We all know that feeling.
We're three chapters into our new book and suddenly you find it hard to focus for more than a few lines.
You're sitting at work starting at the computer screen and all the words start running together.
Both of these things have one thing in common.
Tired eyes.
When your eyes get tired it cant really scupper your productivity and your focus. Or it can really make your relaxation time anything but relaxing.
But worst of all tired eyes can can end up giving you a whole host of painful body aches in a short space of time.
Did you know tired eyes could actually be the cause of that sore back or those achy shoulders?
But thats just life isn't it?
Surely there's nothing I can do about my eyes?
Anyway how can my eyes getting tired affect the rest of my body?
well to answer these questions,
No, yes and they really can.
When people think about their eyes, most people only think about their ability to see clearly or not.
Now the main task for your eyes is to see and the better they are at that the better for you in general.
Did you know vision is one of the main ways your brain gathers information about the world around you? So the better you can see the better the quality of information about the world your brain is getting.
Conversely, if your brain is getting poor quality information from your eyes then that is reflected in how you stand, sit, move, how much anxiety you feel and most importantly how much pain you feel.
Your eyesight is a skill that can be improved in the exact same way as a bench press can be improved.
Your eyes are moved by multiple small muscles around the eyeball which contract and relax in sequence in order to move the eye. Now any muscle in the body can be exercised and just like any other muscle the muscles around the eye can become tight or weak and that will cause the eyes to function poorly.
As well as the biomechanics we have to understand that vision lives in the brain. The eyes simply gather information. That information is processed and integrated in the brain.
We see with our brains not our eyes.
In 1969, Paul bach-y-Rita had an article published in Nature, showing the results of a tactile vision machine. This machine enabled people that had been blind from birth to read, make out shadows and make out faces. So yes, vision lives in the brain.
Check it out for yourself.
But let's talk about you.
So when the eyes get tired the body tries to compensate until it cant compensate any longer.
The body is good at that!
Think like this. Walk into any office anywhere. Now watch a typical computer users posture over the course of the day. They may start with relatively good posture but as the day wears on and tiredness and eyestrain creeps in the posture starts to suffer and that opens the door to injury.
In this blog i'm going to show you a drill from our Vestibular Reset program designed to help you change focus rapidly form one point to another.
This drill is perfect for anyone that suffers from eyestrain when reading. You only need to practise it for as little as two minutes a day to start seeing improvements.
The point i'm making is this, when you train you visual or vestibular systems you are actually training your whole body.
If your brain is getting good clear information it will allow your body to move better with less pain and restriction.
If you look after your visual and vestibular systems, not only will your eyes respond but your body will too.