OK – we’ve all heard the old adage “Work hard – play hard”.

But what does it mean to you? And do you really know how to?

Imagine if you could get a lot more done at work, a lot better. Imagine if you could really relax every single day. The kind of relaxation that leaves you rearing to go to work the next day. Your ‘batteries’ fully charged. Your brain fully focused…

I recently finished my second reading of one of the best books ever written (IMHO) The Power of Full Engagement (by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz). The book is amazing in many aspects (beyond the scope of the discussion here). But the most memorable lesson of all, is that we need to fully engage in work and fully engage in play to get the most out of our focus and our lives.

If you’re able to do that naturally – then perhaps you’re naturally gifted – lucky you. If you’ve made a special intuitive effort to work and play hard – clever you.

Or, if you’re like most of us, you’re probably thinking that you’re pretty good at both, but if you look closely you may find you’re not.

Let me explain what I mean with a brief example…

Have you ever been in a similar situation?

You’ve worked hard for the whole day. But really – you’ve got a million things done. It’s 9 pm now, and you can’t even think straight anymore.

You sit down in front of the telly and you find your favorite program of all time is on. Your conscious/thinking brain steps in and wisely advises you that you’re fully deserving of this ‘couch potato’ moment – you’ve worked your socks off today. So you listen and you start watching…

Then exactly 5 minutes into the program a niggly feeling starts eating at you. Something doesn’t quite feel relaxing.

And sure enough in the commercial break, you whip out your iPhone/Blackberry/laptop/(insert favorite techie device) and you start ‘doing’… just checking email. Or checking website stats. Or catching up on the latest industry research so you’re up to date in the morning…

Does that sound like anything you’ve experienced before? Anything you experience nightly?

“What’s the problem with that?” you may ask.

The problem is that you never fully disengage from work.

As a result you’re living in the ‘grey zone’. The ‘grey zone’ you’d guess correctly, is the zone between black and white. Or the zone between engaged and disengaged.

When you’re in the ‘grey zone’ you’re NOT focused. You’re multi-tasking – which btw is one of the least productive MOs. As a result the ‘fruits’ of your work are not optimal. And you’d be right to conclude that the same goes for the ‘fruits’ of your play.

You end up neither fully rested, nor fully satisfied with your day’s work.

You end up going to bed and feeling like this work thing is never-ending. And this play thing never started (even though you spent a good hour in front of the telly “relaxing”).

Now can you see the problem?

What’s the solution?

The solutions is simple in words. Much harder to implement. And incredibly rewarding when implemented.

In short – here are the 3 steps to follow to be able to work hard, play hard, and get real results:

Step 1: Prepare Yourself

– prepare a solution for when you catch yourself in the ‘grey zone’.
– make it something memorable and brief.
– give it a name – that way your brain has easy access to the solution – fast.

Step 2: Become Aware

– you can’t even begin to fix something, if you don’t know it’s happening right? Like with all addictions, the first step to getting help is to acknowledge you need the help…
– so watch yourself. Every time you rest – check if you really are. Every time you work – do the same.

Step 3: Take Action

– this one is very logical – if you notice the problem – take action to correct it.
– what may not be so obvious is that for this Action Plan to work in the long term, you MUST ACT RIGHT AWAY. Yes – not in two minutes time, but immediately!

The reason for the urgency is that if you don’t act with your “Step 1″ solution as you become aware of your behavior, you give your conscious brain time to start analyzing and rationalizing the situation. This negates the effect of your solution – makes things too complicated. And the aim here is to create an automatic/mechanical link (i.e. habit) for you between the behavior and the solution.

So next time you find yourself not fully engaged in your rest, your brain automatically applies the solution you came up with in Step 1.

Here’s an example:

As soon as you notice that you’re not fully engaged in either work or rest, name the behavior – “grey alert” (don’t laugh that’s what I name my ‘grey’ episodes ;o)). Then make a commitment that each time you say “grey alert” you’ll consciously make sure all distractions are cleared.

So if you’re resting and you find yourself thinking “what productive thing can I do whilst I’m sitting here resting?”, you stop thinking of that, and make a focused effort to relax. If it is an idea that you don’t want to forget, go write it down for tomorrow, but then come back and focus on the rest at hand… That’s it!

All that’s left now is to DO. It will take you a few times before you start to do this automatically, but trust me when you do – you’ll see how great it is.

