Yogic Exercises for Your Eyes!!!!!

The key for maintaining any part or organ of our body in optimum condition is to give regular exercise; eyes are no exception.

Yoga, besides its spiritual implications, has always reiterated that just like our muscles and heart, all the major organs of our body require regular exercise. The yoga practitioners attach special importance to eye exercises, for two reasons. Firstly, a lot of eye problems in later life are due to a loss of tone in the eye muscles. These muscles become rigid, and this loss of elasticity reduces the ability of the lens of the eye to focus at different distances. It also causes the eyesight to become weaker. Secondly, any eye tension present will tend to produce a general feeling of tension, due to the eye's connection to the brain via the optic nerve. What happens is that eye tension produces an increase in the nerve impulses in the eye muscles. The eye exercises reduce tension in the eye muscles, as well as reduce general tension. The key to doing these exercises is to relax and empty the mind as if you are meditating.

Yogic exercise for your eyes: Lie on your back facing up. Your palms should face the ceiling and your legs should be about shoulder-width apart. If you are doing this exercise in your office then sit comfortably in your chair. Close your eyes. Breathe into your belly. Feel it expand as it fills with air. Continue for a few minutes and then open your eyes. Look at some object. Close your eyes again and continue "seeing" that object. This exercise helps to relax your eyes. It also balances mental focus with imagination.

Conventional eye exercises:

Exercise 1 Move your eyes upwards as far as you can, and then downwards as far as you can. Do it for 4-5 times, then blink your eyes few times to relax, then shut your eyes for some time.

Exercise 2 Now look to your right corner without moving or tilting your head, then to your left corner. Repeat for 4-
5 times. Blink several times, and then close your eyes and rest.

Exercise 3 Look at your right corner up, then to the left corner down. Repeat 4-5 times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest. Now do the same exercise in reverse. That is, first look to the left corner up, then to the right corner down. Repeat 4-5 times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest.

Exercise 4 Slowly roll your eyes first clockwise, then counterclockwise. Do this slowly, making a full-vision circle. Blink; close your eyes and rest. Do this five times then blink the eyes for at least five seconds.

Exercise 5 Take a pencil, or use your finger, and hold it under the tip of your nose. Then start moving it away, without raising it, until you have fixed it at the closest possible distance where you can see it clearly without any blur. Now look at the closer point-the pencil or your finger tip then shift to the farther point in the distance. Repeat several times, blink, close your eyes and squeeze them tight.

Exercise 6 Close your eyes as tightly as you possibly can and squeeze the eyes, so the eye muscles contract. Hold this contraction for three seconds, and then let go quickly.

Exercise 7 Focus your gaze on the tip of your nose without blinking. Remain like this for as long as you can. Then close your eyes and relax.

Exercise 8 This exercise is called 'palming' and is very relaxing to the eyes. Briskly rub your palms and place the cupped palms over your closed eyes.

Caution: Consult your optometrist (eye doctor) before doing any of these exercises. The last thing you want to do is add further strain to your eyes, or damage them permanently.

It is 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.