as you can see, this is my first post here and I already have some questions!
I'm not from an English speaking country, so please forgive me, if my English is bad or just not correct sometimes.
I have read most of Davids blog posts now and started practicing the "right way of viewing".
Here is what I do: I take a picture from the internet (most times street sceneries or old buildings/churches--> many details) and look at it the way David described it in his blog. I got it now and it works really really well, but I have 2 questions about it:
1) How long should I practice that? How many Minutes?
I read that this way of viewing should be the new standard, the new "programming", which means to me, that you could do that all day long, as it is the correct and natural way. But when I practice, I really benefit from making a pause from time to time. I also feel that it is a challenge for my eyes to work that way, but that could also be just a feeling of adapting to the new way of viewing. I dont know. I also read Norbekov's book and he writes, that you can do too much, and then the whole process of healing will be stopped and destroyed, because "mother nature" doesnt want these fast changes. What do you think about that? Do you have any advice? I usually practice two times a day for 15-20 minutes each time.
2) Now this is my main problem: One of my eyes is worse than the other and I always practice normally with both eyes. Leo Angart has wrote that you always should work on your weaker eye first, otherwise your eyes could completely stop to work together (I think its called Amblyopia?). So I tried to practice just with the weaker eye once, and it felt completely unnatural and wrong. Normaly I enjoy the practicing but that just really felt wrong and it didnt work out. So, I dont know what to do now.
If the way of viewing in Davids method is the natural way of viewing (which seems to be for me) , I think I should just carry on practicing with both eyes (as it is the natural way) and let nature just do it itself? I just dont understand how the weaker eye will get better, as it doesnt see all the datails I'm looking at with the other eye. Any Advice?
I hope the post is easy to read and everything is correct, otherwise I apologize for the mistakes.
These are some fast questions, but I think I will write more about my "myopia story" and experiences and so on later.
I guess using pictures you find to practice on is fine, but the picture I meant as an example of a real-world situation. So if possible, practice in situations where you have at least occasional changes in distance, rather than looking at a flat picture the entire time.
Pausing for a moment during the practice is ok, but it's important to consider why you're pausing, and what you're doing while pausing. Part of it might be because the practice is unfamiliar and disconcerting. Looking away for an instant is ok. Somebody here recently suggested that occasionally looking away might be necessary to prevent tunnel vision, and that seems to be right to me.
I think just using both eyes together is generally fine. For some people it's possible that one eye gets partly shut off, but that only really happens when using their eyes wrong. If you're practicing using your eyes right well enough, it stimulates both eyes and they will both want to be involved.
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Hi Jeff,
The difference in diopters between my eyes is very big - 3,5 diopters - therefore I train my weaker eye seperately to prevent it from being 'turned off' by the brain (to keep the image as good as possible) since I don't wear glasses or contact lenses any more.
And my weaker eye is profiting from this extra stimulation.
For my practice I have 2 old pairs of glasses (which I found in our household). The first one without glass for my weaker eye, the glass for the better eye I covered with paper and scotch; so I don't have to close my better eye or cover it with my hand when I practice.
The other pair are reading glasses +3 diopters, without glass for my weaker eye. This one I use for reading (not regularly) and that way I can train both eyes at the same time, when I read at a distance, where the letters are slighly blurry. But it is very important to keep both eyes relaxed, not to strain the eye and narrow the eyelids to compensate the lowered vision by the plus glass. By this 'method' I could increase my reading distance progressively.
Jeff, I've improved several diopters since I started this work about 10 years ago, but my more strained left eye still lags behind in acuity. I notice more variation with the vision in this eye, and it's more affected by emotional stress. I'd say you are on the right track, and to consider practicing with just the weaker (really, more strained) eye occasionally, but don't push it, or rush it. It feels wrong because you're not using this eye to see as much as the other one, and it's afraid of being on stage all alone! So don't push it, invite it. I agree with Nini that using both eyes together is fine, since that's the way you use them most of the time, and you do want to keep making sure they're working together (eye teaming).
You English is fine, by the way. Keep up the good work!
and thank you for your answers! Lots of interesting stuff to read.
Well, I practiced with the pictures so far, because in a real situation, I think I couldnt concentrate as much as I need to, or just spend so much time looking at one scenery. But maybe thats just a matter of practice... and sooner or later I will HAVE TO look this way all the time I guess .
I think I will try to use it more and more in real situations.
I have tried to work just with the weaker eye several times now, and I think that I can agree, that it's an emotional/fear thing again. Felt really unconfortable at the beginning, but now it starts to work. So I will keep practicing with the weaker eye once a day at least. I think I will report how it works out.
So thank you for your answers again, nice atmosphere here.
I have to say that I couldnt keep up to practice this exercise. The first few days were alright, but then everyday I found like a million reasons why this is all rubbish, why it wont work out, and so on... And practicing with these thoughts in mind wouldnt be successfull I guess. I just cant motivate myself to do this at the moment, but I wont forget it and will come back to it later.
So for the moment I will stay with my "standard exercise" (the long swing), wich helped me with orientation/"3D-viewing" a lot so far. I can also combine it with the posture/Alexander stuff Im working with at the moment. So I wont be lazy
Jeff, like I said earlier, don't push yourself too hard. It's possible the Alexander work will help your body balance and alignment so that the difference between your left and right eyes will start decreasing. I wrote to 2 different people yesterday who are working on improving their vision and impatient that it's going so slowly, blaming themselves for not doing enough, and told both of them "Baby steps are better than no steps!". As long as you're seeing improvement, keep going forward with a positive attitude knowing you're doing something right. At some point you'll be ready to investigate the fear surrounding using the weaker eye alone. A lot of people who start vision improvement try to do too much all at once and get discouraged when they don't see fast improvement (I'm one of these people). Patience and consistent practice, and an optimistic attitude, are the way to proceed.
thanks for you answer. To avoid misunderstandings: I started vision improvement about 4 years ago and completely stopped wearing glasses about 2 years ago (between 1.5 and 2.0 with the weaker eye). Most of the time I didnt do any exercises exept palming, but I learned a lot about my behaviour/habits/fears in that time, so I think I have an idea of whats pushing too hard, and what is not. Anyways, thanks for your answer and time.
