Pranayama; Benefits for your eyes and eyesight

This is an updated post where I have put all my other posts together so you can read my blogging about Pranayama for eyesight all in one place. 

It is now the 13th of February 2017 and I am still practising Pranayama, Mudra, listening and chanting Mantras and do Meditation daily, as it has become part of my life and it is helping me with all my challenges, all my ailments and it is a wonderful tool for healing yourself and for staying healthy.

A chapter from my new eBook;

How many of you are doing anything for your eyes? I think you may often neglect your eyes and yet they are so important. Pranayama can help you heal and look after your eyes. The breath is incredibly powerful, and through many breathing exercises, you can relieve symptoms, heal ailments and live a happier life. I was born with a defect in my eyes, and am nearly blind in my left eye and my right eye vision was deteriorating. I have been wearing prescription glasses since the age of three years old and never thought that there was anything I could do for my eyes. 

When I started learning the Pranayama’s I was told it would be beneficial for my eyes too. Yes, right I thought I do not quite believe this, especially as my vision and eye problems have been since birth. 

What I noticed first in regards to my eyes after practising Pranayama for a while was that my eyes did not get tired so quickly and the burning I experienced often, was getting less. As a child during my school years, I remember well that it was very difficult for me to read or write for more than about ten minutes at the time. Often after reading one page in a book would make me so tired I could just drop off to sleep. I was often told off, because in reading or writing I was considered of not being much focused, and nobody ever thought it could have anything to do with my eyes. Thankfully as an adult, I did not have to read books ha-ha. So when I experienced while practising Pranayama that all of a sudden I could actually read a book or spend lots of time writing on the computer without any eye strain I was impressed. 

By my eye specialist I was also told that due to the eye disease I have, there would be a fifty % chance I would go blind through acute glaucoma and that I need to keep a good eye on the pressure in the eyes, by a yearly checkup with my optometrist. A reading of nine to about fourteen was considered normal and anything above would require close watching. My pressure in the eyes had climbed over the years to eighteen, so, there was no panic but it was in my eyes, a sign things could deteriorate. After practising Pranayama for about three years daily my pressure had come down to twelve, hurray, who would have thought this could happen. Then at my last appointment at the optometrist, my eyesight had also improved ever so slightly, but that is so cool I think!! I do not go to my yearly appointment as I can just not afford it, so it is hard for me to really say how much improvement I get each year. To me it is wonderful that my pressure has come down and that my eyesight has slightly improved, I never expected this and the fact that I can read and write as much as I like without dropping off to sleep is just amazing. No more burning in my eyes, no more feeling of sand in my eyes.

Eye exercises can also help you with tiredness in your eyes and it will strengthen your eyes. Check out my forty-day eye exercise blog here

The Pranayama and Mudras I practised to help me with my eyesight, you can read and learn through my eBook; "Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for Health and Wellbeing"

Below I have put together all my previous posting about my eyesight and improvements while practising Pranayama on a daily base. Starting from the 3.03.2011 - the end of 2013



3.03.2011; Pranayama for eyesight
It has just been over six months that I have been practising pranayama regularly on a daily base and this week I have noticed an improvement in my eyes. I have had bad eyesight since birth, my left eye is just about blind, my right eyesight has deteriorated over the years. Also, I have been diagnosed 6 years ago with Swalbsline and Axenfeld-Reiger's syndrome which means I could get acute glaucoma and there is a 50% chance of going blind, I have been wearing glasses all my life.
I have felt this week that I can cope working on the computer for much longer, my eyes do not get tired as they use to 15 min on the computer was enough in the past now there has not been a time that I have a need to stop. My eyes do not get blurry and no headaches from eye strain anymore. Wow, I am excited about this. It means that I can now work on my book without needing a break all the time. Makes life so much easier.

