International Yoga Day: Know How Facial Yoga Exercises Can Improve Eyesight

Yoga Day 2022: Facial yoga is beneficial in many ways, especially movements related to the eye can help to strengthen and condition the muscles in eye structure

Yoga Day 2022: International Yoga Day is celebrated every year on June 21 in a grand way to spread awareness about the traditional Yoga practices and emphasise the benefits it possesses to leading a healthy lifestyle. Yoga is not restricted to a particular religion, caste or creed. Neither is it a set of exercises limited to physical health - it goes beyond these boundaries to promote spirituality and mindfulness. Yoga is practised all over the world in contemporary times, to promote health and development of body and soul.

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The practise of yoga has many benefits from stress relief, improving mental health, increasing strength to reducing inflammation to name a few. In fact, facial yoga is beneficial in many ways, especially movements related to the eye that can help strengthen and condition the muscles in the eye structure. People practice eye yoga with the hope to improve their vision, treating symptoms of dry eye, and reduce eye strain.

You may try these exercises on days when you are staring at a screen for several hours to see if they help relieve discomfort. For those wearing contact lenses or glasses, you would be better off removing them before trying these exercises.

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Some of the eye exercises that can be practised are as below:

Focus shifting:  For this, you need to raise your left hand and thumb in a thumbs-up posture and then sit straight with your eyes looking ahead. Focus your eyes on the thumb. Then slowly move your arm to your right as far as you can, with your eyes following your thumb. Then again shift your arm back in the other direction, following your thumb as far as your eye will go without moving your neck or chin. Keep repeating this movement several times.

Eye rolling: Sit and take a deep breath and then slowly look up to the ceiling focusing on the top. Roll both of the eyes so that you’re looking all the way to your right. Roll both of your eyes so that you’re looking all the way down. Then roll them all the way to your left to come back looking at the ceiling again then look straight ahead and take a breath. Repeat several times and keep switching directions.

Palming: Start with rubbing your hands together to warm them. Then place both hands over your eyes and rest your fingertips on the forehead. Don’t touch your eyes with your palm but it should be slightly cupped away from your face, with your palms resting on or around your cheekbones. Breathe in slowly and clear your mind. Repeat for several minutes as you take deep breaths in and out.