In this second part on how to improve your eyesight, I cover exercises that can help with your peripheral vison as well as focus. As I have said in Part 1, I will never have 20:20 vision but these exercises do help. I have seen my peripheral vision improve massively and as for focus I went from not being able to read a car number plate at 11 paces to being able to read one at 31 paces, however I did find that once I stopped practicing my vision returned back to normal. However I was pretty impressed that this could happen in less than 3 months.
You will see 3 months seems to be a common theme, in Tai Chi the old masters said you will see the difference in 100 days, and whether this is my eyes or carpel tunnel syndrome, three months does seem to be a pretty good yardstick.
One other word of caution, when doing the exercises for peripheral vision regularly I found that the way I think changed. I started my life as a programmer, I was always pretty logical when it came to thinking, however after exercising I am now more creative, although also still logical. I can only put this down to new pathways being created in the brain, I assume in much the same way as learning to use your left hand.
Below are some of the exercises I have used. These exercises have come from a variety of martial arts as well as Yoga and Qigong. These exercises have been around for hundreds of years and in todays world I have seen them packaged up and sold for thousands of pounds (The Bates method is a great example), still try them out and enjoy the benefits, feel free to comment on how you find them and if they help you, or feel free to add any exercises you may know or have come across that work.
Exercising the eyes – Peripheral vision
8 Directions
There are several variations of this exercise, I have given you three so you can find the one that suits you best. They all work on exercising and stretching the muscles that sit behind the eye and give us movement, much the same way that we need to exercise and stretch our legs and arms. It is important that you do not move the head as you perform the exercises.
Once done, use one of the eye relaxation exercises such as a warm towel or clap your hands and rub them together vigorously to create warmth, then close your eyes and place your warm hands over the eyes.
The first one is;
Look up and then down 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
Look to the left then to the right 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
Look up and to the right then down and to the left 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
Look up and to the left then down and to the right 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
Circle your eyes clockwise 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
Circle your eyes anti-clockwise 10 times, then close your eyes for a count of 10
The second exercise is similar to the one above;
Arms outstretched look left and right (5 times) pause in the centre
Arms outstretched look diagonally (5 times)
Upper left to lower right
Upper right to lower left
Look up to the sky and then down at your toes (5 times)
Arm outstretched in front of you draw large circle with finger and focus on the tip of the finger following the finger in a clockwise and then anti-clockwise direction (5 times)
The third variation is;
Hold your thumb up at arms-length straight in front of you, move the thumb up and to the right keeping the thumb in focus at all times, then move it back to the centre again. Now move the thumb to the right, repeat in each of the eight directions NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, N. If you feel strain or tension in any of these directions pause for a few seconds before moving on, this will subside with practice.
Counting leaves
The next exercise is to sit in front of a large bush or small tree and count the leaves, pretty simple really :-), you do not need to count all the leaves rather the simple act of moving your eyes around the bush or tree will exercise the muscles, much like just walking around your house is good exercise.
Exercising the eyes – Focus
Long vision
Again I will give you three examples of the exercise so you can find the one that suits you best.
- Hold your thumb to tip of the nose and focus on the tip, cuticle, or other feature, move thumb away slowly try to keep focussing on the thumb, remove the thumb and look into the distance, then bring the thumb back to your nose.
- Focus on an object 6 inches away, change focus between this object and a far object (at least 15 feet away) every 2 seconds.
- Focus on an object close to your face then slowly move the object away to arms-length (Exhale) and then back again (Inhale). Try to keep the object in focus at all times. Use slow movements timed with the breath.
Blurring
If near sighted focus on a tree or far object, if far sighted focus on an object close to you. You need to be looking at the object at a distance where it is no longer sharp and in focus.
Focus your eyes on the edge of the object and follow the outline, do this three times
Relax the eyes and repeat the exercise, this time seeing if you can focus on a bit more detail, for example on a tree see if you can notice the clusters of leaves.
Repeat one more time this time focusing in a bit more detail, for example on the individual leaves in the cluster. Try not to squint when doing this exercise.
Relax your eyes and then repeat the exercise.
Blinking
Close eyes tight then release, do this a number of times until the tear fluid makes your eyes moist and relaxed, this is an exercise to relieve strain rather than improving vision.
Please try these and let me know how you get on.
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