EXERCISE: Eye Health

[Guest guest]

Good Morning!

 

Exercise. One of the most important factors in a healthy lifestyle. This week I

am focusing on particular exercises that help with pain relief and degenerative

disorders.

 

 

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 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 Pacholyk LMT, MT-BC, CA

Peacefulmind.com

Alternative medicine and therapies

for healing mind, body & spirit!

[Guest guest]

Thank you very much for sharing this. -Sincerely, Silver-

---

 

 

, " yogiguruji

<yogiguruji@a...> " <yogiguruji@a...> wrote:

> Good Morning!

>

> Exercise. One of the most important factors in a healthy

lifestyle. This week I am focusing on particular exercises that help

with pain relief and degenerative disorders.

>

>

> 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 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 Pacholyk LMT, MT-BC, CA

> Peacefulmind.com

> Alternative medicine and therapies

> for healing mind, body & spirit!