Relaxation and Deafness

It may seem strange to include a chapter on hearing in a book devoted to vision, unless the close relationship between seeing and hearing is. finderstood.

All the special senses work together-seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. If the nerves governing one of these special senses are tense, all are tense-if relaxed, all are relaxed. We who teach eye 4,relaxation always notice that, as we build vision, the hearing becomes more acute. We have found also that if the pupil comes with defective hearing, it is much more difficult to relax the eyes because of the additional tenseness in the strain to listen. The terrific effort of deaf ears to decipher sounds in conversation holds back the development of vision. Again, if a person is constantly turning a better ear to catch your words he is at the same time pulling his eyes off focus, which increases eye strain. Sometimes we play sweet, soft music to relax the auditory nerves, while the pupils use their eyes. Then the vision comes more quickly.

What is true of hearing 0true of the other special Pewes. I once worked with the dim eyes of a little four-Year old girl. I gave her a piece of brightly coloured velvet to stroke. The tactile nerves, giving a pleasing tense of velvet smoothness, combined with the memory Of the bright colour, enabled this child to relax her eyes and develop her vision.

1. Often we give a sweet to the children as they read, their sentences. The pleasant sensation of taste relaxes improves the sense of sight. And Consequently in our studio, we always give some instruction in relaxed hearing to go with eye relaxation. we are able to do because ears respond to relaxation, just as do eyes. Rest and relaxation stimulate, Palming the. eyes stimulates the optic nerve.
2. Ears stimulates the auditory nerve. As hearing improves and becomes less effortful, so the 'on develops more rapidly.
3. As you use the eye exercises in this book, work tonally with the ear exercises too. You may find both contribute to the improvement of your eye.