Many people's eyes begin deteriorating in later life. It seems that very little is done to help prevent this. Excuse my cynicism, but the opticians do absolutely nothing to help this. They merely keep testing peoples visions until they have deteriorated to a point where they deem they need glasses or contact lenses. Then your eyes start becoming lazy and more dependant on the vision aids. They deteriorate further and the opticians can sell you a stronger pair of grossly overpriced glasses or contacts. Great business eh?
What they do not tell you or help you with is the prevention of eye sight deterioration and even the improvement of it in natural ways. Why would they -that would do them out of sales!
Fear not, I will show you how to get the best of your eyes, and beat the optician.
The three common faults of vision are not using the peripheral vision, staring without focussing, and not moving the eyes enough. All this occurs whilst watching TV or being on the computer. TV viewing should be restricted to an hour a day, especially for children. You should be at least 3 meters away from the screen, preferably further. It is helpful to sit with good posture as this will help the blood flow around your body and to your eyes.
If you work on computers all day then it is going to be more difficult for you to limit your viewing. Instead you can look away from the computer about every half an hour.
Look at something about 6 meters away for about 10 seconds. Really focus on it. Let the eyes do some work. This will help strengthen the muscles.
Then look at something about 3 meters away for about 10 seconds, and again really focus on it.
Repeat this with a few different objects at different distances every half an hour. If you manage to keep this up, you will massively reduce the deterioration of your eyes through watching the computer screen. You can also do these exercises if you insist on watching loads of TV.
Whilst we are on the subject of work, did you that wearing a suit can cause eyesight deterioration? Tight fitting collars on a shirt can restrict the blood flow to the eyes, causing them to deteriorate through lack of nutrients.
On the subject of nutrients (this is all linking rather nicely), a good diet can also help. You know my usual preach by now – plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. There are plenty of articles on this site that can help you with this.
As with most things about the human body – use it or lose it. The same is for the eyes. When they are staring into space or a 2D screen, they are not doing much work. If this is the case then, just like most of us do not naturally do enough work with our bodies, we must exercise them to keep them healthy. Here are some eye exercise suggestions.
Pencil Exercise
Hold a pencil arms length in front of you. Really focus on the tip of that pencil. Once you have it focussed, very slowly move it towards you whilst still maintaining the focus. See how close you can get it before losing this focus.
Swinging
Focus on a distant object, swaying gently from side to side. Do this for a few minutes every day, blinking as you sway. The blinking helps clean and lubricates the eyes, which is especially important if you spend a lot of time in front of a computer.
Clothesline
Japanese studies show that this exercise can significantly improve your eyesight if done regularly. Place a picture on a clothesline. Stand about a foot away from it and focus on the picture whilst it is (probably rapidly) moving. Move back a foot and repeat. Continue with this until you are about 10 feet away.
Candle Exercise
Eye sight is not just about your eyes. It is also about the eye brain relationship. Your brain must interpret what the eyes pick up. This exercise aims to improve the brain/eye connection.
Put your self in a quiet, dark place and look at a lighted candle. Focus your attention at the blue part of the flame and blink gently. After a minute or two try to imagine the lighted flame with your eyes closed.
If the visualization is not perfect, again look at the blue part of the flame and try to imagine the same without making any effort. When you are able to visualize the flame in your imagination open your eyes.
Colour Day
Choose a colour and look out for it throughout the day wherever you go. When you see the particular colour, be aware of it. Don’t bother concentrating on the shape of the object, just experience the colour and it’s subtle shadings. This again should help the eye/brain connection.
Sunning
Try to do this daily. It may be difficult if you live somewhere like the UK! Close your eyes. Look directly at the sun through your closed eyes. While facing the sun, slowly rotate your head from side to side as far as you can. This gets the sunlight on the peripheral vision, and it helps bring more blood circulation to your neck. Do this for a few minutes. Enjoy the warming soothing feeling of the sun on your eyes.
Eye Massage
This exercise helps improve the blood circulation to the eye muscles.
With the index fingers of both hands apply LIGHT pressure on the upper eyebrow and move in a circular motion whilst your eyes are closed. Do these as often as you can – several times a day if you can manage it.
After finishing this, gently make a circular movement only on the eyes to relax them and improve the vision.
If you do some of these exercises regularly, and just appreciate that your eyes need taking care of, you can stay in control of them in later life.
Jon Rhodes is a clinical hypnotherapist and runs a great hypnotherapy site that gives away free hypnosis mp3 self help articles.