March 7, 2023 - EyeClarity Podcast
Today’s a little different. I am going to share a session I had where I worked with a patient who was struggling with emotional trauma that was affecting her vision. I will share how we worked together to figure out the best course of action for her. Enjoy the show.
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eyes, sinuses, movement, called, trauma, fluid, continuum, meridians, cranial sacral therapy, self regulation, vision, sound, acupuncture, bones, affect, talk, cranial sacral, starts, part, body
00:05
Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberne.com.
00:44
Hey, everybody, it’s Dr. Sam, and I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So today’s show is a little out there. I gave a patient this session. And the reason why she contacted me is that she was having some trauma, emotional trauma related to her vision. And a little back story about her she took one of my workshops was an online workshop during COVID. And I use one of the modalities I used was continuum movement. This is a movement modality, it was started by my mentor Emily Conrad, she’s not alive anymore. Anyway, it’s a really profound therapy, I would say what’s closest to it is cranial sacral therapy. And those of you that don’t know about cranial sacral, I would go on my website, and I would look at some of the videos I’ve done on cranial sacral. Basically, it’s working with the fluid body.
And you know, as adults, we’re 70% fluid as infants were 90% fluid. And one of the reasons why we go through an aging process on a cellular level is that we lose our fluidity. Why we lose our fluidity Well, it’s diet, stress, inflammation, oxidative stress, and repetitive movements, repetitive thinking. So in this session, which I cut out my patients part of it because I wanted to respect her privacy. But I talk about how trauma affects our vision. And we go at it first of all from a Chinese medicine or acupuncture perspective. And in the first part, I talk about the relationship between our internal organs, and our eyes, the meridians and how each part of the eye anatomy is affected by certain organs. Another thing I go into is the relationship between the eyes and our bones in the face our fascia. She had a concern about her sinuses. That’s one of the reasons why she contacted me. So I talked about the relationship between cranial sacral therapy and vision. And then I give two practices, physical therapy exercises that help improve the visual system and also stimulate the acupuncture meridians and the cranial sacral system. It’s kind of a all in one. It’s something that I learned as I was going through my continuum movement training. So it’s an interesting show.
There’s a lot of different ideas that I talk about. So I’m putting this up as a podcast just as a kind of a context, philosophically, some of the bigger macro things that I think about when I’m either teaching or working with a patient. So I hope you enjoy the show. Thanks so much for tuning in. So with the terror. The main meridian is the kidney meridian as it relates to the eyes, actually with the eye on kidneys. It’s also the pupil, the pupil is the part of the eye that is the gatekeeper that allows light in and out. Okay, and with your acupuncturist, there are a couple of points I would have them, you know, check the first would be the kidney. The second would be the lungs. So in the in the eye, the lungs are related to the white part the covering of the eye called the sclera. Okay, and a lot of times the kidneys in the lungs may go to Gather, the lungs are more related to grief. But, you know, there may be some of that around your grandmother. And you know, just that, that was a challenging relationship. So what I’m referring to here emotionally is that grief is very connected to our lungs. So if you’re grieving or you’re sad, it is going to affect your respiratory system, at least from a standpoint of Chinese medicine.
And in this relationship that she was referring to, we were talking about the kidneys, which is fear, and we’re talking about the lungs, which is more grief. And these are things that her acupuncturist could help her release. So that’s what that references. So I finished up the Chinese medicine, acupuncture discussion, by talking about the relationship between other organs systems, and the cornea, the retina. So this is an interesting relationship part of the podcast. And then with the cornea, that’s the clear surface of the front of the eye, we see through the window. And that’s, that’s the first place we meet others, it’s a very vulnerable, intimate place. So the cornea and the colored part of the eye, the eye Iris, that’s related to liver, the liver meridian. So you would want to have the acupuncturist, check the liver. And then finally, the red retina, which is the back part of the eye, the two organs that most influenced the retina or the kidney, and the liver. So those would be some places where I would consider starting as it is with with the, you know, with the meridians as it relates to the eyes. So do you have any questions?
