My visualization skills have improved quite a bit, and i've somewhat gotten the hang of adjusting my eyes when looking at slanted objects/ objects that are turned in a way where i can't see it centrally. For example, you're sitting in the right front passenger seat and you seea sign to your right that is turned towards the right side of your body. Before, i would have to turn my head to see it clearly, but now, i can just look at it without doing that. The clarity is getting better, but it's by no means perfect. But recently, i've been reading some things about peripheral vision, and i decided to try noticing my peripheral vision. I would look at something, and at the same time, notice the surroundings of that object. Whenever i do this, my entire body feels so good. It's such a relief. I absolutely love that pleasurable feeling that accompanies proper vision function, but i still want to know the underlying mechanism of why noticing my peripheral vision feels so good.
(06-12-2015, 03:12 PM)hammer Wrote: Maybe one of the reasons is that Hakalau (peripheral vision) takes away everything that is distracting out of your system and left is just pure awareness. It might feel like a relief, but be aware of the drawbacks as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZuyWjWQkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKq-tmoMvk
What are the drawbacks to noticing peripheral vision?
I think peripheral vision or awareness is just a lack of tunnel vision or staring. Just another word for Central Fixation. You cannot see behind you, you can only remember and imagine what is there, which may seem real since normal vision depends on those activities so much and is done subconsciously. I think it feels good because normal vision feels so good. When the normal shifting is reestablished, mental concentration - a source of discomfort - is also abandoned.
I think the things are rather simple here: normal vision means engaging not only central part of it but also periphery. Everything else is not very good for vision.
We have peripheral vision with reason: to be aware what happens around us. It's not characterized by great sharpness or colour recognition but it's very good in noticing movement. Just imagine how important that was for survival in the history of humans. The same aplies for animals obviously.
Also - when you engage the cells in the peripheral parts of your retina those ones in the central part are relaxed - as they are not the only cells that have to work. Trying to see the things clearly only centrally by blocking our peripheral vision is a wrong way to go - it eventually both ruins central and peripheral vision. Our mind is also pleased with engaging the periphery and one part of the reasons is that noticing what happens in the entire field of vision helps you feel more secure. In addition employing periphery helps you look centrally in a soft way which is pleasant and the only correct way. Excluding periphery makes your central vision rigid and strainuous.
(06-16-2015, 06:01 AM)Aureus Wrote: I think the things are rather simple here: normal vision means engaging not only central part of it but also periphery. Everything else is not very good for vision.
We have peripheral vision with reason: to be aware what happens around us. It's not characterized by great sharpness or colour recognition but it's very good in noticing movement. Just imagine how important that was for survival in the history of humans. The same aplies for animals obviously.
Also - when you engage the cells in the peripheral parts of your retina those ones in the central part are relaxed - as they are not the only cells that have to work. Trying to see the things clearly only centrally by blocking our peripheral vision is a wrong way to go - it eventually both ruins central and peripheral vision. Our mind is also pleased with engaging the periphery and one part of the reasons is that noticing what happens in the entire field of vision helps you feel more secure. In addition employing periphery helps you look centrally in a soft way which is pleasant and the only correct way. Excluding periphery makes your central vision rigid and strainuous.
That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Have your eyes drastically improved? For me, it's improving but it's not 20/20 yet. Also, when you have flashes of good effortless vision, do you feel your body getting warmer? For me, good vision if always accompanied by a warm feeling that permeates my entire body.
(06-16-2015, 11:59 AM)AlkalineWater7 Wrote: That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Have your eyes drastically improved? For me, it's improving but it's not 20/20 yet. Also, when you have flashes of good effortless vision, do you feel your body getting warmer? For me, good vision if always accompanied by a warm feeling that permeates my entire body.
My vision improved but not drastically as it was never that bad. It's also improving very slowly but it's improving - that's important. Sometimes there can be some reversing backs but every time I overcome them sooner or later and continue with some progress. And like many others I make many mistakes - that's why I believe I'll succeed - after I make every possible mistake.
I can't recall that feeling of having my body getting warmet but when I look in a soft way and have great sharpness I usually feel my eyes are moist and vivid - they move easily and curiously. Also when I do some nice stretching and palming and my body and mind are relaxed my eyes become teary in a very pleasant way. On the other hand, I'm not surprised your body feels warmer as it is a sign of good blood circulation and good blood circulation is neccessary for good vision. (I suggest you to always pay attention to how relaxed your neck, shoulders and arms are. Especially the neck. It should be always relaxed.)
