Eye Exercises

Eye exercises are especially important for people who spend most of their time in front of a computer, which is most of us. Here are some exercises to help prevent eye strain. It is a good idea to do these exercises twice a day for 10 minutes at a time.

Here-there-here-there

1. Look straight ahead.
2. Look as high up as you can. Then look down, right, and left in the same way.
3. Repeat this exercise a few times.

Rolling the eyes

Move your eyes calmly in circular motions: first, 5–10 times clockwise, then 5–10 times counter-clockwise.

The two pencil exercise

1. Take two pencils or pens with something written on them. With one hand, hold one pencil at eye level in front of you, about 50 cm away.
2. With your other hand, take the second pencil and hold it about 20 cm away from your nose. Make sure both pencils are at eye level.
3. Look at the writing on the posterior pencil and do this for about a minute. The first pencil will now look double.
4. Then look at the writing on the first pen. Do this for about a minute as well. You will now see the rear pen double.
5. Finally, relax your eyes – look out of the window or at the farthest point of the room and relax for 2–5 minutes.

Pencil in two

1. Take a pencil or pen with some small writing on it. Hold the pen in front of you and slowly bring it towards your eyes until it seems like the pen has duplicated itself.
2. Move the pen further away, then start bringing it closer to your nose. Try to keep the pen “in whole” for as long as possible, at least 10 seconds.
3. Rest your eyes for 2 to 5 minutes looking into a distant point in the room or out of the window.
4. Repeat the exercise 4–5 times.

Blurry text

1. Look for some small text item for this exercise, such as a book, a postcard, etc. Hold the text in your hand at eye level, straight in front of you.
2. Gradually bring the text closer to your eyes. Try to keep it clear and sharp for at least 10 seconds and 5–10 cm away from your eyes.
3. If the text becomes blurry, look at something in the distance.
4. Then look at the text again and bring it closer until the text becomes blurred again.
5. Finally, look into the distance and relax your eyes.

Two to three

1. Take two pencils. Hold one pencil about 20 cm from your nose and hold the other one as far away as possible.
2. Move the front pen closer to your nose and hold it for 10 seconds until the back pen appears to be doubling.
3. Now look for 10 seconds at the rear pen. At the same time, the first pencil “has doubled”.
4. This exercise improves the natural double vision that occurs whenever there are multiple objects in our field of vision. While we are watching one object, we get a double image of another, but we don’t usually notice it.

Eyes inwards

1. Take a pencil and hold it at eye level with your arm stretched out.
2. Gradually bring the pen closer to your face until it is about 6 cm away from your eyes.
3. Hold your gaze on the pen for about ten seconds, then put the pen away.
4. Rest your eyes.