did you miss the last "E=Motion" Newsletter? September 2003

• From the Editor
• What Is Seeing?
• Relaxing The Eyes
  
• Upcoming Workshops

From the Editor

The colors of Autumn. The world's confusing political situation. What the future will bring. The Big Picture. My husband's smile. All of these invite variations of "seeing." Your input, insights and submissions are welcome.

-- Lavinia Plonka
    laviniap@att.net

What Is Seeing?

It is said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. "I could see it in her eyes," "His sad eyes gazed upon her," "He had an evil gleam in his eyes." We could probably find hundreds of these common expressions without trying.

The eyes do more than just see, and you don't see with just your eyes. Antoine d'Sant Exupery's Little Prince once said, "It is not with the eyes that one sees, but with the heart." Apparently the Little Prince anticipated contemporary research. Scientist Carl Bach Y Rita has done some amazing experiments with how the rest of the body sees. By attaching electrodes to the tongue for example, a blindfolded and muffled person can still easily catch a ball rolling across a table. (See Discover Magazine, June 2003).

Your eyes also play a major part in keeping you balanced as you move through space. The eye muscles connect to neurons that determine distance, dimension and orientation. This neural network joins with your vestibular system (which keeps you vertical). When you faint, or go to sleep, where do your eyes go? If you guessed that they roll up into the head, you're right. What is the relation of this movement to loss of verticality?

The eyes' power to communicate probably goes back to our prehistoric ancestry. Wide eyes, dilated pupils indicate receptivity or fear depending on your situation. Biologically, it is the look of prey. Because of it, people with dilated pupils signal that they are available, an easy mark. Women used to even put belladonna in their eyes to dilate their pupils, rendering them apparently more attractive. Small pupils, narrow eyes, indicate hostility. Could that be the steely eyed look of a predator?

When you meet someone with soft, relaxed eyes, you feel reassured that this person can take care of the situation. On the other hand, a person with a permanent deer in headlights expression can seem tense, frightened, or even belligerent (if they are hiding their fear!) Why?

When the eyes are relaxed, one is actually able to see more - a bigger picture. Our reptile brain feels reassured because it is able to scan. When the eyes are relaxed, as they gaze upon any situation, nothing interferes with looking and turning the head, or taking an action. The movement of the eyes often commands the response of the head in turning, mobilizing the entire body. Someone with bulging eyes often has tension in the neck which makes a quick escape and an ability to "see everything" more difficult. They have to figure out clever ways of negotiating through challenging situations because the eyes can't help.

Your eyes are held in place by 3 sets of muscles that let your eyes track whatever objects come into your vision. By learning to relax these muscles, you can soften your gaze and consequently, improve your vision. Relaxing the eyes also often helps relieve headaches and neck tension, since the eye muscles are so connected to head and neck movements.

Moshe Feldenkrais, the developer of The Feldenkrais Method®, once said, "If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want." The great actor Giancarlo Giannini once said he spent an hour and a half every day doing eye exercises in order to communicate his feelings intentionally on camera.

While it is interesting to observe other people's eyes and try to understand their expression, it is infinitely more rewarding (and challenging) to study your own eyes, from the inside out.

(For more info on the eyes, click here for the full article.)

Relaxing The Eyes

You can do this lying or sitting. If you prefer not to read, you can download a Real Player audio version of this exercise. (This may take up to a couple of minutes or more, depending upon your connection speed.) You can download a copy of Real Player at my site if you need it.

Close your eyes. Cup your right hand over your right eye, your fingers on your forehead pointing slightly left. Place your left hand over your left eye. Keeping your breath soft, just notice what is going on in front of your eyes. Is if completely black? Are there patchy areas of light? Maybe even some little bursts of light? These are your excited visual cortex trying to see. Look into the blackness and see if you can find the darkest patch of black. Try to imagine that blackness spreading across your entire field of vision.

Now take your hands off of your eyes. Keep them closed. Imagine a ping pong ball sitting on the bridge of your nose. Now let it float away in front of your face. Keep looking at it in your mind's eye as it floats into the distance, getting smaller, till it's just a little white dot. Then gradually let it come back. Do this movement about five times. Then slowly open your eyes. How does the world look now?

For more stories and exercises for your eyes, click here to visit the Feldenkrais site.

Recommended Reading:

Alain Berthoz, The Brain's Sense Of Movement, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 2000)

Jacques Lusseyran, And Then There Was Light, Parabola Books (New York, 1987)

Upcoming Workshops

All of the following workshops employ a unique blend of Feldenkrais®, creative dialogue and theater play. They are for anyone interested in better self- understanding and more effective communication. Performers, somatic teachers, psychotherapists and the general public will all benefit.

Sarasota, FL - March 13, 2004. 10 AM - 6 PM - Courageous Living: Body/Mind Tools for Anxious Times.
Based on the upcoming book What Are You Afraid Of? A Body/Mind Guide to Courageous Living (available April 12), Free Lecture, Friday, March 12, 7:00 PM.

NYC - April 10-11, 2004. 10 AM - 6PM - Beyond Words: How unconscious gestures and posture affect the personality. Sign up for one or both days. Free Lecture, Friday, April 9, 7:00 PM

Caribbean - January 2-8, 2005 - Serpent Tales: A Multi-Disciplinary Adventure into the Mythology of Renewal and Creation, taught with Melanie Oates, PhD

For more information on any of these workshops, click here.

If you are interested in taking a workshop, hosting a workshop, or a book related event in your city, please contact me at: laviniap@att.net.

New CD For Airplane Travelers

There's nothing like getting out of your airplane seat and feeling like every bone in your body has stiffened into a painful vise. Except maybe having to sit for hours at a time with your knees jammed up against the seat in front of you, people next to you on either side and no place to go!

The human body was designed for movement, not for sitting still - your joints need to be lubricated through movement; even your blood circulation and digestion rely on a certain amount of movement to keep you healthy. Not only that, but the nervous system WANTS to move. So if you keep it strapped into a seat, it begins to feel ….literally….. trapped. It doesn't understand that you are on your way to a fabulous tropical vacation. It just wants OUT. So it starts producing stress responses - hormones and other chemicals go raging through you making you even more tense.

While there's not much you can do about the size of your space and your seat, there is something you can do to make the ride more comfortable, and feel better when you finally get off the plane. I'm pleased to announce Comfortable Flying, a CD designed to be played in your airplane seat. Using simple movements derived from The Feldenkrais Method, the exercises on the CD are so small and relaxing, people won't even notice you are doing anything for most of them. To order your copy, go to www.laviniaplonka.com.