20.03.2011
Over the past few weeks, my eyesight has improved a bit more. My prescription glasses are 5.5 which is very strong. And now my eyes have improved needing prescription glasses of 4.8 quite a big improvement really.
I still am able to read for longer periods of time without getting tired and my eyes feel clearer and fresher. There is a lot of discharge from the eyes in the morning and I am hoping it is all the toxins coming out. I feel better about flushing my eyes out in the morning. In the past, I would feel sick if I attempted to flush my eyes with water. In fact, anything coming near my eyes, eg. eye drops would make me sick. Going to an optometrist was always an ordeal for me anything to do with my eyes made me hypersensitive and often very nauseous, not anymore I feel so much stronger in regards to my eyes.
It will be slow and long progress, but it is all worth it at the end and I am already happy if my eyes do not deteriorate, I am used to be wearing glasses, and all I am grateful for is if my eyes do not get worth.

24.04.2011
Two weeks ago I also started using the Ayurveda eye drops Drishti, as I felt I was ready to use eye drops, so in the past it had been such a job for anyone to put eye drops into my eyes as I would feel sick just thinking about it and often vomited at the eye specialist when he would put drops in my eyes. I felt I was ready to try these drops as I want my eyes to heal completely and as there is a 50 % chance I could develop acute glaucoma and go blind overnight I wanted to try the drops together with doing my Pranayama's every day. Well, I can now put these Drishti drops into my eyes myself and even so it burns terribly for about a minute I do not vomit or feel nauseous. I been putting the drops in for a week now and noticed today having my better eye closed because of the drops in it and my left eye open which I hardly see anything, today I could find the lid of the eye drops and the little box and found my glasses too I could see the outline of the box, lid and glasses. Not clear but I could find it without any troubles. This was not possible in the past, I could not see enough with my left eye to find these items. I always needed my right eye to look for glasses. So I can say there is a slight improvement in my vision. I guess any slight or minute improvement is a lot for me as my eyes have been bad since birth that is now 51 years. I still feel positive about gaining good vision and know it may just take time. I am practising Pranayama for eight months now.

19.06.2011
Ten months into practising Pranayama, I have now noticed that my night vision has improved a lot. In the past, I stopped walking my dogs early in the morning before work as I could not feel comfortable walking in the dark. It was as if I was completely blind walking early mornings and could not see where I was putting my feet. I now have continued my early morning walk with the dogs again even so it is winter here now and it does not get light until 7. 30 am. I start my walk at 6.45 am and feel quite confident walking without a torch. My eyes are adjusting and I can see where I put my feet. this is just great. I also noticed that my left eye which had been almost blind, use to have a lot of black shadows when trying to see without glasses. Now, most of the black shadows have gone and I just have blurred vision. Without glasses, I can not see anything sharp, with both eyes. When doing the eye test without glasses I am still what they call legally blind, but to me, it is a huge improvement as I can find things without glasses now and even with my left eye I can find things it is just very blurred. The blurred vision in my left is slightly worse than my right side, but I feel my left eye is catching up with my right eye. If this makes any sense. With my glasses on, my left eye is still very much in the right eye, which I find interesting. But I feel confident that things will improve more.

28.10.2011
Over the past few weeks, I had a lot of work to do on my computer and especially working and reading small prints. It has been amazing that my eyes have not got tired and that I have been able to read for hours all the small print and work on my computer. I had no problems with my eyes. I felt amazed that I could even read the small print as in the past it was always very hard. It is hard to tell if my vision has improved or not but I would say it has improved a very tiny bit. I feel that because my eyesight has been bad since birth I will need to do a lot more healing and work on getting rid of all the mental and emotional stuff as well before the eyes can heal completely. With Pranayama it is possible to heal as it works on all levels. Just the fact that my eyes do not get tired as quickly and I can do a lot of reading now is a great improvement for me

Optometrist result;
19.09.2012
I finally made it to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. I dislike going there as I hate anything to be done to my eyes, but I went as I needed new glasses.
Well they made for me the same prescription,(this is the prescription of the 4.8 glasses that were an older one as my last pair of glasses were a 5.5 one, but I felt an improvement after the first six months of practising, and I changed my glasses to the 4.8 pairs without telling the optometrist about it,) but with a slight improvement on the reading lens. This meant that my glasses now are a 4.8, I did not have to go back to the 5.5 prescriptions. But there was still more improvement as in the past with my prescription lenses I could not read the two smallest paragraph on their charts, now I can read the two smallest paragraphs with my glasses. The smallest one it is straining my eyes, but had no problem to read the second smallest paragraph. For the first time in my life with my left eye, I could read the biggest letters on the eye chart with glasses. In the past, I could not even guess the largest letters.

