monomer/program_peace · Datasets at Hugging Face

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underused levator palpebrae superioris instead which opens the eyes wide After completing
the exploratory activity below you should notice that your eyes look wider and friendlier for
several hours
Eye Activity Watching the Lower Lid
Sit or stand in front of a mirror with your eyes as wide open as possible Ideally you should
be able to see your entire iris and a bit of white border above and below it If you cant set
this as the goal You should notice two tendencies Your lower lid will tremble and tighten
revealing a tendency to revert to squinting Your eyebrows will raise on their own Your job
is to keep your eyes wide and your brow fully lowered and limp for five full minutes You
should notice that performing this activity is much easier when using a breath metronome
Illustration A Orbicularis oculi muscle encircles the eye and controls squinting B Eyeball in the eye socket
Eye movement is controlled by ocular muscles surrounding the eye Eye wideness is controlled by the levator
palpebrae superioris above it
A friend once said to me See these bags under my eyes never had these before spent
two years partying staying out late smoking cigarettes doing drugs and drinking They
developed abruptly And even after stopped partying so hard they never went away Most of
us have creases under our eyes and had only seen them get worse with time so assumed
that the change in my friends appearance was permanent But his comments did start me
wondering about the underlying biological reason for changes in the skin around our eyes It
took me years to realize that the problem is caused by muscular strain from excessive squinting
and years more to confirm that it is completely reversible Chapter will show you how to
massage the muscles of the eyes and forehead which is necessary to fully release the muscles
Chapter Hold a Steady Upward Gaze with Wide Eyes
and erase the dark circles But this chapter will help you change how you use the muscles
surrounding your eyes during daily life which is arguably more important
At first you may feel these eye exercises are driven by vanity which is uncomfortable for
most of us but at a certain point you will realize that your real motive is inner bravery
Reducing the appearance of eye strain is merely an aesthetic side effect of widening your eyes
Far more important are the effects on emotional prosperity It is well documented that
negative emotions generally cause squinting and that positive emotions cause eyewidening
Squinting itself is never an emotionally neutral activity Squinting is the continual elicitation
of the defensive blink response which evolved to protect the eye from damage Animals squint
unconsciously when they feel the safety of their eyes is in jeopardy Imagine pushing your way
through faceheight tree branches for instance You will feel your eyes instinctively narrow
That is why most mammals squint when fighting or when they anticipate a fight erupting
Heavy squinting is a form of trauma that maintains a defensive eyelid posture and disinhibits
the blinking reflex Mammals that feel threatened blink hard and fast whereas mammals that
feel safe blink very slowly Practicing a few slow blinks will help you widen your eyes and
develop a calmer blinking pattern
Eye Exercise Slow Blinking
Blink ten times very slowly Blink another ten times as slowly as you can The calmer a
mammal is the slower it blinks However most people have no awareness of or capacity for
slow blinking until they practice it
As you might have guessed the startle response and distressed breathing both heighten
squinting They are all part of the same neurological circuit Allowing unconscious brain centers
to maintain tension in the eyelids sends messages to other threat centers in the brain
communicating that the current environment is potentially threatening to the eyes This is
ironic because in todays world our eyes are rarely threatened In the ancestral past it was
adaptive for anxiety and fear to potentiate squinting but today work and relationship stress
are practically never indicative of impending damage to the eyes
Your stress response also spikes when you widen your eyes during social situations If you
were hooked up to a machine that measured your sympathetic nervous system activity
it would spike every time you opened your eyes all the way Wide eyes give us a sensation of
showing off and that in turn makes us breathe shallowly in an attempt not to be too forward
or noticeable Exercise overrides this by asking you to pair paced breathing with widening the
eyes Performing the exercises herein will make it so that your body becomes accustomed to
having the eyes wide without breathing shallowly
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
Illustration Man raising eyebrows B C Women with apparent strain in the orbicularis oculi
Eye Exercise Wide Eyes with No Facade
Do one or both of the following two things spend ten seconds gently rubbing your eyelids
and upper cheeks to stimulate blood circulation or spend ten seconds squinting tightly
Both actions will potentiate squinting
Next spend five minutes within four feet of a mirror trying to make your eyes as wide as
possible while keeping your brow relaxed Drop your social facade and just look into your
own wide eyes It is okay if you look insane or demented After a couple of minutes you may
feel you are staring into your soul You should feel comfortable looking at everyone this way
This will reset your eyes to a wider aperture and diminish your overreactive superficially
pleasing veneer Once you have the coordination you can achieve it without a mirror
Consistent practice will lead to continued improvement
Like rubbing the eyes and squinting them tightly crying also encourages squinting to linger
When most people cry they look sad their eyes become puffy and they continue to squint for
hours afterward However this is not a necessary part of crying Immediately after the next
time you cry sit in front of a mirror breathing diaphragmatically and widen your eyes for five
full minutes For the rest of the day your eyes will feel light carefree and wide instead of
compressed and miserable The reason for this is that crying actually involves deep squinting
and a full healthy contraction of the orbicularis oculi rather than the continuous partial
contraction that usually takes place This sends blood to the muscles and makes them more
responsive to efforts at widening As we will discuss in depth in later chapters one of the best
ways to get a muscle to relax is to contract it to fatigue it and then give it a chance to rest fully
This means that crying is good for you as long as you help yourself recover in a healthy
emotionally uplifting way That fits with its functional purpose Humans are the only animals
that cry and biologists have hypothesized that it might serve a communicative function that
asks for help and elicits altruistic behavior from others It has also been characterized as a
reliable signal of appeasement and vulnerability because by blurring our vision it handicaps
aggressive or defensive actions think that more than anything else crying serves to fatigue
the respiratory muscles and the facial muscles especially the ones involved in squinting and
sneering enabling them a period of respite afterward
Chapter Hold a Steady Upward Gaze with Wide Eyes
Relaxing the orbicularis oculi will look and feel artificial at first A few weeks of concerted
effort combined with diaphragmatic breathing will fix this making it your new default state
When first attempted to stop squinting looked absurd appeared like a sickly drug addict
that had been startled or like an uptight person trying too hard to appear calm At times felt
my face was a leering death mask It took several weeks for the rings under my eyes and the
general sleepless appearance to fade With time the cheeks and the areas under the eyes
began to look less puffy lose their discoloration and appear healthier When you are alone
shoot for a bugeyed look Soon it will pass for normal Once it does do it in public When
you realize that your eyes remain wide open when speaking to others you know you have
gotten the hang of it Once you do going back to squinting will feel like glaring
Many military personnel and people suffering from PTSD have a tense look that is centered

