It’s a fact that our eyes are responsible for 80% of our perception. Our eyes play a vital role in our day-to-day life; we often forget that they are the most developed sensory organ in our body, and we tend to take our vision for granted. The very first towards leading a healthy lifestyle is taking our of our vision and eyesight. And it is not at all difficult to follow it!
We feel that we are always rushing to work from home to offices to the gym and back then. While traveling from one place to another, we pull out our smartphones from our pockets, and we are either checking our emails, messages, or play games when boredom strikes. All of this keeps us busy starring at the screen all day long, leaving our eyes in strain.
Every part of our lifestyle is affected by our over-stressed eyes, as pain and strain restrict us from living our lives to the fullest. When we are stressed, it often reflects our powerful eyes, and they feel strained, tired, and sore. That is why it is essential to take care of our mind, body, and emotional well-being and work towards it.
Eye exercises cannot correct short term sightedness, excessive blinking, and dyslexia. They can still help aid recovery in double vision, astigmatism, low 3D vision, crossed eyes or strabismus, poor focus due to weak eye muscles, amblyopia, and various such issues.
Here are a few simple tips to keep your eyes healthy:
Regular checkup for eyes
A healthy diet
Give up smoking
Wear sunglasses
Avoid unnecessary screen time
Eye exercise
Protective gear
Adjust the lighting
We all can live a busy lifestyle without experiencing eye strain. We should work towards improving our eyesight, and that does not mean giving up on screen time.
Other factors like pollution, incorrect glasses, overuse of contact lenses can also strain your eyes. We should do some strain relieving eye exercises to improve our vision. These exercises will help reduce stress, strengthen eye muscles, boost cognitive performance, and enhance the eyes’ visual reaction time and shape.
12 Best Eye Relaxation Tips
To make sure our eyes will remain healthy, here are a few rules and precautions to follow. If you feel your eyes have started experiencing stress, you need not worry about it as it is becoming a lot more problem amongst us. We have the best natural ways to relieve your eye strain.
Below are 12 best eye relaxation exercises you can do anytime and anywhere-
1. The Eye Roll Exercise
The eye-roll exercise can be regularly and is very useful as it strengthens the eye muscles and enhances the eyes’ shape. When you hear something astonishing, roll your eyes, feel good about it, and complete one rep and roll your eyes in another direction. You must know the correct way to do it since it’s an exercise.
Steps to do the eye roll exercise:
Sit or stand straight, keeping your shoulders relaxed, neck straight, and look ahead.
Look towards your right and then slowly roll your eyes upwards the ceiling.
Then slowly roll your eyes down towards your left and from there down towards the floor.
Keep doing this in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.
You can do the rub down exercise anywhere whenever you feel a strain the eyes and need a quick, refreshing training.
Steps to do the rub down exercise:
Sit or stand comfortably and rub your palms together until they feel warm
Then, close your eyes and place the palm on each eyelid and feel the warmth seeping in your eyes.
Please do not press down the eyeballs with your palms.
Time- 3-4 minutes
Set and Reps- 1 set of 7 reps
3. The Moving Finger Exercise
The moving finger exercise will help you improve the ability to quickly and precisely laser in on something near or far from you without straining your eyes.
Steps to do the moving finger exercise:
Sit comfortably on a chair. Relax your shoulders, keep your neck straight and look ahead.
Take a pencil or pen in your right hand, hold it in front of the nose, and focus on its tip.
Extend your arm entirely and bring it back to the starting position.
Time- 2 minutes
Set and Reps- 1 set of 10 reps
4. The Eye Press Exercise
You may experience eye strain when you spend long hours looking at a computer or a laptop screen, mobile device, or printed text. If you are having a bad and stressful day at work, this exercise will soothe your eyes and relieve stress.
Steps to do the eye press exercise:
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and sit comfortably.
Carefully place a finger on each eyelid and press very softly for about 10 seconds.
Gently release the pressure and keep your eyes open for a couple of seconds as your vision comes back in focus. And repeat the process.
Time- 1 minute
Set and Reps- 1 set of 10 reps
5. Eye Massage
Eye exercise helps restore the shape of the cornea and also reduces eye strain and dryness.
Face made with eyes mask and red nose
Steps to do eye massage:
Sit straight with your shoulders relaxed and keep your eyes closed. Place your index and middle finger gently on each eyelid.
Slowly move your fingers in circular motions from top to bottom and from left to right, by applying gentle pressure.
Move your fingers in clockwise and as well as in anti-clockwise.
Repeat ten times before changing the direction of the motion.
Time- 2 minutes
Set and Reps- 2 sets of 10 reps
6. Blinking
Blinking is an effective way to keep your eyes fresh and focus for a long. Blinking exercise helps cleanse and nourish your eyes, which in turn eases the strain on the eyes.
Steps to do the blinking exercise:
Sit comfortably on a chair. Relax your shoulders, keep your neck straight, look at a blank wall, and close your eyes.
