As I have been developing a summer meditation course, I found that I was in front of a computer WAY more than I am normally with my students in high school. I noticed major eye strain and had to take breaks. Here are somethings I learned.
🤓 My blue light blocking glasses really help. I have prescription BLB from Quay - they're reasonably priced especially when you wait for a sale.
🌳 Every 30 minutes or so I would have to take my eyes away from my computer screen to purposely focus on something else. I'd walk around the house, look at the trees or leaves, just do something else with my eyes. Honestly, the further away I looked, the better my eyes felt.
👐 When that frustration moment happened, I would take off my glasses and hold my head in my hands but just so that my palms were pushing on my eyeballs. It's not a painful or "yuck" thing!! It's like a little pressure point massage. It was revitalizing!
🧪 Midday, it always helped my if I had some rosewater. I would inevitably spray my whole face because, why not? However, it started with me just dabbing some rose water under my eyes for extra nourishment and moisture. Also note: I would blink about a million times a minute while I did this to help my eye lubricate and clean itself. I have a tendency to stare and that is very drying on the eyes.
🥒 As a luxury, I would place two cold cucumbers on my eyes after I decided to complete work for the day. The liquid moisture from the cucs are so replenishing for the tender skin beneath and on your eye lids! Add some pranayama (yogi breathing) to this and you can decompress from a very long day!!
📲 Shut the damn phone off. A computer is bad enough, you don't need to double down on eye strain. Can we go back to the days when a phone was a means for communication and not a status symbol or a multitasker? The phone is the death of my eyes, I swear! The brightness and the colors are stimulating to the cones and rods in your eyes, it's the primary reason you still have a headache weeks after a concussion 🤯 In any event, work with your phone faced down, on Do Not Disturb (or, affectionately known as "night night mode" in our house). Then, leave your computer to walk around, answer your calls, etc.
🌚 Another thing, if you aren't putting your phone on airplane mode or Do Not Disturb for sleepytime, you are missing out on quality sleep! Better yet, stick the phone in another room to charge and you will be really racking up those restorative zzzz's
🔴 Red lights are less taxing to the cones and rods I had mentioned before. You can go to accessibility mode in your phone and with a few clicks, you can change your phone to show more red tones than the blue whites which is great for pre-night time rituals. Also, if you have an Alexa enabled house or want to go buy the Salt Rock light bulbs, they're a great addition to your bedroom too. You can tell Alexa to turn the lights red, and change the intensity if you want to.
🎧 Last thing - I like to read. I hated it as a child, but I enjoy it now. However, listening to audiobooks is where it's at now. With me staring down Wix and web design, I will just fall asleep reading a book. Audible, Blinkist, iBooks and Podcasts are great alternatives!
I hope you enjoy these tips and tricks to help your peepers 👓 Do you have any you'd like to share?
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