This technique is adapted from Feldenkreis teacher and certified trainer of Compassionate Communication, Valerie Wycoff, https://www.bodyvoicealive.nz.

Photo by Sam Schooler on Unsplash

This very simple exercise can produce out-of-scale results, and it takes particular attention to realise it as the source of improvements across the broad range of life. It gives access to optimism and creative thinking, and it’s worth taking time to notice and attribute this so that we continue with the practice. I recommend applying it on a frequent and irregular basis, which requires some ingenuity in setting up structures to remember to do so.

Let me set the context before describing what to do…

A common recommendation for stress or anxiety, or when we aren’t feeling good about a situation, is to focus on breathing, shifting the breath from the shallow and fast mode of fight or flight to the deeper, slower breathing of physiological calm. In my experience, when I tried this, I’d be frustrated. It was very difficult in such a state to maintain my focus for long enough to breathe a few slow breaths.

Valerie pointed out that eye movements are connected with breath in these very different physiological states. In the stress and fear response of fight, flight or freeze, breath is shallow and rapid and vision is narrowly focused. In the calm state, where we can think creatively and enjoy life, breathing is deeper and vision is broad. Because the two are linked, if we shift our breathing, vision also alters.

And here’s the trick: if we shift our vision, breathing changes too. Simply by moving our eyes around our range of vision, to the edges of our visual field, our whole physiology changes. Breathing deepens, heart rate slows, and we can access creative problem solving again. Anxiety fades and we’re more optimistic.

In the wild, when there was a real and physical threat, it made sense to focus our vision on whatever that was, and breathe fast so that we could take in information through our sense of smell. Now when threats are more often intangible or imagined, shallow breath induces anxiety and narrow vision blinds us to broader awareness of what is actually going on.

Of course, doing this once is not going to fix everything. Life happens, and a shift can take time. You can experiment with different forms of reminder, maybe setting up alerts on your phone, or making an intention of doing it any time you open a door, or hear a phone beep, or get up from a chair.

If I have a client who is managing anxiety or wanting to alter habitual thoughts, I might get their permission to send a reminder at random times during the day. Usually it’s just the eye roll emoji in a text message. And when I send that message, it reminds me to do it, too.

I also recommend tracking your level of positivity and calm over a few days or weeks. Both states – stress and calm – are familiar, so you might not notice that the balance has shifted. Taking stock of improvement can help you realise it’s worthwhile continuing.

Tip for helping others: if someone else is experiencing anxiety, or spinning on unhelpful storylines, you can get them to try this. If they’re not in a state to be able to hear you, you can help them temporarily by pointing out something outside their narrow focus: a bird or cloud, or something up in the corner of a room, so that their vision broadens, and see if that helps bring them optimism and calm.

Jennifer Manson is an author and coach. Find out about Jennifer’s manifestation, goal-setting and future creation coaching…