So now that I’ve done all the talking here are my 2 questions again:

What does “work hard – play hard” mean to you? And do you really know how to?

If you don’t, now you have the solution.

Before I go on to share with the benefits of being an early riser let me share with you a typical day for me:

4.30 – 5.00 – Get up looking forward to the day ahead, in fact really excited about the day ahead.  No alarm clock to rudely awaken me out of a good nights sleep as I get up naturally.

5.00 – 5.15 – Check in with important emails, prioritising what needs to be answered now and saving other emails for later replies.

5.15 – 5.45 – Check in with connections on SU, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  I have recently become the Guest Post editor at TheDailyBrainstorm and linking with new exciting people is one of the remits here so this part of the day is now  important.

5.45 – 6.00 – Cup of coffee and walking around the kitchen (I do all my thinking and come up with some ideas whilst walking around), put notes in my ideas book.

6.00 – 6.30 – walk for two miles or some other form of exercise.

6.30 – 6.40 – Meditation or relaxation

6.40 – 7.00 – Write for new ebooks or work on the blog, follow up with connections.

7.00 – 7.15 – Get the boys up for school and wake Sharon up to get ready for work

7.15 – 7.30 – Shower, brush teeth.  Make sure the boys are actually up

7.30 – 8.00 – Spend time with my wife just talking about the day ahead, dreams, chilling.  Having breakfast with Sharon, toast and tea whilst boys watch a little TV (if they are ready )

8.00 – 8.15 – Last minute preparations to get house in order, school bags, lunches for the boys etc, kiss Sharon goodbye (very important )

8.15 – 8.30 – Take boys to school

8.30 – 8.45 – drive to work whilst listening to a business or personal development book on my ipod

8.45 – 12.00 – work as addiction worker

12.00 – 13.00 – Go home for lunch and check in with connections, have a 10 minute Micronap.  Grab a coffee, open letters.

13.00 – 16.45 – work as addiction worker

16.45 – 18.00 – Spend time with Sharon talking about our day, chilling, cup of coffee and talking with boys if they are around.  Take them to clubs if necessary.

18.00 – 19.00 – Write, emails, connect, put dinner on if I am making it, otherwise Sharon will do it.

19.00 – 20.00 – Sit down to dinner with Sharon and the boys and talk about day

20.00 – 22.00 – Coaching calls, write some more, deal with more emails,

22.00 – 22.15 – Get the boys ready for bed and hug goodnight

22.15 – 11.30 – Chat with Sharon, watch TV, read

11.30 – 04.30 – Great nights sleep

This routine obviously changes at the weekend.  Friday night is movie night and we sit in to all watch a movie together or go to the cinema if there a good movie we all want to see (Looking forward to seeing Inception)

I still get up at 4.30 – 5.00 on Saturday and Sunday and work a little longer as Sharon doesn’t get up until around 9am and the boys around 10am.  So weekends are family time and I’ll do a little work when Sharon and the boys are watching TV, later on.

5 Benefits of Getting up Early

1. Start the day excited

I honestly wake up feeling excited about the day ahead and getting up early makes it all the more special as I love the solitude of me being the only person up at that time.  I value my alone time and this is the great time to start whilst I have no distractions.

2. Productivity

You can see a large part of my day and a lot of my work is done from when I get up at 4.30 to 6.30 and it’s within these hours I get a lot of my online work completed or started.  Without getting up early there is no way I would have the time to fit these important tasks into my life without it eating into my family time and work time, so the family/work balance is totally balanced out.

I also get time to exercise and relax with meditation or relaxation, and there is no way I would do this if I was getting up at 7.00 and rushing around getting myself and the boys ready.

3. Get time to chill out

I actually enjoy my half hours with Sharon in the morning, just chilling and talking about the day ahead and it relaxes me before going to employed work as it’s quite a mentally draining job.

4. Prepared mind

My mind is not all over the place in the mornings.  It’s actually a serene time, I’m chilled, relaxed, and happy.  This is the time I am mentally preparing for the day ahead and before I go to work later on I know exactly what I have to do for the day ahead which means I can cope with unexpected events which happen at work much better.

5. Work on my life goals

I have to admit to being extremely lucky in that I have a job I love doing in the addiction work field and I love, even more, my online work: coaching, writing, blogging etc If I hated my job it would be a lot harder to cope and I think I would feel more anxious, but for now I have time to work on my goals of doing my online work full time.