In addition I feel the best with my eyes when I don't care how sharp my vision is but when I pay attention to how effortesly I look at things. And probably always this happens when I'm relaxed with my mind and when I'm aware of everything that happens around me (periphery) and not only before me.
P.S. Yes, now I also can remember having my body warm (especially hands which is not typical for me) when I'm relaxed and in the stage of good vision.
(06-16-2015, 11:59 AM)AlkalineWater7 Wrote: That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Have your eyes drastically improved? For me, it's improving but it's not 20/20 yet. Also, when you have flashes of good effortless vision, do you feel your body getting warmer? For me, good vision if always accompanied by a warm feeling that permeates my entire body.
My vision improved but not drastically as it was never that bad. It's also improving very slowly but it's improving - that's important. Sometimes there can be some reversing backs but every time I overcome them sooner or later and continue with some progress. And like many others I make many mistakes - that's why I believe I'll succeed - after I make every possible mistake.
I can't recall that feeling of having my body getting warmet but when I look in a soft way and have great sharpness I usually feel my eyes are moist and vivid - they move easily and curiously. Also when I do some nice stretching and palming and my body and mind are relaxed my eyes become teary in a very pleasant way. On the other hand, I'm not surprised your body feels warmer as it is a sign of good blood circulation and good blood circulation is neccessary for good vision. (I suggest you to always pay attention to how relaxed your neck, shoulders and arms are. Especially the neck. It should be always relaxed.)
In addition I feel the best with my eyes when I don't care how sharp my vision is but when I pay attention to how effortesly I look at things. And probably always this happens when I'm relaxed with my mind and when I'm aware of everything that happens around me (periphery) and not only before me.
P.S. Yes, now I also can remember having my body warm (especially hands which is not typical for me) when I'm relaxed and in the stage of good vision.
That's the same situation for me as well. One more thing though. I may be wrong but i'm wondering if my bad vision started due to a lack of relaxation. I have consider one thing. When i was a kid, i was quite sickly. I had a lot of colds and infections. When i was sick, i would worry that i'd die. I wasn't a relaxed child. I'm not sure if this contributed to my poor eyesight but i'm just putting it out there.
(06-16-2015, 11:59 AM)AlkalineWater7 Wrote: That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Have your eyes drastically improved? For me, it's improving but it's not 20/20 yet. Also, when you have flashes of good effortless vision, do you feel your body getting warmer? For me, good vision if always accompanied by a warm feeling that permeates my entire body.
My vision improved but not drastically as it was never that bad. It's also improving very slowly but it's improving - that's important. Sometimes there can be some reversing backs but every time I overcome them sooner or later and continue with some progress. And like many others I make many mistakes - that's why I believe I'll succeed - after I make every possible mistake.
I can't recall that feeling of having my body getting warmet but when I look in a soft way and have great sharpness I usually feel my eyes are moist and vivid - they move easily and curiously. Also when I do some nice stretching and palming and my body and mind are relaxed my eyes become teary in a very pleasant way. On the other hand, I'm not surprised your body feels warmer as it is a sign of good blood circulation and good blood circulation is neccessary for good vision. (I suggest you to always pay attention to how relaxed your neck, shoulders and arms are. Especially the neck. It should be always relaxed.)
In addition I feel the best with my eyes when I don't care how sharp my vision is but when I pay attention to how effortesly I look at things. And probably always this happens when I'm relaxed with my mind and when I'm aware of everything that happens around me (periphery) and not only before me.
P.S. Yes, now I also can remember having my body warm (especially hands which is not typical for me) when I'm relaxed and in the stage of good vision.
That's the same situation for me as well. One more thing though. I may be wrong but i'm wondering if my bad vision started due to a lack of relaxation. I have consider one thing. When i was a kid, i was quite sickly. I had a lot of colds and infections. When i was sick, i would worry that i'd die. I wasn't a relaxed child. I'm not sure if this contributed to my poor eyesight but i'm just putting it out there.
This makes sense to me -- I was a very anxious nervous child, straining at everything. I thought being relaxed was being lazy! I think the fact that you worried about death must have been a big mental strain. Good for you for this awareness, and now you can do something about having a more relaxed peaceful outlook, and visual habits that go along with that. "When we know better, we do better" -- Maya Angelou
(06-16-2015, 11:59 AM)AlkalineWater7 Wrote: That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. Have your eyes drastically improved? For me, it's improving but it's not 20/20 yet. Also, when you have flashes of good effortless vision, do you feel your body getting warmer? For me, good vision if always accompanied by a warm feeling that permeates my entire body.
