Insight for Sore Eyes

Many age-related vision problems stem from a gradual loss of flexibility and tone in the eye muscles. Eye asanas can help.

By Fernando Pagés Ruiz

Follow this exercise with horizontal eye movements—from nine o'clock to three o'clock—ending again by "palming" (cupping your hands over your eyes). Then do diagonal movements—two o'clock to seven o'clock, and 11 o'clock to four o'clock—again followed by palming. Conclude the routine with 10 full circles in each direction, as though you are tracing the clock's rim.

These eyeball movements provide balance for people who do work up close, like students who spend a lot of their time reading or working at computers. According to Robert Abel, author of The Eye Care Revolution (Kensington Books, 1999), these brief exercises "compensate for overdevelopment of the muscles we use to look at near objects."

You might be surprised to learn that the palming part of this exercise provides more than a pleasant respite. According to Abel, our photoreceptors break down and are reconstructed every minute. "The eye desperately needs darkness to recover from the constant stress of light," he says. "And the simplest way to break eye stress is to take a deep breath, cover your eyes, and relax."

Along with palming, yoga in general benefits the eyes by relieving tension. While the effect of yoga on the eyes has not been scientifically measured, studies have shown that a simple exercise like walking can lower pressure in the eyeball by 20 percent.

Vasanthi Bhat, a yoga teacher in the Sivananda tradition, includes asanas like Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), in her video, Yoga for Eyes. "These asanas bring circulation to the face, neck, and shoulders, which need to be energized and relaxed for improved vision," Bhat explains. So even if you have not been doing asanas specifically for your eyes, your overall yoga practice is helping your vision.

Looking High, Looking Low

Once students have mastered the basic eyeball exercise, Srinivasan introduces an intermediate series of eye exercises which he calls "shifting focus."

While sitting relaxed and still, pick a point in the distance and focus on it. Extend your arm and put your thumb right underneath the point of concentration. Now begin shifting your focus between the tip of your thumb and the faraway point, alternating rhythmically between near and distance vision. Repeat the exercise 10 times, then relax your eyes with palming and deep breathing. As you practice this exercise, you are training an organ called the ciliary body, which adjusts the lens of the eye. Habitual focus patterns degrade the ciliary body's natural flexibility. Shifting focal points counteracts this stiffness by exercising the organ through its full range, much as we work complementary muscle groups in asana practice.

The final eye asana taught in the Sivananda series stresses close-range focus. As in the shifting focus exercise, gaze at your thumb with your arm extended. This time move the thumb slowly toward the tip of your nose. Pause there for one second. Then reverse the sequence, following the thumb with your eyes as you extend your arm again. As before, repeat the sequence 10 times, then relax with palming.

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