There are many more small benefits to being an early riser but for me the 5 above shine above the rest.

There are ways to train yourself to  become an early riser and my research has shown I unconsciously meet all the right conditions to help me become an early riser.

How do you feel in the mornings, are you an early riser or do you dread getting up out of your warm, cosy bed ?  Would love to hear your thoughts on this, leave a comment below.

Our beliefs literally shape our reality, your reality is totally different from mine and it’s really down to our beliefs. Your reality is also different from your partners, work colleagues, your kids, people round about you. Your reality is unique to you; the thing that make you different are your beliefs about the world.

This can have a positive or negative impact on your life. It’s important to look at your beliefs and reshape them if required.

Most beliefs are generalisations that has been developed from what we have been told or learned since childhood. These beliefs have transferred to adulthood and have the power to destroy or save us.

Think about the mothers and fathers who have lost sons or daughters in tragic circumstances and they go on to campaign, so no other parent has to suffer how they have suffered. Their beliefs get them through the tragedy of losing their own children. I can’t think of anything worse than losing your own child, their beliefs have got them through that and through their campaigning they have help thousands or other parents and children.

When working on my own program Alter Your Jacket, I have a module on beliefs and wanted to interview someone prominent in the field of beliefs.  In a strange twist I read a post by Steve Pavlina about a guy named Morty Lefkoe who claimed he could eliminate beliefs in around 20 minutes.  A few weeks after reading Steve’s post Morty contacted me as he had read several of my posts about beliefs and wondered if I would be interested in a guest post.  Isn’t that amazing; serendipity at it’s best.

Morty wrote a great post Is The Lefkoe Belief Process a Fraud

A Call with Morty

Morty and I kept in touch over the last few months and last night I had the privilege of a video call with him to work on one of my own beliefs.

The session lasted for 1 hour and I can honestly say it was a strange but very enlightening 1 hour.

At first I was asked a few questions and we came up with one of my limiting beliefs which was ‘I will never be able to earn as much money as I feel I am capable of’.  After asking a few questions and looking at that belief more closely we ascertained that the belief really translated to ‘I am not good enough’.  Morty asked me to say “I am not good enough,”
out loud, which I did and felt very strange about saying it.  It felt as if it was the truth, somewhere inside of me.

After going through an easy cognitive journey through my past, I was able to mentally rid myself of the limiting belief that ‘I am not good enough’.

The other, more important, discovery for me was what happened after the belief was eliminated.  Morty asked me a few questions about myself, my reality and my inner self and it blew me away, I don’t think I will look at life in quite the same way. I don’t think the impact will be fully apparent until a few weeks as I go about my normal business.  I went to bed at 10.15 last night, turned the lights out at around 11pm and could not get to sleep.  So I got up and worked a little more until 1am as I had enough energy to do so and am sitting writing this post at 5.25am, so I am still reeling at the impact of Morty’s call.

Morty went on to explain that although I was able to rid myself of 1 limiting belief, what often happens is that more limiting beliefs will come to the surface, so there may be 5, 10, 15 or 20 beliefs that piggy back of the original belief.

I don’t recommend many things on CYT but I would definitely recommend trying the free sessions that Morty is offering at his site.

You Can Eliminate A Belief for Free by Visiting This Site

It’s been a long time since I have done a guided meditation and since I love doing them so much I thought I would do one  today for you.

Since I started this blog nearly 4 years ago I always get asked about procrastination and how to help with it and a lot of my coaching sessions are to help clients overcome procrastination.

Overcoming Procrastination Guided Meditation

You can listen to this guided meditation by clicking the play button below or you can download it be right clicking this link.

Let me know what you think of this, I believe I have managed to clean up the audio a lot from my previous guided mediations so it should sound very professional.

You’ve tried all the diets, read all the popular books, watched some videos on the net, bought some self help books and joined the gym a few times, but you’re still overweight – why?

