Eye Yoga

One of the best benefits of exercise is that it reduces stress. Our bodies react to stress the same today as our ancestors did thousands of years ago, by releasing chemicals that get us to move, to fight or run away. For people with poor vision, those options actually create additional stress.

These people don't like exercise, they get additional stress from not moving, and a vicious cycle begins. Their health suffers, they gain weight and their bodies deteriorate, but this cycle can be reversed.Unfortunately most people never train vision; they don't realize they can improve it.

We are born blind. We must learn to see; therefore vision is a skill, and all skills are trainable. The first step to improving vision is to begin working with the muscles that move our eyes. There are two types:

1. Extra-occular muscles move our eyes around in our head; we can move our eyes up, down, left, right, and in a circle without moving our head. These muscles can get tight or stiff just like any other muscle, so we can loosen them up with massage before consciously moving them around.

2. Internal eye muscles changes the shape of the eye to allow us to focus on objects at different distances. These muscles also get tight by maintaining a close focal length for long periods of time such as during reading or working on a computer.

Eye Muscle Exercises (if you wear glasses take them off):

1. Eye Massage: with your fingertips lightly press on the eyes, gently feeling for tightness around the orbital bones.

2. Eye Muscle Activation 1: move your eyes from a neutral position to an upward position, then back to neutral; do this 3-5 times. Repeat towards the left, right and down.

3. Eye Muscle Activation 2: hold your thumb out in front of you at arms length, without moving your head follow the tip of your thumb with your eyes as your thumb traces a large circle in the air.

4. Focal Accommodation: pick 2 objects, one near (within 6 inches) and one far (6-500 feet away) quickly shift your focus from near to far. As soon as the far object is in focus, focus back on the near, perform 10-20 jumps.

Practice these drills once a day for 2 weeks and notice the change in your overall stress level.

Lou McGovern
Z-Health Master Trainer
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