Hold on for half a second, and then slowly open your eyes.
Repeat the process, and you will feel your eyes refreshed after every blink.
Time- 2 minutes
Set and Reps- 2 sets of 10 reps
7. Flexing
How flexing helps build up your biceps the same way helps in stretching and strengthening the ocular muscle in the eye.
Steps to do the flexing exercise for eyes:
Sit comfortably on the chair, face forward and look straight ahead.
Look upwards without moving your neck and then look down. Do this ten times.
Look at the left and then right without moving your neck and do it ten times.
Time- 3 minutes
Set and Reps- 4 sets of 10 reps
8. Focus Shift For Eyes
Focusing helps your eye muscle tone. It is an excellent exercise and has the potential to resolve focusing issues.
Steps to do focus shift for eyes:
Sit 5 feet away from the window; look straight. Keep your shoulders relaxed.
Extend your right arm exactly straight in front of you, stick your thumb out, and focus on the tip for 1-2 seconds.
Then, focus out of the window on a distant object for 2 seconds without moving your hand.
Focus back on the thumb.
Time- 1 minute
Set and Reps- 2 sets of 10 reps
9. The Eye Bounce Exercise
The eye bounce exercise can be done anywhere and anytime, be it work, home, or even in bed.
Steps to do the eye bounce exercise:
Sit or stand comfortably; you can even lie down. Look straight ahead.
It fit’s all your choice- you can keep your eyes open or closed.
Quickly move your eyes upwards and downwards.
You can do it ten times and rest for 5 seconds in between.
Time- 1 minute
Sets and Reps- 2 sets of 10 reps
10. Palming
Palming helps your irritated optic nerve. It is the most relaxing thing you can do for your eyes, and relaxation is essential for improving vision.
Steps to do palming for eyes:
Sit on a chair and relax your elbows comfortably on a table or desk in front of you.
Please close your eyes and cover them with your clean palms.
Breathe in and out and feel the tension release.
Keep doing it for 30 seconds straight before releasing your palms.
Time- 2 minutes
Sets and Reps- 4 sets
11. Figure 8 Exercise For Eyes
The figure 8 exercise helps in ease digital strain. It is a great exercise to practice controlling the physical movement of the eyes.
Steps to do figure 8 exercise for the eye:
Imagine a giant lateral (rotated sideways) number ”8” on the floor, blank wall, or a ceiling.
Slowly trace a path along with this figure with just your eyes, without moving your head.
Trace it one way for few minutes and then trace it the other way for few minutes.
Do it five times.
Time- 2 minutes
Sets and Reps- 4 sets of 5 reps
12. The Double Thumbs Up For The Eyes
The double thumbs up exercise are simple, super easy, and effective that it will make you feel like you are not doing anything. But let us tell you that it dramatically impacts the eye muscles, and its effect is like no other exercise on the list.
Steps to do double thumbs for the eye:
Sit back comfortably, keep your shoulders relaxed and neck straight and look ahead.
Hold both your thumbs at an arm’s length, directly in front of your eyes. Focus your vision straight on your right thumb for about nearly 5 seconds.
Shift your focus in space between the two thumbs and at a distant object for 5 seconds.
Then shift your vision to your left thumb and focus on it for 5 seconds, finally back to space between the thumbs and then the right thumb.
Time- 2 minutes
Sets and Reps- 3 sets of 5 reps
Conclusion
Eyes exercises don’t treat any problems, but they help strengthen and relax your eye muscles, they also prevent further degeneration of the problem.
Apart from these exercises, we also recommend a few tricks to relieve from eye strain. Below mentioned are other effective eye strain relievers:
1. Take a nap
The best way to relax and rejuvenate your eyes is by sleeping or taking a nap. Do not sleep or wakeup to mobile phones or laptop screens. If possible, keep them away from you, close your eyes, relax and fall asleep. Give your eyes some proper rest. Taking power naps help improve your productivity.
2. Hot and cold compresses
Take a bowl of fresh hot water and another bowl of cold water. Dip and gently squeeze a hand towel in each bowl. First, place a hot compress on your eyes, feel the warmth and savor it for 5 seconds. Then switch to cold compress for 5 seconds and repeat at least five times.
Along with it, you should also eat healthily and follow good hygiene to improve your eye health.
Below are a few things that you must do to keep your eyes healthy:
In your daily meal, make sure you increase your intake of beta-carotene and lycopene-rich foods or take Vita-A supplements.
Wash your eyes properly with fresh cold water or rose water every day. Rosewater is useful for itchy eyes and also reduces eye strain, especially in summers.
Do not touch your eyes without washing your hands with clean water.
Always keep a check on the condition of contact glasses and contact lens.
Try to wear UV protected sunglasses when you step out in the sun and avoid too much sun exposure.
To conclude, the above exercises are simple, super easy, and useful. You can perform these exercises anytime and anywhere during a few minutes of your free time.
