Greening the Eyes – Exercising with Nature’s Abundance

No one can deny the soothing feeling of standing over a cliff and letting our eyes roam over a vast forest below, resplendent in a thousand shades of green. The clear blue sky seems to stand out in stark contrast, bright, uniform in shade and depth, with some clouds here or there. Faced with such a natural view, the stress in our bodies, minds and in our eyes seem to melt magically away.

Like all systems in our body and mind, disuse and overuse lead to disorders. When disorders are not corrected, they manifest as disease. Today’s society is bound by four walls ( our apartments ), high rises just outside our windows, vehicles for transport where we are again enclosed, and once more the four walls ( our office or our schools ) . We are lucky if we happen to live in a city which is green, otherwise we see very few trees. Our urban environment thus forces us to overuse the eye muscles that focus over a short distance, and underuse the ones which help us see into the distance. As this continues to happen every day, the used muscles get chronically exhausted while the unused ones waste away. The lens in the eyes gets flexed less and less due to this and ultimately loses the ability to focus with the same efficiency as before.
As we grow up, the preoccupation with television and computer screens and mobile phones add dramatically to this effect. Houses and offices designed to reflect as much light as possible slowly erode our visual capabilities. This further accelerates the ageing of our eyes.

Do we rest our eyes when we sleep? Those who study sleep know that the eyes are seldom resting and static in sleep. In fact in some sleep stages, eyeballs show very rapid movement. The only real rest for the eyes in sleep comes from absence of visual stimulus.

The world we have constructed today mandates that we use trees to heal the eyes. Trees have a very important function apart from giving us oxygen – they absorb glare and reflect wavelengths of light that have many benefits to our eyes and to our overall health.

What is Greening of the Eyes?

It simply means consciously searching for trees and looking up through their foliage at the sky in daylight. Alternately try to figure out the resolution of the leaves (for about 15 seconds) and then shift focus to the clear sky or the clouds floating by(another 15 seconds). Repeat this as many times as you feel like. The treetop must be at least 20 feet from your eyes in order to begin the recovery from onset of impaired eyesight.

Very high trees are good if you find you need reading glasses while having pretty good long vision.

If you find you are getting short sighted, try to look through foliage at a water body down below.

Doing both these exercises lying down is the best possible posture you can use since it increases blood and fluid supply to the eyes and cranial nerves. If you can manage the time to doze off after this exercise ( about 5-10 min), that would be great!

For an even more powerful effect, direct the vibrations of a chant out through the eyes while doing the exercise. If you are tai chi or chi kung practitioner, circulate your chi into your head and fill your skull so that it overflows out through the eyes.

The best possible time is in early morning daylight, when the earth pulsates with rejuvenating energy.

Why Green?

Red is the colour psychologically associated with fire and blood. It is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, love, anger. Pysiologically, a person is believed to respond to this colour by becoming emotionally intense. Exposure to the colour red visually and psychologically raises human metabolism, respiration rate, and blood pressure. Hence, it is used in many applications where one needs to alert a person, eg. stop signs, fire equipment, etc. Red grabs attention easily.

In today’s fast paced, competitive, highly demanding urban lifestyle, we are psychologically “seeing red” all the time! Due to the various technologies we use, we are continually exposed to low frequency radiation, some part of which lies in the infra-red region. Computer screens, TV monitors, glass and steel skyscrapers reflecting light, and whitewashed urban landscapes add to the glare resulting in strain to the eyes and to the mind.

Hence, the logical way to unwind and relax would be to use the colour which, visually and psychologically, symbolises the qualities opposite to red, namely, green. You will have noticed that when you stare at a red light for a long time and then shift your attention to a white sheet of paper, for a brief instant, the sheet appears green.

Green, the color of nature, symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Physiologically, the colour green has great healing power. The most restful colour for the human eye, it can improve vision dramatically.

Why use the sky and water bodies?

Blue is the colour of the sky and sea. Often associated with depth and stability, it symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is a masculine color, highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability. Blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity in many cultures.

The body’s response to this colour is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness.

See how the red attracts the eyes and how the trees and water soothes in the afternoon glare – Jurong Bird Park, Singapore.

Why trees?

Here’s just a sampling of what researchers have discovered about our relationship with trees:

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  Hospital patients with a window view of trees need less pain medication and are discharged sooner than patients with treeless views.


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  Given a choice between a scene with trees and one without trees, people of all ages and ethnic groups from various countries prefer the scene with trees regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural areas.


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  Just knowing that natural places are available nearby makes a residence more appealing to buyers.


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  People are more satisfied with their neighbourhoods if there are trees on or near their property. They describe their quality of life as safer, more pleasant and are more satisfying than people living in homes without trees nearby.


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  Residents living in apartments with a window view of tress are significantly less aggression toward family members than those whose windows look onto concrete, asphalt or barren earth. This includes their making fewer insults and threats and other psychologically aggressive behaviour.


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  Police report lower crime rates in areas of public housing developments that have a density of trees.


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  Residents of urban public housing use common spaces with trees more often than common spaces that are barren of trees.

Just imagine the positive effects trees could have on our lives if we consciously chose to assure their ample presence in all commercial and residential areas everywhere.

Why not just get glasses?

Sure! Get glasses or contact lenses or Lasik surgery or whatever and live happily ever after! After all, many say

“Where is the time to do these exercises?”, or “I have too much on my plate already.”

But glasses don’t heal the eye, nor do they reduce stress and tiredness in daily life, nor are they free. And they don’t add beauty, health and joy to life like trees do.
So if you are a person who has recently received the advice to use glasses to correct your vision in the past 6 months, give this simple remedy a shot. About 3 minutes a day for 3 months.

For those who have been advised surgery for vision correction, try to do the same.

For those who are convinced that bad vision is “natural” in old age, try greening your eyes and discover what is really natural to you.

You have nothing to lose ( except your stress!) and everything to gain (including rediscovering your universe in a new way!).

Subhasis Banerji
10th Jan, 2009, Singapore. Age 45 years.
Advised reading glasses July, 2008. Free of glasses November, 2008.