This article isn’t for everyone, like those with unresolvable eye issues. It is for people who have either lived with for a while, or are now starting to experience blurry vision — both nearsighted or farsighted.
I am excited to share with you some tips on how eye exercises can strengthen your eyes and improve your vision. I’ve been fortunate to have good vision for most my life. In graduate school, when I was spending a significant number of hours reading and writing on the computer, I noticed that I couldn’t see far away as clearly as I had in the past.
My yoga teacher at the time showed us a few techniques for relieving stress in the eyes. Because she was amazing and brought so many good things to my life, I thought, yeah, I’ll give it a try. I proceeded for the next several weeks to dedicate a short time every day to performing a regimen with my eyes.
Long story short: I started leaving my glasses at home when I went to my classes. My sight had improved enough that I could see the blackboard clearly, even from the back row.
Our modern life is full of reasons why our vision is failing: spending hours and hours on the computer or phone, watching TV, spending long periods under fluorescent lighting.
Glasses and contacts are an amazing invention, but once you start wearing them, your eyes don’t have to work as hard, which in turn worsens your vision.
Give these exercises a try for a month and watch how strong your eye muscles can be!
1. Palms
Rub the palms of your hands together fast for a few seconds to generate some heat. Then cup your hands around your orbital bone (the bone around the eye socket) and leave them there for 30 seconds. While your hands cover your eyes, keep your eyes closed. Enjoy the break your eyes receive. Warm your hands and cup your eye sockets three times.
2. Clock
Seated comfortably and without moving your head, move only your eyes to look up as high as you can — that’s 12 o’clock. Then move your eyes clockwise to go all the way around the clock: from 1 o’clock, back up to 12. Keep you eyes looking as far to the edges as you can. Go 3 times around clockwise, then 3 times around counter-clockwise. This should be done as slowly as possible.
3. Focus
By mixing up what you are looking at helps improve your eye muscles. Bring a pen to just in front of your eyes with your right hand, then hold another pen with your left hand at arm’s distance. Focus on the close pen, then the pen a couple feet away, then on a point across the room, and then at a point outside a window. Position yourself so that you don’t have to move your head for this. Look at each of the four spots for two seconds, and rotate through these points for about 2 minutes total.
4. Zoom
Extend your arm out while holding a pen. Slowly bring the pen to 2-3 inches away from your face, all the while keeping the pen in focus. Slowly move the pen back to an arm’s distance, again, keeping your eyes focused on the pen. Repeat this several times.
5. Blink
I was surprised to learn that when we are looking at a computer/phone screen or reading we blink less than when we are looking at things further away. [Check out this cook study on spontaneous eye blink rate.] Dry eyes can lead to blurry vision. You can help your keep your eyes moist by blinking several times very quickly. Blink 10 times, then sit with your eyes closed for 20 seconds. Repeat this exercise 5 times.
Train your eyes to use their full functioning and you will be surprised how how strong you can make them! There is also the 20-20-20 rule… Every 20 minutes look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This helps to give your eyes light exercise throughout your day.
Keep your eyes strong and in good health and before long, you too, might be able to ditch those glasses!
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