#WorldSightDay 2025: How To Love Your Eyes (And See Better, Naturally)
Every year on the second Thursday of October is World Sight Day, an annual reminder to focus on what it means to have eye care that is accessible, available and affordable to all. While I love and support the campaign almost every year, I want to add a holistic touch to the usual approach to eye care which is glasses, contacts and pharmaceuticals.
While they might be sight saving for many people there are a LOT of things everyone can do to help save, protect and improve their own vision that doesn’t involve any of those options. To me, #LoveYourEyes means to listen to what your eyes really want.
The Sense We Ignore Until It’s Too Late
Sight is our dominant sense. It’s how we connect with others (have you ever gazed into someone’s eyes and felt that soul-deep connection?). It’s what keeps us grounded in the present moment.
Yet we treat our eyes like an afterthought. When our vision gets blurry, we sigh with annoyance: “Ugh, I guess I’m getting older. Time for stronger glasses.” We pop on prescription lenses and move on, never questioning whether there might be another way.
“Glasses are the pills for the eyes”
I call glasses the pills for the eyes, because they give you instant clarity but provide zero feedback that something needs to change. Blurry vision is the engine light coming on, telling you something is wrong. Slapping on glasses is like unplugging the engine light sensor and hoping for the best. We don’t do that with our cars, but for some reason we think that’s just normal with our eyes.
That said, it’s crucial to get a regular eye exam, preferably by an ophthalmologist. If you’re over 50 or have a family history of eye disease, this becomes even more critical. AND, implement at least ONE of my TEN TIPS for naturally clear vision:
1. Create love notes for your eyes
Most vision improvement programs jump straight to exercises. But there’s a more fundamental place to start: the words you use about your eyes. Pay attention to how you talk about your sight. Do you say things like:
- “I’m blind as a bat”
- “I can’t see anything without my glasses”
- “My vision is terrible”
This isn’t just harmless complaining. You’re programming your brain with negative associations about your eyesight. Remember: We see with our brain, not just our eyes. Your visual cortex processes the information your eyes collect. And your brain is always listening to the story you tell.
So start writing love notes to your eyes. Here are some examples of affirmations you can use:
- “I see the world through your lens of joy”
- “Thank you for the beauty you let me see”
- “I love my [color of eyes] eyes”
It might feel strange initially. But shifting from criticism to gratitude creates a fundamentally different relationship with your sight and your brain responds accordingly.
2. Love your eyes with better breathing
What we call sight happens in the brain, not just the eyes. Diaphragmatic breathing aka belly breathing, relaxes the nervous system and softens the tension we often hold in our eyes.
Try this simple practice:
- Close your eyes and inhale slowly through your nose.
- Hold for a brief moment at the top.
- Exhale gently through your nose, and let your eyes blink open.
Don’t worry if what you see is blurry or clear. Instead, feel the world as if your eyes are being bathed in loving, healing energy. Just taking one breath like this to complete exhalation several times during the day helps you feel more ease, balance, and clarity. In your eyes and how you experience life.
3. Nourish cone and rod cells with sunning and palming
Optimal sight requires rest, light and movement. Rest your eyes by closing them, or even better by palming them. Palming, often called cupping is a deep relaxation for your eyes as your cupped hands over your closed eyes provide total darkness and warmth.
The opposite is sunning to expose your eyes to sunlight without any strain. Start facing the morning sun with closed eyes, turning your head side to side. If that feels good, blink your eyes open on the side. Once you feel comfortable with that you can keep your eyes open while blinking frequently as you turn your head side to side.
Combine both with s”unwiches”: Sun your eyes for 30 seconds, then palm them for 30 second, and so forth for as long as you enjoy.
4. Massage your neck and face
Stress related chest breathing leads to tension in head, neck and shoulders. Here is a simple massage for your tight tissues. You can find follow along self massage videos for the whole body on my YouTube channel. Here is one for head, neck and shoulders. Subscribe now so you don’t miss any new content!
5. Relax your eyes in nature
Looking at screens and reading up close requires intense muscular effort from your eyes. Your lens has to flex, your eye muscles have to converge inward, it’s work.
But when you look into the distance? Your eyes relax completely. And even better when they see nature.
