How often do you think about your eyes during the course of a day. You may rub them every so often or maybe put in an eye drop or two. But how often do you sit back and rest them or exercise them?
We look out of and in many cases overuse our eyes all day long, most of an evening and in all kinds of conditions. We expect our vision to deal with bright light, dim light, look into the glare of a computer screen, TV or squint to read the label printing on items in the grocery store. How about we do our eyes a favor once or twice a day and exercise them?
I ask that you try this, just not while driving :)
Sit back and keep your head facing forward Using just your eyes:
- Look up as far as you can
- Look down as far a you can
- Look left
- Look right
- Repeat changing the patters 4 or 5 times.
- Roll (circle) your eyes to the left, then to the right 2 or 3 times.
- Open your eyes as wide as you can in a “look of surprise” expression.
- Gently close your eyes
- Clench them shut, then relax them but do not open them
- Take a deep inhale with your eyes closed.
- Exhale slowly and relax in your chair.
- Take 4 more inhale / exhale breaths keeping your eyes closed, relaxing a little more with each breath.
- Slowly open your eyes and blink 4 or 5 times
Do you feel more relaxed? How do your eyes feel? Would you be willing to take 10 minutes a day to exercise other parts of your body in a similar fashion to relax and stretch?