July 22, 2021 - EyeClarity Blog
Emilie Conrad, my friend and mentor, was the visionary practitioner who developed the ground-breaking movement education process known as Continuum Movement™ (CM). This modality offers a rich, intrinsic, environment by accessing the fluid body using spiral and wave movements to innovate and birth new insights in understanding a deeper health of the human body.
Emilie often said to me that the eyes contain some of the most unrealized tissue found in the human body.
I took this statement to heart, and began researching this thesis with patients suffering a variety of eye problems, which include sight- threatening diseases. After working with thousands of patients, I can say her thesis is correct. Our modern, accelerated lifestyles have caused our eye tissue to be in a state of starvation, because fluid has left the eyes.
This dangerous trend is partly due to repetitive movements from all of the screen time consuming our vision. As the eyes dry out, more oxidative stress and inflammation occurs, which leads to ultimate deterioration.
One of my own discoveries while experiencing Continuum is that as we age, we begin to lose our fluid-self. The spiral wave/pulse/wave movements of CM bring sound into the eyes, which reduces disease. As we innovate using Continuum, alternate systems in our eye anatomy emerge — which create an environment for regeneration.
I utilize Continuum Movement with patients as a way to revitalize the fluid body — in the eyes.
One of the key principles I teach is that the eyes originate from the brain, and the eyes are primordial tissue (very ancient).
In the early imprinting of our eyes, it is important to remember that the fluid body precedes the nervous system in its evolution. In most rehabilitation and allopathic eye care models, there is no interest in following this timeline, as most treatments use drugs and surgery and only address symptoms. If any type of rehabilitation is offered, only the nervous system patterns are considered.
I have applied Continuum by addressing both the nervous system — and fluid body — as a means to deeply heal and change vision problems that start . . . even before we start talking! CM is much about treating the cause, not just the symptoms!
Another aspect to consider in healing the eyes is that they are a map for many important connections in the body.
In traditional chinese medicine, the liver and kidneys influence the energy flow, called “chi,” to the eyes. For example, liver chi stagnation can be a contributing factor to macular degeneration. Kidney chi stagnation can contribute to cataracts and glaucoma, myopia and astigmatism. Dry eye syndrome, which is caused by inflammation in the eye lids (where our tear-producing glands are housed), are influenced by the spleen and stomach meridians.
This ancient, yet relevant science lies at the base of my own holistic and naturopathic practice, treating the eyes by way of whole-body health measures.
Many eye problems stem from getting stuck in the fight-flight-or freeze mode.
The nervous system is influential in helping the eyes work properly. Our
sympathetic state governs our active state of being; we use a hypervigilant reaction to see through our eyes. Thus, the pupils don’t respond to light though we are light sensitive. Our vestibular system does not allow orientation because we tunnel our vision.
On the other side of the ledger,
a parasympathetic state is the resting state. When we soften the defense strategies through the eyes, the pupils respond normally to light and the peripheral vision gets activated. This helps the vestibular system to work normally, increasing depth perception and memory.
Both are important in terms of balancing our vitality and vision.
Continuum Movement helps us develop self-regulation in the nervous system, and to change the imprints in the fluid body.
Continuum softens defenses, slows down breathing, regulates stressors, opens up the visual system, and neutralizes the speed and physical harms of modern technology and our busy lifestyle. It conjures up the ability to develop a wider range in our visual capacity and our bodies.
It is amazing to me how much hypervigilance we put through our eyes to keep ourselves safe. Myopia would be a poster child for this type of response.
I utilize CM to help us connect to a different technology – a
biological technology!
The fluid body is where true medicine exists. I offer a practice that can help conjure up just that. This Dive, called Eye-Spiral-Thetas, is of such great importance for hydration and oxygenation around our eyes, that it is proactive with eye disease and refractive errors increasing.
Theta breath is the growing practice of deep, slow, nose-breathing inhale with mouth-breathing exhale, while being seated comfortably and without interruption.
Theta breath around the eyes uses spirals. Here’s how to do each eye separately:
Take a baseline of your breathing, and your seeing (do this with lenses off).
Close both eyes, use Theta breath while drawing soft circles around the right eye—do 6 in each direction. Keep your eyes closed and pause. Feel the difference between the right eye and left eye. Then repeat the same thing on the left eye. Then feel the comparison between the left and right eyes.
Open your eyes and take a second baseline of your breathing and seeing.
A noticeable improvement will follow, in terms of the eyes’ dryness, irritation, and even disease.
As Emilie once said of humans’ life on land: “Whole-body seeing (means) that sense perception can take on a greater role in the play of sight itself. Through the intricate movements of Continuum that help to complexify the entire system, perception becomes a unified activity.”
I see it as a very personal expression through the body; something that Emilie says is “ignited” inside and leads to a return and discovery of our ultimate selves.