Wisedigs

You can pretend to run, but in reality there is no escaping this force. This unstoppable force, more destructive than a hundred thousand hurricanes yet more gentle than the flutter of a light breeze, is the subject of countless studies and the focus of multimillion dollar corporations. Age.

No matter how hard you try, your body and every organ it contains will age. No matter how hard you think, your intelligence will wane. No matter how hard you work, your body will slow down. No matter how well you eat, your health will weaken. Rather than running, perhaps it is time to face reality and accept the facts.

As the days go on, things you never gave a moment’s thought are now in your face day in and day out. Things that were trivial, now seem impossible. Things that you thought you had a grip on , now seem forever out of your reach. You used to think you knew everything, and now you realize that even now you still know nothing.

But, perhaps there is benefit to knowing all of this…

Your eye is surrounded by muscles, and the lens in your eye is a muscle. Muscles need to be used in order for them to retain their strength. By focusing on a single portal (e.g. TV, LCD) for long periods of time we tend to not move our eyes as much as we should.

Area of greater concern is the distance of focus our eyes get adjusted to. When the distance of focus remains unchanged for long periods of time it leads to the hardening of the lens. Wearing eye glasses worsens this effect. Eye glasses are like magnifying glasses, your lens in it’s natural state changes shape a great deal to bring focus to your world. When it gets weak, it cannot move as easily nor adjust as quickly. By using eyeglasses, your lens no longer have to do as much work to bring about focus. Add dryness (dehydration), poor diet, small enclosed spaces, lack of exposure to the sun (or a powerful light source) and you have the perfect formula for unhealthy eyes.

Below are some exercises you can do on regular basis, as many times a day as possible, and they will help you eliminate the need for glasses InshaAllah.

1:

First step in any eye exercise is: remove your glasses. Avoid using your eyeglasses when you don’t need them. If you are reading and you are nearsighted, you don’t need glasses. If you are outside and you are farsighted you don’t need glasses.

2:

Move your eyes to extremes, 360 degrees in their sockets. Do this for at least 1 minute, you want to get the blood circulating in those dying muscles. Don’t be scared if it hurts, this isn’t any different from stretching a muscle that hasn’t been stretched in ages.

There are several techniques for this, some of which are:

• Try to focus on objects in your peripheral vision without moving your head, only your eyes.
• Move your eyes in a circular, uniform motion around and around
• Move your eyes in straight lines: up, down, right left, diagonal and so on

Any combination of these techniques is good. The longer and more frequently you do this, the healthier your eyeball will be.

Don’t do this in public as people might suspect you have gone mad.

3:

While sitting down, hold an object as close to your eyes as possible: not closer than you can focus on it. Try to focus on it as much as possible. Without moving your eyes or your head, focus on a distant object behind the close object. For example, if you have a pen very close to your face, try to focus behind the pen. Its better to have another distinct object behind the pen as your focus point. You can use things like posters, writing on the wall, light switches, whatever.

The idea here is to get your lens moving again. To achieve best results, shift your focus once your eyes have focused as much as possible. Meaning don’t sit staring off in the distance for 5 minutes, you should focus on each object a maximum of 3 seconds. Also, avoid blinking as much as possible during this exercise.

Another variation on this is to hold two objects in front of each eye and do this exercise. This is trickier to do, but more effective.

4:

Lubricating your eyeball is essential for smooth operation. Some prefer to use artificial tears, my recommendation is you don’t. To naturally lubricate your eyes, open your eyelids as much as possible and start moving your eyes. This will cause more and more of your eyeball to come in contact with air which will cause the surface to dry up and trigger your tear glands to secrete tears.

5:

Identify an object that is the farthest thing away from you that you can focus on. The smaller the object or point of focus and the further it is, the better. For example, a dot on the wall.

Make sure there is a good distance between you and that dot, now focus on the dot only. When things are out of focus, the dot will appear blurry and your mind will tend to wander away from it. Make sure you focus on the dot and only on that dot. If you find difficulty in concentrating, trace the edges of the dot with your vision. Keep your eyes wide open, and the longer you can keep your eyes open without blinking, the better.

6:

Repeat 2 to 5 as often as possible.

You should notice improvement within a few minutes, but making these improvements long term requires time, commitment, and dedication. Remember you are out to get your glasses, and your optometrist is out to get you. Or more specifically, your money. Eye wear is a multi-billion dollar business, so don’t assume everyone is looking out for you or is working in your best interest.