What is Eye Yoga and how do I Practice it?

Are you feeling the effects of infinite zoom calls and more and more time spent staring at screens? Headaches, dry and irritated eyes and tension in your jaw and forehead are all symptoms of your eyes being strained and feeling fatigued. 

Just as we stretch our hips and back when we’ve been sitting for an extended period of time, exercising our eyes can help us unwind from all of the screen time our eyes are experiencing. Eye yoga is exercises for our eyes and face, which can help us improve eyesight and build muscle strength around the eyes. Try scheduling in a few breaks throughout the day to step away from the screen and practice a few eye yoga exercises. I promise you will feel more refreshed and focused when you sit back down for your next zoom session. 

BENEFITS OF EYE YOGA

Reduce eye strain: Feeling tired and fatigued, this can come from squinting and staring screens for long periods of time. Eye yoga will help you feel refreshed and focused.

Reduce eye tension: Even if you have got great eyesight, you might find that you are tensing up the muscles around your eyes and forehead. Eye yoga will help you release tension.

Improved focus and attention: As with any mindfulness and awareness practice, eye yoga will help you become more agile in focusing on a task and improve your attention to detail.

Reduce stress: Stepping away from the screen and taking a moment to practice self care and slow down your thoughts and breath while you practice eye yoga, will help you reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.

Improve eyesight: Although there’s no studies showing that eye yoga can directly improve eyesight, the exercises help you become more attentive to what you are seeing and people often find that practicing eye yoga does in fact make them see more clearly. 

HOW TO PRACTICE EYE YOGA

Although eye yoga should take you away from the screen, the first couple of times it might help to follow a guide or a video.

Try this guided eye yoga practice from The Self Care Space library. 

Here are a few exercises you can try anytime:

Palming: 

1. Rub your palms together for 10 seconds until you feel heat and energy in between your hands.
2. Place your palms flat over your eyes, almost cupping your eyes. 
3. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to tune inwards.
4. Feel the warmth of your hands and darkness soothing and melting away any tension around your eyes.
5. Keep focusing on your breath and the warmth of your hands.
6. Allow your hands to rest over your eyes until the warmth starts to fade. 

Blinking: 

1. Sit or stand straight. 
2. Keep your shoulders and neck relaxed and look straight ahead.
3. Blink your eyes very fast for 10-15 seconds.
4. Gently close your eyes, and allow your attention to settle.
5. Notice how the eyes feel and focus on letting them rest and soften. 
6. Try stepping away from the screen and repeat this once at least every hour.

Figure Eight:

1. Sit upright with a tall, straight back.
2. Raise your hand in front of you at eye level with your thumb pointing upwards.
3. Start to circle your arm, keeping the elbow straight, in a figure of eight shape.
4. Focus your eyes on following your thumb as you trace the shape. 
5. Keep drawing this figure of eight in front of your eyes for 30 seconds, then switch directions.

Phoebe is available for live eye yoga sessions for your corporate teams and events. Please contact hello@phoebegreenacre.com for more details.

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