Eye exercises

Hold your thumb out at arms length. Move it in circles and Xs, bringing the thumb
closer, then farther away, as you follow it with your eyes. This exercise helps to offset
damage to the eyes due to eyestrain. According to Don Teig, O.D., an optometrist and
sports vision specialist, it also helps to improve the brain-to-nerve-to muscle connection
of your vision.

Whether you suffer from astigmatism, lazy eye or farsighted, there is something for you.
Below are some beneficial exercises to improve your sight.

This exercise requires that you not move your head and only your eyes. Use your finger
and allow your eyes to follow it as you do the exercises.

1-The first exercise is to look as far to the right as possible. You will feel the pull of the
eye muscles as you hold them in this position and inhale and exhale one time utilizing
diaphragmatic breathing for a count of three or four seconds.

Then move your eyes to the left as far as you can. Inhale and exhale as you hold the
position for another count of three seconds to four seconds.

Keep widening the eye muscles, right and left for a total of four times in unison with your
diaphragmatic breathing.

Next, look up as far as possible, taking in the tug of the eye muscles. Hold as you inhale
and exhale utilizing slow diaphragmatic breathing. Then look down and hold that
position, as you keep using belly breathing for another three to four count seconds.
Once again, you should feel the tug of the eye muscles. Repeat for a total of four breath
sets.

2- For the next exercise, bring your finger to your nose. Follow your finger with your
eyes until you are looking cross-eyed. When you begin to feel the tug of the eye
muscles, hold for a count of three to four seconds. Together with one breath in and one
breathe out.

For the next breath, close your eyes and let allow them to remain calm as possible for
three to four counts. Repeat the stretching and relaxation for a total of four sets.

Close your eyes as tightly as you can, and hold for a count of three to four seconds,
again together with diaphragmatic breathing.

For the next breath, open your eyes as wide as you can for another count of three to
four seconds. Do a total of four sets along with breathing.
3. Finally, close your eyes again as tight as you can. While you are doing this, rub your
hands together until they are very warm. You are stimulating the external chi energy for
restoration. Lastly, close your eyes again tightly.

Keeping your eyes closed, calm them completely and put your palms gently over your
eyelids. You should sense the warm chi flowing over your eyes from your palms and
relaxing the eyes even more, so that you see darkness. Keep palming for about two
minutes. Always rub the hands before you begin to palm.

Once you have finished palming, test your eyesight again with the eye chart. You
should find that you can see much more lucidly than before.

Our eyesight is something that we often take for granted until it's too late. Our eyes
have a tendency to stay strained in one direction when we're reading or working on a
computer. That can be a terrible strain on our optic nerve, as well as, our eye muscles.
Humankind was not meant to stare straight ahead for hours and days on end. Keeping
our eyes in one position for long periods, day after day, can actually cause a host of eye
problems including misshapen eyeballs.

In the workplace, you should use a screen over your computer monitor or a dim your
screen a bit. This prevents strain on the eyes. So does using less lighting in your office
or cubicle. If you have 6 Fluorescent bulbs, take one or two out. Bright lighting puts a
terrible strain on the eyes and Fluorescent bulbs are more of a hazard than help.

We don't realize that there are ways of keeping our eyes healthy other than with
nutrients. Nutrients are very important, but these simple yogic techniques can be done
just about anytime, even on your work break or lunch hour. They take little time and
exert little energy, but by doing them every day you can reap the visual rewards.

Palming:
I really love this one, you can do it when you first wake up or go to bed at night or
anytime your eyes need a freshing-up.

Close your eyes and rub your palms together as fast as you possibly can to get them
good and warm. Then place your palms flat over your closed eyes for about 30
seconds. You can do this for up to 6 times if you choose.

Eye Rolls:
Close your eyes and roll them clockwise about 10 times, then reverse and roll them
counter-clockwise for 10 times. Repeat up to 3 times.

Blinking:
Blink as fast as you can for about 10 or 20 times. This lubricates the eyes and helps
with focus.
Eye Movement:
Sit in a relaxed position. With your eyes open, slowly move your eyes up towards the
ceiling, inhaling and exhaling as your move, but don't move your head. Hold that
position for about 2 seconds and then look downwards towards the floor and inhale and
exhale again. Repeat about 10 times and blink about 10 times very fast to relax your
eyes.

Move your eyes to the left for a couple of seconds and then to the right, slowly, in haling
and exhaling. Repeat this movement 10 times and blink.

Move your eyes upwards towards the upper left ceiling then down towards the right floor
side, inhaling and exhaling again as you move. Then reverse to roll your eyes upwards
to the right ceiling and then back down to the left floor with your in and out breath. Again
repeating up to 10 times and blink.

Eye Squeezes:
Close your eyes tightly and squeeze them as tightly as you can, (not tightly enough to
make them sore), then hold this for about 3 seconds and open your eyes quickly. Blink
a few times to relax your eyes.

Shift your vision:

Hold a pencil under the tip of your nose and slowly move it, without raising or lowering it
any, further and further away from you until you can see it clearly. Raise your eyes a
tiny bit and look straight into the distance to find a small point that you can also see
clearly.

