WAKE-UP DRILLS FOR MORNING EYES

Many persons complain that their eyes in the morning feel like "two burnt holes in a blanket" and

it takes an hour or so to make them feel right or at all usable. This can be due to the fact that

many eyes strain more in sleep than in the waking hours. Here are a few suggestions to be used

on awakening, to help this condition before you get up:

Stretch and roll your body from side to side, breathing deeply. This loosens the vertebrae and the

contracted body muscles in case you have slept tensely.

Stretch your eyes and mouth wide open four times. Many people sleep with jaws locked and

eyelids and teeth clamped tightly. Any animal on awakening stretches.

Blink hard six times, then make twelve light butterfly blinks to get the lids in action for the day.

The eye should blink lightly often during the day.

"Nose write." Most of the tension which our nerves develop settles in the back of the neck at the

base of the skull. We have all had the experience of reading, writing, typing, motoring too long

until the neck draws the head back, hunches the shoulders, and we feel "fit to be tied!" Eyes

which are off focus bring the same reaction. To ease this condition, with closed eyes, use your

nose as an elongated pencil and write with it out in the air. What to write? Go down the alphabet

and write a city for as many of the letters as you can, A for Atlanta, B for Boston, C for

Cleveland, etc. Another time vary your program to avoid boredom. Find countries or colors,

jewels, professions, or foods at different "nose-writing" sessions. You will find it amusing, and

you will loosen the tightness at the base of the skull where eye strain tensions locate. Also, it

utilizes memory and mental picture-work which are relaxing, because you are drawing the shapes

of the letters. "Nose writing" can be used as a first aid for daytime tensions whenever they occur.

In public you could not, without being conspicuous, use your long nose pencil and move your

head, but you could, with eyes closed and with an embroidery needle nose, mentally print the

letters on the head of a pin, and no one would be the wiser. Even this is a release because it starts

the eyes vibrating. Keep the eyes softly closed as you "nose write," and the involuntary shifts will

begin at the rate of seventy times a second under the lids. Your vision should be brighter when

you open your eyes.

5. Eyebrow discipline: Have you noticed in the mirror that the heavy tissues underneath the

eyebrows have encroached on your eyelids so that the lids hardly show or do not show at all?

With many strained eyes the heavy brow comes right down to the lashes. Now this does not have

to be and was not so when you were a child and free from strain. You can get the weight of the

heavy brows off your eyes and aid your vision as well as your good looks. Consciously elevate

your eyebrows. Did you get a sensation at the top of your ears? Try it until you do. Now, practice

until you can reproduce that feeling in the ears without lifting your brows and wrinkling your

forehead. We say in the studio, "Pin your ears back." When you can do this, and with a slight

smile to aid that uplifted feeling, the weight of that heavy portion automatically lifts off the eyes,

you will look years younger, and the eyes will be freed of pressure.

Now do the finger swing, holding the finger in front of your nose and turning the head from side

to side, pretending that the finger moves until you get the illusion that it really does. This is the

first step in breaking strain. Keep up this swing for the count of twenty or thirty, alternately

opening and closing your eyes. This will take the "grits" out of your lids.

Palm while still on your back for five minutes, shoving an extra pillow under your elbows. Now

you will feel really refreshed and ready for a day's work.

Do the long swing in bare feet or slippers when you get out of bed. Swing for two minutes and

you will have served your eyes and nerves well, even if you cannot give them much further

attention during the busy day.

It takes many words and a long time to read these eight directions but ten minutes is all it will

take to do them. So do not be discouraged into thinking you "haven't time for all that." Try it and

time yourself. You will be surprised at what a brief time it takes for you to start the day with eye

comfort. On arising, do your long swing. Many find it conducive to a peaceful night's rest to

repeat these relaxations before falling asleep. Always palm for a few moments after you put out

the light and insure that the eyes, too, will rest. As you drift away in slumber, smile, not only

with your lips but also with your eyes. In the morning, your face will look younger and happier.

*8\247\2*