Your Eyes Do More Than See

Your eyes aren't just for seeing – they're the secret to unlocking better movement and balance! In this episode, you’ll hear me talk about how your eyes might be disrupting your movement, the concept of visual blind spots, and how daily habits like phone scrolling are affecting your eye health.  I’ll give you some practical exercises that I use myself after scrolling on my phone to prevent compromised movement. You won’t want to miss the insights and tips in this episode, plus you’ll never look at eyes the same way again.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Your Eyes Do More Than Seeing Things
• 0:25 Q1: Are Your Eyes Disrupting Your Movement?
• 12:26 Q2: Do You Have Blind Spots?
• 17:45 Q3: Daily Habits Affecting Your Eyes?

Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions, where critical thinking is king and my opinions and research are only here to support your understanding and learning. Hey, I'm your host, Meghann, and I'm so honored you clicked on Three Questions today. So let's talk about your eyes and why they do more than just see things.

Okay. So my first question today is, are your eyes disrupting your movement? Just think about that for a moment and you might be thinking, no, I have 20 20 vision. Everything's perfect there. Or you might be thinking, Yeah, if I don't have my glasses, I can't see shit, I can't do shit. It's a mess. Or you might be thinking, No, I actually prefer to close my eyes when I move.

And I move better when I have my eyes closed. All very important things. And let's kind of get into it a little bit to, you know, make you maybe a little more excited about your eyes. All right, so I want you today to think of your eyes as the iPhone camera to your brain. Okay, so when we're taking pictures, like everybody has a camera now, so when you're taking a picture, you know immediately if it's a good picture, right?

You'll be like, oh god, why am I making that face or ah, somebody walked into it. But with our eyes, you might not realize that how shitty that picture is. Let me explain a little further. So what you're actually seeing right now is not the only information your brain is getting. Kind of crazy. So our eyes take in a ton of information.

And then our brain, very simply, I'm simplifying a very complex process, but it basically filters out, creates a picture, and that is what you see. Now, sometimes, based off light, um, other factors, the picture might not be clear no matter how good your eyes are or how good your brain's processing is, okay? So think about our iPhone.

Right now, I want you to take your phone, and if you're listening to this on the phone, I don't know if you can take a picture and listen to a podcast, we'll soon find out. Um, take a picture, look at it. Okay, now I want you to shake your hand while you're taking the picture. And I want you to tell me if that picture is good.

Now some of you might be like, no, Megan, I was moving my hand. How could it be a clear picture? And some of you are like, girl, I've got the latest technology, the newest phones that I could be doing a cartwheel or shaking my hand like a shake weight and it'll still be a clear picture. So, basically, depending on your phone's processing and the equipment it has, some of your picture will be good and some will be bad.

Now, why does this matter? Like, why should we care about our eyes? Well, there's three major neurological systems that determine our balance. Okay? So, you might be like, I'm 25, my balance is perfect. Well, you're going to be an older person one day, and your balance is going to be shit, and you're going to think, God, I wish I would have listened to that obnoxious Megan who was talking about my eyes when I was 25.

Right? So, balance isn't just standing on one leg. We need to be balanced in order to walk. Like, walking is just a single leg stance repeatedly, right? So, you need balance to walk. And those three systems are our visual, Vestibular, our inner ear, and our proprioception, so basically like, where your brain knows where you are in space, okay?

So if your eyes are shit, or not able to get a good picture, or your brain isn't able to process a good picture, that is going to affect your balance. I'll never forget, I had this client, um, and this, this story's kind of two fold. Uh, she came to me post stroke, she knew I was kind of a neuro movement specialist.

And we did, uh, you know, a great movement session. But I was kind of like, oh, I feel like I did some basic stuff. I don't know if she, I don't know if she's gonna come back. That same woman wrote me an email and was like, Oh my God, that was the best hour of my life. I can feel my blood flowing. Okay? So, lesson number one is, You don't have to be doing crazy shit to impress people.