My vision improved but not drastically as it was never that bad. It's also improving very slowly but it's improving - that's important. Sometimes there can be some reversing backs but every time I overcome them sooner or later and continue with some progress. And like many others I make many mistakes - that's why I believe I'll succeed - after I make every possible mistake.
I can't recall that feeling of having my body getting warmet but when I look in a soft way and have great sharpness I usually feel my eyes are moist and vivid - they move easily and curiously. Also when I do some nice stretching and palming and my body and mind are relaxed my eyes become teary in a very pleasant way. On the other hand, I'm not surprised your body feels warmer as it is a sign of good blood circulation and good blood circulation is neccessary for good vision. (I suggest you to always pay attention to how relaxed your neck, shoulders and arms are. Especially the neck. It should be always relaxed.)
In addition I feel the best with my eyes when I don't care how sharp my vision is but when I pay attention to how effortesly I look at things. And probably always this happens when I'm relaxed with my mind and when I'm aware of everything that happens around me (periphery) and not only before me.
P.S. Yes, now I also can remember having my body warm (especially hands which is not typical for me) when I'm relaxed and in the stage of good vision.
That's the same situation for me as well. One more thing though. I may be wrong but i'm wondering if my bad vision started due to a lack of relaxation. I have consider one thing. When i was a kid, i was quite sickly. I had a lot of colds and infections. When i was sick, i would worry that i'd die. I wasn't a relaxed child. I'm not sure if this contributed to my poor eyesight but i'm just putting it out there.
This makes sense to me -- I was a very anxious nervous child, straining at everything. I thought being relaxed was being lazy! I think the fact that you worried about death must have been a big mental strain. Good for you for this awareness, and now you can do something about having a more relaxed peaceful outlook, and visual habits that go along with that. "When we know better, we do better" -- Maya Angelou
I had that mindset as well. I thought i was the only one who tried hard at everything and that everyone else were either lazy bums or slackers. This mindset backfired unfortunately. I tried to hard and it lead to lack of relaxation. I also noticed that this strain is definitely a protection mechanism. One thing i noticed is that i'm a very negative thinker. However, i believe that this quality isn't an innate trait of my personality. I believe i acquired it as a coping mechanism to stress. I always expect the worst in situations so i won't be caught off guard by any surprises. I always wanted my guard up to defend against any threats. I didn't want to be vulnerable. I think that's one of the keys to vision; to make yourself vulnerable; to be curious and stick your neck out in curiosity and inquiry instead of being defensive and afraid. When i have good vision, it feels like i'm going outside of my head and into the world. I just thought i might share this since it may help some people with their problems on the path to vision improvement. Many thanks for all replies.
I would guess it's a relief for you to notice your peripheral vision because your mindset is that the alternative is to tense your eyes somewhat as you try (and fail) to grab details in your central vision. Consciously you might know it's wrong to tense your eyes, but it's another thing to avoid doing it in practice, with everything else going on.
When you notice peripheral vision, your eyes naturally shift around to take it in, so you're probably staring less.
One reason I suggest that people approach it from a perspective of thinking about details, instead of trying to point your eyes at each detail in succession, is it might help you decouple the habit of tension with the act of sensing details. With peripheral vision you're already less concerned about how clearly you can see, which is great, because you aren't inclined to struggle with it and keep recreating the whole problem of straining your visual system, but you quickly run into a limit of how good your peripheral vision is capable of being, so the same attitude has to be applied to your central vision. One way you can do that is by thinking of each (possible) detail, without stopping to concerned about whether you're right. Sometimes the detail will be accurate, sometimes it will be somewhat inaccurate, and sometimes it will be entirely made up because it's just what popped into your head. They're all good. It doesn't matter, because the important thing is re-initializing your mind to work with details, and keeping it going for as long as you can in order to crystallize a new way of functioning that you can keep going back to.
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
(06-19-2015, 10:14 AM)David Wrote: I would guess it's a relief for you to notice your peripheral vision because your mindset is that the alternative is to tense your eyes somewhat as you try (and fail) to grab details in your central vision. Consciously you might know it's wrong to tense your eyes, but it's another thing to avoid doing it in practice, with everything else going on.
When you notice peripheral vision, your eyes naturally shift around to take it in, so you're probably staring less.
