The GAIA Health Blog

I thought these amazing veiled ladies from all over the world might help hold your attention for a few minutes while you stop on this post, and I think it a good way to emphasize that most important but most taken for granted body organ, the eyes.

In one sentence, we have to get glasses because the eye muscles get weak and lose their ability to focus the eye. However, by exercising the eye muscles for  a mere 5 or 10 minutes a day, the process can be reversed and the eyes can regain their natural ability to focus properly, similar to an automatic focus in the lens  of a camera.

Remember, I seldom write about anything like this that I have not tried for myself, and I have tried it and it does work, so simple (NOTE: I'm not saying it has taken my vision back to 20-20, but I have seen much improvement. I must admit I can go through a month or two without doing my eye exercises, but eventually I get back into it.)

So let's "unveil" the truth that perhaps eye doctors don't want us to find out for ourselves……………

When I found myself straining looking at a co-worker's computer screen a few years back, I found that odd, in that never happened before. That's when I ran across some information on the web, that simple eye exercises will help declining vision reverse itself. True enough within a few weeks, I was able to look at a computer screen normally again, although my vision was not 100% just back to were it was a year or so prior.

The issue in a nutshell: The eye has about 6 muscles controlling movement and shape, the normally round eye is for seeing in the distance, the elongated "egg shaped" eye, for reading and such.

To read close up, muscles will squeeze and elongate the eye for close up focus. If eye muscles are weak, the eye can't elongate for reading and other activities such as threading a needle. The opposite is true for seeing at distances. For distances, the eye muscles must work the eye to move back to its rounded shape.

The eye doctor resolves this issue by giving us glasses with a lens that helps us read or see distance, but eyeglasses are a "stop gap" solution to addressing weak eye muscles. 

The lens of reading glasses allows the eye to focus on words in a book or computer screen, because, with an eye like mine, the muscles are too weak to squeeze the eye to have it "elongate" and focus to read close up. Ever notice when you have trouble reading something, you will squint? That's because you are trying to squeeze/elongate the eye to get it to focus.

However, the problem with wearing eyeglasses is the fact that once you start wearing eyeglasses, the eye muscles stop exercising themselves, since the lens of the glasses does all the work, similar to walking on crutches. Eyeglasses prohibit the eye muscles from their natural work and thus prevent the eye from regaining its natural ability to utilize the muscles surrounding the eye to control the shape of the eye in order to focus.

With that premise in mind, instead of wearing eyeglasses or reading glasses, one merely needs to CONSISTENTLY perform daily eye exercises, which I will speak on the ones I used in a second, and just like any other muscles in the body, through exercise, the muscles will regain their natural ability to focus the eye, reducing or even eliminating the need for eyeglasses.

This process does take time, and I must admit that in all that I take seriously about my health and wellness, I started off very well and slacked off a bit after several months, so I wear my reading glasses sometimes, and other times I don't have to. As I write this article, I am re-devoting myself to totally eliminating my reading glasses, since my ability to read the computer screen is much easier than before.

My other issue is that I didn't know until I went to the eye doctor that I have amblyopia, also called "lazy eye", where one eye is naturally weaker than the other from childhood. The issue here is that although it may not be noticeable as a child, it can get progressively weaker as one gets older, and the weak eye may actually stop sending signals to the brain, as the stronger eye compensates for the weakness.

What I did there on my own accord and using my own logic, and maybe taking a chance, was to wear an eye patch over the strong eye when walking around the house and on the computer, to only work the weak eye.

It seems to help a lot, but since the eye muscles are not working while wearing reading glasses, I make sure to exercise that weak eye everyday, even though I need reading glasss to see the computer screen with my weak eye when wearing my eyepatch over my strong eye. The results have been great for me, in that, as I said before, I can read the computer screen [most times] without glasses at all. And I make sure I exercise the muscles of that weak eye.

So far as the eye exercises to strengthen the eyes? There are volumes of web articles and YouTube videos pertaining to exercises to strengthen the eye. Since I don't think it necessary, I wouldn't advise purchasing the DVD's that I see on this subject over the web, since they are only going to tell you the same information you can get for free.

For the most part I used some of the exercises I ran across after watching YouTube videos, and I invented my own exercises. Here are the eye exercises that I perform.

Since my left eye is weaker, I like to close and hold my right eye shut which helps focus on my left eye (although both eyes will move the same).

Simple Circles – As simple as this one is, it seems to serve me best in that simply make these broad circles with my eye, always keeping my vision close to the corners and top and bottom of my eye as I can, almost like I am trying to look back into my skull. I make the circles fast then slow, then abruptly stop and reverse directions.

My current favorite, that I though of recently is to trace out the letters of the Alplabet with my eye, it really gets the eyeball moving in different directions and different angles

One of my other favorites, which works very well, is to quickly move my around, with no pattern at all, you know, dart, move left, move right, make a couple of circles, slant, slice all over the place in random movements.

Figure eights – These really seem to work the eye muscles, I am basically drawing out the figure 8 with my line of vision, attempting as always to look as far into the corners, tops and bottom of the eye as I can, but coming back into the center at the point where the "criss cross" happens with figure 8. When I do this one fast, I really feel the eyes working.

My other favorite is the "zig-zag" where I go from side to side like I'm tracing the letter Z, or shall I say several Z's stacked on top of each other, bouncing the eye from left side to the right..

Geometric Shapes: This emphasizes the point that I don't think you need to pay for exercises, since most movements I do, I make up my own exercises and most are simply tracing geometric shapes with the eye . For example I will do a "square" always focusing as far on the edges and corners of my eye as much as I can, I also do triangles, diamonds, or whatever I can think of.

I do this for 5 minutes or so a day, the easiest way is while I am on my computer listening to music, I will exercise my eye for the entire length of one song, since I have tendency otherwise to stop after about 30 seconds.

The other component to I exercises that I ran across when I first started is the concept to getting the eye muscles to "relax". This allows the eye muscles to not be "frozen" into the elongated position for near-sighted people, or "frozen" into the round shape for farsighted people. I gotta get more consistent with these, since I think they have great value.

Squeezing the eyes real hard and then open real wide, repeat 10 times or so. This allows the natural tears to lubricate he eyes and properly change shape and focus.

Near and Far: Focus on an object nearby, like the corner of your computer screen, and then focus on a far away object such as a birdhouse outside of your window, repeat several times. This one is probably important and make s logical sense, in that like and automatic camera lens, it trains the eye to use its muscles to elongate he eye for close up viewing and to round the eye for far away viewing.

There are others, but as I said, you will find endless suggestions on the web from people who have put all  this into practice.

In the end, the eyes are the most important but least exercised part of the body. I am typing this post with no reading glasses, and when I originally found myself squinting in front of my computer screen a few years back, writing this would have been impossible without reading glasses. I am going to go all out, after inspiring myself after writing this article, and see if I can eliminate the reading glasses permanently. I'll will do another article when I get to that level………and with dedication and consistency, I'm sure I will succeed.

~stay healthy~

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