Eye Exercises to Avoid Glasses

If you have weak eye muscles that cause problems with eye coordination or focus, or if you have double or crossed vision or a condition known as lazy eye, eye exercises can help you a great deal. Certain relaxation exercises are useful for everyone, because they improve the well-being of your eyes by alleviating stress placed on them, further reducing your need for glasses. Use this guide to uncover some useful eye relaxation and focusing exercises to strengthen your vision.

Palming

• Palming is one of the easiest and most effective eye relaxation exercises. For this you will need to be seated comfortably, preferably before a table.

  Begin by rubbing your hands together to make them warm. Now place your elbows on the table (or on your knees, if you aren't in front of a table), cup your palms and place them gently over your eyes.

  Make sure that you don't press your palms into your eyeballs, but cover the region around your eyes fully so you can't notice any light getting in.

  Your fingers should be closed together and resting on your forehead, and the heels of your palms should be on your cheekbones. Now close your eyes and as you begin to feel the warmth of your palms upon them, imagine that you are looking far away into the darkness of space. Hold this position for a minute or two.

  That's all there is to palming. It is an excellent relaxation exercise to do a few times every day.

Zooming

• Zooming is a very effective eye focusing exercise, in which you have to constantly adjust the length of your focus.

  To begin, hold your arm outstretched at shoulder height directly in front of you. Close your palm but keep your index finger raised so that the tip of your finger is at eye level. Focus intently on the tip of your index finger. Avoid blinking at any stage during this exercise.

  Now, very slowly, start bringing your arm back toward your eyes. As your finger moves closer, your focus should not waver, and you shouldn't blink. Stop when your finger is about 3 inches in front of your eyes. Once you've done this, very slowly stretch your arm back toward its original position.

  Try to do this exercise three to four times every day.

Near and Far Focusing

• Near and far focusing is a simple eye focusing exercise in which you have to constantly switch focus between two points.

  To begin, hold your thumb about 10 inches in front of you at eye level. Also, mentally mark an object that is 15 to 20 feet away. Continue by focusing on your thumb, and after one round of breathing, switch your focus to the object you chose. After another round of breathing, get back to your thumb. Try to blink as little as possible during this exercise.

  Try to do this exercise for a stretch of three to five minutes once or twice a day.

Important Considerations

• Before you do any eye relaxation or focusing exercises, it is important to know certain facts. Problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, cataracts and glaucoma are medical conditions, and there is no conclusive evidence that eye exercises will help in any of these.

  Nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism are related to the shape of your eyes' clear surface and eyeballs, and the angle at which light rays enter your eyes. Presbyopia is a loss of elasticity in an eye's lens because of aging. Eye exercises cannot eliminate any of these conditions.