One reason I suggest that people approach it from a perspective of thinking about details, instead of trying to point your eyes at each detail in succession, is it might help you decouple the habit of tension with the act of sensing details. With peripheral vision you're already less concerned about how clearly you can see, which is great, because you aren't inclined to struggle with it and keep recreating the whole problem of straining your visual system, but you quickly run into a limit of how good your peripheral vision is capable of being, so the same attitude has to be applied to your central vision. One way you can do that is by thinking of each (possible) detail, without stopping to concerned about whether you're right. Sometimes the detail will be accurate, sometimes it will be somewhat inaccurate, and sometimes it will be entirely made up because it's just what popped into your head. They're all good. It doesn't matter, because the important thing is re-initializing your mind to work with details, and keeping it going for as long as you can in order to crystallize a new way of functioning that you can keep going back to.
I just should add that a narrow focus is associated with a faster brainwave activity with an activated fight or flight response. A diffuse focus is associated with a slower brainwave activity with activated relaxation of eyes, mind and muscles. That explains why peripheral vision feels good.
Personally I however think what you need is awareness of awareness. This means that you need to be able to combine the awareness types in a way that suits vision improvement. For instance if you strain when you look at details you might not be aware of it. If you switch your attention to peripheral vision for a while you notice how your eyes relax, because that peripheral awareness is not coming out of your wrong visual habit patterns. In other words you become aware of your strain and aware of how you can combine the awareness types in order to remove the strain also for central vision.
Remark also that relaxation itself does not normally improve vision. It is only a prerequisite. You need to shift from detail to detail in order to improve vision.
One tip: When I activate peripheral vision I can easier imagine an object that are moving and follow that object with my Eyes looking at details within that object. I think Bates also said that you should imagine object that are moving. That is what he called dynamic relaxation of your eyes.
In this post I should say that I also referred to what Les Fehmi discovered.
In this video it is his wife that explains open focus. I don't Think it is well adapted for vision improvement but it is interesting anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmgHDEypPAQ
06-24-2015, 12:08 AM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2015, 12:11 AM by David.)
One of the many facets of myopia is you learn that focusing intently on details is uncomfortable, so diffusing your attention can feel like somewhat of a relief as you stop the effort to focus hard. But it isn't the narrow focus that's uncomfortable by itself; it's the way you do it. When you learn to relax or slow your brainwaves while glancing at details, your focus is better and it's much more of a relief. At first it might seem like lower-frequency brainwaves require diffusing your attention, but it only seems that way because it's a different kind of attention that isn't exaggerated and can be used without straining your eyes. And it can take practice to learn to be able to see that way at all, because your mind will be telling you that you can't see unless you start tensing up your eyes.
So it's the higher frequency "beta" brainwaves that are associated with the fight-or-flight response, while alpha and lower frequencies are associated more with relaxation, imagery, sleep and other states of consciousness.
Although it's a subtle difference, instead of "narrowing" the focus I like to think of it as learning to be responsible for only one tiny point at a time. That in itself can be a relief, in that you have dropped the burden of seeing everything from your shoulders, leaving the job up to your visual system to take care of, and in doing so you have an easier time glancing from point to point. Kind of like only having to juggle two golf balls instead of trying to hold up an amorphous blob that slips between your fingers.
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
(06-24-2015, 12:08 AM)David Wrote: One of the many facets of myopia is you learn that focusing intently on details is uncomfortable, so diffusing your attention can feel like somewhat of a relief as you stop the effort to focus hard. But it isn't the narrow focus that's uncomfortable by itself; it's the way you do it. When you learn to relax or slow your brainwaves while glancing at details, your focus is better and it's much more of a relief. At first it might seem like lower-frequency brainwaves require diffusing your attention, but it only seems that way because it's a different kind of attention that isn't exaggerated and can be used without straining your eyes. And it can take practice to learn to be able to see that way at all, because your mind will be telling you that you can't see unless you start tensing up your eyes.
So it's the higher frequency "beta" brainwaves that are associated with the fight-or-flight response, while alpha and lower frequencies are associated more with relaxation, imagery, sleep and other states of consciousness.
Although it's a subtle difference, instead of "narrowing" the focus I like to think of it as learning to be responsible for only one tiny point at a time. That in itself can be a relief, in that you have dropped the burden of seeing everything from your shoulders, leaving the job up to your visual system to take care of, and in doing so you have an easier time glancing from point to point. Kind of like only having to juggle two golf balls instead of trying to hold up an amorphous blob that slips between your fingers.
What does "seeing everything from your shoulders" mean? Does it mean to tense up your shoulders in order to see?
