Eye Yoga for Improved Vision

Have you ever heard of the Bates Method? It’s new to me and I’m fascinated. The general idea (and I’m totally paraphrasing) is that contrary to popular belief, our eyesight CAN improve— naturally and drastically. The Bates Method has brought many, many people with bad eyesight (prescriptions in the negatives, stigmatism, poor eyesight since elementary school, etc.) back to total 20/20 vision. So cool right?!

The philosophy behind the Bate’s Method: your eyes, just like any other part of your body, have the ability to totally heal and regenerate themselves. They need to work, stretch, and relax just like the rest of our muscles. According to Dr. Bates, our vision becomes blurry due to poor vision habits that need to be re-patterned as well as strain in the eyes/brain/mind. Many times this strain originates from a traumatic event in our lives. Do you remember facing any trauma around the time you had to start wearing glasses? Have you reconciled with it?

There are so many different practices and exercises to take on for this method (and you can find a teacher to help you! Look up Nathan Oxenfeld on Youtube as one example) but here are two very popular ones. These are super simple and can be practiced anywhere, anytime by anybody.

Sunning:

Close your eyes and tilt your head up toward the sun. Move your head side to side, up and down, all around and let the light from the sun warm your face and eyelids for about 30-60 seconds. Your eyes actually need the sunlight for specific nutrients and this is a safe and effective way to feed those photoreceptors.

Palming:

Cover your eyes with your palms. Allow there to be some space so you’re not pressing your palms into your eyelids, you’re just blocking out the light. If you close your eyes and there are a lot of different dancing lights and visuals inside your head, it’s an indicator that your eyes are stressed. Try your best to relax your eyes here. Allow the breath to slow down, become heavy and soft in the body, and rest for a little while with your eyes covered. The more you practice, the more complete blackness you’ll begin to see!

These two practices are just the beginning. If you want to improve your eyesight naturally, it takes time and dedication. There are plenty of books and videos on the subject, and like I mentioned earlier, you can find a certified Bates Method teacher who can help you get deeper into the practice! I’m thinking of finding one myself… :)