Perhaps you’ve played this fun game with your brother or sister, or your parents, or a friend. It’s simple enough to play anywhere with anyone. Two people just look at each other and the first one to blink (or look away, or laugh depending on the rules you set) loses. It’s a great way to pass time on long car trips or standing in the grocery store line. Blinking is one of several actions in your body that is both voluntary and involuntary, meaning you can control it (voluntary) but it also happens without you thinking about it (involuntary). That’s part of what makes this game so fun. Other examples of actions that are both voluntary and involuntary include breathing, swallowing, and checking your phone every five minutes. The average person blinks about 15-20 times per minute which adds up to a whopping 28,800 per day!! Nobody could remember to do all that blinking!! But all that blinking isn’t without purpose. Your eye is about the size of a ping pong ball and it sits in a little open space in your skull that is the perfect size for it. Can you imagine if the holes were too big for your eyes!? Every time you looked down at your shoes your eyeballs would fall out! That would NOT be good. Your eyelids protect the front part of your eyes and helps to keep your eyes clean and moist by opening and shutting multiple times per minute. Your eyelids also have amazing reflexes which are your body’s automatic responses to certain things. This is so your eyelids can respond quickly to protect the eyes. For example, you automatically close your eyelids together in bright sunlight (called squinting) to protect your eye. You will also close your eyes in an instant and without thinking, if you see something speeding in the direction of your face whether it’s a bug or a ball. All of these are just amazing examples of how intelligent your body is. Just as your eyes grew to perfectly fit their eye sockets, your body has a wisdom within it which is constantly working to maintain your supremely well-organized self. It’s called your innate intelligence. It keeps all of your body parts and body functions working, including your blinking. This wisdom uses your nerve system to coordinate all the necessary functions for life, such as getting you healthy and keeping you well. The better your brain and nerve system can talk to your body, the better your whole amazing body can function. Sometimes, the bones of your spine can misalign because of things you do every day. Those misalignments can distort the communication in your nerve system, hindering your best and most organized self from manifesting. Your chiropractor will check your spine for these misalignments, which are called vertebral subluxations, and will restore the communication so you can be your most amazing self and maybe even win a few of those staring games. —By Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, ACP, FCSC (hon)