underused levator palpebrae superioris instead which opens the eyes wide After completing

the exploratory activity below you should notice that your eyes look wider and friendlier for

several hours

Eye Activity Watching the Lower Lid

Sit or stand in front of a mirror with your eyes as wide open as possible Ideally you should

be able to see your entire iris and a bit of white border above and below it If you cant set

this as the goal You should notice two tendencies Your lower lid will tremble and tighten

revealing a tendency to revert to squinting Your eyebrows will raise on their own Your job

is to keep your eyes wide and your brow fully lowered and limp for five full minutes You

should notice that performing this activity is much easier when using a breath metronome

Illustration A Orbicularis oculi muscle encircles the eye and controls squinting B Eyeball in the eye socket

Eye movement is controlled by ocular muscles surrounding the eye Eye wideness is controlled by the levator

palpebrae superioris above it

A friend once said to me See these bags under my eyes never had these before spent

two years partying staying out late smoking cigarettes doing drugs and drinking They

developed abruptly And even after stopped partying so hard they never went away Most of

us have creases under our eyes and had only seen them get worse with time so assumed

that the change in my friends appearance was permanent But his comments did start me

wondering about the underlying biological reason for changes in the skin around our eyes It

took me years to realize that the problem is caused by muscular strain from excessive squinting

and years more to confirm that it is completely reversible Chapter will show you how to

massage the muscles of the eyes and forehead which is necessary to fully release the muscles

Chapter Hold a Steady Upward Gaze with Wide Eyes

and erase the dark circles But this chapter will help you change how you use the muscles

surrounding your eyes during daily life which is arguably more important

At first you may feel these eye exercises are driven by vanity which is uncomfortable for

most of us but at a certain point you will realize that your real motive is inner bravery

Reducing the appearance of eye strain is merely an aesthetic side effect of widening your eyes

Far more important are the effects on emotional prosperity It is well documented that

negative emotions generally cause squinting and that positive emotions cause eyewidening

Squinting itself is never an emotionally neutral activity Squinting is the continual elicitation

of the defensive blink response which evolved to protect the eye from damage Animals squint

unconsciously when they feel the safety of their eyes is in jeopardy Imagine pushing your way

through faceheight tree branches for instance You will feel your eyes instinctively narrow

