Eye fatigue and mood and changing our movements more frequently can greatly affect how we feel and as everything is connected, how simply can we save time and money and adjust what we do to not feel so tired or sore?
According to a CNN report from senior author Laura Downie who is an associate professor of optometry and vision sciences and Director of the anterior eye, clinical trials and research translation unit at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia,
“We found there may be no short-term advantages with using blue-light filtering spectacle lenses to reduce visual fatigue associated with computer use,”
Sadly the reality is that this filtering technique has been touted for years as helping with fatigue, and it has been found to not be true but the reality is that it has been sold to thousands of people over the years but the reality it has no real benefit and still is.
This got me thinking about how connections affect how we feel and fatigue and, 1. How important is my visual connection within my environment, 2. what can I do about how I view my environment to not feel so much eye or personal fatigue and 3. how can I reduce my stress without spending and get the results to help me not to feel so much fatigue?
Is what we’re focusing on affecting our mood?
It’s not just eye fatigue because our mood is affected by how tired or energised we are or feel and we are affected by what we are looking at and how we are looking at something and for how long we sit at the computer can affect our energy.
We can and have to learn to choose to turn away and this is fairly simple way of improving our mood and potentially help with fatigue. You can choose to turn away from certain things, certain websites and certain people and it can help to energise you and this interests me. But it’s how it’s also connected to my face, my neck, my breathing and my posture that excites me too.
We move our eyes significantly during the day from one thing to another often not even thinking whether it is helping our energy levels or not and are often on automatic and this affects how we breathe.
Simply focusing even flippantly on a calm scenery or energising photographs can be more beneficial for one’s mood and relatively inexpensive to achieve then you think.
How observant you are and how much your scenery affects you is very personal and specific to the individual which makes creating environments that are ‘pleasing to the eye’ even more important in the workplace and at home with consultation with everyone using that space beneficial.
You are less likely to feel drained when you’re looking at more inspiring things and less likely to want to move your eyes around the room rapidly if you’re enjoying what you see or thinking about something you like, and are calmer in general because of it.
This is important because there is a Correlation between breathing and eye movement and mood and how many times you blink and you tend to changes your blinking and eye movement when we get excited, stressed or anxious.
On average We blink between 15-20 times a minute which is similar to the number of breaths we take per minute. That’s 900 to 1200 blinks an hour, 14, 400 to 19,000 a day, that’s 100,800 – 134,400 times a week and between 5.2 and 7.1 million times a year”
Blinking is essential for your eye health as it helps your eyes stay moist and oxygenated, and also clears debris from your eyes and not everyone blinks at the same rate. But there is an average rate for the number of times most people blink in a minute, hour, or day. Surprisingly to me each blink lasts between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds but that means that there is a big difference between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds with a lot of information potentially being lost or discarded within blinks or more relaxation being had.
The issues here are endless but being mindful of how relaxed your eyes are and how a smile can affect the pressure on your eyes and your state of being is surprising. Try it now and be surprised and just how putting a smile on your face affects your eyes and your state of being and mood.
Everything is connected and every small change may or may not be affecting your mood, your behaviour or your stress or anxiety. But in reality, it’s not the blue-light emission from our devices that is causing eye strain for most people, said ophthalmologist Dr. Craig See, a cornea specialist at Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He says
“Most people have computer vision syndrome, which is related to sitting at a computer screen for a long period of time,”
So sitting was the issue and symptoms of computer vision syndrome can also include dry eyes, watery eyes, blurry vision, light sensitivity, burning or itchy eyes, and difficulty concentrating and keeping your eyes open, according to Cleveland Clinic. Apparently eye strain from presbyopia, which is the gradual loss with age of the ability of the eye to focus on nearby objects, can contribute, as can neck and shoulder pain too.
So we see, that everything is connected and taking time to stretch, view something different and even look away from the computer to view something that you like or just moving positions can be beneficial to your mood, your vision and ultimately to how you feel.
Even just closing my eyes for a minute whilst I focus on stretching and taking a few breaths in a different position makes me feel good and knowing it will help me to have less neck or shoulder pain is a fantastic motivator.
Eye fatigue may not be easy or simple to pin down or alleviate but knowing that I will benefit by just moving or stretching makes me feel that I have more control over my energy than I once thought and it doesn't cost me a cent just to stretch or put a great motivating picture next to my computer to look at every now and then.
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