When Swami Srinivasan, director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch in the Catskills, teaches a beginners yoga class,

he instructs the students to begin with a few minutes of relaxation in Savasana (Corpse Pose). Then he asks students to sit in a comfortable posture, such as Sukhasana (Easy Pose), as he guides them through Sivananda's basic eye asanas. "These exercises set the right tone for asana practice," explains Srinivasan. "Our organs of sight are so sensitive and influential that the normal, competitive approach we bring to exercise can be softened through working with the eyes." The first exercise begins with the eyelids open, the head and neck still, and the entire body relaxed. Picture a clock face in front of you, and raise your eyeballs up to 12 o'clock. Hold them there for a second, then lower the eyeballs to six o'clock. Hold them there again. Continue moving the eyeballs up and down 10 times, without blinking if possible. Your gaze should be steady and relaxed. Once you finish these 10 movements, rub your palms together to generate heat and gently cup them over your eyes, without pressing. Allow the eyes to relax in complete darkness. Concentrate on your breathing, feel the warm prana emanating from your palms, and enjoy the momentary stillness. Follow this exercise with horizontal eye movementsfrom nine o'clock to three o'clockending again by "palming" (cupping your hands over your eyes). Then do diagonal movementstwo o'clock to seven o'clock, and 11 o'clock to four o'clockagain followed by palming. Conclude the routine with 10 full circles in each direction, as though you are tracing the clock's rim. These eyeball movements provide balance for people who do work up close, like students who spend a lot of their time reading or working at computers. According to Robert Abel, author of The Eye Care Revolution, these brief exercises "compensate for overdevelopment of the muscles we use to look at near objects." You might be surprised to learn that the palming part of this exercise provides more than a pleasant respite. According to Abel, our photoreceptors break down and are reconstructed every minute. "The eye desperately needs darkness to recover from the constant stress of light," he says. "And the simplest way to break eye stress is to take a deep breath, cover your eyes, and relax." Along with palming, yoga in general benefits the eyes by relieving tension. While the effect of yoga on the eyes has not been scientifically measured, studies have shown that a simple exercise like walking can lower pressure in the eyeball by 20 percent. Vasanthi Bhat, a yoga teacher in the Sivananda tradition, includes asanas like Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), in her video, Yoga for Eyes. "These asanas bring circulation to the face, neck, and shoulders, which need to be energized and relaxed for improved vision," Bhat explains. So even if you have not been doing asanas specifically for your eyes, your overall yoga practice is helping your vision.
Looking High, Looking Low

Once students have mastered the basic eyeball exercise, Srinivasan introduces an intermediate series of eye exercises which he calls "shifting focus."

While sitting relaxed and still, pick a point in the distance and focus on it. Extend your arm and put your thumb right underneath the point of concentration. Now begin shifting your focus between the tip of your thumb and the faraway point, alternating rhythmically between near and distance vision. Repeat the exercise 10 times, then relax your eyes with palming and deep breathing. As you practice this exercise, you are training an organ called the ciliary body, which adjusts the lens of the eye. Habitual focus patterns degrade the ciliary body's natural flexibility. Shifting focal points counteracts this stiffness by exercising the organ through its full range, much as we work complementary muscle groups in asana practice. The final eye asana taught in the Sivananda series stresses close-range focus. As in the shifting focus exercise, gaze at your thumb with your arm extended. This time move the thumb slowly toward the tip of your nose. Pause there for one second. Then reverse the sequence, following the thumb with your eyes as you extend your arm again. As before, repeat the sequence 10 times, then relax with palming. By training the eyes to focus on the ajna chakra (the "third eye," located between and just above the eyebrows) a yogi trains his mind to turn inward. On a more prosaic level, close-range focus exercises can forestall the need for reading glasses. Perhaps you've seen a picture of a yogi staring at a candle flame. If so, you've seen trataka, an eye-cleansing exercise described in the Upanishads and mentioned in other yogic texts, including the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Trataka can also be found in the texts of ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine), where it is recommended to stimulate the alochaka pitta, the energy center related to sight. But as always with yoga, there's a connection between physiology and the more subtle aspects of spiritual practice. According to Dr. Marc Halpern, founder and director of the California College of Ayurveda, the practice of trataka decreases mental lethargy and increases buddhi (intellect). Although traditionally performed with a candle, trataka can use almost any external point of focus, like a dot on the wall. Concentrate your gaze on one object, without blinking, until your eyes begin to tear. Then close your eyes and try to maintain a vivid image of that object for as long as possible. Each time you practice trataka, extend the time you maintain the after-image. This exercise, traditionally believed to remove any disease from the eyes and to induce clairvoyance, also develops the skill of internal visualization. Yogis develop this skill to keep their minds fixed in meditation on a sacred imageand, by extension, on the divine experience associated with that image. The intricate spiritual mandalas you may have see in Indian and Tibetan holy books are also designed for this purpose. Highly skilled meditators can visualize even the most minute details of these elaborate cosmic representations. By perfectly aligning inner and outer focus, these yogis seek a realization like that of Meister Eckhart, a thirteenthcentury Christian mystic who once declared, "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me." With benefits ranging from better vision to increased concentration and spiritual insight, these eye asanas will enhance your yoga practice. Along with a healthy diet and regular exercise, they will help protect your vision from the stresses of light, tension, and environmental toxins. So as

you grow older, and hopefully wiser, you can direct a soft, insightful gaze at the world, learning to see self and other as one.
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1. Palming

