To Infinity and Beyond!

You too can create your very own Infinity and Beyond with these Lazy 8’s (infinity sign) developed by Paul E. Dennison in his Brain Gym program.¹

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The Basic Practice - infinite lazy 8’s

respect your limits, modify where needed

posture set-up:

• can be done either sitting or standing

• if standing, your choice

  • feet together

  • hip width

  • shoulder width

arm starting position:

• extend left arm out in front

• about shoulder height

• use the ‘thumb up’ mudra

infinite lazy 8’s

• draw lazy 8s (infinity sign) in the air

• always draw towards left circle first going up, around and down

• come back to centre

• draw circle to the right by going up, around and down

draw with left thumb

• complete three lazy 8s with left thumb

draw with right thumb

• complete three lazy 8s with right thumb

draw with both hands clasped, thumbs crossed

• complete three lazy 8s with clasped hands

Explore the Movement - eyes

• have your eyes track the thumb or hands as you draw

  • are your eyes tracking smoothly?

• change the size of the circles

  • are smaller circles easier or harder to track?

• draw using a streamer or a scarf (see video above)

  • what changes for your eyes?

• try drawing lazy 8s with eyes closed

Everyday Living

Lazy 8s help our vision cross the midline of our body better. As the eyes follow the flowing movement of the hands, they learn to focus together for binocular ease.

Experiment: Read a paragraph. Then draw the Lazy 8s. Read the paragraph and notice any change in your eyes’ state of relaxation. ²

Yoga Practice

Focused gaze is called drishti in the yoga practice. It is used to develop concentration since when the eyes move, the mind and attention follow. It is easy to become caught up in distractions when looking around a room, so the practice of drishti enables the practitioner to engage in one-pointed focus.³

Within asana practice, there are nine different categorizations of drishti:

1. Nasagrai drishti: gaze on nose tip in standing forward fold

2. Bhrumadhye drishti: gaze in between the eyebrows in fish pose

3. Nabi chakra drishti: gaze on the navel in downward-facing dog pose

4. Angusthamadhye: gaze on the thumb in upward salute pose (hands up in the air)

5. Hastagrai drishti: gaze on the hands in triangle pose

6. Parsva drishti: gaze to the right side in a right twist pose

7. Parsva drishti: gaze to the left side in a left twist pose

8. Padayoragrai drishti: gaze on the toes in seated forward bend

9. Urdhva drishti: gaze upward to the sky in warrior I pose⁴

Discover Amazing

Drawing Lazy 8s in the air or on paper has been used in educational therapy for a very long time according to Paul Dennison.

On the surface the drawing of the Lazy 8s seems to be so simple and yet amazingly it can help all of us have our eyes cross the visual midline with ease which leads to improved hand writing, flow of thoughts, and less transposition errors in reading and writing.⁵

Let your thoughts, reading and writing flow to infinity and beyond!

Namaste

(the Light in me honors the Light in you)

keep moving; keep healthy
    movement is our birthright 
        we have been given two legs
             walk, run, dance, leap, hop, squat
                    be in AWE you can move forward

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Discover amazing treasures in the Archive:

Disclaimer: Be safe, know your limits and move wisely without causing harm to yourself. Information provided in this newsletter is for you to explore and discover how your body works. It is not to diagnose any medical condition. Please consult with a physician or physiotherapist if you have concerns.

1. Paul E. Dennison, Brain Gym ® Teacher’s Edition, page 32, 33

2. Paul E. Dennison, Brain Gym ® Teacher’s Edition, page 32, 33

3. https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5286/drishti

4. https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5286/drishti

5. Paul E. Dennison, Brain Gym ® Teacher’s Edition, page 32, 33