Eye Asana. The Cummings Test?
/Dear Yogis,
I’ve been thinking about eyesight recently. Lots of people who are working from home are doing more sitting and, potentially, hunching over a keyboard and it isn’t just the back that is complaining. Eyes are not designed for non-stop close-up focus. All muscles need exercise and relaxation, eye muscles are no different. The only ‘eye asana’ I’m familiar with in class is the one where you rub your hands together quickly to create heat then cup the warm palms over your eyes - palming. Ahhhhh! Immediate relief when the eyes absorb the dark and heat. Teachers sometimes say ‘let your eyeballs sink back in their sockets’ and it actually feels like letting go!
Palming is an instant relaxation for the eyes, probably best and most appreciated after the following: 1. trace a distant figure of eight slowly with closed eyes (and backwards) to increase flexibility of eye muscles; 2. with eyes open, take your vision to extreme right, to extreme left, slowly, and repeat before introducing up and down and corner to corner; 3. the Thumb One: hold one thumb close and one at arms length in the same line and slowly change focus from one to the other and then to something far across the room. Finally, you need a break from your computer screen every 20 minutes during which you focus on something a long way away. Don’t do any of these while driving.
I looked up yoga for the eyes and I find that there’s a Sivananda routine. (All routines I found were similar). Apart from the physical exercises, Sivananda advice is to live as much as possible in nature and lead ‘a simple, healthy and inspiring life, seeing all as good and perfect’.
Training
I've joined an online “Led Primary class and conference” with Sharath Jois, hosted by Yoga Shala Stockholm. It's tomorrow, Saturday 30th, at 10.30am and costs 170 Swedish krona which is £14.46. I thought the shala’s instructions for participants were interesting: ‘We advise the best camera position to be around 1.5m from the right corner of the mat in horizontal mode’; Stand up for Sharathji’s recitation of mantra; Wait in catvari for his next count; Navasana: point your toes and keep your legs straight. Don’t hold your legs; Garbha pindasasana: place your right hand first in between your bended legs’.
Zoom Classes
Please let me know if you have any requests. We’ve been practicing headstand or drills for headstand.
Book an evening class here: goodtimesyoga.co.uk/book-online. The Class Pass and Pay-What-You-Like are on goodtimesyoga.co.uk/livestream-yoga-price-options . Let me know if you would prefer my bank details. No problem.
Yoga in the news
Forbes has: 7 Big Changes Coming To Yoga Studios When They Reopen. ““When we do reopen, we are going to require that all students bring their own mats and props. To truly sanitize a yoga blanket, it has to be washed in extra hot water and dried on high heat,” said Chad Dennis, co-founder of Roam yoga studio in Los Angeles, adding that mats, blocks and straps would require similar cleaning protocols that just aren’t practical for many studios.”
Charlotte Observer has: The oldest yoga studio in Charlotte will not reopen after COVID. Here’s why. The owner of the Iyengar Yoga studio, once the backdrop for an episode of the TV show Homeland, said: “If I could imagine a way to make it work or make it safe I would… The reality of setting up a yoga studio where people are 10 feet apart, where there can be no hands-on teaching adjustments, no telling students to go grab three blocks and a chair, yoga in masks — I just can’t imagine.”
The Telegraph has: What does the Covid-proof gym of the future look like? “In regions of the US where gyms have reopened, safety protocols include keeping changing rooms and shower facilities closed, reducing capacity to 25 per cent, and even wearing masks or full-fingered gloves.”
