Relaxation exercise

One of the primairy problems I encounter in my daily working life is emotional tension which seems to build up slowly in some unreachable part of the brain, and is quite difficult to release. The following exercise seems to help to some extent. Sit down on a comfortable chair, try to relax, but do not fall asleep. Keep away things like telephones, e-mail messages, family members with cups of tea, dinner-is-ready signallers, etcetera. We need some peace please.

The usual things you would do to relax is to count the breath, watch the breath, do nothing at all, listen to comfortable music, do some intensive sport to be relaxed afterwards, have a massage, try to hypnotize yourself (which never works, because you can't on one hand tell yourself to sleep and stay awake at the same time to guide the proces) or tense and then relax different musclegroups. The usual exercises to relax. This exercise is different. Strange actually. I really stumbled upon it.

Once you sit down and are not in a hurry anymore, notice your eyelids. It may seem one of them may want to go down for a while. Then it may open up instantly, only for the other to close for an unpredictable amount of time (can be half a second, can be half a minute). In my case they never close both at the same time. You can help a bit, but the proces must go semi-automatical. Your eyes get some kind of unconscious direction. You notice your eyes closing one at a time. One eye wants to close, and then the other one. Very fast at times. Often this is accompanied by very fast blinking (which could be rapid eye movement, a sleep-fase). This proces just goes on and on. And with this happening, after a while you get more relaxed.