You could just move the blind slightly so that the character's eyes show.

As for animating the body without the arms following? The answer depends on how you rigged your character. If you post a shot of your character with all his controls, I might be better able to help! Is he rigged for FK? IK? Both?

If you are trying to simulate heavy breathing, the best way is probably to use a "squash deformer" on the body, or else create a blend shape relationship between the "default" body and a duplicate tweaked to look as if it has inhaled.

Keep me posted!