So there is for me great improvement. The eye pressure for glaucoma had climbed over the past 15 years to a steady 16.5 in my right eye and 18 in my left eye. This time my pressure in my right eye came down to 12 and in my left eye to 15. It had been the first time that we did a scan on my eyes which showed that I had very healthy eyes and the optic nerve was healthy and strong. I also was for the first time relaxed and had no problems with the whole eye examination. It was all a happy experience.
Well this to me proves that pranayama, meditation and Kundalini yoga does work on improving the eyes. It may be slow but it works.


End of 2013; It has been now over three years that I have been practising Pranayama, and so my vision has only improved slightly, what has been a real improvement, is that I can work on the computer all day, or I can read and use my eyes all day without getting any eye strain and the eyes have not deteriorated as in the past. In the past, my eyes got so tired after only about an hour or two reading or working on the computer. My vision feels clearer if that makes any sense, it just feels so much better. I do still feel very positive that the vision will improve more too and I am so excited that the eye pressure has reduced from 18 to 12, this is just about down to normal really. So I am keeping up with Pranayama and my eye exercises.



These are all my personal experiences copyrights@BarbaraSchaer all rights reserved

For my eBooks and Services:

Benefits from practicing Pranayama, Mudra with Mantra

The benefits you get from practising Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra, Meditation, Visualisation and using Colours all depend on how often you practice and for how long you practice. This means, the longer you practice the greater the benefits. But even eleven minutes twice a day can make a great difference. So whatever time you have is just fine.

If you working with chronic ailments to rip the benefits you need a longer practice. If you work on emotional and mental issues, remember you learn and grow for the rest of your life, but a long practice or integrating the practice into your day will benefit you the most and will help deal with everyday challenges. 

An example, I had suffered from severe migraines for close to thirty-eight years, and when I started my practice of Pranayama and Mudra, I practised for about one to three hours a day and I was free of Migraines within two to three weeks, and at the same time I also got rid of very bad sciatica I had for about ten years. It is not always possible to do such a long practice, but the result was just amazing. 

And I was impressed with how quickly it worked for my migraines. 

So what benefits can you achieve, I will give you my experience here, and as you are all different, and your practising time varies, you may experience different benefits. 

Benefits;

1. No more migraines or headaches

2. No more Sciatica problems.

3. My menstrual problems disappeared, and I had the easiest transition into menopause. No menopausal problems at all. I use to suffer badly from PMT.

4. Bowel motions became regular and daily, use to suffer from constipation

5. My breathing became better, I use to be a very shallow breather and could hardly hold my breath, now I feel my lungs expanding and I can take a very deep and long breath. It will also help asthmatics.

6. My fitness improved a lot, my heart rate used to go up very high at any stage I did cardio exercises or hill walking. Even as a child, I had great difficulties in walking up hills or stairs, now this is much better. My heart rate could easily get into the 200, and now even when I do not exercise regularly my heart rate may go to about 170 if I work out hard.

7. My immune system is much stronger, many of my friends comment why I am not getting a cold or the flu, have not had it for many years now, when others come down with it yearly. I have not needed to go to a doctor in ten years.

8 My gums have improved, use to have gingivitis off and on. 

9. My joints are much better, use to sprain my ankle yearly, now I have not had a sprained ankle for a few years. 

10. My eyesight and pressure in the eyes had improved, so this is a difficult one to judge as my problem has been since birth, but now I can read longer, my eyes do not get so tired anymore, I can concentrate longer and my eyes just overall feel better.

11. I have been able to lose weight, and it has brought awareness to my eating habits, and I have been able to make easy lifestyle changes. I use to eat a lot of meat and loved it very much, now I am vegetarian and the transition was very easy. I am so much more conscious of what I eat, I eat to nourish my body, and have no need or desire to overindulge. It takes away cravings and any addictions to certain foods. 

