As we age, the eye muscles do tend to become weaker and the lens of the eyes stiffer. Doing regular eye exercises can help keep the eye muscles strong the eye lens flexible. Regardless of your eye condition, regular eye exercises can help support healthy circulation and flow of energy in the eyes, thereby supporting delivery of oxygen and essential nutrients.

Palming eye exercisePalming

This exercise is done without any glasses or contact lenses. Palming helps to reduce stress around the eyes. When you place your palms around your eyes you are stimulating very powerful acupuncture points that help to calm the mind, relax the muscles surrounding the eyes, and bring healing energy to the eyes (through increased circulation).

Instructions:
  • Take two deep breaths to begin.
  • Sit at a flat table. Lean forward, place your elbows on the table, and close your eyes gently. Avoid placing stress on your neck by ensuring that your elbows are at a proper angle and your arms are bearing the weight of your head.
  • Now, place the palm of your left hand over your left eye with your fingers on your forehead, and the hollow of your palm directly over the eye, but not touching it. Be sure there is enough room to blink. The heel of your hand rests on the cheekbones.
  • Then place your right hand over your right eye with the fingers crossing over the fingers of the left hand. The right palm should be placed over the eye and the heel of the hand should rest on the cheekbones in the same manner as the left.
  • With palming you are giving your eyes a break from the constant effort of seeing, and you can just focus on relaxing your mind and eyes simultaneously. Even though we recommend that you do this for only three minutes, palming can be done for as little or as much as you like throughout the day as a way to relax your eyes and relieve the tensions of daily life.
The author of five books on natural eye care, Dr Marc Grossman is the co-founder of Natural Eye Care Inc.