That is why most mammals squint when fighting or when they anticipate a fight erupting

Heavy squinting is a form of trauma that maintains a defensive eyelid posture and disinhibits

the blinking reflex Mammals that feel threatened blink hard and fast whereas mammals that

feel safe blink very slowly Practicing a few slow blinks will help you widen your eyes and

develop a calmer blinking pattern

Eye Exercise Slow Blinking

Blink ten times very slowly Blink another ten times as slowly as you can The calmer a

mammal is the slower it blinks However most people have no awareness of or capacity for

slow blinking until they practice it

As you might have guessed the startle response and distressed breathing both heighten

squinting They are all part of the same neurological circuit Allowing unconscious brain centers

to maintain tension in the eyelids sends messages to other threat centers in the brain

communicating that the current environment is potentially threatening to the eyes This is

ironic because in todays world our eyes are rarely threatened In the ancestral past it was

adaptive for anxiety and fear to potentiate squinting but today work and relationship stress

are practically never indicative of impending damage to the eyes

Your stress response also spikes when you widen your eyes during social situations If you

were hooked up to a machine that measured your sympathetic nervous system activity

it would spike every time you opened your eyes all the way Wide eyes give us a sensation of

showing off and that in turn makes us breathe shallowly in an attempt not to be too forward

or noticeable Exercise overrides this by asking you to pair paced breathing with widening the

eyes Performing the exercises herein will make it so that your body becomes accustomed to

having the eyes wide without breathing shallowly

PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body

Illustration Man raising eyebrows B C Women with apparent strain in the orbicularis oculi

Eye Exercise Wide Eyes with No Facade

Do one or both of the following two things spend ten seconds gently rubbing your eyelids

and upper cheeks to stimulate blood circulation or spend ten seconds squinting tightly

Both actions will potentiate squinting

Next spend five minutes within four feet of a mirror trying to make your eyes as wide as

possible while keeping your brow relaxed Drop your social facade and just look into your

own wide eyes It is okay if you look insane or demented After a couple of minutes you may

feel you are staring into your soul You should feel comfortable looking at everyone this way

This will reset your eyes to a wider aperture and diminish your overreactive superficially

pleasing veneer Once you have the coordination you can achieve it without a mirror

Consistent practice will lead to continued improvement

Like rubbing the eyes and squinting them tightly crying also encourages squinting to linger

When most people cry they look sad their eyes become puffy and they continue to squint for

hours afterward However this is not a necessary part of crying Immediately after the next

time you cry sit in front of a mirror breathing diaphragmatically and widen your eyes for five

full minutes For the rest of the day your eyes will feel light carefree and wide instead of

compressed and miserable The reason for this is that crying actually involves deep squinting

and a full healthy contraction of the orbicularis oculi rather than the continuous partial

contraction that usually takes place This sends blood to the muscles and makes them more

responsive to efforts at widening As we will discuss in depth in later chapters one of the best

ways to get a muscle to relax is to contract it to fatigue it and then give it a chance to rest fully

This means that crying is good for you as long as you help yourself recover in a healthy

emotionally uplifting way That fits with its functional purpose Humans are the only animals

that cry and biologists have hypothesized that it might serve a communicative function that

asks for help and elicits altruistic behavior from others It has also been characterized as a

reliable signal of appeasement and vulnerability because by blurring our vision it handicaps

aggressive or defensive actions think that more than anything else crying serves to fatigue

the respiratory muscles and the facial muscles especially the ones involved in squinting and

sneering enabling them a period of respite afterward

Chapter Hold a Steady Upward Gaze with Wide Eyes

Relaxing the orbicularis oculi will look and feel artificial at first A few weeks of concerted

effort combined with diaphragmatic breathing will fix this making it your new default state

When first attempted to stop squinting looked absurd appeared like a sickly drug addict

that had been startled or like an uptight person trying too hard to appear calm At times felt

my face was a leering death mask It took several weeks for the rings under my eyes and the

general sleepless appearance to fade With time the cheeks and the areas under the eyes

began to look less puffy lose their discoloration and appear healthier When you are alone

shoot for a bugeyed look Soon it will pass for normal Once it does do it in public When

you realize that your eyes remain wide open when speaking to others you know you have

gotten the hang of it Once you do going back to squinting will feel like glaring

Many military personnel and people suffering from PTSD have a tense look that is centered