Or do you need me to elaborate more on the outer I’ll talk about the sinuses in a minute. Okay, so let’s go to the sinus area, and I’m going to bring in cranio, cranial sacral therapy. So in the in the eye, the main eye bone, which we talked about before is the sphenoid. And there it’s a kind of aspect that is behind this is all behind the eye. And there are a lot of bones that sit in front of the sphenoid bone. But the thing about the sphenoid bone is that it has this freedom of motion, where it can go into a flexion and an extension. And what this does is this starts to affect the sinuses and facial bones, okay, and what are the most famous bones in the floor of the eye orbit is called the maxillary bone. And when this is locked in, it compresses the eye tissue. And it starts to affect the cheekbones, we call that the zygomatic it also will stop the movement of the of the sphenoid and it starts to press in on the sinuses. And this is very much related to trauma. So what’s happening is that there are these nerves that are right there where the bones are we have the cranial nerve three cranial nerve four, and cranial nerve six, all those three nerves, they control the eye muscles,
09:08
their sixth eye muscles and what the what the compression of the sinus does is it interferes with those cranial nerves being able to move the eyes and it creates almost like a eye strain. That will it can show up in the sinus and can show up in the eyes. And it can show up in the jaw sometimes. But the best way to relieve that is to get some some cranial work that brings more movement to the sphenoid the maxillary bone and then ultimately, the facial bones and that’s going to Release those three cranial nerves to work better with the eye muscles. And it’s also going to help with your sinuses so that you see if you stay in this kind of locked down pattern, it’s going to lead to inflammation.
And it’s going to affect your breathing, it’s going to affect your eyesight for sure. And eventually, it’s going to affect the brain. So that you know can cause things like brain fog, dizziness, kind of starts to affect our our orientation and our spatial understanding. So it’s so interrelated. And then what happens is if it gets frozen there becomes this twist in the face and that’s the beginning of a stigmatism which I have, yeah, I do have you have a little bit of that, okay. So that that astigmatism is a is a twist either in the body, which informs the eye, twist, or it’s in the eye, and it informs the body of course, then, when you wear a prescription that has a stigmatism, this can lead to things like blurry vision, double vision, and, you know, eye strain, eye pain, stuff like that, so and so then you bring in the breath work. And that’s a way one way for you to begin to interface with it. I’m going to show you a practice today. However, that can be very helpful in getting the sphenoid bone moving, and also the cervical spine. We didn’t talk about the neck, but the cervical spine when the bones back there get compressed, it starts to create II stress. And of course, that’s going to the sphenoid. And
12:17
let me just tell you to like 10 years ago, I don’t know if I mentioned this last time we spoke but I started getting trained in Alexander Technique. Very good. And so since sighs with that training, I had a lot of hands on on myself. And so I also released a lot of muscle tension patterns with that training, the neck everything, you know, and I’ve also, I’ve also had three car accidents. So every time I’ve had one, I’ve gotten deeper into my body. So
12:52
sure, exactly. So the the thing here is that I want to make sure all your constant questions are answered. And then the key thing is the self regulation, how well can you regulate yourself. And that’s going to be something that I want to teach you today. And because if you can develop that self regulation, then it’s almost like you can do cranial sacral and acupuncture on yourself. Okay, so I’m going to show you two processes today. And the first one is very simple. It’s going to involve some type of light touch, we could call it Reiki, and we’re going to combine that with sound. So you’re going to be making some sound. Now sound is one of the best ways to loosen up the sphenoid the sinus, it works with sound works very well, especially when you yourself is directing the sound and your hands are going to be like your tuning forks. So the sound is going to travel through your hands to the eyes and around the sinuses. And that’s going to also improve your breathing are going to make the breathing deeper and longer and slower. So it’s a really it’s a regulation regulating practice.
So it’s called the palm hom and we’re going to do it together. So you can take your glasses off, you don’t need to see me clearly. And I’d like you to just take your tuning forks which are your hands and I want you to rub them together for about 10 seconds. You’re only going to do this one time. And then you’re going to take the palms and you’re going to cover your eyes and your eyes are closed. And what you’re going to do is you’re going to take a nor irmo easy breath in through your nose. And on the exhale, you’re going to keep your mouth closed. And I want you to make a low, pretty loud, humming sound so I can hear you. So when you’re ready, I think you did one knows but just keep your hands over your eyes with your eyes closed. And let’s do one together. Okay, ready, so rub your hands together. I’m going to do it with you. Cover your eyes, your eyes are closed, you’re gonna take a normal, nice easy breath in through the nose. On the exhale, keep your mouth closed. So you’re containing the sound into your face
16:00
do it again. Same thing
16:13
again, makes me cry.