12. My circulation has improved so much that I no longer get chilblains even so I have now moved to a colder climate. 

13. I have got rid of sinusitis and do not have a big problem with allergies anymore. 

14. My digestive system is working so much better, my metabolism improved too.

15. It helps with depression, lack of energy, grief, anger and so many emotional problems. It keeps picking me up and integrating Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra, meditation and colours into my day it feels so much easier to get through any challenges. The challenges will always come into our lives, but it is how we deal with them and how we cope with them, and for me, I can cope so much better with any challenge that comes along. I recognise quickly what the challenge is all about, and therefore it does not need to cause me any stress.

16. It reduces high blood pressure. And it is very calming and relaxing, at the same time it can be energising too. 

17. It reduces stress all kind of stress.

18. It helps with any aches and pains, and for me, I started getting arthritic fingers, swelling and stiffness, this has all gone now. It is helping my frozen shoulders a lot, it reduces rheumatoid arthritis, and here it is important to do a longer practice as these problems are very deep and for joints to heal it takes a very long time. 

I believe that using all these tools can make you healthy again, and it will keep you healthy and strong. It also helps you to be happier, more content, more peaceful and connected to your heart. Things become clearer, you will gain clarity about yourselves and how you function. The awareness that it creates on all levels is just amazing.

Being able to live a peaceful, stress-free and pain-free life, practising pranayama, mudra and meditation daily are certainly worth it! 

Using colours and becoming more aware of how you can learn through the colours you choose to wear or to eat and how they can help you with many things is wonderful. 

Using mantras as background music to cleanse your environment, changing your energy and energy field with positive energy gives extra healing. 

Below some of my older blogs posts that I wrote during the time the benefits from practising pranayama daily begun.

4.08.2011 I have been practising Pranayama for a year now

I have been practising pranayama just about a year now and the benefit is just incredible. Sciatica completely went. Headaches, migraines have gone since February. Arthritis has improved by 80 %. Frozen shoulders improved by 80% there is just a bit of restriction in movement left but no pain. I have lost 9 kg and kept it off I am the weight I was in my 20's and I was always told I had to accept the weight gain at my age, I proved them all wrong. A great improvement I am feeling is with my mind, I am so much calmer, my anger is very short lived and I snap out of frustrations very quickly, I feel I cope with stress so much better and I do not fight and struggle with things I can not change, I relax in to it and allow things to unfold without resisting the changes and the challenges of everyday life. My only weakness; coffee, but I feel it will sort itself out in time. I feel myself moving on to a new path, I feel so much healthier and stronger, energy is increasing and I feel I got my enthusiasm for life back. My eyesight, I feel my eyes do not get tired so easily and so the eyesight had improved a little over the past month there has been no more improvement. I am still hopeful as I know it will take time. To achieve the things I have done in one year is more then I could have ever asked for. I feel positive, excited and motivated. Thanks to pranayama.

3.11.2016

And I am still here, using Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and meditation as a tool to get through the challenges of life. I am still free of Migraines, Sciatica and feeling great. My sadhana is part of my daily living, it is my tool to stay healthy, to help me on all levels as Life will always throw challenges at all of us. The amazing part of Pranayama, mudra, chanting mantras or meditate, it is absolutely free and it is so beneficial in so many ways.


1000 days of working with Pranayama, mudra and meditation daily 28.05.13

I have now been working with pranayama for a thousand days. Some days my session has been three hours, some two hours some days ten minutes, but I have done some pranayama each day for one thousand days. Over these days I have introduced meditation and kundalini yoga to my practice of pranayama.
The benefit has just been great. I had my ups and downs and still have ups and downs the journey is not without its challenges, and there will be challenges to come along for the rest of my life. But it has all been worth it and I will continue my journey with pranayama, meditation, and kundalini yoga daily.
I think for me the highlight is NO MORE MIGRAINES! this is just so wonderful. Next is NO MORE SCIATICA that is also so great. All my physical pains from my problems with joints, frozen shoulders, and arthritis has reduced by about 85% this is huge as I now have many complete pain free days, it is unbelievable.
The improvement with my eyes is great and especially that the eye pressure has come down so far I am really pleased with it. I feel especially the pranayamas work on the physical level and it really is so easy but also I feel I sleep better and can relax on a deeper level than in the past.
The meditation and Kriyas have helped me a lot on my mental and emotional level. It is so great to get through grief, through anger and frustration, through insecurity and most of all, it opens doors to creativity, calmness and inner peace.

