I am posting this here for several reasons espacially because I would like to share my experience so far and because of a few questions I have.
I started working on my vision in the beginning of July this year. I have tried a few things before but it never really worked. I have used plus lenses in the beggining but it didn't work and it didn't feel good so I stopped it.
Then I came across David's method and the forum and I was very impressed and sticket to it because it made perfect sense to me.
I have started working on several things. Shifting was very interesting and it gave me some clear flashes. Seeing clear through my own eyes was amazing and it made me even more commited to take this whole thing serious.
I don't really have a high degree of myopia (-2.5 left and -2.75 right) and astigmatism that isn't really high but still: I hate wearing glasses and contacts.
I have used most of the time since July practicing because I am waiting to go to university next year and have a lot of time now. I have worn my glasses for about 2 hours in these three months so I am almost 100% abstaining which feels awesome.
I have seen many videos by Greg Marsh and reading through many different posts showed me that my main problem is tension surrounding the eye. I didn't know back than how to release the tension but I kept going. Everyday I practiced several hours because I want this thing as bad as I want to breath.
A few weeks ago I found something very interesting in how to feel the tension. I have read about increasing it and so I did it and for the first time ever I felt a little bit of tension.
Since then a lot changed. I have had some clear flashes before but now they are very often. I however don't know if I am doing everything right. I basically know two ways of "producing" those clear flashes.
The first one is through blinking. I don't blink hard but more in a way of focusing on feeling the eyes. I close them feel my eyes and open them. I do see better but I am not 100% sure if this is a good way of seeing.
The other way I know is to feel tension. Either while closing the eyes or when the eys are open. In the beginning it was really hard to feel the tension at all. I do feel more tension since I have started observing my body and eyes more and it seems that the awareness grows but I am not sure how to use this awareness.
When a clear flash pops up it is most of the time not 100% clear but more like 1 to 1.5 diopters better depending on how the tension is felt.
I feel the tension in my eyes differently. I am aware where the tension is but it really depends on the awareness I am putting into feeling it. Once I feel the tension the clear flashes are pretty stabale and keep existing while blinking light. It is really hard to feel all the tension that is sorrounding the eye and I can only focus on one or two spots at the same time.
The tension is there since a longer time. If I feel the tension it often gets better but it comes back later. I don't know if I should just observe it or if I should try to relax the eyes because it often stays there for minutes.
So how should I deal with this? I am feeling as if I am closer than ever but at the same time I am a little bit afraid that I am doing something wrong. I am wondering if it would be possible to recover to 20/40 till the end of the year so I can pass vision test for the driver license.
One of the major problems seems to be stability. I have read that it is normal to fluctate but I am asking myself how long it takes to stabalize at least a little bit. How long does it take to develop the new habit?
I could put in more time and could work on the stability almost the entire day but I am not sure what to do in specific.
Yeah it seems to be some sort of a healing reaction I guess. A lot of memorys are coming up that I haven't been dealing with before.
The vision often improves and than drops back again and improves again and so on. My eyes also seem to be at a point where the shifting happens automatically. I relaxed and saw better as a result. It furthermore started stinging and got even sharper. I saw about 20/40 a few times but then it fluctates back.
I really hope that this is going to get persistent soon but I feel pretty good about my vision these days.
Not much improvement here but a question about the shifts the eyes perform:
So I am basically feeling the tension around the eyes and sometimes when looking into the distance it clears up and the eyes sting. I know that feeling from consciously shifting but I am not practicing conscious shifting exercises since a few weeks.
Should I keep doing them?
The thing I noticed is that since the very beginning of practicing my eyes improved even though it is not on a constant level and the eyesight fluctates all the time. Observing the tension helps but it doesn't really help to release the tension on a constant level. I have worked a lot with shifting and the reaction of my eyes are not that strong anymore. They mostly occur once I am looking into details.
If I would use the shifting technique again do you think it is going to clear it up? When I get a clear flash the shortsightedness in that very moment is about -1.25 but it mostly stays there and doesn't get clearer than that. Furthermore I am wondering when my eyesight stops fluctuating? It is like that for weeks now and I am honestly wondering if I have to wait till I can clear the eye chart to 20/20 even though I have heard people telling about a partial improvement.
Ok I have changed my way of doing things from the ground up and it seems that those changes might be the most promising ever. Instead of "doing something" with my eyes which seems to be not really useful I tried to use my imagination.
My eyesight is pretty well when looking at known scenery. It is kind of seeing an object and it's blurriness but often starting to clear up. Furthermore I am using the images in my mind that I remember before actually seing it. This I am using combined with my glasses.
I am wearing them and keeping the image in mind. After putting them aside I can see much sharper just through remembering the image.
