M3 : Lesson 4: Vagus Toning – Eye Yoga Tools (functional neurology-based exercises)
MODULE 3, LESSON 4 DISCLAIMER: As stated in many videos on the platform as well as in the forum, please start these exercises SLOWLY with 1-3 repetitions. See how you do with this and then build up from there *at your own pace.* If you feel symptomatic, simply reduce the number of repetitions and the range of motion. ALWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR IF YOU’RE NOT SURE IF THESE EXERCISES ARE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR SITUATION.
Transcript
Module 3 lesson 4. Faggle toning eye movements, also known as eye yoga or functional neurology eye exercises to improve brain processing and nervous system regulation. I think I’ve told you the story of how I used to teach certain nervous system exercises as a physical therapist to those with chronic pain but I didn’t apply those same tools to my own situation for, I don’t know, about 15 years. Well, the eye exercises were one of the tools as I used about 20 years ago and had awesome success for chronic pain and whiplash and, you know, all sorts of injuries to the spine. And when I started applying these exercises to myself, I had a profound shift, and I was so frustrated that I didn’t use these for many, many years on myself because I didn’t think that they would have anything directly to do with helping with Lyme disease or mold toxicity.
What I failed to remember was that these eye extra sizes help with brain processing. And when your brain processing is better, your immune processing is better, your autonomic nervous system functions better. In fact, before I started doing limbic system retraining, I did these eye exercises alone own for about a month, and I had a massive change in my function. I used to be in a dark quiet room. I couldn’t handle light sound.
I couldn’t really drive, could hardly walk. And literally, these eye exercises alone improved my function significantly. They got me walking again, driving again, handling light and sound. So do not underestimate what these little exercises can do for your body. So that’s why I include them in my program.
I’ve had some people have just amazing results with these extra sizes alone, and they’re not to be missed. And they’re definitely something to just bring into your day. They’re super simple. You can just kinda make a habit of doing them. So let’s move on and learn how to do the eye exercises.
A little more about what they are. They are a way to biohack your brain, improving its overall function, and activating your vagus nerve. Ixor sizes decrease the stress response in the limbic system and improve mid brain processing such as the thalamus’s ability to relay information to your prefrontal cortex, which is what we need to get online to help regulate our nervous system. It improves upper cervical mobility and alignment of your C1C2 vertebrae, so you will notice more range of motion in your neck and back from these exercises. They help to create the neurochemistry of courage and connection.
Why would that be? Well, think about ventral vagal state. Ventral vagal is social engagement. The ventral vagal circuit innervates your eyes, your face. So if you are doing eye exercises, you are engaging more of your ventral bagel circuit, which allows you to come into connection and feel safer around people and safer just in general in life.
The eye exercises help you to stay present in the face of danger and to feel more embodied during a stress response. During stress, often our eyes are darting from thing to thing and looking for potential threats. But when we learn how to focus our eyes, Even though we’re not feeling safe in our body, it helps to rewire the brain’s stress response. Generally, they’re calming and regulating eye exercises, eye yoga for vagal tone. The side effects It’s normal to have a little dizziness and other symptoms at first as your brain is processing new information.
This is really important. A lot of people do these exercises and they think they’re having an adverse effect when really just the way your brain is processing, is changing, and it can make you feel a little weird at first. So just do a few repetitions a day and build up as tolerated. You’re literally rewiring the processing of your brain. Also, you might have emotions arise with these exercises I know I did.
They literally unlock certain memories, and they help with processing of emotions. Think of treatments like EMDR or brain spotting. They use your eyes and looking in different directions to help you process trauma. So these exercises although much gentler than those techniques, may bring up some emotions. Vail toning exercise number 4.
Eye yoga. We’re gonna be learning 4 core eye exercises and also a couple more, but these are the core 4. I’m gonna go over all of these and show you an active demonstration of each of them. Now as I show you these exercises, You’re not going to do too many of them. Maybe 3 to 10 repetitions of each one, and you’ll repeat it a few times a day depending on how ill you are or how much time you have.
If they’re triggering, you’re just gonna do 3 repetitions of each of these exercises, maybe just once a day. It shouldn’t take very long. Getting through all four exercises should only take about 5 minutes of your time, and I’m gonna recommend you repeat all four exercises again. N a few times a day. The first exercise is called eye gaze stabilization.
It’s also known as the vestibular ocular motor reflex. There’s gonna be 5 positions that mirror this little dot pattern you see on the right, where your eyes are gonna be focusing on one dot at a time while you move your head, we also will alternatively use our thumb as a focus point rather than these dots, which I will scribe and demonstrate in a moment. So make an image just like this with 5 dots in this kind of a pattern and put it up on your wall have the dots be about 4 to 5 inches apart, and you will put the image on the wall to use as your target point or you can use your thumb like I will show you in a moment. Hello, friends. We’re gonna learn our first eye exercise called eye gaze stabilization.
Also known as the vestibular ocular motor reflex. So I’ll explain the components to this, and then we will do it together. The first piece to know is that you’re gonna be looking at your thumb now straight ahead of your nose to start with. You’re gonna be focusing your eye gaze on your thumb now the entire time while your head is moving side to side. So for example, it might look like staring at my thumb nail, and we’ll be shaking our head in a no motion side to side while focusing on our eyes.
