Does your eyesight ever feel a bit fuzzy?
In the twenty-first century, cell phones and laptop screens tend to strain your eyes, especially if you’re in front of your computer for work. Over time, this can lead to eye fatigue, hazy vision, and even headaches.
Fortunately, Chinese medicine and Qi Gong offer simple yet effective practices to naturally improve your eyesight and overall eye health. These practices are a great way to quickly refresh your eyes and improve your vision.
In this blog, you’ll discover a six-minute routine designed to naturally increase energy circulation to your eyes, helping you to see the world with greater clarity and crispness. You’ll also learn fundamental principles of eye health based on Chinese medicine and Qi Gong.
In Chinese medicine and Qi Gong, energy circulation is essential for all aspects of health, including eye health. When energy flows throughout your body, you feel healthy and vital. If energy becomes stagnant on the other hand, various elements of your health will suffer.
Just like your blood flows through arteries and veins, your energy has its own pathways called meridians. These meridians run throughout your body, allowing energy to flow to all of your organs and tissues. You can think of these meridians as streams and rivers that nourish every part of your being.
When it comes to eye health, it’s important that energy is flowing properly in your face and eyes. You’ll notice that some of the eye exercises in this routine focus on activating the energy pathways directly around your eyes.
Your eyes are connected to the Wood Element and your Liver. When your Wood Element is strong, you have better eye health and vision. This eye exercises also focuses on cultivating the Wood Element and channeling Wood’s energy directly to your eyes.
You’ll notice that this six-minute routine puts these principles into practice by increasing the flow of energy to your eyes and boosting the Wood Element. We’ve included a video and written instructions for this eye-enhancing practice. Enjoy!
To start this six-minute routine, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. It can be helpful to take a few deep breaths to relax your body and mind before you begin.
When you’re ready, bring your hands up to your face and use the knuckle of your first finger to gently massage your eyebrows. Try to move your knuckle from side to side along your eyebrows.
Massaging your eyebrows helps activate Qi and increases energy circulation around your eyes. Not only does this help improve your vision and eye health, but it can also help relieve headaches.
After a minute or so, do the same thing below and around your eyes. Try to massage the bones directly beneath your eyes using the knuckles of your first fingers. This further activates and increases energy circulation to your eyes, helping relieve fatigue and boost vitality. Do this massaging exercise for about one to two minutes.
After you’re done massaging around your eyes, move your eyes in a big circle while keeping your head still. You can start with clockwise circles. Look to the left, then up, then to the right, then down, and then back to the left. Keep moving your eyes in big clockwise circles for thirty to sixty seconds. Then, change direction and do counter-clockwise circles for thirty to sixty seconds.
This eye circle exercise helps strengthen all of the small muscles and tendons that connect to your eyes. When your eye muscles are stronger, it’s easier for your vision to be focused and avoid eye fatigue.
This exercise is especially important if you’ve been looking at computer screens and you been doing a lot of eye movement.
Since your eyes are connected to the Wood Element, it’s important to boost Wood and channel Wood’s energy to your eyes. Tree Sways in the Wind is a wonderful exercise that focuses on strengthening the Wood Element and bringing nourishing energy to your eyes.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and rotate your hips so you’re facing toward the side. Then, with your hands facing up, slowly raise your hands toward your eyes. As your hands approach your eyes, rotate slowly at your hips so you return to facing forward. Repeat this movement while rotating to the other side. Do this exercise for about two minutes, alternating between each side.
As you bring your hands up, imagine you’re pulling in energy around you and channeling it to your eyes. Try to relax and enter a state of flow and relaxation. This is a tonifying exercise, which means that it’s designed to strengthen your internal energy. This practice helps you cultivate the Wood Element and channel vitality to your eyes, improving your vision and eye health.
After a couple of minutes, return to your center and bring your hands up to your face with your palms facing your eyes. Visualize that you’re sending nourishing, healing energy to your eyes. When you’re ready, take a few deep breaths and take that feeling of relaxation and vitality with you into the rest of your day.
If you enjoyed this brief routine and want to learn more practices to cultivate better vision and eye health, be sure to check out our on-demand Qi Gong for Healthy Eyes Workshop.
In our on-demand Qi Gong for Healthy Eyes Workshop, you’ll learn a variety of Qi Gong exercises specifically designed to cultivate the Wood Element and improve the health of your eyes. This can help improve your vision and reduce tiredness and fatigue in your eyes.
Because this workshop is an on-demand workshop, you can enjoy Lee’s teaching from the comfort of your home whenever you want. Click on the banner below to learn more about the workshop and discover how Qi Gong can help you experience each day with clarity and confidence.