It seems to be a pretty good method so far but I am not exactly sure how to really build this up. I can see much better but if I am trying to use my imagination when looking at an unfamiliar object it is more difficult. So I am asking myself if it matters if I am not changing the scenery till the scenery is stabale?
do you exercise your eyes by following instructions from particular program based on Dr. Bates method? I have had -2.75 on the left left eye, and -3.00 on the right eye and after 3 months of exercising -1.50 and -2.25. I use exercises for eyes from the program "How to improve eyesight" by Viktor Medvedev. I do stretching, massage and strengthening exercises, but avoid relaxation + warm up exercises so I guess that's why a little signs of astigmatism are still here. Maybe the computer is another reason, not sure.
First of all great progress! It is very encouraging to hear that your sight improved so keep going.
Personally I have stopped using eye exercises. I used them in the beginning but I didn't get results. I did many things and I think I am now on the right track.
What I also realised was that everyone is different so what works for me doesn't necessarily help you and the other way around.
I too have astigmatism and I have thought about that a lot but as you probably know it is a result of your myopia that is in most cases caused through tensed muscles around your eye.
I am not sure if you are more relaxed than before but I would try relaxation. I have tried to relax my eyes but the results were not really what I wanted because they tensed once my attention was gone.
I then thought to myself that basically every muscle is controlled through your mind and brain so that maybe would be good to look into.
What I do now is to combine imagination and relaxed central vision and I have to say that it feels really good. I know how perfect vision feels so I kind of think that this is the right way of doing things.
Yesterday I have had a beautiful clear flash and it felt so free and natural.
I am not sure how you should keep going in particular because finally it is about you as a person. It took me long to believe that just through using the mind right the vision can be so good but is pretty obvious that the mind is that controls your eyes not the other way around.
What I would do if I were you is to try the imagination thing. I couldn't imagine things clear so I knew that this was a very important thing to learn. Why? Because your brain can only let your eyes focus right if the mental picture is clear.
You can do this differently. I started with using my glasses actually. I put them up and kept the image in mind. The more detailed the better. I am able to switch between using my glasses and seeing just using my eyes so it has to do with mental images.
I am now able to imagine many things clearly and it is getting better everyday and so does my sight.
It is kind of a puzzle in which you are searching for what is missing. Your visual system needs to do certain things to work properly. It might be several things. Visualising is great but what I for example need is to imagine the object in front of me and see with central vision. That combined produces great results for me.
I hope this helped you s little. If you have any questions regarding any exercise: ask. I have tried almost eveything you can imagine
Great story and thanks for sharing. You seem to have taken similar part to me in noticing the tension, relaxing and then blinking it out. I also am making what I think is rapid progress but the tension always returns. My clear flashes are getting bigger, wider and see more and more detail. I have a few techniques that work for me and as you say everyone is different and so may not work for others.
I work on a computer all day which doesn't help with my vision. I have made a habit of going for walks especially at the weekend and this is where I get by best flashes.
You didn't mention any breathing in your text and think you should try and add that into your practice. This is a strange one to explain here because I see this part to be key because it then leads into you noticing and releasing and healing that tension. Once you have the breath correct you can literary see the eye improving which you will find occurs mainly on the out breath.
I suggest you google Ujjayi breath. David mention breathing and I see it to be core to any improvement.
12-08-2015, 03:35 AM (This post was last modified: 12-08-2015, 03:37 AM by Martin Kleiner.)
Hi Blue eyes :)
Thank you for mentioning the breathing I am sure this is going to help me even more. The imagination/memory seems to be very critical for me. I am struggling with forgetting what I see and I am most of the time not able to remember perfectly but I started to realise the deeper meaning of the Bates method. I always used the methods presented as something that was like a workout and thought that this is going to bring my perfect sight back but it is more an just that.
And I really believe that this is going to get me where I wanna go. Dodging and shifting the imagination/the image I see is essential to not loose the image but I didn't know that before so this is the only thing that I am doing now. I have asked a friend of mine (he is normal sighted) if he could observe the movements of his eyes while looking at details and he told me that his eyes shifted around very lightly while seeing the small object.
This is exactly what I needed and you know what? I have experienced the same thing while I imagined and saw clear. Reading the article above and the chapter about memory in Bates book shows me that this is where I need to get. He talks about the fact that often people that imagine perfectly suddenly loose their imagination while consciously seeing the object clear.
The patient should then keep the object in his eccentric field and while keeping it there more clearly he is able to get closer and closer till he is able to see it perfectly while looking directly at it. I did that for about half an hour a day since three or four days and I have to say that even though I have not experienced any habitual change yet I hope that I am going to get there very soon. The patient doctor Bates helped was healed from -15 Diopters in about a week.
That sounds crazy but on the other hand we should ask ourselves why this shouldn't be possible? We always think that this is some sort of a training but it actually isn't. It is a change of using our mind. I remember back two or three months when I saw perfectly clear for two hours. I thought that I have got it but even though I did I tried to reproduce that state and it didn't work because I strained again.
I can't really describe what I am doing differently but I believe that you could maybe get some nuggets from trying the "exercise" from above because it can instantly release the tension and if you can maintain the image you see it becomes habitual.