At the end of the day, people want results. She felt better. She felt her blood flowing. That was amazing. And number two, she asked me, she's like, do you think I should get cataract surgery? Now, my response was like, you have cataracts? That's great. Okay, obviously I didn't want the woman to have cataracts, but what was interesting is, she came to me to improve her balance.

And she had cataracts. So, just by getting the cataract surgery, her visual system is going to be working better, processing better information. So her balance is going to improve just by getting the cataract surgery. Now, okay, if the cataract surgery goes wrong, I understand. There's more nuance to that.

But why I was excited was if we can just improve her visual system, her balance could improve. But be honest, do you really think about eye exercises when you're thinking about balance? No, you think about movement, standing on one leg, maybe standing on a BOSU, having people throw shit at you. And what's so interesting is standing on an unstable surface just trains your brain how to respond to that unstable surface.

My rule of thumb is your brain has to respond to everything. And being on like a BOSU or a balance pad, that's not bad shit, keep doing it. But that isn't going to necessarily improve your balance. Because you don't walk on a Bosu, you walk on flat surfaces. I'm gonna do a whole episode about the feet, so I'm not gonna go into it too much.

But our feet are not designed to walk on flat surfaces. So if you want better balance, you better train on flat ass surfaces. Okay? Now, if you're like, should I be wearing my orthotics? I don't know. Are you ever barefoot? Wear your orthotics, don't wear your orthotics. We'll talk about that in another episode.

For now, can we stick to the eyes please? Okay? All right. So, how do you know if your eyes are disrupting your movement? I'm gonna ask you to do something right now. I'm all about implementation. Talk is cheap. Get up and do a squat. Just do a squat. Don't think, just do a squat. Okay? Now, get back up. I would like you to look down.

Now, did you drop your head when you looked down? Just take note. Did you just look down with your eyes? Whichever one you did, I want you to do again. So look down. And now I want you to keep your eyes on that visual target as you squat. What happened? Okay? 85 percent of you are going to get deeper in your squat and be like, Oh shit.

Okay? The other 15%, Is that, would that be adding up to 100? I don't know. You'll be like, My squat got worse. Okay, that gives me information about your visual tracking down. Now, if you dropped your head and eyes, that might indicate that you do not have enough stability in your jaw, your face, your cervical spine to move your eyes.

Okay? That's another conversation. Now, last but not least, close your eyes. Get back up. You're not done yet. Close your eyes and squat. Which was your best squat? Okay? Now, In this podcast, I don't give you answers. I want you to critically think and know where to look for answers. Because everybody's brain and body is unique.

Now, something I remember, um, my background is actually sports specific training. And as a CSCS, or kind of former, because I don't really do that anymore, Uh, we were always like, it was always like, Keep your head up, keep your eyes up when you're squatting. Okay, it was like this posture thing, but what's super interesting is when you squat, if you understand neurology and what's called a vestibulo-ocular reflex, fancy, you might see it as like a VOR.

All that is, I'm doing it right now so if you're watching on YouTube you'll see, it's you look at something and you keep your eyes on that something while you move your head. So if I move my head to the left, my eyes go to the right. This is a cool reflex we have so things don't go out of focus. So if you're gazing at a point up top when you're standing and you squat, I don't know anybody, maybe Bo Jackson, has the range of motion in their eyes to look up without overextending the neck.

Mhmm. So all you guys and girls trying to lift heavy and squat, Do not drop your head, but gaze your eyes down, move towards it, I'm gonna change your life. And if you need to look up, okay, some of my football players, like their eyes have to be in certain places. But we need to train your eyes to be able to track up like that without moving your head.

I am obsessed with Bo Jackson. Mostly because of his visual acuity. Like, dude is crazy. How he could see the whole field. And it's kind of, if you're not a sports person, just stay with me. I'll be done with this in a second. But like, when you're a defender or an offensive person. Like, think in life. If you're trying to get by to someone.

Get by, get by someone. Whoever moves first, kind of, loses. And what I mean is, if you see me going to the right. Well, you're gonna go to the right. But if I make a fake and go to the right and then cut to the left, you're already to the right. So if you anticipate where I'm gonna go, I've got you. Now, to me, some of the best athletes have the ability.

