Well...I did listen to what David and Nancy wrote on my other topic...and I'm confused a little.
I understand that I do try too hard, I am overwhelming my self by constantly chasing down every detail and that being aware of the vision almost all the time is just too much to handle.
So for the last two days I did let go of the vision, at least I tried to, but the problem is then when I do let go I just have this moments here and there, where I have this fear that my eyes will return to the lazy state, the staring state. It's like I'm afraid of letting my unconscious mind take control of my eyesight. Then I start too pay too much attention and thought on my eyesight and it becomes messed up like the eyes don't know what to look at, what information I do need at the moment, where to look, what to do. I start to ask myself questions like: "On what small details I need to look when I read this word?", "Am I looking at It right?", "Does my central fixation is narrowed enough?", "Where to look now whats interests me?". In fact it's reminds me that everything is like that if you think of something too much and you become nervous it will gets messed up because you just confuse yourself with too much thinking.
I think that after these 10 weeks of training, the eyes and the brain know how to work by themselves but still it's difficult to just let go of them. I think i'm still lacking of some understanding here...
So here are some questions:
1. So for example I continue to let go of my eyes and brain and let them do the job, how do I make sure they won't come back to the lazy staring state?
2. What do I have to do now that my eyes know how to look at things right?
3. When my eyes on auto mode and I let them move on their own, when I'm looking at something they are just jumping from one small point to another. Is that it? this is how a normal person looks at stuff?
4. Is there something extra that I can do to speed the vision improvement a little bit? Like specific bates exercises or other things?
oh and if you have some other helpful tips from your own experiences to give me, it will be very appreciated
"When my eyes on auto mode and I let them move on their own, when I'm looking at something they are just jumping from one small point to another. Is that it? this is how a normal person looks at stuff?"
That's precisely what your eyes are supposed to be doing! Yay!
When I learned how to run barefoot, I had to pay a ton of attention to how I was doing everything, to make sure I was doing it right. Now after a good deal of training, I just check my posture and force vectors every so often, and let my body do the rest. This may be something like what to do with your eyes.
You've retrained them, and now you just check every so often to make sure they are doing things right, and just let them do whatever inbetween your checking them. So like maybe start with a timer, check that you are looking right, and then start a timer for 15 minutes, and check at the end of that timer. Then if you did fine, the next day make it 30 minutes, and so on.
Trust your eyes and brain to do the right thing, with occasional re-direction if you see they're getting off-track. If you had a child, it would make him nervous if you were hovering over him monitoring his every move to be sure it was perfect. He (and you!) will learn from his few mistakes (eyestrain from staring or trying to see everything at once, maybe), and fewer will be made as you continue. Have fun with it -- this is not a big struggle, but an exciting adventure.
Jambo2000 Wrote:oh and if you have some other helpful tips from your own experiences to give me, it will be very appreciated
One tip which has been very helpful for me is:
When you are trying hard to get a clear sight and you don't succeed, it is more likely that you have tried with too much effort, than that it was insufficient. Then stop and try 'the opposite', with less effort, as if you wanted (deliberately) to see less clearly.
When I do it that way, my eyes feel immediately relieved and my eyesight becomes much better.
Well first of all I went to the optometrist office today well that was interesting...
So originally I was -4 after doing bates exercises for a year I went to -3.5 on both eyes. 2 weeks ago(after 2 intense months with dave's method) I went to the optometrist office done some chart reading she said I'm -3 on both eyes. Today I went to a different optometrist she done a more accurate eye checking and I got one eye that is -3 and the other one is -2.5. So now the eyes are with different prescriptions...so how do I balance them??? oh and I bought weaker Eyeglasses -1.5 for the stronger eye -2 for the weaker eye that will do right? I can manage with this prescription.LOL and the most interesting thing was that I was able to read the 6/6 line with the lower prescription glasses by focusing my vision on small details. Hmm which means I rad the 6/6 line with -1 prescription!!! it was difficult and took some time to focus but I read it, the optometrist was in shock!
Okay now back to the topic...I think I get it I need to chill a little bit let my eyes and brain work as I taught them. Relax and just check on them from time to time.
So now I just need to know how to balance the eyes to be with the same strength. So how do I do that?
There are many things you can try to better balance the eyes -- different people respond to different methods. You can patch the stronger eye and work with just the weaker eye to encourage it to function alone without its big brother, then use both eyes together and see if the weaker eye can lead for a change. Start to depend on your weaker eye sometimes when you would normally use the strong one, like looking down into a bottle. Make sure your posture is straight and your head isn't tilted, as many people with one eye stronger unconsciously tilt their head so that eye is centered (head tilted to the left if the right eye is stronger). Of course this throws the whole visual system off slightly and just reinforces the imbalance.
Like everything else, self-awareness and repeated experimentation will move you forward. Remember, you are encouraging the weaker eye to participate more fully in your vision, inviting it rather than beating it into shape! See it as a game, not a problem. 1/2 diopter is not much, and I'd be doing a dance of celebration about seeing 6/6 with the -1 prescription. Clearly you are doing something very right. Keep it up!
Dance of celebration sure, but boy does it make me envious! Here I am only picking at the method, which obviously means that I'm just treading water (my own fault, duh), and you've almost blown down by 2 diopters! Yeah for you though.
Nancy, I have noticed that my head is often cocked to a side, and actually with my right eye 0.25 diopters stronger than my left, my head is indeed cocked to the left often. Thanks for unintentionally pointing out something I need to change! And maybe I'll put a little more time into training my eyesâ¦
Fiat, thank YOU for listening to me! I was hoping someone else who had the head tilt situation would pick up on it. Self-awareness is fundamental to making changes. Keep at it!
Looking in old optometry, ophthalmology books, if find something will post. Have you checked Thomas Q's. book?
I 'think' Bates said the 20/20 letter, 3/4 " at 20 feet is the basic central field size created by the macula which contains the fovea in the center, stated by most eye doctors but, it is really smaller... clearest central vision as comes to a small point. It can't be too small or the fovea would not exist to produce anything? Maybe my memory is incorrect but I think it's right, just too busy to search in Bates Mags today.
Are you looking for that smallest central point the fovea produces in the center of the fovea or the whole fovea or the fovea and mac combined?
Maybe there's a way use math to determine what size central field each of these produces at 20 feet? I cannot do math so can't begin to figure this.
Thanks! I was trying to answer Davids question about size central-field. Will re-post to that thread. Sorry. Moving, too busy; Got to stay off the forum until I get all this other stuff done.
