March 2025
Stress and Eye Health
Stress can be directed throughout the body in a number of ways…but for many people, stress can affect their eyesight.
When stress hormones are released in our body, not only can our heart race, breathe quicken, and muscles contract, but our eyes dilate as well. In the presence of prolonged stress due to anxiety, depressions or mental fatigue — pressure increases on the eyes which can lead to eyestrain, eye tension, headaches, stiff neck, back and shoulder pain, body aches, and general struggles with vision.
Here are some simple self-care methods for relieving eyestrain that we could incorporate into our daily routine; enhancing the mind-body connection to encourage lasting relief from life stressors.
3 Exercises to Improve Eyesight | Natural Eye Health Qi Gong
( for further reading: CDC, “Fast Facts About Vision Loss,” last reviewed December 19, 2022 and Vision Loss and Mental Health )
January 2025
Inspired by the principles of Ayurveda
From an article written by John Douillard for Massage & Bodywork Magazine (Nov/Dec 2024) called "The Science of Mouth vs. Nose Breathing"
The Two-Step Lateral Breathing Exercise
Step 1: Lie down on your back or sit up comfortably. Take a slow breath in through the nose into the lower abdomen, but do not move the chest or shoulders. Fill your belly a little, then try to breathe into the lower rib cage and expand the ribs laterally out to both sides. As you breathe into these lateral ribs, keep filling the rib cage as far as you can. Keep inhaling and try to push the breath into the ribs that wrap around your back. This is called lateral breathing. Continue for 10 breaths. Do 2-3 sets of 10 breaths twice a day.
Step 2 : Raise your arms over your head and laterally bend to the right. Once you are in a maximal but comfortable lateral bend, take a long, slow, deep lateral breath through your nose, pushing the lower left rib cage out to the side. Once you reach your max, you can take some small sips of air through the mouth to expand the lateral rib cage even further. As you slowly exhale, laterally bend to the left side, releasing all air from the lungs. Repeat this 10 times on the right and 10 times on the left with full exhales each time. Do 2-3 sets of these side-bending breaths twice a day.
( for more information on Ayurveda )