If we want to win a gold medal at the Olympics we have to work hard without the guaranty of winning, if we want to become rich and famous we have to work hard and without the guarantee of success. Whatever we want to achieve takes a lot of hard work without any guarantees. Yet most people are not prepared to put in some work toward their health and wellbeing. Our bodies mind, emotions and our souls are being neglected and always come last.

To me, my health and wellbeing are my top priorities now as when I feel happy, content and balanced and pain-free than I am able to achieve anything I want. With pranayama meditation and kundalini yoga, I learn patience, I learn to keep going, I get the energy, creativity, and motivation to go for what I desire. I also become aware and learn to see what is really important in life. I can make changes and I can be grateful for the things I have rather than chasing the things I can not have. Learning to live in the moment and understand life is all about, how one is living and appreciating each moment of our lives.

For me, my journey is with my practise pranayama, meditation, and kundalini yoga it is now truly part of my lifestyle. I have fou7nd the tool I have been looking for that is free of charge and that is helping me with any challenges it is helping me to live a happy and healthy life!

started back on my practice

Starting back at my practice of pranayama came as a surprise to me. A few months ago I quit my practice, as I just felt I needed to stop and feel what it would feel like without practising pranayama daily. I had got myself into a daily practice that felt like a must do, a pressure on me and I developed fears in stopping and feeling guilty if I'd stop my practice, but it felt like it all was too much and did not bring me the benefit I had expected.
During the time I had stopped my practice at first I felt the fears and guilt, but very quickly I felt relieved and enjoyed sleeping a bit longer and not having this pressure on me. The world continued, my life continued even without me practising pranayama. Then I developed the flu with a very bad eye infection in both eyes and I felt miserable. It had taken me about three weeks to really get over it and I remembered that over the past five years that I practised pranayama I did not get hit with the bad flu like this. But I did not think about pranayama during this lot of flu nor wanted to be told I should practice pranayama.
I still had a lot of awareness and it was as if I started to really observe myself., I am a vegetarian but one day had a huge craving for a chicken burger and I realised that I could make my own rule, I did not have to answer to anyone and I should just go ahead and eat a chicken burger. So I did and it was horrible. I am happy now with the choice to stay a vegetarian.  But a good experience it was, as I started to drop all my should and shouldn't and having too and so on. I started to feel free again and in control of myself knowing that I really was my own boss and living from moment to moment I could choose from moment to moment what I wanted to do, I could break my own rules and make my own rules. That started to feel really good.
A couple of weeks ago in the evening I suddenly felt the urge to practice some pranayama. So I sat myself down and started to practice pranayama. I felt myself smiling and I remembered how Ajay my teacher from Divine Yoga UK told me to smile while practising pranayama. The smile came naturally and I started to feel like I was getting an endorphin fix. I could not stop myself from smiling and feeling of deep joy and then I felt deep compassion for myself, this was very new to me to feel compassionate toward myself. It felt just so good. After finishing my practice I thought about it all and I realised that practising pranayama for me was a way of pampering myself, of doing something for me, for my health and wellbeing. But most of all it feels just like I am giving myself some tender loving care, some nurturing, some self-love. Since then I am back at practising some pranayama daily again, in the evening at the moment and it is just a wonderful way of giving myself some me time and some pampering.
I do not pressure myself to do it daily, or I do not look at how much time I spend on it and I do not do it at the same time each day, I just do it when it feels right and the whole experience is wonderful.
So the things that have already changed for me since practising pranayama again is that I feel so much more loving toward myself, the word compassion is in my mind and it feels very powerful. My energy level is up and I have been bubbling over with inspiration and creativity and ideas, feeling motivated to move forward again in my life.
So pamper yourself with pranayama!!