A typical scenario

You’ve put on a few pounds over the last few years and have identified that you need to lose at least 15 pounds to make you feel good about yourself and to fit in to all those clothes that you still have in your wardrobe.  So you set a target of losing 15 pounds in the next few months.  What’s the first thing you do? – say something like ‘I’ll start my diet next week, no point in starting in the middle of the week.’  So Monday comes and you start eating less and have booked a place at the gym.  Wednesday comes around and you are still eating a little less, cutting out the whites but sneak a little biscuit in every now and again: ‘it won’t do any harm’.  Friday comes around: ‘I’ve been working hard all weekend and as a treat I’ll get a takeaway.’ Saturday and Sunday are wasted as your friends have come round asking you to go out for a drink or a meal with them, so you’ll start it again on Monday.  On Sunday night you drag yourself over to the scales and notice you have lost 1 pound of weight: ‘one pound!’ you gasp, ‘it’s hardly worth it.’ And the diet is duly stopped.

Does that sound familiar?

We all know there is no big secret to losing weight: eat less or exercise more or a bit of both.  There is no need to do anything else, that’s all there is to it.  However, we are human and we are making it much more complicated than we have to.  We like to think of new ways to package this basic recipe for losing weight and these are in the form of diets, think of these famous diets or eating programs:

Atkins Diet

Food Combining

South Beach Diet

Sugar Busters Diet

Weight Loss for Dummies

Mediterranean Diet

Cabbage Soup Diet

The Hay Diet

Fat Burning Furnace

What do we do?

The Two State Mind theory

Here’s something I was thinking about the other day.  I was making a cup of tea for myself at about 6 o’clock in the morning and I automatically opened the cupboard door to grab a few biscuits to dunk in my tea.  I stopped myself and said to myself ‘I don’t eat biscuits during the week’ (I am trying something new to lose a few pounds and it’s working so far).  I asked myself why I reached for the biscuits and came up with three reasons:

Emotions.

I felt happy as I love being alone to do some of my work and I spend about 15 minutes pacing the kitchen floor before going for a two mile walk.  This feeling of happiness is usually celebrated with a few biscuits, maybe 10 or so.

Habit

A cup of tea is usually followed with a few biscuits as I have a strong association with tea and biscuits and it has become habit.

Association

As stated above I have formed an association between biscuits and tea or coffee.

So there’s three issues here.  Yes it’s the eating of the biscuits that has to be stopped or reduced but it’s also the association of the biscuits with other drinks such as tea and coffee, it’s the habit of eating biscuits, and also it’s the controlling of emotions so we don’t automatically reach for a biscuit or whatever is your choice of emotion food.

Mind State and Physical State

There are two states at play here: The Mind State and The Physical State.  The physical state is the actual eating of the biscuit.

The mind state is what we are thinking and feeling to make us reach for the biscuit.

For years we have tried to work on the physical state, that’s why there have been so many diets in the world and some people have made a lot of money form these diets.  It’s time to look more at the mind state and bring that to the fore of the media instead of it being in the background.

I am not an expert in food or the psychology of food but I know how the human mind works and it seems the mind state of eating is something we are neglecting in the media therefore most people don’t know about it or it’s not being given much media attention.

The difference between Mind State eating and Physical State eating

1. Mind state hunger comes on suddenly; physical state hunger occurs gradually.

2. When you are mind state hungry your foods are usually linked to a specific emotion.  So, if you are happy you might eat pizza, if you are sad you might eat ice cream, when you are bored you might eat biscuits.  However, when you are physically hungry you will be open to filling a real hunger and therefore open to options.

3. Mind state hunger needs to be satisfied ‘RIGHT NOW’ whereas physical state hunger can wait a little longer as it is a gradual process.

4. when you are eating from the mind state you tend to keep eating even when you have gone past the stage of being full.  When you are eating from the physical state mind you usually stop eating when you are full.

5. Mind state eating can leave feelings of guilt as you might feel you should not be eating.  When you are eating from the physical mind state you do not feel that guilt.

Conclusion

I was going to write about dealing with the mind state of eating here, however, the article would have been over 2000 words in length so I will leave that for another time.  I just wanted to introduce the concept of the Two State Mind and hopefully get you thinking about your eating patterns.

Since the Ask The Coach Series is fast running out of questions I have a guided meditation for you to listen to, either on your PC or you can download it for free. This is called Forest walk.

Forest Walk Guided Meditation

It would be great to let me know what you think of it and give any feedback.

It would also be good if you have any requests for guided meditations

You can download the Forest Walk Guided Meditaiton here Just right click the link and save as a file on your desktop.

