Five eye workouts that will improve your eyesight

Eyes are the windows to the soul hence, eye health is an important aspect of our day-to-day lives. On top of healthy eating, exercising and regular visits to the eye doctor, you can actually ease eye discomfort by giving your eyes a mini-workout.

People whose daily jobs require spending long periods of time staring at a computer screen may experience dry eyes, blurred vision, headaches and eyestrain.

Just like every other muscle in our bodies, our eyes also have muscles. These muscles get sore when they stay in one position for too long.

The following exercises will not completely correct your vision but they will help with eye discomfort.

Figure eight

This is a simple eye exercise that doesn’t require you to move any other part of your body. Simply start by sitting a few feet away from a wall or any other flat surface. Visualise a giant number “8” and trace it with your eyes. Do this for 30 seconds in one direction and then switch to 30 seconds in the opposite direction.

Palming

This is the perfect eye exercise to do after a long day of staring at a phone screen and computer monitor. All you need to do it rub the palms of your hands together to warm them up. After, gently place them over your closed eyelids until your hands feel cool again. Doing this relaxes your eye muscles and reduces the feeling of eyestrain. Repeat this two more times.

Eye roll

Eye rolling is a muscle reflex that some of us do when we experience disbelief or frustration. Doing an eye roll exercise regularly can actually strengthen the muscles of your eyes. The correct way to roll your eyes for better eye health is to roll them clockwise and anti-clockwise in intervals. First, look ahead and circle your eyes from the right, to the ceiling, down to left and then to the floor. Do this 10 times in each direction.

The floating pen

This is something you can do during your tea or lunch break at work, just make sure you do this in the washrooms so you don’t look crazy. All you need to do is straighten your neck, look straight ahead and hold a pen close to your nose.

Keep your eyes fixated on the tip of the pen as you slowly extend your arm in front of you and bring it back to the starting point. Do this 10 times to strengthen your eye muscles.  

Blink

There’s almost no excuse for not being able to do this eye workout. When staring at a bright screen for a long period of time we can forget to blink. This can result in eye fatigue and dryness. All you have to do is step away from your gadgets, close your eyes and relax.

Keep your eyes shut for one second and then open them. Repeat this 10 times and take a break before doing it 10 more times.

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