I see Patrick Mahomes doing this as well. Dude is looking over there and throws over there. Again, I'd have never talked to Patrick Mahomes, but yo, if you're listening, hit me up. Um, your visual acuity, love it, and I would love to improve it even more, get you, uh, 20 more years. Travis Kelce's a huge dude.

So if Mahomes is looking over there, the defense might think that's where he's going. But in his peripheral vision, he can see a big dude get the ball to him. So, maybe you're not a sports person. If you are, this is why visual acuity your visual field, your ability to track, your ability to make your eyes go in the opposite direction of your body is crucial, especially if you want to fake your, fake out your defenders.

Okay? If you're not a sports person, do you like to walk? Do you like to interact with the world? Well, when you're out in the real world walking, there's visual disturbances everywhere. Someone's going to call your name, you're going to look. Right? Have you ever had that experience when a bee flies by you and you're like, ah!

Right? Freaks you out because something steps into your visual field and startles you, okay? So to close up question one, are your eyes disrupting your movement? Yeah Now to the extent I don't know I can't see you but I am telling you that some of the movements that hurt you It could be an inability of your eyes to mobilize when they need to or stabilize Okay, we need stability for mobility and the movement and our ability to stabilize our eyes are directly related to our spine.

Okay, so if I'm trying to move my arm and my eyes can't stabilize, that's going to affect my spinal stability. Which is going to affect my ability to move my arm. Crazy shit, don't get overwhelmed. And one thing, I'm gonna give an opinion here. But opinions are like buttholes, we all have one. Just doing random eye exercises only give you random results.

You heard me. Doing one eye exercise might improve your range of motion, but it's temporary. This shit needs to integrate. And if you want a professional who knows how to do it, go to theneurostudio. com, find a teacher. You gotta find the teacher page, or just hit me up. I will find someone to work with you.

Okay? Moving on. Do you have a blind spot? Are you a sports car? Are you a jeep? What kind of car are you? I am a jeep girl. Always have been. I actually, my proudest moment of my life was, and I didn't buy it, I leased it, but still it was big, a jeep wrangler. Okay? Always loved a jeep wrangler. But I'm a jeep girl because I like to be up higher.

Right? I like to kind of see more. Some people like smaller cars. But we know in every car there's a blind spot. So what do we have in cars for blind spots? We have mirrors. But, sometimes those mirrors miss the blind spots. So what do you have to do when you see a blind spot? Gotta kind of crank your neck.

Move your body. You gotta get in position so you can see. And nothing is, excuse me, scarier than when a car comes into your blind spot. Or you know, you kind of pull into a lane and you're like, Yo, sorry. Okay? So think about your blind spots. Right now I want everybody to look straight ahead. Find something to look at specifically.

Okay? Then I want you to see what you see in your peripheral vision to the left. Can you say exactly what it is? Okay, now what I want you to do is just turn your head a little bit. Is it easier to see it? This is not a trick question. Yeah. So blind spots in your visual field are going to affect your movement because the brain is fascinating.

Everybody yells at compensation patterns. This is why we're all alive right now. Chill people. Your car, my Wrangler can't compensate. If I get a flat tire. I'm screwed. I can't drive. If I get a flat tire, like I stubbed my toe or I sprained an ankle, I might have like a hitch in my giddyup, but I can still walk.

Right? I might not be walking well. So humans have this amazing ability to compensate. This is why we don't die. And a lot of times, you know, if we can't compensate, it's kind of when we do die. So, don't be pissy about your compensation patterns. And guess what? You go to physical therapy, you go to the doctor to fix your compensation patterns, because those start to hurt, right?

But, the compensation pattern, that pain in your shoulder. You have nothing wrong with your shoulder. That compensation pattern is because you got a blind spot in your left lower quadrant. So you kind of just turn your head a little bit. Okay? But by turning the head a little bit, that's going to affect your spinal position, your stability, your eyes tracking.

Because even when our head tilts, our eyes are always going to find center. Pretty cool, right? So like, this is also important. Sidebar if you have scoliosis. Oh my God, if you're not looking at scoliosis from a neuro perspective, you are just getting temporary results or results that are limiting. Because scoliosis, our brain is always going to bring our head and eyes to a level playing field.