Now shift your eyes to the closer point, your pencil and then shift again to the furthest
point in the distance where you looked before moving to the pencil again. Repeat this
up to 10 times, blink quickly and close your eyes and relax.

You will be surprised at how doing this every day will increase your vision.

We all know how important it is to keep our bodies fit by doing things like going to the
gym, jogging, and swimming. But, did you know that you can exercise your eyes as
well? Eye exercising will keep your eyes healthy and help minimize eyestrain.

Sit comfortably on a chair. Rub your hands together until they feel warm. Close your
eyes and cover them lightly with your cupped palms. Avoid applying pressure on your
eyeballs. Place your palms so that the nose remains uncovered and the eyes remain
behind the slight hollow of the palms. Make sure that no light rays enter the eyes, and
leave no gaps between fingers or between the edge of the palms and the nose. You
may still see other lingering traces of colors. Imagine deep blackness and focus on the
blackness. Take deep breaths slowly and evenly, while thinking of some happy incident;
or visualize a distant scene. After your eyes see nothing but blackness, remove your
palms from your eyes. Repeat the palming for 3 minutes or more.
Close your eyes tightly for 3-5 seconds, then open them for 3-5 seconds. Repeat
this 7 or 8 times.

Close your eyes and massage them with circular movements of your fingers for
1-2 minutes. Make sure you press very lightly; and have washed your hands.
Otherwise, you could hurt your eyes.

Press three fingers of each hand against your upper eyelids, and hold them there
for 1-2 seconds, then release. Repeat 5 times.

Sit and relax. Roll your eyes clockwise, then counter-clockwise. Repeat 5 times, and
blink in between each time.

Sit about 6 inches (15 cm) from the window. Make a mark on the glass at your eye
level (a small sticker, black or red, would be perfect). Look through this mark and focus
on something far away for 10-15 seconds; then focus on the mark again.

Hold a pencil in front of you at arm's length. Move your arm slowly to your nose, and
follow the pencil with your eyes until you can keep it in focus. Repeat 10 times.

Look in front of you at the opposite wall and pretend that you are writing with
your eyes, without turning your head. It may seem difficult at first, but with a bit of
practice it is really fun. The bigger the letters, the better the effect.

Imagine that you are standing in front of a really big clock. Look at the middle of the
clock. Then look at any hour mark, without turning your head. Look back at the center.
Then look at another hour mark. Do this at least 12 times. You can also do this exercise
with your eyes closed.

Focus on a distant object (over 150 feet or 50 m away) for several seconds and
slowly refocus your eyes on a nearby object (less than 30 feet or 10 m away)
that's in the same direction. Focus for several seconds and go back to the distant
object. Do this 5 times.

Focus on an object in the distance (as far as possible) with a low contrasting
background. Do this for a few minutes every half hour or so. This does not improve
your vision, nor does any other technique. It can, however, maintain your best eyesight
level during the day and prevent significant further vision deterioration.

Make up and down eye movements, starting from up to down. Do this 8 times.
Then do the side to side eye movement, starting from left to right. Repeat this 8 times.
Make sure not to add pressure to your eyes! It only worsens your vision!

Always finish up either with palming or any other eye relaxation techniques.
it's more important to do the exercises regularly than to do them for a long time. Even
30-60 seconds of eye movement every hour is very helpful. For example, when your
computer takes its sweet time to do something, most people just stare at the poor thing
and waste the time, but you can make a few circles with your eyes. Even the first day
you do this, you should notice that, when you finish working, your eyes aren't as tired as
usual.

Eye Exercises

Here is a list of all the eye exercises that you can do which will help to improve your
eye's vision. Take some of these which you like and do them regularly. You will
definitely see some improvements.

1. Blink your eyes as fast as you can for some time.

2. Close the eyes tightly for some time and then open. Do this for 5 times.
3. Roll your eyes in clockwise as well as anticlockwise direction for 5 times.
4. While walking on the road or when you are in an open space, look as far as
possible.
5. Look at an advertisement or some written material from a far place and try to
read it by focusing your eyes.
6. • Close both the eyes very tightly by shutting the lids firmly. Open them suddenly
which allows you to feel the stretch. Once open arch your brows and stretch your
face. Repeat this several times a day.
7. • Look as far as possible and inhale then look down as far as possible and
exhale. Blink your eyes more than dozen times. Do the same procedure by turning
to your left and right then diagonally up to left, down to right, up to right and down to
left followed by rapid blinking.
8. • Rotate your eyes in all the directions. Slowly and steadily concentrate one eye
at a time. Do this exercise more than dozen times and try doing this with your eyes
shut.
9. • By using palming which can be stated as a revised version of the thousand-
year-old yoga tradition known was Hatha Yoga. It relieves strain and stress from
your mind and eyes which needs the required break. For this you have to warm
your hands by rubbing them together vigorously. Once it's warm cover the eye
without touching the eyelids. This relaxes the nerves and helps in blood circulation.
10. • You can also try sunning which means to use sun's light for your eyes. Move
your head from side to side for the heat to benefit the eyes. After a while try
stretching the eyes to allow more sunlight to your eyes. Directly looking at the sun
is never good.
11. It is great method to reduce light sensitivity.
 12. • Perform Netra Basti which is bathing your eyes with clarified butter to reduce
eye strain and to improve eyesight.