Compassion

A feeling of deep compassion for the world and myself. Compassion is deep within the heart and when it comes to the surface it creates and radiates a warm and fuzzy feeling touching anyone that comes into the space of this compassionate being. May there be compassion for all sentient beings.

when everything becomes too much

I have been holding off writing this post as I have been feeling like a failure, I have been feeling that I have let myself down and everybody who's been reading my blog! And why? When everything becomes too much; this is what has been happening to me. My daily practice all of a sudden out of the blue had become too much for me to keep up. About six months ago I could feel myself struggling with my practice, I did not want to get up in the morning, I was becoming more irritable with my practice, I felt I should have achieved so much more by now, I started to doubt if my daily practice really was doing me any good. At the same time, I did not want to give up my practice, I feared that all my ailments would return, I feared I would fall back into old bad habits. Also, I kept hearing the voice in the back of my head that if I did not do my practice daily I would have to start again from the beginning e.g. practice for 40 days, 90 days 1000 days to make it effective. I started to create new fears and my daily practice became a struggle, a having to, a should do and a huge pressure and a burden on my shoulder. The fear of stopping became quite big I kept thinking what will happen if I give my daily practice a break I was terrified to try and from knowing myself I knew I had to just quit and give it a break. I knew I had come to the end of a cycle in my life and as with all endings, it is so hard to let go and to keep the faith that it would all turn out fine.

So I had quit my daily practice, two months ago after having been so disciplined in getting up early in the morning to do my pranayama and meditation every day. I slept in to 6.30 am from my 4 am rising, and I felt somewhat sad and scared. Somehow I could not completely let go and through the day I did some breathing, some mantra chanting and did some chakra healing. But after a while I became more relaxed I did not push myself to do any practice at all but I just felt the need to listen in the background to some mantra music.
Guilt stayed with me for quite a while, I also did not want to tell anyone, I felt a failure! and I then realised, that automatically I started to sit with these feelings, with these emotions and I started to breathe. My focus turned to my breath whenever I felt down, negative or had an emotion that I could not get rid of, or when I felt a pain in my joints.
I just sit down and started to focus on my breath. When I think about something when I gather my thoughts when I walk whatever I do I now notice my breath. I notice my breathing if it is rapid if I am holding my breath if my breath is shallow. I am completely have become aware of my breath all the time all day long!! I did not have this deep awareness before as I had focused on my practice and then when I was finished I started my day and never gave my breath another thought....

Pranayama is not just daily practice. We do pranayama constantly. We never really stop breathing and I am filled with joy that through my daily practice over the past 5-6 years and now with this so out of the blue ending of my daily ritual of practising pranayama, I have become in tune with my breath. I feel happy about this and I feel it was worth all the struggle, all the fear to experience this. I follow my breath throughout the day, I notice my breath throughout the day and sometimes it is so nice to just stop myself in my tracks and breath slow and deep. I am aware if one nostril is weaker then the other, I am aware when my breath is out of rhythm and I can bring my breathing into balance, and I can slow my breath down to become calm. Becoming so focused and tuned into my breath also makes me feel safe, it makes me feel calm and it makes me feel centred and whenever I am out of balance I become aware of my breath and all I need to do is bring the focus back to my breath and it feels like I am home and safe.
Living my life in this deep awareness helps me to go deeper into myself, it helps me to connect with my soul my spirit the me. It also brings me deeper into getting to know myself and so it is bringing on new challenges and new awareness, it also brings the awareness to be able to focus on the breath and just sitting with the breath and the challenges, which then makes the challenges disappear without me having to put any effort into them.

So the journey never stops, pranayama never stops, but pranayama is the most beautiful thing we have and can experience.
For now, I realised I am not doing a daily sit down practice, but instead I am fully living pranayama all throughout the day in full awareness and this is such a blessing.

forty days of doing eye exercises as a sadhana

Day one, starting to do eye exercises on a daily base for forty days but really I hope I will continue with them for much longer as it is so important to look after your eyes.
First, tune in and take a few deep breaths before starting.
Exercise one; roll the eyes up, down, left, right, 21 times
               two; circle your eyes in one direction 21 times and then in the other direction, nice and slow and big circles without moving the head.
               three; look up to the right corner and down to the left corner 21 times then reverse right down left up.
               four; look to a spot in the distance and then bring your hand close to the head and look at it, distance than close feel the muscles working 21 times.
               five; close your eyes tightly then open wide quickly 21times
               six; bend head back looking at a spot on the ceiling with wide open eyes then do the breath of fire for three minutes. Take a deep inhale and slowly move the head to centre again.
To finish close your eyes inhale deeply into the eyes hold the breath for fifteen seconds then exhale do this three times. Hope you will join me on this forty-day journey!

