Movement for the Eyes

Three exercises to reduce eye strain and increase ease for over-worked eyes

I’ve been thinking a lot about eye strain lately.

I’m back at the the keyboard more often and for longer stretches, and am viscerally reminded that too much stillness in my body (sitting) and my eyes (staring at a screen) is not good for me. I’m reminded of the toll taken during graduate studies while sitting for hours at the computer doing research and writing papers, ironically, about movement. More recently, I feel the eye (and meeting) fatigue in zooming for work and family visits and book clubs. These three exercises are a remedy that worked for me then and help me now. I hope you’ll try one or all of them.

As with our whole bodies, our eyes are happiest and healthiest when they get lots of movement. Staring at a fixed screen 16 inches away for long periods is not ideal for us, or our eyes. So, what to do?

When I watch my little granddaughter on a swing at the playground, I’m struck by how much movement her vision is experiencing, swinging forward and backward while looking around and watching others, her eyes continually adjusting smoothly to focusing and gazing in the differing depths of field. In the spaces of the playground, through movement, her eyesight is developing and strengthening.

Similarly, the healing spaces of movement can relieve over-worked eyes.

Gazing

My favorite remedy for my eyes when they are tired from working at the computer is gazing into a far distance.

Every so often I get up to stretch my body, walk around a bit, and either go outside or to a window and consciously do a gazing exercise.

First, I look as far into the distance as I can, usually to a tree top, and try to focus on a branch or even a leaf for a few seconds. Then I try to look beyond that point, even into the clouds, and then back to the tree top.

I might then soften my gaze and open to my peripheral vision without focusing on a point. I repeat focusing at a distance and then a softening of the gaze a few times.

For variety, I add shifting depths with the gaze. Starting from the distant tree top, I shift focus to a tree closer to me, then in to the fence, then a garden plant, then the bird feeder by the window right in front of me. After bringing my gaze closer, I reverse the movement, shift my focus back out towards the distance.

This takes about a minute or two. It’s not easy. I find focusing like this difficult and often need to stop and start over. My eyes want to jump around: no wonder, that’s what they’re doing all the time working at the computer.

These days I’m working from a table on my patio so it’s easy to frequently gaze away. My eyes are happier for it.

Creating Space

Creating space for the eye is a soother I learned from Jaimen McMillan, founder of Spacial Dynamics®.

I rub my palms together to warm and vitalize them. I gently soften their shape as though they are cups and then place them over my closed eyes. A warm, dark, and open space is created from the heart of each hand over the front of each eye; the edges of the hands are lightly touching the face but not the cup of the hands.

Within moments my eyes relax and seem to soften into those wider spaces, drawing the fatigue outward from the pinch of constant focusing. After a minute or so, I slowly move the hands away from my eyes and slowly open them.

This relaxing is not only for the eyes, I notice.

Eye Circling

My least favorite but admittedly beneficial movement is eye circling. I do it with my eyes closed, slowly moving my eyes laterally to the right to start a very slow clockwise circle, then reverse the circle once counter clockwise. Afterwards I open my eyes and blink a bit while letting my gaze be soft and unfocused, then repeat.

I don’t think it matters which way you circle; my default is to start to the right. Just go one way and then the other.

I’m fascinated by how damn hard this is. My eyes start out very jerky, jumping and skipping spots along the circle. After a few circles, however, the movement smooths out, which is my objective. I notice when my eyes are more relaxed (after working in the garden a bit, with lots of variety of focus, for example) the movements are less jerky and quicker to smooth.

A common theme of these three movements is the creation of expansive spaces around the eye: expanded space of the physical eye, the expansion of gazing depths, and a spatial widening of the peripheral fields of vision. These three spatial movements are a tonic for eyes that spend time narrowed to a point of focus, on a flat screen, while physically still.

Today I’m working at a picnic table under an umbrella on my patio by my kitchen garden. After a long, hot, and smoky summer here in Northern California, the air is clear and mild and there’s a slight cool breeze blowing my hair into my eyes. Working outdoors, I find it easier to shift my gaze away from the screen and into nature for a few seconds or longer. I find my thoughts clarify and flow more as I shift back and forth.

Maybe movement in nature is the fourth exercise? Just go outside and look around as far as the eyes can see.

What works for you? Do you have a movement that helps your eyes?