Rub your hands together for 10 to 15 seconds until they feel warm and energized. Then gently place your hands over your eyes, with the fingertips resting on the forehead, the palms over the eyes, and the heels of the hands resting on the cheeks. Dont touch the eyeballs directly, but hollow the hands slightly and allow them to form a curtain of darkness in front of the eyes. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and relax. Envision the eyes absorbing the darkness like a sponge, while also welcoming healing warmth and energy from the hands. Invite the eyes to grow soft and spacious, and enjoy this break from visual stimulation. Continue this palming action as long as it feels soothingfor just a few seconds or up to five minutes. When you are ready to emerge, gently remove the hands from the face and slowly open the eyes. This palming technique can also be done after the eye exercises that follow to further rest the eyes.
2. Eye Rolling

Sit upright with a long spine and relaxed breath. Soften your gaze by relaxing the muscles in your eyes and face. Without moving your head, direct your gaze up

toward the ceiling. Then slowly circle your eyes in a clockwise direction, tracing as large a circle as possible. Gently focus on the objects in your periphery as you do this, and invite the movement to feel smooth and fluid. Repeat three times, then close the eyes and relax. When youre ready, perform the same eye-rolling movement three times in a counterclockwise direction.
3. Focus Shifting

Relax your body and breathe comfortably. Hold one arm straight out in front of you in a loose fist, with the thumb pointing up. Focus on your thumb. While keeping your eyes trained on it, slowly move the thumb toward your nose until you can no longer focus clearly on it. Pause for a breath or two, and then lengthen the arm back to its original outstretched position, while maintaining focus on the thumb. Repeat up to 10 times.
4. Distance Gazing

Rest your gaze on a distant object (if youre indoors, look out a window, if you can). Focus on the object as clearly as possible, while staying relaxed in the eyes and face. Take a deep breath, and then slowly shift your gaze to another distant object around you. Imagine your eyes are gently drinking in the image you see. Continue letting your eyes drift about the world around you, momentarily pausing at objects at varying distances away from you. As an extra bonus, if you spy something particularly pleasing, smile, enjoy the vision, and give thanks for your strong, healthy eyes.

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1. Up and down Raise your eyes and find a small point that you can see clearly without straining, without frowning, without becoming tense and, of course, without moving your head. While doing this exercise look at this point each time you raise your eyes. Next, lower your eyes to find a small point on the floor which you can see clearly when glancing down. Look at it each time you lower your eyes. Breathing should be normal. Move your eyes upwards as far as you can, and then downwards as far as you can. Repeat four more times. Blink quickly a few times 1 to relax the eye muscles. 2. Right and left Now do the same using points to your right and to your left, at eye level. Keep your raised fingers or two pencils on each side as guides and adjust them so that you can see them clearly when moving the eyes to the right and to the left, but without straining. Keeping the fingers at eye level, and moving only the eyes, look to the right at your chosen point, then to the left. Repeat four times. Blink several times, then close your eyes and rest. 3. On point Choose a point you can see from the right corner of your eyes when you raise them, and another that you can see from the left corner of your eyes when you lower them, half closing the lids. Check your posture: spine erect, head straight and motionless. Look at your chosen point in right corner up, then to the one in left corner down. Repeat four times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest. Now do the same exercise in reverse. That is, first look to the left corner up, then to the right corner down. Repeat four times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest. 4. Rolling This exercise should not be done until three or four days after you have begun eye exercises given here. Slowly roll your eyes first clockwise, then counterclockwise as follows: Lower your eyes and look at the floor, then slowly move the eyes to the left, higher and higher until you see the ceiling. Now continue circling to the right, lower and lower down, until you see the floor again. Do this slowly, making a full-vision circle. Blink, close your eyes and rest. Then repeat the same action counterclockwise. Do this five times then blink the eyes for at least five seconds. Tip: When rolling the eyes, make as large a circle as possible, so that you feet a little strain as you do the exercise. This stretches the eye muscles to the maximum extent, giving better results. 5. Changing vision This is a changing-vision exercise. While doing it you alternately shift your vision from close to distant points several times. Use your finger (or a pencil), and hold it under the tip of your nose. Then start moving it away, without raising it, until you have fixed it at the closest possible distance where you can see it clearly without any blur. Then raise your eyes a little, look straight into the distance and there find a small point which you can also see very clearly. Now look at the closer point-the pencil or your finger tip then shift to the farther point in the distance. Repeat several times, blink, close your eyes and squeeze them tight. 6. Contraction Close your eyes as tightly as you possibly can. Really squeeze the eyes, so the eye muscles contract. Hold this contraction for three seconds, and then let go quickly. Tip: This

exercise causes a deep relaxation of the eye muscles, and is especially beneficial after the slight strain caused by the eye exercises. Blink the eyes a few times. 7. Palming Use your hands so that your palms cup your eyes. This technique to improve and strengthen vision is called palming. You dont need to put any pressure on. Make it so that your eyes can blink if you want them to. Rub your hands together before you do this to help generate some energy and just let your hands warm your eyes. This really helps heal and nourish them, and takes out any tension in your eyes

Steps

1. 1 Start with massaging your lower eyelids with the tips of your ring fingers. Use short and gentle circular movements.

