Take a moment to relax your eyes
In the modern world we work our eyes hard every day, particularly when we’re spending hours looking at screens, reading or concentrating.
Our eyes are moved by 6 muscles:
- Superior rectus – Moves the eye upwards
- Inferior rectus – Moves the eye downwards
- Medial rectus – Moves the eye towards the nose
- Lateral rectus – Moves the eye away from the nose
- Superior oblique – Helps rotate the eye and move it downwards
- Inferior oblique – Helps rotate the eye and move it upwards
(In my article on “Improve your peripheral vision“ I told you how to stretch these muscles)
Sometimes, taking a few minutes to relax can make a welcome difference.
Around 20 years ago, I was taught two simple techniques for relaxing the eyes, which I’ve continued to find useful as part of a relaxation routine.
Palming
If you have ever watched the original “Karate Kid” movie you see Mr Myagi do this on Daniel near the end of the film. Although you can use this on various parts of the body and maybe I will do an article on that at some point, here we will do it for our eyes.
- Clap the palm of your hands together
- Then vigorously rub your hands together to warm them
- Close your eyes and cup your palms over them without applying pressure
- Relax your eyes, breathe slowly through your nose and enjoy the warmth and darkness for a minute or two
- Repeat
Warm and Cool Towels
This is another way of relaxing the eyes
- Take a clean hand towel or flannel
- Dampened with cool water and gently rest it over your closed eyes
- Take another clean hand towel or flannel
- Dampened with warm water and gently rest it over your closed eyes
- Alternate a few times if you find it soothing
- Avoid extreme temperatures or pressure
If you only have one hand towel or flannel, only do the warm water.
Solarisation
If the weather is nice and sunny try closing you eyes and look up at the sun so the sun heats and warms the eyes, do not do this when very hot and importantly never look directly at the sun.
All these exercise warm and relax the muscles of the eyes and are really soothing, you can see these three exercises mean you can always relax your eyes when you need to.