Make it a daily practice: Take your glasses off (when it’s safe to do so), go to a window or step outside, and let your eyes roam. Don’t strain to see clearly. Just let them wander freely. Trace the outline of a distant building. Count windows across the street. Notice different colors in the sky.
This simple act of letting your eyes explore distance is like a mini-vacation for your visual system.
6. Block blue light from screens and artificial lighting
Screens and artificial lighting emits a lot of blue light which harms both our retinal cells and impacts our circadian rhythms and sleep. Blocking blue light on screens can be done with blue blocking software such as Flux or Iris or by wearing blue blocking glasses like Ra Optics. Use code CLAUDIA10 for 10% off. Inside the home, avoid turning on overhead lights before sunrise and after sunset. Learn more about using light to help your vision here.
7. Wean yourself off sugar
We associate love with candy and chocolates. But nothing is worse for our vision. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine, so it’s not easy. But here is hard truth nobody wants to hear: Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness. And you don’t have to have full-blown diabetes to cause cataracts, macula degeneration and other “age-related” eye diseases.
Before you panic about never enjoying sweetness again, know this: Non-glycemic sweeteners like monk fruit (also called lohan) and stevia don’t spike your blood sugar and won’t harm your sight. You can find eye health promoting dark chocolate unsweetened or sweetened with these alternatives.
Pair sugar reduction with eating the colors of the rainbow. Dark leafy greens, colorful berries, vibrant vegetables—these foods are packed with the nutrients your eyes desperately need. Lutein and zeaxanthin (found in those dark greens) are absolutely critical for preventing macular degeneration.
8. Replace alcohol with “enhanced” water
There is this myth that wine is healthy. What’s healthy are some of the properties and nutrients in grapes: resveratrol, quercetin, catechins and proanthocyanidins (tanins). Alcohol is a neurotoxin and it’s much better to get these polyphenols from plant sources like berries, green tea and unsweetened dark chocolate, to name a few.
If plain filtered water is too boring, try my “hack”: Add a shot of unsweetened cranberry juice to sparkling water and decorate with some mint. Or squeeze a lemon or orange and add to water. Or brew some green or black tea and let it cool, then pour it over some ice cubes to make “whisky”. That’s what they do in Hollywood! So you’ll be a star by drinking your whisky that way.
You can also drink hydrogen water (using tablets or a hydrogen water machine) or make you own structured water.
9. Don’t wear your glasses when you don’t need them
If you’re like most people, you spend hours staring at a computer screen two feet from your face while wearing glasses prescribed for far distance if you are myopic. Those glasses are too strong for close work, and they’re forcing your eyes to work overtime.
If you are farsighted, only use glasses for close up work like reading and taking them for any activity where you don’t really need them, like gardening or hiking.
10. Replace progressive (multifocal) lenses with single distance glasses
So-called progressive and bifocal lenses were invented to avoid needing two or three pairs of glasses for the individual distances. They cause postural issues (ever notice people tilting their heads back to look through the bottom of progressives at a computer?), and that unnatural change in posture and eye scanning habits contributes to neck tension and creation of astigmatism.
The solution? If you need vision correction for multiple distances, get separate pairs of glasses for different tasks. Yes, it’s less convenient than progressives. But your eyes and your neck will thank you.
This World Sight Day, Make a Commitment
Vision loss isn’t an inevitable part of aging. It’s largely a result of daily choices such as the foods we eat, the habits we keep, the words we use, and the care we give (or don’t give) to our eyes.
On this World Sight Day, I challenge you to do three things:
- Rewrite your vision story. Start speaking to and about your eyes with gratitude and positivity.
- Give your eyes what they need. Distance gazing, clean nutrition, proper hydration, and appropriate glasses for each task.
- Educate yourself. Your eyes are too important to leave their care entirely in someone else’s hands.
Read more about World Sight Day.
Get Your Free Resource: 10 Habits for Healthy Eyes
To help you take action, I’ve created a comprehensive guide covering the daily habits that will protect and potentially improve your vision for years to come.
[Download your free guide here]
Your vision connects you to everything you love in this world. On World Sight Day and every day after, treat it with the reverence it deserves.
