Healthy Vision Exercises

In addition to relaxing your eyes through meditation and eye-palming exercise, it is recommended that you do the following healthy vision exercises to improve your vision as you continue to age:

The Qi Gong elephant swing

Practice the basic Qi Gong exercise to enhance circulation in the eyes.

Stand with your feet parallel, about 10 inches apart.

Gently close your eyes.

Shake your arms and legs, and roll your neck sideways, back and forth until they become soft and relaxed.

Still your mind, and breathe naturally.

Now, open your eyes.

Slowly swing your body to the right and then to the left by shifting your weight from one foot to the other and lifting the heel of each foot as you turn in a swaying motion. Let your arms hang loosely, and let your head move with your body, not by itself.

The surrounding seems to “move” in the opposite direction. Let your eyes shift naturally without fixing on anything.

Practice this exercise before going to bed and upon arising (at least 60 swinging movements per session) to relax eye muscles, and, more importantly, to correct bad fixed-eye staring habit.

The Chinese “yang” eye candle gazing technique

Practice this ancient Chinese eyesight-improvement technique to clear the whites of your eyes to sharpen vision, and to prevent eye problems.

Sit comfortably. Light a candle and place it at arm’s length and at eye level.

Gaze at the flame without blinking your eyes.

Allow tears to flow out from your eyes (they remove toxins from your body).

If need be, close your eyes for 10 seconds every now and then.

Practice it for at least 5 minutes. End your gazing session by closing your eyes and do the palming exercise for a few minutes to cool down your eyes. 

The yoga accommodative eye exercise 

Your accommodative eye muscles weaken and deteriorate with age due to lack of use. Follow the Hindu yogis eyesight-improving technique to strengthen your accommodative eye muscles so that you can see in the distance and also at close point. More importantly, they enable your eyes to easily change focus through improving the eye muscles’ flexibility

Write a few big black letters on a 2” x 3” card. Hold it at eye level and at arm’s length away. Make sure you can see the letters clearly.

Then, look at a distant object and see it clearly.

Begin, one eye at a time, looking at the black letters at close distance and then looking at a distant object, and then with both eyes.

Alternately looking at close point object and distant vision object.

As your vision improves, move the card closer to you. 

The Tibetan peripheral-vision-improvement technique 

To avoid tunnel vision, increase and improve your peripheral vision, which deteriorates with over-focusing a fixed hard gaze straight in front of you.

Hold 2 pencils, one in each hand, about 12 inches in front of your eyes.

Look straight ahead beyond the pencils, only aware of the pencils, but without looking directly at them.

Move each pencil in different directions: front to side; upward and downward; diagonally upward and downward; circling clockwise and counterclockwise. Throughout the exercise, continue to look into the distance, while noticing the pencils peripherally. 

The Egyptian black dot technique

Practice the ancient Egyptian black dot technique to reshape your distorted eyeball by making the eye muscles focus in positions in which they do not normally focus.

Draw a black dot (approximately ½ inch in diameter) on a white card (2” x 3”).

Hold the card at arm’s length in front of you.

Slowly move the card to the tip of your nose. Do not move your head. You should see only one dot; if you see two circles instead of one, move the card away from your nose until you can see the dot distinctly.

Gaze at the black dot for 30 seconds. Then, close your eyes and rest for a few seconds.

Next, raise the card between your eyebrows, move it as close as you can (make sure the dot , and gaze at the dot for another 30 seconds.

Practice this consistently, and as often as you can.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Improve Posture to Improve Vision

Vision is inter-connected with body posture. Therefore, to improve eyesight, you must also improve posture.

The explanation is that vision health is holistic health, which means it includes the health of the body, the mind, and the spirit. Eyesight is an integral part of vision. Your eyesight determines how you see the world at large; your perception is your reality. Therefore, your perception becomes the raw materials of your life experiences, which will directly or indirectly affect your physical, mental, and emotional wellness. By the same token, your physical, mental, and emotional health will have a bearing on your vision health, and hence your eyesight.

According to Dr. William Bates (1860 - 1931), the founder of natural vision improvement, poor vision is the result of eyestrain, due to mental and physical stress on the eye, and hence the distortion of the eye shape, causing nearsightedness and farsightedness. Dr. William Bates strongly believed that eye relaxation holds the key to improving vision.

But eye relaxation begins with the mind first, not the eye. The mind must be completely relaxed before it can relax the body—and then the eye, which is only one of the organs of the body.

Improve posture to relax the body and the mind, and hence the eye. After all, posture health is overall health: it affects your whole being in many different ways.

Improve posture to improve your breathing. Incorrect breathing results in compromised lung functioning, leading to inadequate oxygen intake by all body organs and tissues, and hence a host of health issues, including vision health. Improve posture to optimize breathing for vision health.

Improve posture to avoid debilitating body pain, such as neck pain, leg pain, and even headaches. In addition, an arched back exerts undue pressure on the joints and nerves, causing joint pain and rheumatism. Due to poor body posture, all the muscle groups supporting the crooked spine may become stretched and strained, causing wear and tear, resulting in lower back pain. Chronic body pain often interferes with natural sleep, which is a major factor in relaxation of the body and the mind, in particular, the eye. Therefore, it is important to improve posture for eye relaxation to improve eyesight.

To successfully improve posture, you must develop an acute awareness for good posture at all times.

Good posture does not mean "jamming your shoulders back, tucking in your tummy, and standing stiff"; this posture does not align your body, nor is it practicable in that you can maintain that position over an extended period. Good posture means that in any standing position, you body posture should be as follows:

• Your head is directly above your shoulders.

• Your chin is tucked in.

• Your ear, shoulder, and hip are in a straight line from a side view.

• Your upper back is straight, not slouched.

• Your shoulders, relaxed and straight, are flat against your back.

• Your pelvis is in a neutral position.

• Your knees are unlocked.

Be mindful not just of your standing posture, but also your sitting and sleeping posture—they all play a pivotal part in eye relaxation, which holds the key to improving eyesight.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Elephant Swing for Better Vision

Vision is the most important of all five senses. Without good vision, the quality of life is considerably compromised. Unfortunately, many seniors are faced with the problem of vision impairment as they continue to age. The good news is that you can maintain good vision throughout your life, if you have the know-how.

Qi Gong is an Oriental exercise that focuses on natural movement and relaxation. Because it is an exercise without stress and strain, you will build up your muscles naturally, including those of your eyes. Given that good vision has to do with exercising and relaxing eye muscles, the elephant swing of Qi Gong is an ideal exercise to enhance eye vision, especially for the elderly.

To perform the elephant swing, do the following:

1.    Stand with your feet parallel, about 10 inches apart.

2.    Slightly shake your arms and legs, while rolling your neck back and forth, and sideways, to loosen your nerves and muscles.

3.    Pay attention to your movements as you relax your jaw and empty your mind of thoughts.

4.    Shift your body weight from one foot to the other. Swing your body to the right and then to the left in a swaying movement by lifting the heel of each foot. Let your arms hang loosely during the swaying motion. It is important that your head moves with your body, not by itself.

5.    Breathe naturally. Open your eyes, and notice what is in front of you. Do not fix your eyes on any object in your field of vision. You will have the visual illusion that everything is “moving in the opposite direction.”

6.    Swing, see, and relax for 100 swinging movements.

The objective of the elephant swing for better vision is to train your eyes not to become fixed on anything, as well as to loosen and relax your eye muscles. Practicing the elephant swing of Qi Gong relaxes the body, the mind, and the eye. The Chinese have practiced this exercise for thousands of years.

For more information on how to improve vision and maintain vision health, visit my web page: Eyesight Correction.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Lau