How to Exercise Your Eyes

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.

These steps are not meant to improve your vision, but rather to maintain your best eyesight level during the day and prevent significant further vision deterioration.

1.       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 to your eyeballs. Your nose should not be covered. Make sure no light rays can enter your eyes though gaps between your fingers or the edges of your palms and nose. You may still see other lingering traces of colors. Imagine deep blackness and focus on it. Take deep breaths slowly and evenly while thinking of some happy incident, or visualize a distant scene. After you see nothing but blackness, remove your palms from your eyes. Repeat the palming for 3 minutes or more.

2.       Close your eyes tightly for 3-5 seconds. Open them for 3-5 seconds. Repeat 7 or 8 times

3.       Massage your eyes

·         Hot and Cold Compress: Soak one towel in hot water, and the other in cold. Take one and lightly press it to your face, focusing on your eyebrows, closed eyelids, and cheeks alternate between the two as desired, making sure to end with a cold compress.

·         Full Face Massage: Soak a towel in hot water. Rub your neck, forehead and cheeks with the towel, avoiding the eyes. Then, use your fingertips to gently massage your forehead and closed eyes.

·         Eyelid Massage: 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 to avoid damaging your eyes.

4.       Lightly press three fingers of each hand against your upper eyelids. Hold them there for 1-2 seconds, then release. Repeat 5 times.

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

6.       Focus on a distant object (over 150 feet or 50 m away) for 10-15 seconds. Then, slowly refocus your eyes on a nearby object (less than 30 feet or 10 m away) without moving your head. Focus for again for 10-15 seconds, and go back to the distant object. Do this 5 times.

7.       Practice rhythmic movements

·         Bar Swings: Stand in front of a fence, barred window, or something else with evenly spaced vertical lines. Focus loosely on a distant object on the other side of the bars. Relax your body and rhythmically transfer your weight from one foot to the other. Keep your breathing steady and relaxed. Don't forget to blink while performing this exercise. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

·         Round Swings: Focus on an object in the distance that is close to the ground. Sway as instructed for Bar Swings. Keeping your gaze on the same object, use your peripheral vision to observe your surroundings as you sway. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

·         Head Movements: Close one eye. Slowly form a figure 8 with your head. Repeat for the other eye. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

8.       Imagine that you are standing in front of a large 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.

9.       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.

10.   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. Be sure not to force your eyes further than they want to go in any particular direction, or you risk making your vision worse.

11.  Always finish up either with palming or another eye relaxation technique.

Read the original article on wikihow.com

When was the last time you and your family members had an eye examination? Drop by any 20/20 Eyeglass Superstore location and meet with an Independent Optometrist. Walk-in’s are welcome but we ask that you come at least 20 minutes to your desired appointment time to fill out the required paperwork.  Check out our previous post regarding interesting eye health information for more neat facts about eye care.

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