So it's so crucial. Um, I will talk about scoliosis in another episode. But what I want you guys to know today is our visual field. and what we see is going to affect how we move. We're just going to compensate a little bit to kind of put ourselves in the best position to see well. I have had multiple concussions.

My two major concussions were on this lower left side of my head. Okay? So because of that, there's a little bit of compression at the back of my skull. And due to that, it changes a little bit of the muscle tone of my face and how my jaw was moving. This is before I, I got it addressed. And if I don't get that addressed, my whole face shifts, and that's going to affect, my eyes are going to kind of have to pick up the slack.

Okay, if you have a concussion, and you're like, ooh, could that be me? Here's what I want you to do, here's an opinion coming in. Find yourself a DO, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, who does osteopathy. If you live in New Jersey, shout out to Dr. Evan Rubin. Ugh, he is the best. He's my lifeline. He's a great friend.

And him, along with all these neurostrategies, truly saved my life post concussion. Right? So, if you're still struggling with stuff, I'll do an, you know, maybe I'll do an episode about concussion. But please know that you can do all the eye exercises and vestibular therapy you want. But if they're compensating around things or your body's compensating around eye position, you are only going to get temporary results.

Cool. And last but not least about our blind spots. This is for anybody who was in a car accident or any of my athletes. The first question I asked, did you see it coming? Just based off that answer. I know exactly where to start. So I'm going to leave you with a cliffhanger, and you're going to have to come back in for our second episode about the eyes of dealing with injuries, concussions, and whiplash.

Now, question three. This one is going to get a little people a little pissy. And man, if I could just change this daily habit, I think, um, I've got to be in a better situation. Are your daily habits pissing your eyes off? Does anybody know what daily habit I'm thinking? Scrolling on your phone. So can I do like question 3A or 3B?

When you're TikTok, whatever you scrolling on, can you see the picture clearly? Yeah. So just think about it. You're going like this. So your eyes, it's almost like a slot machine. So your eyes have to, boom, boom. It has to catch that picture. Focus on it. Think about how fast that is happening. That is how freaking remarkable humans are.

Our brains, our eyes, our optic nerves, all of the above. Freaking nuts. But, let me put this in terms you might understand a little bit better, or if I've already got you, this will get you in a little more. If your eyes are moving that fast, so frequently throughout the day, think about it. Um, laws of specificity, easy for me to say, or like the SAID principle.

So, do you think that could be affecting your eyes moving slower? Like, what if I just look over there? What if I'm getting up off the couch? What if I'm getting up out of a chair? Okay, I have a lot of clients who, um, some have POTS, some don't, but that get real dizzy when they stand up. And, it's a lot of things, but one thing that's not being looked at is their eyes.

Often times when people move, your eyes either move way too fast, or way too slow. Creating a sensory mismatch that makes your brain go, huh? Okay? Now, if you have POTS, hypermobility, stuff like that, we, uh, I think episode one was about hypermobility, is when you kind of leave your chair, you, you kind of like disappear to your brain, and your brain doesn't feel where you are until your kind of knees are locked out and you're standing up.

Now, if your eyes are set before you stand up, that's more information to your brain. So right now, if you get dizzy when you stand up, disoriented, or you just feel like shit with brain fog, I want you to set your eyes. So if I'm gonna stand up, I'm gonna pick something to look at, and I'm gonna move towards it.

Or I'm gonna move my head and eyes. And then I'm gonna move my body towards it. Set your eyes. And then move your body towards it. So your visual system is dictating where and when you go. Remember, there's three systems that determine your balance. Visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive. Y'all think what you feel in your body, your muscles, is gospel?

It ain't. Okay? It's just a third of the piece of the puzzle. And, if I could be so bold, proprioception is often an unreliable ass narrator. Now, your visual system could be an unreliable narrator, but it is much more reliable because if I'm looking at something, if I'm looking at a wall, and the wall is dripping or something's moving, I know something's going on.

