Yoga for Eyes

Eyes are the most sensitive part of the body. It needs special care and attention. But unfortunately most probably we failed to be careful for our eyes. The hectic world and workloads do not let us to have healthy life. Especially the pollution and increasing usage of gadgets like smart phones, television, computers, and laptops affect our eyes badly.

However, in this growing age of technology eyesight suffering has also increased. And even kid and adults are suffering from blurred vision, itchy and watery eyes, headaches, double vision, and other symptoms of eye strain.

An eye seems to be our only tangible window to the world. As year goes by, the muscles around the eyes loose their tone as a result eyes loose their elasticity and become rigid and our eyes sight turn to be weak.

There is a co-relation between eyes and brain and it is said that an eye occupies only 40% of vision of a brain capacity that is the reason when we close our eye we feel relaxed.

 Fortunately, there are some simple exercises which can help rejuvenate the eyes and improve the eye sights. Well, here yoga plays a significant role in improving eye sight. With yoga one can be careful towards eye sight and have a good eye health. Exercising some asanas, pranayams, and meditation helps you to have peace and tranquillity. Also, there are some eye exercises which are really helpful to completely rectify eye problems.

Here are some easy asanas which can be effective to good eye health:

Before beginning an eye exercise, it’s important to consider the corpse pose to relax all the body parts the ‘Shavasana’. Follow the steps before eye exercise.

1. Lie motionless on floor and close the eyes.
2. Relax your body from head to toe.
3. When the body and mind have taken complete rest feel total calmness and peace.

After done with pre eye exercise or shavasana get ready to have some very simple and effective asanas for good eye health. Here are some eye exercises as follow:

1.Palming

Palming is very useful exercise to eradicate the stress of the eyes because an eyes need darkness to recover the stress of light. Also, it produces calming effect on the nervous system. So, cover your eyes and breathe deeply. Steps to follow:

• Rub your palm together for 10 to 15 seconds until they feel warm and energized. And gently place your hands over your eyes.
• While occupy the eyes by palm do not directly apply pressure on the eyes.

2.Eye Rolling

Eye rolling exercise is good for eye sight as it distracts your continuous focus on gadgets and it is simple as that. Follow the simple steps:

• Keep your eye open.
• Now, now lift your eye balls up and down left and right respectively.
• Continue this exercise for 10-12 times without blinking. This should be steady and relaxed.

3.Grazing (Trataka)

This activity improves vision, concentration and purifies the mind. These exercises also eliminate disease of the eyes in just two simple steps:

• Sit comfortably on the floor with the spin erect.
• Fix your eyes on any object like ‘om’ or candle and start gazing with out blinking at an object till tears flow from the eyes.

4. Focus shifting

This exercise help you to concentrate and focus also it improve your eye sight. To do this kriya just follow the simple steps:

• Relax your body and breathe comfortably.
• Hold one arm straight out in front of you in a loose fist and point your thumb up.
• Focus on your thumb and slowly move the thumb towards your nose until you clearly focus on it. Pause for a breathe and repeat up to 10 times.

5. Meditation (Pranayam)

Meditation is the best exercise any one can ever does. This reduces tension and stress which is the basic cause of any disease of the body. It gives you inner peace which changes your outer personality. According to yogis concentration on the tip of nose or on the point between the eyebrows which is called the third eye and centre of the ajna chakra led your mind for meditation. A step for meditation is very simple and strongly effective as well, as follow:

• Sit on the floor comfortably and close your eyes without any motion.
• Breathe to a count of four, and hold the breathe to a count of four, and release the breathe to a count of four. 4:4:4 is the ratio to be maintained for this breathing exercise.

Diet chart for eyes health:

• Start eating food which enrich by omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin ‘C’ and ‘E’ and protein like green leaf vegetables, oily fish, eggs, nut, beans, fruits like orange, citrus fruits etc.
• Wear sunglasses, and quit smoking if you do.
• Try not too much use of electronic screens.

           - Harshita Chhetri