16:20
Okay. So if you want to stop you can and you can just drop your hands but keep your eyes closed
16:34
and just track inside of yourself. Something some you’re sensing something you’re noticing, keep your eyes closed. And maybe give it a name or give it a description as you as you feel into it. Alright, this next exercise I talk about is the tongue clock exercise. This is on my website, part of my 90 day I clarity bar program. And I talk about the tongue clock or doing two meridians, the Governing Vessel and the Conception Vessel. And we’re also talking about how this exercise can stimulate the cranial sacral system, the cervical spine. And so it’s kind of a very efficient way to stimulate both acupuncture and cranial sacral may explain the tongue exercise. So I’m glad this is being recorded because when you take your tongue and you put it on the inside part of the upper lip, you are activating an acupuncture Meridian called the Governing Vessel. And that’s a young meridian that runs between your two eyes, Up the nose, around the back, all the way down through your perineum, your first chakra and then up into the kind of below the belly button Hara center. So that’s a that’s a acupuncture point.
That’s very primary. So you’re activating your young Meridian when you place your tongue there and you make that humming sound. At the same token, when you take your tongue and put it on the lower part of the, of the lip, the lip, that’s called the Conception Vessel. That’s the Yin meridian. And that one runs right down the middle of your body through your, through your respiratory system, your digestion, and then meets up with the Governing Vessel. Okay. So you’re you’re doing some acupuncture there where you’re opening the meridians, the major meridians of the body the governing young conception Yin, when you place your tongue there and you make the sound. So instead of using a needle or a acupressure, you’re doing kind of acupressure with the sound, it can activate and open both meridians. The other thing that happens is when you press on that upper lip, inside part of the upper lip, you are spreading cervical spine 123 for the bones in the back. So that’s the cranial sacral part of this.
So the upper lip is C one to C four and the lower lip is C four to see seven. So when you press both spreading the cervical bones which is great for your sinuses in your eyes, you that’s gonna bring more circulation, like you say it’s going to bring more color. So let’s say you decide that you want to do that tongue exercise, I like to do upper lower, upper lower upper lower, I like to do three rounds of it. And then I like to rest, I go into what we call open attention. So after I do it, I just kind of sit and or you could do it lying down. And I just follow my sensations I follow if my body wants to move, shake, whatever. And this would be one of those self regulation exercises. Now, the first one we did the palm home, that was very emotional for you, because I think it really started to move some of your energy.
What I’d like you to do with that one is to do six hums on the exhale. And then again, with your eyes closed, you can just drop your hands, you can go into a open attention again. And that could be a way for you to release trauma can be really good for you through the eyes. In this next excerpt, I talk about my friendship with Emily Conrad, the founder of continuum movement, quite a visionary. And when I was training with Emily, we talked a lot about how the eyes relate to the body. And of course, we’re working with the somatic awareness, body awareness. So I share a little bit of what I went through in developing my current treatment modalities. When I when I studied with Emily, she was intrigued by the vision process, she was very big on it, because the eyes are one of the earliest tissues that starts developing. So it’s very primordial. It’s also because it’s so connected prenatally, it brings us back to that, you know, that nine month experience. So there’s the primordial anatomy, then we have the cultural anatomy, that’s all the stuff that we have to do to kind of fit in the culture. And then there’s the cosmic anatomy, which is related to our species inclusivity. In other words, the more slow down our system becomes, the more it spreads, I’m talking to tissue, right.
And when the really spread like that, and slow down, a lot of times those traumas release, and instead of referring to our history, as a way to orient, we are much more connected to the bigger, whether it’s I’m connecting to the trees, the flowers, the animals, the cosmos. And it’s it’s a way that trauma can be released from the body. And one of the scientists is now working very closely in continuing movement is a man named Steven Porges. And Dr. Porges, came up with something called the polyvagal theory. And in that particular discovery that Dr. Porges has written about, he talks about the evolution of our nervous system. There’s many aspects of it, and the vagus nerve polyvagal vagal. And it’s a very complicated theory, but part of it has to do with the we start off with a reptilian type response. And then we might move into a mammalian responses, our nervous system evolution. And then finally we move into empathic response. And the eyes, from my perspective, are one of the most primary senses, especially as an infant making icon. We’re bonding. Gestation, birth and bonding are three imprints that really affect our visual development. Now, when we talk about vision, we’re really talking about the brain because the eyes are the only part of the brain inside of the cranium, we talked about cranial sacral. And there have been a number of studies that show that the more you’re able to get the cerebral spinal fluid activating, that’s going to help the eyes and the sinuses. I mean, there’s so many angles to it.
