We all know that needing to wear glasses all the time can be a real inconvenience.
While we might like the look of contacts better, they’re painful to deal with and can cause problems if we forget to take them out.
Lasik surgery is expensive and a little frightening.
So, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could improve our eyesight naturally, without glasses or any other vision tools?
Well we can! And it couldn’t get any easier.
The eyes are just like any other muscle.
They can be strengthened through practice.
Just like strengthening any of our other muscles, we strengthen the eyes through exercise and diet.
If it seems too hard to believe, just think about your eyes for a second.
You know your eyes get tired after long days, because they’ve been working so long without any rest.
They also get tired when we’ve been focusing on something particularly trying on our eyes, like a bright computer screen, or reading for long periods of time in dim lighting.
The way our eyes get tired is the same way any muscle would get tired after being worked for too long (think of your legs after a particularly long hike).
So, if our eyes can be hurt and damaged just like any other muscle, shouldn’t we be able to strengthen them just like any other muscle?
Now, you might be thinking that our eyesight worsening is why we have glasses and contacts.
But haven’t you noticed that once you start wearing glasses and contacts, your eyes don’t get better?
In fact, they tend to worsen, which is why we are constantly updating our prescription and needing new glasses or contact lenses.
Why does that happen? Because eyesight “tools” like glasses and contacts only act as a crutch for our eyes.
If you injured your ankle and needed to wear a splint, you wouldn’t wear that splint for the rest of your life.
If you did, you would know that your ankle would continue to weaken, since it could rely on the splint to do its job.
Eventually, you wouldn’t be able to walk without a splint.
That’s why there are strict time limits set on any kind of crutch, be it splints, or casts, or actual crutches.
Strengthening our eyes naturally is something we should all be pursuing, particularly for long-term eyesight.
As I said before, strengthening our eyes is like strengthening any other muscle and consists of good diet and exercise.
In terms of diet, we’re taught since childhood that certain foods are good for eyesight (do carrots ring any bells?).
Specifically, vitamins A, C, and E are all necessary for good eyesight, as well as minerals like copper and zinc.
Those can all be taken as supplements to improve and maintain your eyesight.
In terms of what you should be eating for your eyes, yellow and green vegetables are particularly good for eyesight, especially at preventing age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
Aim for vegetables like dark leafy greens, squash, and peppers.
Now for exercise—it may seem strange to think about exercising your eyes, but it’s very easy to do and can be quite effective.
Like any muscle group, heat can be very soothing for the eyes.
An easy way to do this is to rub your palms together to create heat, and then press them against your eyes for five seconds. You should repeat this three times.
It might seem, and look, silly, but it can be very soothing for your eyes, especially if they’ve been working overtime.
Actual exercises you can do for your eyes are all about intentional focusing and moving your eyes with purpose.
Rolling your eyes is a good exercise. Start by looking up, and then slowly rotate 10 times clockwise, and then counter-clockwise.
The trick with eye rolling is all about being intentional.
You’re not being an angsty teenager—you’re working out!
Another exercise you can do for your eyes is to hold a pen at arm’s length and focus your eyes on it.
Slowly bring the pen forward, getting closer and closer until it’s about six inches from your nose.
Then slowly move it back, keeping your eyes focused. Do this exercise ten times total.
The effects of intentional exercise and diet on eyesight has been hotly debated.
Unsurprisingly, many eye doctors will say that it’s not as effective, which makes sense considering their livelihoods depend on people coming to them for glasses and eye prescriptions.
If people would improve their eyesight naturally, many of these guys would be out of jobs!
Other researchers have shown great benefits from doing intentional eye movements and eating a vitamin-rich diet.
At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself what do you have to lose?
Nothing!
And what do you have to gain?
Better eyesight for the long haul at no cost to you in terms of money or effort!
It doesn’t get any easier than that.
