A Simple Practice to Relax Your Eyes and Nervous System

Tense eyes are often a sign of the over-arousal of your sympathetic nervous system, which readies you for the ‘fight or flight or freeze’ syndrome and results in, among other things, both breath holding and excessively fast breathing.

To help keep your eyes relaxed and your nervous system calm, sense your eyes intermittently throughout the day. If they’re tense, close them, rub your palms together until they’re warm, and cup them gently over your eyes. Sense the warmth from your palms entering your eyes and let them relax back into their sockets for a minute or two as you breathe slowly and evenly through your nose. Try it right now!

You can find more deep relaxation practices in my book Breathe Into Being.