But Dr. Porges worked a lot with Emily’s now working still with Continuum movement, because he has done a lot of things in trauma. And then how do you how do you heal the trauma? There are lots of ways, but continual movement is one of those possible modalities, because you’re regulating yourself, okay, like, you did two sounds, and you said, you know, it’s getting emotional for me. That’s enough. We did went into open attention, and you’re able to integrate that stimulation. That’s the beat, Yeah, but you’re not depending on some authority figures saying, Do this, or do that, or come and do my, you know, my method, and they’re blind to your responsiveness. But, you know, as you become more adept at regulating your responsiveness, you’re going to able to navigate through this trauma. And I do think a lot of the ice stuff is a place where you’ve internalized it, absolutely, but it’s coming out.
26:30
And so the poem arm and the tongue clock worked very well, for the eyes, and also to help you learn about self regulation. And it isn’t just the nervous system, but it’s the fluid body, it’s what comes before the nervous system in our evolutionary development. That’s why, you know, I work with a lot of traumatic brain injury, when I work with rehab therapists, they they’re very much in the nervous system model. And I have to kind of remind them that we’ll know let’s go to continuum or cranial, because the fluid system arrives much sooner, and that’s where sometimes those imprints are. So if you work in the nervous system, level, you’re not going to get to the deepest core trauma patterns. In this next excerpt, I talk about ways to organically be able to release trauma in the body. And it’s the way we move the way we think. And it’s outside our normal mainstream ideas. So the ways to kind of begin to unfreeze it would be to think and move like an octopus. In other words, spiral movements, wave motion, pulsating movements, anything that’s not repetitive, that gives your body the freedom to go into its impulse I want to shake here, I want to move here. And you know, obviously, during the day, when we’re in our fetch wood, carry water, you know, environment, it’s a little harder to do, but to set time aside for you to start to do some sound.
And notice your breathing, follow that and maybe eventually in invite, and it’s a slow movement, it isn’t necessarily fast. It’s slow. And also some of the movements can be micro movements, okay? So it doesn’t need to be big movements, but it can be big and slow. But things spiral, think wave motion. Think pulsating. That’s what that’s what the language that fluid thrives. And you know, you’re right about, we’re all frozen in our fluid body. I mean, digital time. Religion, health care, family origins, you know, tribalism, all of those things have reduced our ability to stay in our fluid body. It’s becoming harder and harder to do. You know, I used to take people on retreats where we would do dolphin swims first in Bimini in the Bahamas, and Hawaii. And the dolphins were continuum.
We would go in the water and we would do continuum with them. You know, we’re from the, the ocean, that’s where we originate. But life on land, we had to learn to stabilize, when we walked, and this creates that, that structure, but the structure becomes inhibiting, and it shuts down our fluid body. You know, in the eye world, a lot of the reasons why people have eye problems is their fluid in their, in their eyes, has gone away. And so, so sound is important. The breath is important. And the movement is important. It needs to be whole body movement, and it needs to be movement that’s not choreographed, like an uptown, in our so, you know, if you have been exposed at all to the continuum movement philosophy, it’s a fabulous philosophy to live from,
31:03
just for you. I never heard of it before you
31:07
have before me Oh, wow.
31:09
I was I participated in one of your vision weekends a couple of years ago.
31:16
Okay. All right. Cool. Well, the thing is that, you know, it’s, it’s a bit esoteric, it’s a, it’s a little bit outside the norm, because, you know, even things like yoga, to some to some degree, and some have even those modalities. It can get kind of, you know, up down in out, even Pilates, you know, and I do Pilates, but I have to bring my continuum consciousness. As you know, you work with springs, and you’re back and forth. And that’s good. It gives you some flexibility, but you need to come flexible complexify that movement, in a way that is how can we say, enriching that’s thriving, that’s, you know, it’s giving us more nutrients, you the, the more you connect to your fluidity, that’s the medicine. So in this last point, the fluid is the medicine. If you think about our blood, our cerebral spinal fluid, the fluid in our fascia and our connective tissue, that when we return to our fluidity, we can thrive. And that’s the point that I was making. So that’s our show for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, take care.
32:54
Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.
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