People tend to think that better eyesight always relate to eye surgery or glasses. Eye surgery is
very risky and could lead to irreversible damage. Glasses maintains vision problem and do
nothing in order to cure it. Yet, there are healthy natural treatments which cure poor eyesight
symptoms. The only problem is that these methods are being hidden and disregarded by doctors
and optometrists who wish people will continue to buy glasses and risk their eyes with laser eye
surgeries. It is better to avoid the risks and try these basic simple exercises first. They could
improve your eye vision dramatically.

Eye chart

Its purpose is to exercise the eye to a healthy behavior of shifting instead of central fixation.
Hang the eye chart and move to a distance where you can read the first 4 lines. Look at the first
letter carefully close your eyes and try to visualize it in your imagination. Try to create a clear
picture of it. Instead of static letter try imagining it slowly swinging. Repeat this with the rest of
the letters in the four first lines you can read.

Covering

This is a very important exercise. People think that their eyes rest when they sleep. Actually, on
the dreaming stage they keep moving and work as if the person is a wake.
Therefore, proper resting is crucial. For best performance you need a quite and comfortable place
like your favorite couch. Cover your eyes with your hands, and try to feel as pleasant as you can.
Listen to the music you like best, or try to imagine your favorite view. The eyes need about 10-
15 minutes to reach full relaxation, the longer the better. It is recommended, to perform it daily
for 15 minutes or a few times a day for 5 minutes.

Reading

Reading is a very important task for the eyes as it is performed on daily basis. It is important to
adjust natural way of reading which will reduce eye tension and will educate the eyes for better,
healthy vision habits. Healthy eyes read a sentence by focusing on each letter and then moving to
the next one. A tensed eye will jump from word to word and will try to read the complete
sentence in a few eye glances. Reading large areas instead of focusing on central vision, letter by
letter, lead to increased eye tension. It is best to move slowly from letter to letter as a practice. At
the end of each page focus on a point a few meters a way. This will ease the tension on the eyes
from the reading.

Tiny writing

This exercise requires the eye to use its central vision. The eyes and the mind should be very
relaxed to avoid over pressure on the eye when reading the tiny writing. Get text and print it
from and word processor in size 4 or 3. It should be black text on a white paper. Hold it against
your eyes and read it in a slow and relaxed mode. Make sure you keep blinking often and look at
a distanced point once in a while.

Physical exercises

It is important to understand that the aim of these exercises is to make eyes muscles more elastic
and avoid tension. First try to feel your eyes: are they tensed? If so try to feel exactly where, and
relax that area. Look at an object not far from you, and move your eyes: ten times up and down
and ten times left to right, then in circles for 5 times. Take a piece of paper with a dot at its top
edge. Bring it as close as 5 CM from your nose and then move it away as far as you can.
Concentrate on the dot all time, do it for about tem times. Hold the piece of paper close to your
nose, look at for a few seconds and then look at a distant point for a few seconds. Again do it for
ten times.

Foods for improving eyesight:

Carrot, Spinach, Oranges and all dark coloured vegetables, Fish, grapes, mausambi,
lemon, red onion

A healthy diet will help to improve your vision. Especially Vitamin-A,C,D,E, Beta
Carotene rich foods are good for the eyes. The list of some of the foods are

1. Carrot
2. Eggs
3. Milk
4. Apricots
5. Berries
6. Black Currants
7. Cold-water Fish
8. Collard Greens
9. Grapefruits
10. Grapes
11. Lemons
12. Plums
13. Spinach
14. Fish Oils
15. Raw Garlic (fresh)
16. Soy (rich in protein)
17. Fresh fruits & vegeatables (vitamin value)
18. Blueberries & grapes (improving night vision)
19. Wine in moderation (vision protector)
 20. Nuts, almonds (omega-3 fatty acids)
21. Olive oil (healthier alternaive to butter)

Diet : include vegetables and fruits that are green, yellow and red in colour. Spinach,
tomatoes, butter, lettuce, carrot , cabbage, dates, soyabean, blueberries and oranges,
milk cream and fresh milk

• Consuming good amount of apple and grapes helps in improving your eyesight.

• Vitamin A is very good for enhancing your eyesight. Carrots have good quantity of
vitamin A which proves to be one of the useful natural treatments.

• Cucumber juice does wonders for your eyesight as it tries to improve it immensely.

• Add spinach in your daily diet as Spinach contains iron, vitamin A, B and C. It purifies
your blood, increases the hemoglobin and improves your eyesight.

• You can find good source of vitamin A in turnip, milk cream, fresh milk, cheese,
butter, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, soya beans, green peas, oranges and dates.

• An ayurvedic medicine name Triphala is considered to work immensely in favor of

your eyes.

• Consuming blueberry juice also considered to be very useful for your eyes.

Harmful for your eyes

Here is a list of harmful things for the eyes.

1. Foods and additives containing Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

2. Looking directly into the sun for some time.
3. Drugs which are harmful to the eyes
4. Cell phone games may also be harmful.