Having done some eye exercises over the years to see if I could improve my eyesight and my eye lids! I wondered… does eye position have an affect on our mood?

When you feel happy and excited, your eyes light up; when you’re tired, your eyelids grow heavy and dark under-eye circles form; when you think something is ridiculous or unbelievable, you roll your eyes. But your eyes are more than just the windows to your soul—their movements are closely linked to your autonomic nervous system, which includes the systems responsible for your body’s “fight-or-flight” and “rest-and-digest” processes. Eyes are actually considered part of the brain, and how you move your eyes can influence how you think, move, and feel.

Language we use when we feel unhappy

Feeling down.
Feeling low.
Depressed (even the word means to push something down forcibly — usually emotions).
Downcast.
Low-spirited.
Down in the dumps.
Down in the mouth.

We’re told to take deep breaths in stressful situations, but considering your eye gaze can be just as powerful of a technique to help you chill out.

If one of our friends is down we might say

‘Lighten up’
‘ keep your chin up’

Language we use when we feel happy

Things are looking up.
Looking on the bright side/upside.

The eyes are ‘the windows into the soul’, revealing deep emotions that we might otherwise want to hide.

Although modern science precludes the existence of the soul, it does suggest that there is truth in this saying: it turns out the eyes not only reflect what is happening in the brain but may also influence how we remember things and make decisions.

Research indicates that eye position can influence mood, as the direction of one’s gaze is linked to emotional processing and can potentially affect psychological states and behaviour, with studies showing that manipulating eye gaze direction can influence mood, even suggesting a potential role in mood regulation therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing).

Our eyes are constantly moving, and while some of those movements are under conscious control, many of them occur subconsciously. When we read, for instance, we make a series of very quick eye movements called saccades that fixate rapidly on one word after another. When we enter a room, we make larger sweeping saccades as we gaze around. Then there are the small, involuntary eye movements we make as we walk, to compensate for the movement of our head and stabilise our view of the world. And, of course, our eyes dart around during the ‘rapid eye movement’ (REM) phase of sleep.

Eye contact is a fundamental part of social interaction. In clinical studies, it has been observed that patients suffering from depression make less eye contact during interviews than healthy individuals, which could be a factor contributing to social functioning impairments.

Similarly, results from mood induction studies with healthy persons indicate that attention to the eyes diminishes as a function of sad mood.

Research also shows that pupil dilation is linked to the degree of uncertainty during decision-making: if somebody is less sure about their decision, they feel heightened arousal, which causes the pupils to dilate. This change in the eye may also reveal what a decision-maker is about to say: one group of researchers, for example, found that watching for dilation made it possible to predict when a cautious person used to saying ‘no’ was about to make the tricky decision to say ‘yes’.

Key points about eye position and mood:

Eye movements and emotion recognition:Studies have shown that the way people look at faces, particularly focusing on specific areas like the eyes, can reveal their emotional state and can also influence how they perceive others’ emotions.
Brain hemisphere connection:The direction of eye movement is linked to different brain hemispheres, with the right hemisphere generally associated with emotional processing, which could explain how eye movement can influence mood.
EMDR therapy:This therapy uses rapid eye movements to help process traumatic memories and alleviate associated negative emotions, demonstrating the potential of directed eye movement to impact mood.
The NLP model of eye accessing cues states that where we look, in which direction we move our eyes, there is a specific type of sensory information being activated – either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic/feelings.

Eye movements can both reflect and influence higher mental functions such as memory and decision-making, and betray our thoughts, beliefs, and desires.

The senses through which we experience the world are referred to as representational systems.

Representational systems

These are the senses we use to perceive and process information about the world. These systems are the basis of how we learn, communicate, and experience the world around us.

The three main representational systems

Visual: The sense of sight
Auditory: The sense of hearing
Kinaesthetic: The sense of touch or feeling

Other representational systems

Olfactory: The sense of smell
Gustatory: The sense of taste
AD or self talk: Also known as the labeling system

Knowing someone’s representational system can help you communicate with them more effectively.

People make movements with their eyes (Eye Accessing Cues) that will indicate which representational system they are using. It is said that we all go inside and access information by eye movement, and people store information in a certain way so that they use their eyes to locate the information.

The six areas the eyes will go to, to find information are;

Visually remembered (top right as you are looking at them);
Audio remembered (middle right as you look at them);
Self talk, or calculations(lower right as you look at them);
Visual constructed (top left as you look at them);
Audio construct (middle left as you look at them);
Tactile (lower left as you look at them).

You only need 30 seconds of certain eye movements to signal to your brain that you’re OK and relieve stress. This was an interesting article I found from The Everygirl

30-Second Hacks to Instantly Reduce Stress Levels

Panoramic vision

If you’ve ever gazed at a horizon, chances are you felt relaxed in the moment. That’s because you naturally go into panoramic vision.

On the other hand, when you’re stressed, your pupils dilate, and you get a contracted view of the world. “

Our eyes are responsible for detecting shapes and colours, etc., but also for telling the rest of the brain whether or not to be more alert or more relaxed.

Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., Neuroscientist explains that by looking in the distance and using your peripheral vision to see what’s to your right and left (rather than having tunnel vision), you’re turning off the stress mechanisms that drive your internal state toward stress. Therefore, you can actually switch off the stress response by changing the way that you view your environment, regardless of what’s in that environment.

Whether you’re indoors or outdoors, widen your view of your environment, not by looking around or moving your head or eyes, but by seeing it through the lens of panorama mode on your smartphone.

Dr. Kiran Dintyala (AKA Dr. Calm), an internal medicine physician and CEO and president at Stress-Free Revolution says by doing that, “you’re reversing the sympathetic response and activating the parasympathetic that counters stress and helps you feel calm,” . “Of course, if you are stuck in a room with no way to look into the sky, you could still do it. Instead of converging your eyes to focus on something, just look into the distance, widening your gaze.”

Eye yoga

Eye yoga consists of exercises to strengthen and condition the muscles in your eye structure, such as nose-tip gazing (focusing on the tip of your nose), blinking rapidly 10 times in a row, or eye-rolling (rolling both eyes in one direction and then back again). Practicing eye yoga tells the body that you’re safe, which then lowers the stress response.

Another common eye yoga exercise includes drishti, or focusing your gaze at a single point in your environment. Slowly softening your gaze while gently keeping your eyes in one place helps to calm the nervous system and find presence in the moment.

Incorporate visual cues

Using visual cues to instill calmness can be as simple as looking at something that evokes feelings of joy, like a picture from a child, pet, holiday, or a sunrise.

A study found that looking at greenery, including green walls and potted plants, can reduce stress. That means you don’t have to step foot outside to reap the benefits. If you’re inside, you can orient to whatever’s around you in the room. You can look close, far, or through a window, just be sure to move your eyes/head slowly. The point is to really see that you’re safe and that there are no imminent threats.

A common grounding exercise that is used to help ease anxiety is known as the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, which starts with mentally naming five images you see because using your sight can serve as a self-soothing mechanism in challenging situations or overwhelming environments by providing a sense of familiarity and comfort.