Working at a computer all day can be difficult and puts strain and stress on the eyes leading to blurriness, redness, reduced vision, and headaches. Our modern lifestyle reduced the natural freedom of eye movements to a straight and short laser-like stare, aimed at our screens for hours at a time. To undo this strain, our eyes need exercise just like our bodies and minds. Here is a quick eye movement exercise to reduce stress, sooth, relax, and promote healthy eye motion.
Begin by getting into a comfortable sitting position. Taking a few deep breaths, get centered and focus on your eyes. Moving your gaze upward, begin to make gentle up and down motions with your eyes, tracing a nearby wall or just focusing on the movements themselves. Repeat this up and down motion approximately ten times then bring your eyes to center and close them for a moment.
To make the motion smooth, you can imagine your eyes tracing a straight and unbroken line. After the completion of each series of directional movements, bring your eyes to center and close to give them some rest.
Opening them again, begin to move them left to right, repeating this motion another ten times. Opening, look to the upper left corner of your vision and trace a line down to the bottom right, and back diagonally to the upper left. Do this ten times, center, close, and repeat the diagonal motion in the opposite direction.
Next, moving your gaze up, begin to trace a smooth clockwise circle, including as much of your peripheral vision as possible. Once completed, repeat in the counter-clockwise direction. After doing both directions, center and close the eyes. Keeping them closed, bring your hands together and rub them vigorously until you feel heat between your palms. Bringing the palms to your closed eyes, cup eyes and let the heat and darkness sooth and relax your eye muscles. Take a few deep breaths here to finish the practice.
In summary here is the order: up and down, left and right, diagonal, and finally circular in both directions. Enjoy and practice whenever your feel strain or pressure building up in the eyes. Done often, this exercise will keep your eyes healthy and strong!
Working at a computer all day can be difficult and puts strain and stress on the eyes leading to blurriness, redness,
reduced vision, and headaches. Our modern lifestyle reduced the natural freedom of eye movements to a straight and short laser-like stare, aimed at our screens for hours at a time. To undo this strain, our eyes need exercise just like our bodies and minds. Here is a quick eye movement exercise to reduce stress, sooth, relax, and promote healthy eye motion.
Begin by getting into a comfortable sitting position. Taking a few deep breaths, get centered and focus on your eyes. Moving your gaze upward, begin to make gentle up and down motions with your eyes, tracing a nearby wall or just focusing on the movements themselves. Repeat this up and down motion approximately ten times then bring your eyes to center and close them for a moment.
To make the motion smooth, you can imagine your eyes tracing a straight and unbroken line. After the completion of each series of directional movements, bring your eyes to center and close to give them some rest.
Opening them again, begin to move them left to right, repeating this motion another ten times. Opening, look to the upper left corner of your vision and trace a line down to the bottom right, and back diagonally to the upper left. Do this ten times, center, close, and repeat the diagonal motion in the opposite direction.
Next, moving your gaze up, begin to trace a smooth clockwise circle, including as much of your peripheral vision as possible. Once completed, repeat in the counter-clockwise direction. After doing both directions, center and close the eyes. Keeping them closed, bring your hands together and rub them vigorously until you feel heat between your palms. Bringing the palms to your closed eyes, cup eyes and let the heat and darkness sooth and relax your eye muscles. Take a few deep breaths here to finish the practice.
In summary here is the order: up and down, left and right, diagonal, and finally circular in both directions. Rub hands together and cover. Enjoy and practice whenever your feel strain or pressure building up in the eyes. Done often, this exercise will keep your eyes healthy and strong!
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Tags: for beginners, stress management, techniques
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reduced vision, and headaches. Our modern lifestyle reduced the natural freedom of eye movements to a straight and short laser-like stare, aimed at our screens for hours at a time. To undo this strain, our eyes need exercise just like our bodies and minds. Here is a quick eye movement exercise to reduce stress, sooth, relax, and promote healthy eye motion.
up, down, left, right, B, A ? …. it’s the Konami Code for invincible eyes!
Hey Vlad, thanks for posting this! I regularly do hand/arm stretches when I’m at the computer for lengths of time, and I think I will try to remember to do these eye movements too.
Another good eye exercise, best done outside or facing a window, is to put your finger about 5 inches from your eyes, and slowly switch between focusing on your finger and focusing far away.
Hi Ian,
Ah cool. I will have to try that one. I wear glasses and would love to do these exercises several times a day. Maybe, just maybe, I can improve my vision enough to get rid of these pesky glasses!
Thanks for the tip Ian.