Why you SHOULD be doing eye yoga
Do you spend most of your day staring at screens? If you answered yes, you know how easily eyes can fatigue. With more time spent gazing at smartphones, tablets and the TV, eye strain is becoming increasingly common. But before you grab the eye drops, give some simple eye yogic exercises a go. Practised for centuries, yoga exercises for the eyes help relax eye muscles naturally and regular practice can even improve vision by strengthening eye muscles. So next time your eyes are feeling tired, dry or itchy, try these three common eye yoga techniques. Best of all, it only takes a few minutes and you can do it absolutely anywhere.
The key to all these exercises is relax the entire body, empty the mind and breathe deeply and consistently.
Palming
Palming involves covering closed eyes with your palm. It is a simple but powerful relaxing technique.
- Rub palms together to warm them up or hold under warm water
- Place palms gently but completely over closed eye so you are bathed in darkness. You should not be able to see any light through fingers
- Breathe deeply. Envision the eyes absorbing the darkness and feel the warmth from your palms spreading to your eyes muscles
- Stay like this until heat from your hands has absorbed to your eyes
- Repat process three times for optimal results
Eye rolling
Eye rolling helps strengthen eye muscles.
- Relax and soften your gaze
- Keep your head still while you direct your eyes to the ceiling.
- Slowly circle eyes in as wide as circle as possible. Focus on objects in your periphery to help you. It may feel straining at first but as you practice, the motion will increasingly feel more fluid.
- Repeat three times. Close your eyes and relax.
- Repeat in the other direction.
Near and distant focusing
This helps improve visual concentration.
- Sit or stand near a window if inside or somewhere outside
- Keep still and focus vison on the tip of your nose.
- Shift your gaze to a distant object and hold for a few seconds
- Repeat for at least 5 times. Vary the distant object you look at.