I regularly work out at the gym.  My two sons have just joined me and we have been going now for about 6 weeks, 3 times per week.  After a session at the gym whilst walking down to the car one of my sons advised me he got a little bored when going round the gym.  I advised him:

“That’s because when you go to the gym, you stay in the gym”

“Eh?” He gave one of those strange looks with a little twist in his mouth.

“Well, I’ve noticed that you’re looking at everybody in the gym whilst you’re working out.”

“Yeah, what else is there to do?  You just close your eyes and don’t open them until you finish your set.”

So I told him where I went when I closed my eyes.

Not being in the gym at the gym

1. The rowing machine

I am in Australia, China, or Greece and sometimes I am even in Glasgow on the Clyde River competing in the Olympics.  I am an unknown and nobody has given me a chance and I only got through to the final on a technicality.  However the commentators are astounded when I am in the bronze medal position and catching up on the Australians and the great British rowing team.  I can see my wife, Sharon and my two sons jumping up and down and hear them calling for me all along the river banks.

With 200 meters to go I am level with the British team and the commentators are calling this “one of the best races I’ve have ever seen, and Steven Aitchison is about to go in front.” I win the race by about 2 metres and the crowd surround me.  I see my wife’s face and my two sons behind her, smiles as wide as the Clyde.

2. The Weights

I find this the most tedious and most strenuous.  With the weights I want to push myself harder and harder.  The only motivation I can think of when I close my eyes is:

My wife and two sons have been held captive by two murderers after being caught up in a foiled bank robbery.  They are in a storage container and they are going to be killed if I don’t pass a series of challenges they have set me.  They make me lift weights and use all the different muscle groups on the various machines except I have to do reps of 12 each time and instead of the weights being taken off they go up by 2.5 kilos after each rep.

My face is nearly purple by the end of the 20 minute session but my wife and kids are safely in my arms and the two bank robbers have been safely put in jail with a few mysterious bruises and a broken jaw and nose (violence doesn’t solve anything, but it’s my wife and kids we’re talking about here.)

3. Cycling

I go for the fat burn here with a target heart rate of 165 and the mountain view (you get a nice little picture of you climbing a mountain as you’re cycling).

I am in the Tour de France.  I am an unknown and I hear the commentators talking as I am cycling.  I start off at the back of the pack of 100 or so cyclists but slowly make my way through the pack to reach a breaking pack of about 30 or so cyclists.  The commentators have now picked up on the fact that I am in 30th position and I am an unknown so they start to find some facts about me.

I see my wife and two sons at the side of one of the roads and cheering me on.  My wife places her hand over her heart, to tell me she loves me, and this spurs me on even though my legs are burning up.

I am on the last 2 miles of a 7 mile stage (hey, it’s my thoughts ) and I am in 9th place.  My son’s voices are ringing in my ears pushing me a little harder.  I climb to 4th place, the commentators are almost screaming, there’s one from Scotland there and he’s nearly wet himself with excitement.  Third place, 1 mile to go.  The camera’s are on me, I can hear everyone screaming.  I am just behind the second place rider and can see Lance Armstrong in front of him.  The crowd are going wild; the Scottish commentator has passed out.  I am right beside Lance Armstrong as we come to the last 200 metres, he glances to the side and smiles and edges 1/2 meter in front of me, I respond and kick my last kick and we finish the race neck and neck.  Lance shakes my hand and hands me the yellow jersey.

You don’t have to be in the gym

All of the above is honestly what I do when I go to the gym and the time flies by and I really enjoy it.  Of course I use other machines but I didn’t want to bore you too much.

What do you do to pass the time in the gym?

I’ve not written a post in a while, or at least it seems like a long while to me.  I have been in agony with a sore back for the last week or so and haven’t been able to sit long at the computer.  I don’t know what happened, I was sitting at the computer last week and stood up and the next minute I was on my knees in agony.

Morning back pain

I suffer back pain every morning but it usually goes away after an hour or so.  Not this time, this one was here to stay.  I kept on going though and went into work, took the painkillers, but it was getting increasingly worse and I was starting to look very strange when I was walking, I was bent over and I had a Charlie Chaplin walking style.   On Friday I happened to say to someone at work that my pain was getting worse.  She said she knew the number of the Jan De Vries clinic and said he was excellent.  I had heard about Jan De Vries before and everybody, no matter their ailment had said he was great.  I duly called the clinic in Troon and was advised there was a space on Saturday at 3.45pm.

