Studies have found that stress is a major contributing factor for disorders pertaining to eyes. Overly strained eyes can cause vision problems, dry eyes along with anxiety and headache. Eye exercises are beneficial for relieving the strain, strengthening the eye muscles, improving visual reaction time and for enhancing cognitive performance.
Here are some simple eye exercises that can be performed to relieve strain in the eyes and to improve eyesight.
Palming
Rub your palms against each other vigorously until they are warm and place them over your eyes to transfer the warmth onto the eyes. The eye muscles will relax with the warmth and the eyes will find relief in the darkness. Frequent and lengthy periods of palming will reduce muscular tension, while also being beneficial for sight.
Blinking
Sit comfortably with your eyes open and then blink 10-15 times quickly. Close your eyes, relax for few seconds and repeat 4-5 times. Frequent and effortless blinking lubricates and cleanses the eyes with tears along with relaxing the eye muscles.
Sunning
Sunning should be done with eyes closed. Stand in the sunlight with closed eyes and let the rays penetrate the eyelids and ease the tension. To avoid strain on the eyes, rotating the head slightly from side to side is also helpful.
Shifting
Rapid eye-shifting is considered beneficial for all cases of visual difficulties as loss of vision is often regarded directly proportional to loss of eye motion. Shifting is essentially moving or rotating your eyeballs from one direction to another. It makes the tiny eye muscles active by promoting blood circulation, reduces strain and improves eyesight.
Figure of eight
Sit comfortably in front of a blank wall and imagine a horizontally placed figure of eight on the wall. Trace a path along this figure with just your eyes and without moving your head. Repeat in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions.
