It does not matter what size, colour or shape your eyes are: if they are bright and sparkling they look beautiful. Eyes, more than anything else, reflect the way you feel: if you’re happy, they dance and shine; equally, if you’re bored, tired or miserable, your eyes will instantly mirror it by looking dull and listless.
They are also affected by your general health, and by your diet. Sleep is by far the most important factor, without which, however good you feel, your eyes look bloodshot, puffy, and encircled by black shadows. Similarly, to show how much diet also affects your eyes, think of their pinkness and puffiness after you’ve had too much to drink (alcohol). The same applies when you suffer from bilious or liverish attacks, so watch your diet.
The old wives tale that carrots make you see in the dark is not strictly true, but as carrots contain Vitamin A-very necessary for total general health-they do make your eyes glow! The same, of course, applies to all fresh vegetables.
As I have already mentioned, I am a great believer in drinking lots of water, for clearing the body of toxins, it also clears the eyes. If you suffer from puffiness in the early morning, a glass of water first thing will help enormously. Some people recommend a glass of hot lemon juice or diluted cider vinegar for this early-morning drink, but I prefer plain, cold, delicious water.
Puffiness can be due to a lot of things: lack of sleep, bad diet, airless rooms or heavy creams. The latter should never be left on overnight. If your skin is dry, dab on your cream, being careful not to pull the skin, then blot off the surplus. Remember that this area is so delicate that you must never apply anything that would tighten or stretch the skin; so no astringents or masks (except perhaps, a fruit mask, which would be non-drying and nourishing).
Few ways to relax tensed eyes that I love!
We use our eyes all day and they get tired and strained from the wind, strong light, reading, watching tv, staring at the laptop the whole day as most people are working from home due to the pandemic and a host of other activities. One way to relax them is by palming. Put the base of the palm of your hands over your closed eyes and press gently and firmly. This total blackness is thoroughly relaxing. Another method is to cover your eyes with your cupped hand. Open your eyes and stare into the darkness for a minute. Now relax and do the first palming.
An old-fashioned remedy to cure tensed eyes is to press under the eyebrow at the bridge of the nose. Use your thumb or little finger and press fairly hard. It hurts, but a tremendous amount of tension does get lodged here and this does relieve it.
To restore their lustre
- Tea- It’s most likely that our grandmothers used tea as an eye lotion or, by soaking cotton gauze in cold tea, as eye pads. We are much luckier in that all we need to do is soak two bags and use them. They fit the eye perfectly and could have been made specifically for this purpose.
- Cucumber –This is also well known as a means of brightening tired eyes. When you give yourself a mask try using very thin slices on your eyes instead of eyepads . I am always amazed at the way cucumbers are always so cold and refreshing, making them ideal for tired, stinging eyes.
- Mint-Crushed mint takes away the darkness around the eyes.
- Potatoes-The craziest-and my favourite-eye-pads, are made from very thin slices of raw potato. They draw out the puffiness from around the eyes and leave them fresh and clear (to get these paper thin slices I use a potato peeler across the potato).
- Witch-Hazel-This can also be used on cotton wool as eye pads, and is very effective for reducing puffiness and redness. (but if my eyes are very tired I find it stings slightly).
Olinda Nicholas is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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