The Insidious Tension of the Eyes & Jaw
I’m writing this in the shadows of night, after sleep deserted me. As I lay there with my eyes gently closed, coaxing them toward rest, I noticed something strange: my eyes kept pulling downward. Every time I caught it, I’d relax them back to neutral—back to the horizon line where our gaze naturally belongs.
Here’s the thing: as humans, we evolved to keep our eyes on the horizon. We’re a nomadic species, designed to scan long distances for safety and survival. Our eyes naturally reset to find that line. So why were mine drifting downward?
A couple reasons:
Screens, screens, and more screens. Most of our day is spent gazing down—at laptops, phones, tablets—and our bodies adapt to what we practice most.
Posture. If the back of your neck is shortened from hunching, stress, or poor ergonomics, your eyes will literally shift downward to recalibrate.
And where the eyes go, the jaw follows.
Ever notice your jaw tightening while you’re concentrating, stressed, or hunched over your screen? That’s not random—it’s your body adapting.
When the head juts forward, the jaw clamps down to stabilize it.
Chronic tension in the jaw often leads to teeth grinding (bruxism), especially at night.
Grinding and clenching don’t just affect your teeth, they create tension that radiates up into the temples and down into the neck, feeding the cycle of headaches and discomfort.
The body is brilliant at adapting. But those adaptations, left unchecked, become holding patterns—and those holding patterns become pain.
In Clinical Somatic Movement, we often explore how to release tension in the eyes and jaw—two overlooked power players in neck health and headaches.
Through gentle, targeted movements, you can:
Reset your eyes toward their natural horizon
Release jaw tension that’s been quietly building for years
Free up neck mobility and reduce strain
Leave class feeling lighter, clearer, and more at ease
Your eyes deserve a rest. Your jaw deserves release. And your whole self deserves the relief that follows. Check out some of my upcoming classes, both online and in person, to get the release you’ve been searching (through squinty eyes) for.