Day four;
The eye yoga exercises take me about fifteen minutes a day. It feels a bit weird, my eye muscles get a bit tired during the exercises and with some of them, I feel a bit dizzy. And with the exercise crunching the eyes tightly closed then open making big eyes creates a few teary eyes. But when I finished the exercises I do feel clearer in my eyes, I can spend more time on the computer without getting tired eyes. It does feel good doing them. My eyes do feel better after doing the exercises. I had a few friends who wanted to do the forty-day eye exercises with me but they have now chickened out telling me they too busy. One friend suggested to me I should get paid for doing the exercises for others and sending the benefits from the exercises telepathically to them. Ha, I think I could become rich from this, doing the exercises for others sending them the benefits telepathically and get paid for it? Are there any takers?
As there are some many out there that need to do these exercises but are just too lazy to do them.
So I hope that many of you have joined me and are already starting to feel the benefits of actually doing these exercises. It takes only 15 minutes a day!

Day five;
Before starting my exercises I always close my eyes first, tuning into my body mind and soul. Taking a few deep breaths, calming the mind and body. Then bringing the awareness to doing my eye exercises. I breath consciously getting a rhythm going with the exercise and breath. When closing the eyes after a set I take a deep breath hold the breath bringing it into the eyes, then exhaling, consciously breathing out through the nose all the negativity from the eyes. When I finish with all the eye exercises again I close my eyes tune into my eyes and become aware of the healing breathing into the eyes again and exhaling all the negativity from the eyes. This is pranayama being conscious of the breathing, using the breath with the exercises. Being aware and in tune with doing the exercises is yoga, be conscious of what you are doing get a rhythm going get the flow going between breath and exercise. Don't rush the exercise, don't think of it as a chore thinks of it as healing. Be positive while doing the exercise and focus on the exercise don't let the mind wander to what else you need to do today etc.
When I truly focus on the exercise I can feel all the muscles around and in the eyes working, I feel calm and relaxed.


Day ten; Hope you are all doing well with doing these eye exercises daily. I am doing great with them, feeling all the muscles in my eyes working, especially the muscles in the forehead. It is a strange feeling to feel muscles one did not even be aware of in the past. I feel it is important to take time with these exercises and not to rush them, to have the rest with closed eyes in between sets and breathing into the eyes feeling the energy going into the eyes. I have been able to cope easily with sitting on the computer all day without getting the usual eye strain.
The improvement in the eyesight will be different for everyone as it so depends on what the eye problem is all about and for how long one has had eye problems. If your eyes have just slowly deteriorated over time you may find the improvement is better than of someone who has been wearing prescription glasses all their life.
But don't give up, keep going as it does help your eyes even if it is just stopping the eyes from getting worse or from developing glaucoma or cataract. The eyes are as important as the rest of the body so it would be just natural to include eye exercises in your daily routine. I know it is hard to get motivated, but the eyes are so important.
Are you feeling a difference from doing the exercises?

Day seventeen; How is everyone going with doing their eye exercises?
It has been good so far have been able to make it part of my morning Sadhana. Doing the exercises is very calming I have to work on focusing while doing the exercises as I feel so relaxed and could easily go to sleep while doing them. The eyes feel good, and I can work all day on the computer without feeling any tiredness in the eyes that are just great. I use to get so tired from working on the computer or reading, but my eyes can focus better. I still get a bit sore eye muscles while doing the exercises but it does not last.
So hope you all are keeping up with them. These exercises should become a routine to do always, to help heal problems with the eyes and to prevent problems with your eyes.
As more work one puts into the greater the benefit.

