Why eyes matter

We humans are visual creatures. Over 70% of the information received by our senses is through the eyes, and as much as 50% of our brain is dedicated to vision - interpreting what the eyes are seeing, and controlling movement such that we can look at what we want to look at.

Our eyes are amazing - we can distinguish fine detail, focus close-up or at the far horizon, take in a very wide field of view at once, and do this in a wide variety of light conditions from bright sunlight to dark night.

Eyes are more than just sensors. The eyes are controlled by muscles which swivel and position our eyeballs in their sockets - the extraocular muscles. Focus is adjusted mostly by the ciliary muscle, part of the lens of the eye, and also partly by the extraocular muscles. So the brain both receives information through the eyes and also sends signals to the muscles to control where and how we look. The brain's way of sending instructions to the muscles of the eye is just the same as for any other muscle. This means that, just as we form habits in how we move, we also form habits of how we use our eyes.

But how we use our eyes is also intimately connected with how we move. Every movement we make involves our eyes, whether the eyes are being used to see where we are going, or to look at something else while we move. And many movements we make are solely or primarily intended to allow us to look at what we want to look at.

The ability to look in different directions as we move, and to move so as to direct our eyes in certain ways, is fundamental to how we use ourself, to how our brain gives instructions to our muscles and to how we position ourselves in our surroundings.

The muscles that control the eyeballs, like any muscle, can get tired from overuse; or if we don't use them in a particular way we can forget how to use them in that particular way. For example, if we spend all day with our eyes looking at a screen a fixed distance away, we may need more time to change focus to look at the horizon, or even lose completely the ability to adjust to a long focal distance. The ability to take in the edges of our visual field may also be impaired. Light is still arriving in the eye from the periphery, but the brain no longer knows how to process parts of the information it receives, as it's acquired the habit of not doing so.

Because eyesight is so tightly connected with movement, losing agility and flexibility in our eyes affects how we move more generally. For example, if we want to turn an look over our shoulder, then it helps if the eyeballs have a wide range of movement. Without that, we need to do more work in twisting our spine so that we can face backwards. If we want to be able to take in as much as possible of our surroundings, we need our eyes to be good at scanning the field of vision evenly, not jumping from point to point, and this ability gives us more precision and control in how we move.

The good news is that eyes generally respond well to Awareness Through Movement lessons, (re-)gaining agility. Specially-designed lessons bring attention to how our eyes move. We discover from the inside how our eyes are connected with our movements; how we can use our eyes calmly and without strain; and how we can recover after exerting our eyes.

What techniques do you use to help let your eyes function better?