This yoga nidra meditation is intended to alleviate discomfort associated with eye strain and headaches while simultaneously resetting your nervous system and reprogramming your subconscious towards honoring your body's wisdom to promote healing.
 
The eyes are an extension of the brain. We can enter into different types of hemispheric thinking by shifting our gaze. A sharp, focused gaze will activate the left hemisphere of the brain that is concerned with judging, differentiating, analyzing, associated with the beta brainwave state that evokes a more anxious and alert state of being. A soft, unfocused gaze where your vision is allowed to blur slightly, as if you were daydreaming, activates the right hemisphere of the brain that is more connected to intuition, creativity, sensing, feeling, and timelessness.
 
One gauge for the activity of your mind or the state of your nervous system is your eye movement. You might notice that if you struggle to fall asleep at night, the eyes tend to be making micro movements behind the eyelids. This can happen during yoga nidra as well if the nervous system is especially activated and the body may be struggling to enter in to relaxation. For this yoga nidra meditation, we will pay special attention to the eyes as a portal into relaxation and access point to the nervous system. I invite you to periodically check in with your eyes throughout the meditation if you feel yourself departing from this progressive relaxation practice and allow the eyes to soften back into stillness.