Already day thirty-three; and it has been going well. I feel now that doing the eye exercises is part of me now and even sometimes during the day I do a few more eye exercises just before I do a lot of computer work or sometimes after I have done a lot of work on the computer and I do feel it is helping to keep my eyes from getting tired or blurry or getting eye strain. This is what I wanted to achieve with doing the eye exercises for 40 days, that I will naturally think of doing them regularly or to avoid eye strain or make a job in front of the computer easier. I now think of the exercises and in the long run, my eyes will benefit from it.
So keep up I am hoping you are all keeping up with these exercises!


Well, the forty days are up and I feel that I have achieved the goal I had set for myself which is to get myself to do these eye exercises on a daily base have them included in my daily sadhana, without skipping them or making excuses to myself not to do them. It has felt good doing these exercises regularly and I even enjoyed them. I still can feel the muscles when doing them and it still sometimes feels a bit weird doing some of the exercises but my eyes feel better they feel less irritated after a long day in front of the computer. I just feel more strength in my eyes more able to focus and not getting any tired eyes at all. I will now continue them, I will see at my October appointment with my optometrist what changes I have achieved. I know these exercises will help my eyes to get healthier and to stay healthy.
Will you keep up with your eye exercises?

changes are happening on a deep level

15.09.2011
Pranayama goes very deep, it works on a very deep level and when you start working with pranayama, there is no escape from having to heal on a very deep level. Emotions, thoughts and a strong awareness are stirred up and you are phased with learning to understand what your challenges are, what your hang-ups are, what emotions you have been carrying with you all your life. Pranayama helps with the healing of your deep inner being. Pranayama helps to unlock blockages, self-imposed restriction, self-sabotage, and all the stuff we are holding on to. Pranayama helps with healing deep inner feelings, burdens, stresses and all the underlying causes. The hardest part about it all is that these challenges come to the surface to be healed to be released, to be let go of. In these situations, it is good to have a teacher who can help you through those challenges and stop you from giving up. Pranayama has helped me to find my inner teacher and has helped me to be aware of what is going on and has helped me to work through all these challenges to heal myself on a very deep level. It is a wonderful experience, but it is also very challenging and is testing my faith daily. It is wonderful so to come out on the other end and while practising Pranayama the warms and the healing energy that flows through my body, my mind, my heart and soul is amazing and words can not even begin to describe these feelings. Pranayama gives you the strength to conquer all challenges.


18.11.2011
It has been interesting for me to observe myself. Changes are happening on a deep level from practising Pranayama regularly. It has come to my attention that my reactions to stress or difficult situation are changing. I do not react in the old ways any more. My response to stress or difficult situation is calmer, it is more focused and it is not affecting me in a negative way. I noticed that the old feelings are there just for a short moment and then from deep within the new and positive response is coming to the surface.
In the past I would react negatively, then become aware of my negative reaction, then I would try to change and to work through it, now it is changing from deep within. This made me realise that the healing is now starting to happen deep within me and as a result of practising Pranayama, I no longer react negatively to stress or difficult situations, it is automatic that I do not react negatively now, which means by being calmer the physical body can continue to heal and deep physical, mental and emotional ailments can now heal at the core.
In the past, the negative reactions came automatic and it was as if I could not stop it. Now the positive reactions come automatically which shows that Pranayama can change negative behaviour patterns on a very deep level. The power of healing from Pranayama is continuous impressing me just amazing. Bad I still do have these bad days too but they are easier to cope with now.

The behaviour pattern is changing from deep within





Pranayama and its effect on animals

Since I have been practising Pranayama I have noticed a change in all my animals. I have two large breed dogs, 3 cats and two Lorikeets. One of my dogs is still very much a puppy and wants to play and chase the cats. When I get up early in the morning she is all up and ready to run and play, but as soon as she sees me sitting down to practice my Pranayama she calms down and goes to sleep next to the cats. The cats often sit around me and they sense when I am calming down they come closer. They know when I need space and they move. The connection between the animals and me has changed, we are much more in tune with each other, we can communicate better and the animals just feel so much calmer. When one of the animals get sick they try and sit on my lap when I do my Pranayama and it seems to help them they seem to feel better when we finish our practice. After practising Pranayama I go and open up the bird aviary and the two Lorikeets sit on my shoulders and start to smooch me and I can feel they are soaking in the energy. I am sure since practising Pranayama it has made my environment more pleasant and calmer, it is benefiting my whole family.