Second thing to know is don’t move your head too quickly. It’s a slower motion side to side. 3rd, if this bothers you, don’t move your head all the way side to side, just a small motion side to side. This can trigger a little dizziness, even maybe a little bit of anxiety at first is you’re getting your brain processing up and going. It’s totally normal.
Just adjust the exercise as needed. Don’t do as many repetitions. Don’t move your head as much and go slower. The second piece to know that’s really important is that we’re gonna do this with our breath. So when we move our head side aside, it’s going to be on our exhale.
So it’s gonna look like this. Inhale, stare at your thumb, exhale, nod your head no on the exhale. We’ll be doing initially 3 repetitions you’ll work your way up to 10 repetitions. The other thing to know is there are 5 different positions we’re going to do this. The first one is straight out ahead just like this.
And if you get symptomatic, just stop there. Just stop with this one. It’s the first one I did. I spent a whole week just doing 3 repetitions a day side to side because that was the the function I had at the time. But you’re gonna work your way up to doing looking at your thumb straight ahead, and then the other positions are off to the left.
Well, you’ll do the same motion. Off to the right, staring at my thumb now, up ahead, my chin is staying level. And again, the same motion and down below, again, chin’s level, but I’m just staring at my thumbnail like this. So those are the 5 positions. Next, we’re gonna do this together.
We’re going to do each of the 5 positions, 3 repetitions on the exhale. Are you ready? Okay. Thumb straight ahead. Inhale.
Exhale. Nod side to side 1. 2, 3. Off to the left, staring at your thumbnail, inhale. Exhale.
1. 2, 3, off to the right. Inhale. Exhale. 1, 2, 3, up above, inhale.
Exhale. 1, 2, 3. Last position down below. 1, 2, 3. So that’s the basics.
I have a couple more things to give you as extra credit. The first thing is instead of nodding no, You can do all five positions and nod, yes. So up and down and you do straight ahead to the left, to the right, above and below, nodding up and down on the exhale. Lastly, you can add a little bit of vagal toning to this like we learned in module 3 earlier with the vu breath. Again, your thumb is straight ahead.
You inhale. As you exhale and nod, just go So using the vu breath, increasing our vagal tone while doing eye gaze stability just for a little extra bang for your back, so to speak. So that’s another thing you can do. You can also simply just while you’re doing this. Whatever.
Tone comes to you, that’s another way to add a little more regal tone to your eye gaze stabilization activity. The next exercise will go over is core exercise number 2 for the eyes, smooth pursue eye tracking figure 8. There’s a couple of bonus options, h form and an x form that will also go over. Well, again, this is our 2nd core x exercise for doing our eye exercises, and it is called smooth pursuit. It’s also very easy to do.
So we have a few ways of doing this. I’m gonna show you the main way. And if that’s easy, you can add the other two ways on. The first thing we do is tracking our thumb while our thumb is moving, but now our head is gonna be staying still. So it’s opposite of the first exercise.
This time, our head stays still and our eyes are moving following our thumb. We’re gonna do a motion that’s a sideways figure 8 to begin with. So it looks like this side to side. While we’re doing it, our head is still and we’re going to follow the thumbnail. So On the exhale again.
Inhale. Exhale. Moving your thumb in a figure 8 motion. Slowly tracking the thumb. It’s that simple.
We’ll move the thumb both forward, and we’ll reverse and go in the other direction. So we’re gonna do 3 repetitions, and we’ll do this on the exhale. Ready? One, inhale. On the exhale tracking to inhale.
Exhale. There’s 3 repetitions. If you’re up for more, you can do a few more and go in the opposite direction. So that’s figure 8. That’s one option.
Again, start with 3 repetitions. Work your way up to 10 on the exhale. The other two options are drawing an h pattern, which would look like this. Down, over, up, and down on the exhale. So it’d be like this.
One big long exhale. So the h pattern is another option for extra credit if you feel like these are something you can do. And then the last pattern is an x patterns. So the thumb is gonna go down and across, down and across. Again, on the exhale.
Just like that. You can repeat and go the opposite direction from down to up as well. So these are some variations to add as you get more tolerance. You also might notice your eyes might feel a little bit strained or even sore at first. That just means keep the repetitions down to a few of them.
Don’t overdo it and do it nice and slow. Your eyes will learn how to do this more over time. Your brain is gonna process a little more of this over time, and it’s gonna get easier. And it has a big effect on your overall brain function. Core exercise number 3, near far gaze.
Hi, again, friends. I hope you’re enjoying some of our desert footage for the regulate video. This beautiful area is called Snow Canyon, and it’s literally in the backyard of my house. So I wanted to be able to share with you a little bit of where I live. Anyway, moving on, we are gonna do an exercise called near far gaze, and I love actually coming outside to do this.