Meeting Jan De Vries

We drove the 50 miles to Troon, which is a beautiful drive, and arrived at the clinic at 3.30pm.  My wife and boys went to the little coffee house there, while I booked in.  It was heaving with people coming and going but I was seen within 10 minutes of arriving.  I was shown a consulting room and was advised Jan would be with me soon.  I took the chance to look at the hundreds of books that were shelved around the large victorian styled room.  Jan de Vries came in and asked me what he could do for me.  I briefly explained my problem and he advised he would like to take a quick look.  I was led into another room which was filled with large cubicles with Chinese writing on the doors, don’t know why I noticed that! I got down to my underwear and lay on my front.  Jan came back in and took a look at my back and said ‘oh yes, you have popped a disc out there’ quite matter of factly.  Then he said ‘we’ll get that sorted just now.  He then proceeded to crack my toes, asked my to lie on my back, cracked my toes a second time. He then pulled one leg up and to the side and pushed down hard and did the same with the other leg and said that was it and advised me the disc was still swollen and advised me to take a tincture to ease the swelling.  I looked up, a little stunned, and said ‘is that it! are you finished”, he laughed and told me it was and left to go into one of the other cubicles.  I slowly got up from the massage table and tried to stand.  I started laughing, I could stand up straight which I had not been able to do for over a week.  I was stunned, I couldn’t help laughing in disbelief.  This small framed 72 year old man had fixed a slipped disc within a matter of two minutes, he was like a little ninja darting about all over the place, always calm and in complete control.

The coffee shop

I paid the cost of the treatment, which was only £20 and that included the tincture, and then walked out of the Victorian mansion toward the coffee shop where my wife and boys were.  I caught my wife’s eye as I was walking toward her and she looked in astonishment as I walked into the shop, for the fact that I was walking upright and not bent over and the fact that it had taken 15 minutes from going in to coming out.  I was still feeling sore from the swelling and that I had been using other muscles to compensate for the slipped disc but I was upright, it was great.

The knowledge

As we were driving home I was thinking that it must be amazing to have that knowledge of the human body, just to look at someone and tell them what their problem is and how to fix it.  I was feeling a little dazed all night last night and again this morning for the fact that I had met an amazing person with an amazing ability.

I have just finished another guided meditation entitled Well of The Wyrd and would love your opinions on it. I have purchased some new equipment to make this one and I think it sounds better then the other 3 I have done here:

http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2008/06/02/guided-meditations/

Well of The Wyrd – Guided Meditation

Put on a pair of headphones find a quiet place and listen for 8 minutes, or if you want to listen to more of the music and drift off to sleep on it I have let the full music track play for 23 minutes.

The music is a beautiful piano piece from the composer Chris Mullett and the script is from Susan Granquist.  The Well of the Wyrd is a place where you can ask any question and receive the answer from.  You will walk, alone in a forest, but feel safe and secure as those you love and have loved will be beside you.  On the journey you will meet a woman who will take your question and answer it for you in the form of gift.

I hope you enjoy this, I have listened to it several times and by the end I have felt relaxed and calm, and that’s even listening to my own voice, which I hate doing (You know when you listen to yourself on a video or something and say, is that really me, I sound weird, that’s how I felt when listening back to this).

Over the last 10 – 15 years there has been a marked increase in the number of people who wear glasses and contact lenses. This can be put down to drastically increased computer useage both at home and at work, and increased television watching. Good news for opticians around the world – bad news for us, but it needn’t be!

Our eyes need regular exercise in order to keep them healthy, just like any other muscle in the body. The thing is, we take it for granted that our eyes will eventually give up on us and we will eventually need glasses or contact lenses. This doesn’t have to be the case if you regularly exercise your eyes. Also, if you start wearing glasses or contact lenses your eyesight will only get worse over time rather than get better as your eyes will get used to the new lense and need even stronger lenses to function properly. Everybody who wears glasses and contacts will tell you their eyes have gradually got worse over time but they have put it down to their eyesight getting worse which is not necessarily the case.

This may sound quite controversial to some people and a lot of people are opposed to this advice when I have given it. Opticians are people of some authority so why would someone listen to me rather than someone who has had years of training and years of experience and have big fancy machines to test your eyes. Simple answer is that 90% of opticians would not be required if everybody done some sort eye exercise on a daily basis.

