Since taking a computer programming class as a senior in high school, I have had a love-hate relationship with computers. When I developed severe eye strain about seven months ago, the hate part became really intensified.
But because of my suffering, I am now able to teach others how to heal severe eye strain, and even give tips on how to prevent it in the first place. There is a silver lining around this cloud. 
I believe the problem began when I first started creating thecrunchycoach.com site. I would spend two to three hours reading and typing on the computer every day, without giving my eyes the proper breaks I should have. Then, last December, I got in a hurry to finish a project. I spent over an hour at a time staring up close at the computer screen while copying, pasting and editing content.
The next few days, I couldn’t look at the computer screen for five minutes without developing a splitting headache.
But did I take a break from the computer? NO-O! God forbid I allow my Alexa ranking to go down to allow my eyes to heal. So I kept on. In a few weeks, I not only had a hard time going through e-mails, but developed pain after reading just a page or two in a book.
I was frustrated, my intense, seemingly out-of-control ambition constantly colliding with my gut feeling that if I could just forget that my computer existed for a month, I would be all right. I had hit rock bottom emotionally when I signed up to be a Be Young Essential Oils distributor. And discovered Masaji.
After taking it for only a week, I was a new person, and was able to see (pun not intended) my situation from a new perspective. I was finally able to relax (well, at least a little) for the first time in my life.
Healing from severe eye strain
Long story short, I did three main things to heal myself from severe eye strain:
1. Began doing the eye exercises I found at this site.
The very first day I did these exercises the headaches stopped. I try to remember to do them every day, as they will help to prevent eye disease.
By the way, some people–even some blind people!–have completely restored their eyesight and been able to ditch their corrective lenses by doing similar exercises on a daily basis.
2. I bought the essential oil blend, “Eye Vision.”
I actually found out about this a couple weeks after joining Be Young. I was talking to someone on the staff, and suddenly the thought popped into my head that there might be an oil to help heal my eyes. He told me about Eye Vision, which I immediately ordered. When it arrived a few days later, I immediately applied it to my upper and lower eyelids. I felt immediate relief!
Later, I found out that the ingredients in Eye Vision are anti-inflammatory. A-ha!
3. I rested my eyes.
This was the hardest part. For an entire week, I didn’t pick up a book. For an entire month, I stayed away from the computer. Thank God for podcasts and librivox.org! Having a supportive husband helped, too.
Preventing eye strain
Trust me, you do not want to go through what I have. Here are a few ideas to prevent eye strain:
1. Take a break from the computer every 30 minutes.
If you are at home and have been working on the computer for half an hour, go doing something else for fifteen to thirty minutes, or longer, if you can. If you have to work on a computer all day long, get in the habit of looking away from the computer every fifteen minutes and rolling your eyes. See if you can break your computer work up so that every thirty minutes to an hour, you can perform another part of your job that doesn’t involve looking at the computer.
2. Enlarge the text size whenever possible.
3. Minimize the brightness of the screen.
On my computer, I do that by hitting the “FN” – or function – key, while hitting the “F6″ key.
4. If you’re typing, as I am as I compose this blog, look away as often as possible.
Even when I was struggling with the worst of the eye strain, I could last a lot longer on the computer if I was typing rather than reading something online.
5. Do the eye exercises daily.
You only need about five minutes. Totally worth it, especially if you wear corrective lenses and you find yourself needing a weaker prescription after a few weeks!
6. Keep your eyes an arm’s length from the computer screen.
This is also recommended for reading books, although I find it hard to keep a book that far away. Just know that if your nose is literally in a book, you are increasing your risk of eye strain.
My eyes still haven’t completely recovered, but they are much better and I definitely notice incremental improvement. And I no longer utterly hate computers.
Update
A few months after writing this post, I broke down and saw an opthamologist. No vision problems, but he diagnoses me with Dry Eye Syndrome. I happen to believe I have Computer Vision Syndrome with a minor in dry eyes (lol), but whatever. I am now taking megadoses of vitamin C and omega 3′s, and the combination seems to be helping at least with the computer vision symptoms.