2. 2 Close your eyes halfway down. You will notice that your upper lids constantly tremble with different amplitude. Concentrate your efforts on stopping this trembling. (Little hint it will be easier to do if you look at further objects). Slowly close your eyes, like your eyelids are made out of puffy cottony clouds. Think that your eyes get extremely comfortable in their position. The blood filled with the oxygen flows through your eye sockets. When you inhale imagine the breezy oxygenated air coming through your nose into the eyes. Exhale through the mouth. Breathe this way for one or two minutes and end this exercise with a smile.

3. 3 Concentrate your vision on the tip of your nose.

4. 4 Blink. Always remember about the blinking to lubricate your eyes, cleanse them and at the same time relax all of the muscles surrounding your eyes.

5. 5 Sit straight, look to the most left side and hold to stretch your eye muscles. Return your gaze back to look straight in front of you. Blink for a few seconds in order to relax your eyes. Repeat. Blink a few times. This exercise has to be repeated for other eye positions (right, up, bottom, right top corner, right bottom corner, left bottom corner and left top corner). Do not forget about blinking.

6. 6 Draw a horizontal number eight with your eyes. Blink.

7. 7 Draw a circle with your eyes.

8. 8 Blink with your eyes closed.

9. 9 Perform palming to relax your eyes.

10. 10 Spend 2 minutes to give yourself an eye acupressure massage to prepare your eyes for the dynamic eye exercises.

11. 11 Sit straight. Look to the most left position and move your gaze to the most right position. Repeat 3 times. Blink a few times. Repeat looking up and down, diagonally (from the left top corner to the right bottom corner and from the top right corner to the left bottom corner). Each movement has to be repeated 3-4 times in the beginning. Do not forget to blink.

12. 12 Perform focusing exercises. Look at the tip of your nose and then on the far object and back to the tip of your nose. Repeat 10 times dynamically. Be inventive. Choose objects on the different distance and look at each of them.

13. 13 Finish up with palming to relax your eyes.

.. Yoga for the Eyes

Schneider begins his own eye program with palming, massage, blinking, and shiftingexercises which should be done in a relaxed, effortless way. If there is tension in the body, then the exercises will only encourage current habits. In all exercises, keep your breathing deep and full. Palming: Palming, which was originally invented by Tibetan yogis, is done in darkness with the palms cupping the eyes. Palming soothes the optic nerve, which is often irritated. Sit in a darkened room with your elbows leaning on a table. Relax your back and shoulders, rub your hands together vigorously to warm them, then place your palms over your eyes. Don't press the eye sockets and don't lean on the cheekbones. Visualize total blackness, the most relaxing color for the brain, and breathe deeply. Let the blackness permeate everything: your eyes, your whole body, the room you sit in, the city, the state, the continent, the planet, the stars, the universe.

You may see all kinds of lights, which is an indication of irritation in the optic nerve. In fact, you may not see total darkness until you have completed several palming sessions. Palm for as long as is comfortable. Massage: Rub your hands together to warm them and then rub the fingers up the bridge of the nose and across the eyebrows to the temples. Find the grooves in the eyebrows and massage them. Then rub the fingers from the nose to the cheekbones and to the ears. Finally, run your fingers across your forehead. Facial massage helps dissolve tension in the eyes, bringing them to a more relaxed state. Massage of the face, head, and body can facilitate this process. Blinking: Often our tendency is to fall into a kind of myopic stare, especially when under stress. This strains the eyes unnecessarily. Blinking helps keep the eyes moist and tension-free, and increases circulation in the eyes. Begin reprogramming yourself by opening and closing the eyes very softly and gently. Then visualize the eyes blinking. Imagine that it's the eyelashes which open and close the eyes. Breathe deeply. Apply this technique whenever you look at something, gazing in a soft way and blinking frequently. If the eyes are behaving in this way, then they can't be tense. Shifting: This involves flitting the eyes rapidly from detail to detail and encourages the eyes to engage with the world and pick up on more details. Normal eyes shift naturally, making many micromovements per second. Shifting works by engaging the macula, the central part of the retina, which is responsible for clear, detailed vision. By moving the eyes frequently, more information comes through this part of the retina, thus providing the eyes with more in-focus visual information. Practice by moving your eyes from point to point on whatever you're looking at. Forget the name of the thing you're seeing, and look at its individual parts. Never strain or force yourself; always look with "soft" eyes.