Either I'm on drugs or my eyes are screwed up. Right? So the visual system, if it's an unreliable narrator, we might know. So, I'm gonna give you two things to do, so you believe me. Number one is I want you to put your thumb out in front of you. Okay? And just notice where it is. Close your right eye. Did it move?

Close your left eye. Did it move? Most, majority of people, you'll have one eye that's dominant. So, when I close my dominant eye, Okay? It will move. The thumb. Okay? So, don't freak out about which eye is dominant or not. I mean, you can train them. Um, I do a lot of training on this and I can tell where I am, post concussion symptoms, about how much the thumbs move.

So what I mean by that is one of your eyes is telling you that limb is over here. One of your eyes is accurate and one of your eyes is not accurate. Your brain takes in all that information, processes it, so you know where to go. This is why if you ever see someone after a brain injury, a stroke, or a concussion, they go to like grab things and they miss.

Because the eyes aren't processing well. Or they might be having double vision because the brain is seeing two pictures. A little more complicated than that, but think of it like that for now. Cool? So, I hope I got your attention about your eyes. So, I'm gonna give you one of my favorite things. I call it, it's my Instagram scrolling reset.

Okay? So, after I scroll, And think about it, we don't really feel great after we scroll. Our anxiety's kind of worse. Mostly because our eyes have trouble stabilizing after that. So what I do, is I sit, or wherever I am, I even do this lying down and put my hand on my head. What I do first, is I look my eyes up.

Do it with me. Now don't look up so much you feel like you're going to get a headache. Just look up casually. And then look down. So you're picking two points, yes? Now. Look up and hold it. Press your head into your hand and your hand into your head like an isometric, like I'm almost trying to bring my head up, but I don't.

Okay, now relax, and then look, notice you can look up higher. Now keep your eyes, you have a new target. That's target 1, go back to target 2. Target 1 up high, target 2 down low. Now keep looking at target 2. From here, I like to go under my chin. Press your chin into your hand, your hand into your chin. Again, isometrically.

Now, hand on the head again. See if you can look down more. Look up, look down. Look up and hold it. Now from here, put your thumb up where that target is. Now jump to your thumb. And then spring your thumb down slowly. And back up and rest. Okay. Now, if you're thinking, I'm not going to do that after every time I scroll, that's fine.

Live with anxiety, live with shitty eyes that can't stabilize, but don't get mad at me when you get shoulder pain, back pain, or when you go to pick up a pen, your back goes out. All right. Now you could just do those isometrics, right? Or you can do the smooth tracking. What I want you to do is have your eyes

be able to move fast, move slow, do all of the above without losing the integrity of the picture and making the brain's job to process a lot easier. So in summary today, three questions. Are your eyes disrupting your movement? Do you have a blind spot? And are your daily habits pissing your eyes off? So number one, if your eyes are disrupting your movement, find a neuro trained movement professional.

Reach out to me, I will help you. So you can kind of work through this shit. Okay? Number two, do you have a blind spot? Yeah, we all do. Work on opening your visual field. Work on differentiating eye movement from head movement. So basically, move your eyes without moving your head, and then move your head without moving your eyes.

Cool? And number three, are your daily habits pissing you, pissing your eyes off? Yeah, but what are you going to do about it? Are you going to complain about it or are you going to do something? I always say, I don't push people to do anything. I say to my dad all the time. He's sprained his ankle so many times his foot's on backwards.

I'm like, Dad, I can't have you walking around like that. Ugh, it's a reflection on me. But he doesn't want to do anything about it. So, it ain't that bad. Okay? So I'm not telling you not to scroll, but I would like you to try to reset your proprioceptive and visual system so that your eyes can move fast and slow.

So, hopefully these questions, three questions have gotten the, the mouse and the wheel spinning a little bit more in your brain. Hopefully you're a little bit more excited about your eyes. And, at the end of the day, I hope you are thinking about the things that are going wrong in your body and not accepting no for an answer.

Anybody who tells you it's impossible, it's because they've never done it. Don't let them limit you. You got this. Thanks guys, and I'll see you in the next episode.