Have you ever counted how many hours per day you spend in front of computers? Or any other screens for that matter? It is not just computer monitors stressing our eyeballs… it is your smart phone, iPad, and any other handheld device you use regularly.
With all the screen time, most people began suffering from the consequences. Itchy eyes, tearing, blurred vision and even headaches – this is the price we pay for too much time in front of these devices.
Let us give a few very simple eye “exercises” that will remedy the situation. The best part you can do these at your desk, you don’t even have to wait for your company yoga class.
Most of the time when looking at screen, you focus on things directly in front of you. This puts a lot of strain on your eye muscles. Just think about it: your eyes are designed for both long distance and short distance use.
When was the last time you actually gazed into to distance? Urban living and office work cuts back on the opportunity for this. No wonder it is so easy to lose sight of “the bigger picture” in our lives.
Why don’t you look at the clouds for a minute or two? Try to focus on the clouds one by one. Look behind them. If there is no cloud on the sky, concentrate on “dipping” your eyes into the blue of the sky. You prefer trees or sky-scraper? No problem. Pick an object that requires you to look into the distance.
Your eye muscles need some exercise, too. Those muscles help you focus and keeping them flexible might improve your sight and keep your eyes healthy.
Let’s get back to the cloud or skyscraper you were gazing at in the last exercise. Now try to move your eyes around the edges of the object. Use your eyes as a paint brush or pencil and paint/draw the edges of the cloud. You don’t have to draw every tiny edge, though. If you look at a tree, your draw the trunk and an outline of the crown – this will give your eye muscles the necessary workout.
Go ahead, roll your eyes! Slowly circle your eyes around an imaginary clock. Make the movement smooth and slow in a clockwise direction a few times. Then repeat in the counterclockwise direction, too. Breathe in deeply and exhale twice as long during this exercise.
When exercising your eye muscles, speed is not desirable. You might get dizzy as a result. Take your time and rather do only 1 repetition than rushing to do 4.
It is best to practice these easy to do eye-loving movements every day. It takes only a few minutes at most and your eyes will thank you for it.
An extra tip: when looking on the clouds, get your creativity going. Try to come up with names for the clouds on the basis of how they look. Create a short story. Do you see any images, even faces? After taking a few minutes of creative gazing, you come back refreshed to your projects. Don’t be surprised if you find a few extraordinary solutions…
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