02/02/2024
Do you use breathing exercises to help with stress / mental health / performance etc? We have combined a personalised 4-4-4-4 pattern and an EMDR idea which seems to stabilise my vitals and help me fall asleep. This is the routine if your interested - Close your eyes and breath in for the first count of 4 and whilst breathing in focus your eyes on an imaginary dot that you can bring into your minds eye in the centre of your visual field, to start try and make sure you are using the same focal length as you would if your eyes were open to see the object. You can practice this with your eyes open by holding your finger up placing it at a focal length that feels comfortable (we can do the uncomfortable stuff another time and you can use our race driver development slide qrco.de/FLOJUNKEYvisualfield if it helps), then close your eyes to see if there is any physical movement in your two eye balls as they converge and diverge to focus on the imaginary dot (or afterimage if you struggle with aphantasia*). When you breath out for 4, stop focusing intentionally on the dot and let your imagination / eyes relax and diverge to your maximum peripheral visual field. Again you can practice this with your eyes open by first focusing on a high contrast spot on a wall or using the side, breathing in and out and swapping your vision from the intentionally focused mode to your peripherally orientated vision; close your eyes when you have a rhythm that feels comfortable and aligned with your breathing. The 4-4 holds that are at each end of breathing in and out are more personal and should be, when well practiced, super smooth, comfortable bio mechanically and eventually automatic / synced with your visual attention and movements. I and some drivers have had some almost trippy experiences doing this, (if you no problem seeing magic eye pictures try using that idea also), I would be interested to see if it helps anyone else.
*Notes:
If you are one of the 3% that have aphantasia you should be able to use an afterimage to focus on when you close your eyes. Try and use a small dot to start, I find it helpful to shatter / smear the dot horizontally to help my peripheral vision expand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterimage
117 Understanding Foveal & Peripheral Vision V1Logic ltd A C C D D B B E E Focused and peripheral modes of vision are better suited to different tasks. We need to be able to swap from one visual mode to the other as the different tasks dictate. Below is a slide that will familiarise your mind wit...