So it’s a great place to film this video. This is going to work on your convergent and divergent capacity for your eyes and your brain. What you’re gonna do is you’re going to 1st look at your thumbnail straight ahead just like in the first exercise. You’ll be focusing on your thumbnail straight ahead for 3 seconds. And then what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna focus, defocus on our thumbnail, and focus as far as we can, as far as we can see, on something beyond our thumbnail.
So for me, what it might look like is let’s say I wanna look at the horizon, so I’m gonna kinda turn my body here. I’m gonna focus on my thumbnail for 3 seconds, and then I’m gonna look at a spot way out in the horizon. So maybe the top of that hill over there, if you can see through the camera. So I’m just focusing on my thumbnail for 3 seconds, and then I’m focusing like, I’m looking through my thumb at the top of the hill focusing on that for 6 seconds. So you’re gonna look beyond, then you’re gonna bring your focus back to your thumb for 3 seconds.
And then you’ll focus on a far off distance for 6 seconds. So back and forward. Now, you don’t have to do this outside. I just like doing it outside. You can do it in your house.
You can look from your thumb across the room at a spot on the wall. Or something else in the room and then back to your thumb. The point is teaching your brain to look close, far, close, far. So let’s do that together. We’ll do 3 repetitions and find something in your gaze just beyond your thumb to do this with.
Here we go. Looking at my thumb for 3 seconds. Looking beyond my thumb at a distance out on that mountain for 6 seconds. Returning my gaze to my thumbnail for 3 seconds. Looking beyond for 6 seconds.
Thumb again and the distance. And that was 3 repetitions of the near fire gaze. Core exercise number 4. Panoramic focus and defocus gaze, seeing the bigger picture. This one is easier when you have something out side to look at.
And again, it might not be something you can always do if you’re inside a house because it’s best done when you can see a horizon. But it’s something you can still do by looking outside your window. Hi, friends. This last exercise is one of my favorites. I do this pretty much every night after a long work day or when I’m out on a hike or just walking along.
It’s called panoramic focus, defocus. And what you’re gonna do is you’re just gonna look outside. Ideally, you’re outside. You can do this looking out a window as well. You’re just noticing the landscape.
The horizon and not focusing on anything, just trying to think of nothing, focus of nothing, just being aware. And then you’ll do that for about 10 seconds. And then what you’re gonna do is you’re going to pick a spot on the horizon something that you wanna look at with curiosity. So maybe it’s like the tree on top of the hill over there or a little rock that’s protruding. You’re gonna try to notice that for about 5 seconds with as much curiosity as as you can muster and just really trying to Say, wow.
What is that? What is that detail? Focusing for 5 seconds. Then letting it go and defocusing again for about 10 seconds or longer. Now the time amount, I’m just making it up 5 seconds, 10 seconds.
It doesn’t really matter. It’s just about defocusing and focusing, defocusing and focusing. So do what works for you. So let’s do this together now. Just enjoying beautiful Southern Utah landscape with me and just noticing the beauty in general.
And then I’m just gonna pick a spot the top of a little mountain over there, a tree that’s protruding at the top. And I’m just gonna try to see if I can make out the branches and notice the details. For about 5 seconds. And then I’m just gonna let that go and go back to just noticing the beauty. And sometimes even just slowly turning my head and being aware of what’s around me without thinking or specifically noticing anything for maybe 10 seconds, maybe even up to a minute.
And then I focus again on another spot. So now I’m just focused on another rock that I see. Just noticing its edges, its color, noticing the beauty and letting it go. And that’s panoramic focus and defocus. Bagel tone exercise number 5, the Rosenberg basic exercise.
This exercise size is directly out of Stanley Rosenberg’s book, accessing the healing power of your Vegas nerve. I highly recommend this book. There are several exercises in it. This is one of my favorites, and I found it to be especially beneficial to those with chronic stress and chronic illness patterns. Hi.
Again, we’re gonna do the Rosenberg basic exercise. You can do this wherever you’re relaxing, much like I am right now. You could do this first thing in the morning while you’re laying in bed or last thing before you go to bed at night. You just ideally wanna do this lying down. You can do it sitting up, but he recommends doing it lying down.
So, clasp your hands like this, place it behind your head, and just come into a comfortable position of stillness looking straight ahead, eyes up. And then once you’re comfortable, keep your head straight and let your eyes look to the left. As far as you comfortably can, and focus on looking to the left for 30 to 60 seconds or until you yawn or sigh. You might not yawn or sigh for the first several times you do this. That’s normal.
Just Do it anyway and just trust that it’s still working on your vagal tone. And after a little bit, you’ll yawn just like I just did. Or maybe you even just sigh, either often happens, and then you look straight ahead again. And as you can tell, we’ve got some birds in the background. Looks like my dog is joining us too.
Now you’re gonna do the same thing to the right. So keep your head straight and look off to the right. And just relax. Nothing to do. Just hold your eye gaze.
And I just had a little side there. I’m gonna hold a little longer. There we go. So, Ilya, often like that. And then come back to center and you might feel again a little woozy, totally normal as blood comes through your head a little differently.
22:40And that will help to tone your vagus nerve and reset your c 1c2 vertebrae, help with your spinal alignment and it’s just really relaxing.