Of course there are exceptions and a lot of people might need glasses or contacts due to congenital problems or some kind of trauma however I believe most people who wear glasses do not need them or did not need them in the first place.

I use the computer at home and at work for an average of 9 hours per day and do not need glasses. This is only because I have resisted listening to opticians who advised I need them. Instead I have exercised my eyes and after a few weeks of exercising my eyes, they have returned back to normal vision.

I know I will get a lot of abuse for this post but I stand by what I am saying and advise you, if you are a glasses wearer or contact lenses wearer to try the exercises for a few weeks and let me know how you get on. What have you got to lose?

The exercises I use are pretty standard and have been in the public domain for years but they work for me and hopefully they will work for you. I have to give credit here to Marc Grossman after finding his articles on eye exercises a few years ago.

5 Exercises to strengthen your eye muscles and improve your vision

1.Blinking

Blinking is an often overlooked yet simple way to keep your eyes fresh and being able to focus longer. Computer users and television watchers tend to blink less, especially when they are intently focused on something. Try it just now as a simple exercise. For the next two minutes blink every 3 – 4 seconds. After you have done this for two minutes, mentally take note of how your eyes feel, are they strained, relaxed, tired. Now try and not blink for 30 seconds at a time for two minutes. Do you feel any difference?

Whenever you blink your eyes are going into a brief period of darkness which helps to keep your eyes fresh and discharges previous information ready for new information, this helps to reduce eye strain.

Your blink rate can also help with your communication skills. Think about someone who looked at you intently and you possibly felt threatened by them. What you may have missed is the fact that they had stopped blinking. When someone stops blinking and stares at you when you are talking it’s a sign of aggression. However whenever you are talking to someone and they are blinking at a 3 -4 second interval it’s a sign of a relaxed and friendly listener. Check out people’s blink rates the next time you are talking. Check out this article for more info Dramatically improve your eye contact skills

2.Palming

This is done to relieve stress around the eyes and as a way to relax your eyes whilst taking a computer break.

Instructions for palming

1. Take a few deep breathes before you begin.

2. Make yourself comfortable whilst leaning forward on a desk or with your elbows resting on your knees. Close your eyes.

3. Place your two hands over your eyes with the cup of your palm covering your eyes, your fingers on your forehead and the heel of your hand will rest on your cheekbone. Make sure you can blink freely and you are not putting too much pressure on your eyes.

That’s it. Palming gives you the opportunity to rest your mind and your eyes for a few minutes at a time. It may not sound much of an exercise but it can make a big difference in your working day if you stop for a few minutes and do this exercise.

3.Figure of eight

This is to exercise your eye muscles and increase their flexibility. This is quite a simple exercise but a good one.

Imagine a giant figure of eight in front of you about 10 feet in front of you. Now turn the 8 on it’s side. Now trace the figure of eight with your eyes, slowly. Do it one way for a few minutes and then do it the other way for a few minutes. It may seem very alien at first but it’s worth persevering with it.

4.Near and far focussing

This is one of my favourite exercises as you can do it almost anywhere, I say almost as I couldn’t imagine doing it on the underground without getting strange looks from those around me.

Instructions for Near and far focussing.

1. Sit in a comfortable position, or stand, this will only take 2-3 minutes at a time.
2. Put your thumb about 10 inches in front of you and focus on it.
3. Now focus on something else about 10 – 20 feet in front of you.
4. On each deep breath switch between focussing on your thumb and the 10-20 feet object in front of you.

This will strengthen the muscles in your eyes over time and improve your vision overall.

5.Zooming

This is another one of my favourites as it is very easy and quick to do.

Instructions for zooming

1. Sit in a comfortable position
2. Stretch out your arm with your thumb in the hitchhike position
3. Focus on your thumb as your arm is outstretched.
4. Now bring your thumb closer to you, focussing all the time, until your thumb is about 3 inches in front of your face.
5. Now move your thumb away again until your arm is fully outstretched.
6. Do this for a few minutes at a time throughout the day.

This exercise will strengthen your focussing skills and your eye muscles in general.

I hope this post has stimulated your interest in natural vision exercises and it leads you to research this subject more. I am by no means an expert on this subject so please do your own research. I can only tell you what works for me.