Improving Eye Health With Yoga Asanas

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Misty L. Trepke

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Improving Eye Health With Yoga Asanas

 

Many age-related vision problems stem from a gradual loss of

flexibility and tone in the eye muscles, which get locked into

habitual patterns and lose their ability to focus at different

distances. If you are fortunate to have excellent vision, and want

to preserve it—or you hope to improve your eyesight—evidence

suggests that yoga may have a solution.

 

The late celebrated ophthalmologist William H. Bates claimed he

could improve visual perception with palming, eyeball rotations, and

vision shifting. It is stated that " The fastest way to bring the

mind into concentration is through the eyes. "

 

The correlation between the eyes and the mind has a profound

physiological basis. Vision occupies about 40 percent of the brain's

capacity; that's why we close our eyes to relax and fall asleep.

Four of our 12 cranial nerves are dedicated exclusively to vision,

while two other nerves are vision-related. Contrast this with the

cardiac and digestive functions, which require just one cranial

nerve to control both.

 

While insight may be the ultimate purpose of eye asanas, vision

improvement is also an important benefit. Surprisingly, it's not the

muscle stretching and contracting that seems to have the greatest

effect. Relaxation appears to be the single most important element

of eye health. In an experiment applying the muscle relaxant curare

to the eyes, patients experienced dramatic eyesight improvement.

When teaching a yoga class, we instruct the students to begin with a

few minutes of relaxation in Savasana (Corpse Pose). Then ask

students to sit in a comfortable posture, such as Sukhasana (Easy

Pose), as we guide them through basic eye asanas. Our organs of

sight are so sensitive and influential that the normal, competitive

approach we bring to exercise can be softened through working with

the eyes.

 

The first exercise begins with the eyelids open, the head and neck

still, and the entire body relaxed. Picture a clock face in front of

you, and raise your eyeballs up to 12 o'clock. Hold them there for a

second, then lower the eyeballs to six o'clock. Hold them there

again. Continue moving the eyeballs up and down 10 times, without

blinking if possible. Your gaze should be steady and relaxed. Once

you finish these 10 movements, rub your palms together to generate

heat and gently cup them over your eyes, without pressing. Allow the

eyes to relax in complete darkness. Concentrate on your breathing,

feel the warm prana emanating from your palms, and enjoy the

momentary stillness.

 

Follow this exercise with horizontal eye movements—from nine o'clock

to three o'clock—ending again by " palming " (cupping your hands over

your eyes). Then do diagonal movements—two o'clock to seven o'clock,

and 11 o'clock to four o'clock—again followed by palming. Conclude

the routine with 10 full circles in each direction, as though you

are tracing the clock's rim.

 

These eye movements provide balance for people who do work up close,

like students who spend a lot of their time reading or working at

computers. According to Robert Abel, author of The Eye Care

Revolution (Kensington Books, 1999), these fidyl brief

exercises " compensate for overdevelopment of the muscles we use to

look at near objects. " You might be surprised to learn that the

palming part of this exercise provides more than a pleasant respite.

According to Abel, our photoreceptors break down and are

reconstructed every minute. " The eye desperately needs darkness to

recover from the constant stress of light, " he says. " And the

simplest way to break eye stress is to take a deep breath, cover

your eyes, and relax. "

 

Along with palming, yoga in general benefits the eyes by relieving

tension. While the effect of yoga on the eyes has not been

scientifically measured, studies have shown that a simple exercise

like walking can lower pressure in the eyeball by 20 percent.

 

Asanas like Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), bring

circulation to the face, neck, and shoulders, which need to be

energized and relaxed for improved vision. So even if you have not

been doing asanas specifically for your eyes, your overall yoga

practice is helping your vision.

 

Once students have mastered the basic eyeball exercise, shifting

focus is the next exercise. While sitting relaxed and still, pick a

point in the distance and focus on it. Extend your arm and put your

thumb right underneath the point of concentration. Now begin

shifting your focus between the tip of your thumb and the faraway

point, alternating rhythmically between near and distance vision.

Repeat the exercise 10 times, then relax your eyes with palming and

deep breathing. As you practice this exercise, you are training an

organ called the ciliary body, which adjusts the lens of the eye.

Habitual focus patterns degrade the ciliary body's natural

flexibility. Shifting focal points counteracts this stiffness by

exercising the organ through its full range, much as we work

complementary muscle groups in asana practice.

 

The final eye asana stresses close-range focus. As in the shifting

focus exercise, gaze at your thumb with your arm extended. This time

move the thumb slowly toward the tip of your nose. Pause there for

one second. Then reverse the sequence, following the thumb with your

eyes as you extend your arm again. As before, repeat the sequence 10

times, then relax with palming. By training the eyes to focus on the

ajna chakra (the " third eye, " located between and just above the

eyebrows) a yogi trains his mind to turn inward. On a more prosaic

level, close-range focus exercises can forestall the need for

reading glasses.

 

Perhaps you've seen a picture of a yogi staring at a candle flame.

If so, you've seen Trataka, an eye-cleansing exercise described in

the Upanishads and mentioned in other yogic texts, including the

Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Trataka can also be found in the texts of

Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine), where it is recommended to

stimulate the alochaka pitta, the energy center related to sight.

But as always with yoga, there's a connection between physiology and

the more subtle aspects of spiritual practice.

 

According to Dr. Marc Halpern, founder and director of the

California College of Ayurveda, the practice of trataka decreases

mental lethargy and increases buddhi (intellect). Although

traditionally performed with a candle, Trataka can use almost any

external point of focus, like a dot on the wall. Concentrate your

gaze on one object, without blinking, until your eyes begin to tear.

Then close your eyes and try to maintain a vivid image of that

object for as long as possible. Each time you practice Trataka,

extend the time you maintain the after-image. This exercise,

traditionally believed to remove any disease from the eyes and to

induce clairvoyance, also develops the skill of internal

visualization.

 

Yogis develop this skill to keep their minds fixed in meditation on

a sacred image—and, by extension, on the divine experience

associated with that image. The intricate spiritual mandalas seen in

Indian and Tibetan holy books are also designed for this purpose.

Highly skilled meditators can visualize even the most minute details

of these elaborate cosmic representations. By perfectly aligning

inner and outer focus, these yogis seek a realization like that of

Meister Eckhart, a thirteenth-century Christian mystic who once

declared, " The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which

God sees me. "

 

Andrew " Guruji " LMT, MT-BC, CA

Peacefulmind.com

Alternative medicine and therapies

for healing mind, body & spirit!

 

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