Sticky eyeballs – anyone??

Undivided audience attention garnered by any visual is termed as sticky eyeball in marketing parlance. Here I am making the meaning more literal by relating it to the eye sores and other eye problems faced by people who spend long hours at the desk starring at the computer screen. They might be programmers, stock brokers, bankers, management students – people from all fields today.

The problems generally faced are redness of the eyes, dryness, headaches, watering of eyes, stress due to constant eye strain etc. Here are a few handy tips to alleviate those symptoms.

· Palming – Rub your palms vigorously, generate warmth & then cup your eyes. Do this a few times till your eyes feel relaxed.

· Looking away from the screen – Don’t stare at the computer screen for too long. Atleast every 30 minutes look away from the screen.

· Close eyes while thinking to given them rest.

· Wash them with cold water every couple of hours

· Facial massage – Massage your forehead, around the nose, cheeks, neck & ears you’re your fingertips. Will blog on that in detail later

· Eye socket massage – Take the index fingers of both the palms and massage from the bridge of the nose on both sides to the base, up around the cheeks to the eyebrows and on the eyebrows to the middle of the eyebrows in circular motion. Do this a few times.

· Eye rotation, diagonal, sideways, up & down movements – Imagine there is a bog clock in front of you, it’s centre being at the level of your nose tip. Now do eye movements to & fro from: 3 – 9, 12 – 6, 2 – 8, 4 – 10, clockwise, anticlockwise.

· Looking near & far – Draw your palms in front of you close, look at the palms & immediately look away at the farthest point you can see outside. Do this movement very quickly for 10-20 times at one go.

· Blinking – Blink your eyes continuously and quickly for 20-30 times. Then blink hard hold for a second and let go. Do this 5-10 times.

· Ergonomics for your eyes – Sit at a distance from your computer screen (not too close). Place the screen just below the eyelevel. You can use anti glare glass on your screen. Also maintain proper lighting when you have to use your eyes.

These techniques help in strengthening the small muscles around the eyes which are never used. (eg we never look to our sides without moving the neck. Imagine how funny it would look !!! :-) ) it also provides much needed circulation to the eye & face area thereby making us feel refreshed & re-energised. The massages are stimulating for the sinuses, nerves & muscles. Yoga says that about 50% of our energy loss is from the eyes when we keep it open all the time. Also consider that we never really close our eyes except when we want to sleep. Atleast most of us. How abusive of us towards our precious faculty of sight, don’t you think?

Note: remove your glasses, preferably your lenses as well if you can see at 2 feet distance clearly without them. I.e. if the power is not too high. Do all the techniques frequently as per your requirement (once or twice a day). Donot overdo. Start with lesser number of repetitions and increase gradually. Also take your doctor’s permission if you are suffering from any eye complication like very high power, cataract, retinal detachment or anything else.