By rolling your eyes, you can let your interlocutor know that you are bored or frustrated. This is a personal expression and provocation that you can use to great effect on social occasions. The movement is pretty straightforward in itself once you learn how to do it; but be aware of when and how it is appropriate to rotate your eyes!
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Roll the Eyes
Step 1. Look upwards
The movement is pretty mundane once you understand how to do it. To begin, look up without moving your head; in other words, the pupils must reach the highest possible point of the orbit, as if they wanted to look at your forehead. At this point, take your time to move your eyes from side to side by drawing an arc. Your interlocutor should see your pupils "rolling" up showing the white portion of the bulbs.
Step 2. Look up high enough to show the other person only the sclera
If you succeed, your eyes will appear completely white; hold them firmly in this position by rotating them for maximum range of motion.
Take a picture of yourself to confirm that you have performed the movement correctly; alternatively, ask a friend to observe you and comment on your attitude, as you cannot use a mirror to look directly at yourself
Step 3. Repeat the movement in front of an interlocutor
It is an expression that humans use to express discontent to another person; since you roll your eyes up to communicate a message and not for yourself, it's important to know your audience. Sometimes, you do this to inform the other person that you are annoyed, that you don't believe them, or that you are not interested in their talk. On other occasions, you can do it behind individual A's back to communicate to individual B, who is watching you, that A is really bothering you; however, be very careful! If person A notices this, they would not be happy at all.
- If you do this eye movement in front of a group of people, maybe you really want to express discontent or you just want to get a laugh. If you want to get a very theatrical effect, you have to exaggerate it for it to be very noticeable.
- If you want to address the expression only to one person, look for eye contact first; once you have looked into each other's eyes for a moment, you can look upwards with a sign of impatience, making sure that the interlocutor can see it.
Method 2 of 2: Perfect the Technique
Step 1. Practice
The best way to perfect the movement is to understand what you look like when you do it; look in the mirror if you can, although it is very difficult to see the gesture as you do it. You can also try shooting yourself with a webcam or mobile phone camera and then reviewing the footage. If you really want to improve, practice in front of a friend who can comment on your "performance".
- Train your eye muscles and keep exercising until you are able to look upward smoothly; if well done, this expression should seem spontaneous and betray no effort.
- Don't overdo it though! It is quite easy to fatigue or cause a muscle injury with this continuous movement.
Step 2. Exaggerate the attitude
Make it slow and theatrical. Don't focus on what you see, but on how you want to look; in this way, the interlocutor is more likely to be aware of your behavior and understand your body language. However, you have to opt for a quick and stealthy expression if you don't want those present to notice what you are actually feeling.
Try to amplify the effect by combining a sigh, a head movement, or both
Step 3. Be careful when adopting this attitude
Your interlocutor could interpret it as a provocation; some people get angry at this and the conflict could escalate. If you are legitimately bothered by a person, try to talk to them about the problem instead of addressing them with a passive-aggressive look like this.
Advice
- When you roll your eyes upward, you block the brain's ability to process visual information. Some say that this generates alpha waves, which are the neuronal oscillations associated with lack of focus. For this reason, the practice of rotating the eyes has sometimes been used to trigger lucid dreams and support meditation, although its scientific foundations are not verified.
- Practice rolling your eyes until you can do it without difficulty; it can be helpful to see how you look as you do it.
- Pairing eye movement with a sarcastic or irreverent comment makes your expression even more prominent and effective.
- Be careful, some people may take offense at your gesture and you may just escalate the discussion.
