To improve eyesight naturally over time, you can practice simple but highly effective vision exercises like I did. Natural vision improvement does take effort, dedication, persistence, practice, and desire. Vision improvement will happen if you are willing to do the work. Visual exercises are neither complicated, nor take much time, but a strong desire to improve your vision naturally starts with an understanding that it does take a certain amount of time each day over time to literally “see” results.

In our fast paced, disposable society, we have come to expect quick, fast results in anything we do and this is not possible when trying to improve eyesight naturally. Surgical alternatives like LASIK are fast and quick, but risk of proper recovery and possible post surgery complications comes along with the territory.

Here are some basic eye exercises that I started with and you can do today to help you on your journey to improve eyesight naturally and achieve better eyesight without glasses or contacts.

1. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina – This will look like you are in pain or crying so pick your place to do this with care, otherwise you will have people asking what is wrong with you. This technique is known as Palming. Palming is a great way to rest the eyes and improve visual clarity and focus. Warm your hands by rubbing them together, then sit down and rest your elbows on your knees. Gently close your eyes, cover your eyes with your palms. Relax, take several deep breaths and exhale slowly, relax more. Relax, breathe, and embrace the darkness. The blacker your visual field, the better. You can do this for 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 20 minutes, or 2 hours if you like. You should do this several times a day. It is wonderful for your eyes and will refresh and rejuvenate them. There is a story of a man who did this for 8 hours straight in a meditative state and cured his vision problem. I could not even come close to that, but do it several times a day. The longer you do Palming, the better results you will see. It is a wonderful healing technique.

2. Zombie land – Don’t stare at anything for a prolonged period of time. Shift your focus from near to far to intermediate distance, and back to near. Do this several times. Look up, down, left, right, upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right. Move your eyes like a clock, from 12, 1, 2 , and so forth all the way around an imaginary clock. Move your eyes in a circle, smoothly clockwise, then counterclockwise. Watch the eye yoga video that is included on the Computer Vision Tips Helpful Article page, they demonstrate this very well.

3. Play pirates, be Captain Jack Sparrow – In my case, I had a problem with my eyes working together as a team, otherwise known as fusing properly. I was right eye dominate, which means that my brain was having my right eye do most of the seeing. Looking at a distance, my left eye would turn outward since it was not being used, especially when tired. I worked on this by wearing a patch, which you can get at any pharmacy, over my dominate eye and letting my weaker eye do all the work. The brain now has to use the left eye. For short periods of time, I would function with one eye and give the dominate eye a break. Gradually lengthening the time resulted in that eye getting stronger. I would only do this around the house or watching TV and not do it where safety would be compromised, like driving. Playing a game like ping pong or anything where your eye has to track an object is great as well.

I also used a computer program along with blue/red glasses to do convergence and divergence type exercises to help strengthen fusion and improve depth perception in both eyes. Today, I have only a hint of my problem, primarily when I am fatigued. If I feel my eyes need it, I always do exercises to bring them back to tip top shape, not unlike what you do for your heart or body when you exercise.

By applying and practicing vision relaxation and strengthening exercises, was I able to improve eyesight naturally and shed my glasses and contact lenses. The freedom from corrective lenses is wonderful and naturally improving vision has no risks and no side effects.

As an avid skier and tennis player, I knew that my skill set in these sports would only develop if I practiced the basic foundational skills and properly learned the fundamentals from the start. I reasoned that if I could develop fitness for my heart in the form of aerobic type exercise, then why couldn’t my eyes benefit from specific eye exercises. Visual improvement exercises in the form of vision therapy is not new, but it is not mainstream either in our Western culture.

Everything in the West seems to hinge on symptoms and then treat the symptoms with drugs or in the case of the eyes, corrective lenses. In the East, there is much more emphasis on prevention and treating the whole person. Mind, body, and spirit are focused on with such activities as martial arts, tai chi, qi gong, yoga, meditation, etc.

I did some research and decided to give it a try and see if I could naturally improve my vision through my own efforts. Here are some things I started to do immediately.

1. Exercise – I did this frequently anyway, but I know if more oxygen gets to the heart and brain during exercise, it also goes to the eyes.

2. Diet – I decided to give up caffeine and eat more fruits and vegetables. I tried, not always successfully, to cut back on processed foods, fast foods, and sugery foods from my diet. Carrots, spinach, and broccoli really are good for your eyes.

3. Breathe, breathe, breathe – Several times a day, I would take several deep breaths, hold, and then slowly exhale. The goal was increased oxygen, but also relaxation. Most of us breath very shallow and need to be aware to breathe deeply.

4. Blink, blink, blink – Next time you are at a stop light at 6 PM at a busy intersection, look at the drivers next to you or in your rear view mirror. They are mostly staring vacantly straight ahead with their eyes wide open. Blinking keeps the eyes naturally lubricated and helps them from becoming fatigued. Most of us do not blink enough.

5. Light Therapy – Natural sunlight is wonderful for the eyes. The sun is a source of Vitamin D and it is good to get at least 1 hour if possible without wearing sunglasses and let the light in. Reclining, like sunbathing, with eyes closed toward the sun, even for a small amount of time is refreshing for the eyes.

6. Glasses, what glasses? – I started to not wear my contacts or glasses whenever I could without compromising safety of course. In my apartment, I would try to improve eyesight naturally by functioning without the crutches. It was not easy at first and it did take time. Little by little, I started to see small improvements in clarity.

I knew I was on to something and needed to know more. With more research, I discovered some simple techniques and exercises that facilitated better eyesight without glasses.

When I was 8 years old, my parents took me to the optometrist and he determined my eyes were weak and needed correction. To improve eyesight naturally was not an option in those days. What the optometrist did is the conventional thinking even today.

The visual crutch, in the form of eyeglasses, was established and one year later I was back again, not seeing clearly. A stronger pair of lenses was just what I needed and off I went for another year. A year later, you guessed it, blurry vision and bad eyesight resulted in another set of yet stronger lenses. See the pattern.

My natural vision deteriorated as my dependence on glasses grew. This is such a common pattern that is repeated with so many of our children. Bad eyesight and vision problems do not just happen.

Most of us are born with excellent vision, but the demands of a modern society tend to make our eyes weak and lazy. Heredity can play a part as well for declining vision. The hidden secret they don’t want you to know is that vision improvement can be achieved through natural vision improvement.

Reading books, watching television, working on computers, reading comics, phone texting, all can contribute to bad eyesight. You see, compared to years ago, our society has become a close up society. No longer are we mainly doing activities that use our distant vision most of the time. We now use our eyes at close range and this contributes to strain and tension in the eyes.

I accepted my fate with glasses till I started getting involved with sports. Skiing and playing tennis were particularly cumbersome with wearing glasses. Even when I started wearing contacts, this was a vast improvement, but then you have the problems of getting something in your eye, comfort level, your eyes drying up, and the care involved.

I considered LASIK surgery because it could improve my vision quickly. I knew there was some risk involved, but I was prepared to take that risk, at least I was until a good friend of mine had it done. His night vision was ruined as he would see star burst patterns around lights at night. He also now had astigmatism where before the surgery, he had none. His corrected vision now was not crisp and clear like it was prior to the surgery. It scared me enough to stay away.

I started looking for alternatives to surgery. In the next post, I will show you how I decided to improve eyesight naturally without undergoing surgery and gradually shed all corrective lenses and got back to my natural state of vision.