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+--- Thread: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test (/showthread.php?tid=1430)
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I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Bob - 03-03-2010
Hey Folks,
I've done it. I passed my driver's licence test. Heh, it took 3.5 years, but I did it. During this past 3.5 years I have not practiced the Bates methods as religiously as I should have, and I know that my progress could have been faster, but I did it -- err, passed my Drivers Licence test.
I started out with worse than 20/200 vision in my right eye, and about 20/100 in my left. I had worn glasses for 36 years, since I was 8 years old. when I first started I made pretty quick progress, but started to slow down after awhile -- again, this is because I wasn't as diligent at practicing good vision habits as I should have done. I made a few posts to this web site back in 2006 when I started, then dropped off. Not because I wasn't interested, but instead because, you know, I was just plugging along.
Some people seem to regain great vision quickly, like in a matter of a year or two, or even a few months. For me, it's gone slower, but it still does work, you just have to be patient, optimistic and keep going.
Now, I'll just keep plugging away until I have 20/10 vision, which is my goal.
For those of you who are going to to this, I have some advise that I've learned the hard way. Please don't make the same mistakes I did.
1) DON'T CHECK YOUR VISION ON EYE CHARTS, LICENCE PLATES, LABELS OR ANY OTHER THING THAT YOU INVENT, ALL THE TIME!!! The only thing this accomplishes is it reenforces in your mind/subconscious that you don't see well yet. You mind is a VERY obedient servant and if you're constantly reminding yourself (by anally "testing" your vision) that you don't see as well, then your mind will say, "okay, I don't see well."
Of course you should check your progress occasionally -- preferably on a weekend morning when you are relaxed. So buy an eye chart and hang it up somewhere so you can. BUT you only need to check your vison once a week maximum, and I'd say once an month is plenty. Other than that, turn the eye chart to the wall so you can't see it.
2) REMEMBER, YOU ONLY NEED TO PRACTICE GOOD VISION HABITS WHEN YOUR EYES ARE OPEN.
This is the one and only thing that need concern you, BUT NOT STRESS YOU. You need to practice good vision habits at all times. Think of your day's activities and find ways to practice good vision habits when doing all of them. You won't be good at first, but keep working at it and you'll get better. Just remember, you CAN"T make yourself see well, so your visual acuity is NOT your concern. But you vision habits ARE. But also, don't STRESS about your habits, just remember to nudge them along when you find yourself staring, etc.
3) BE OPTIMISTIC.
This method does work! But at the same time, it's not always easy. There will be plenty of experts, family and friends who will be happy to crush you dream and your ideas. Don't listen to the croakers who don't know anything. For me, self hypnosis has helped immensely both in helping me practice good habits and staying optimistic.
4) LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR FEARS AND STRESS
Sure, there are those whose stress does not affect their vision, so they can be stress monkeys and still see better than 20/20. But the days that they'll be able to do this are numbered, someday their mind will connect the two. And for you, those days of thinking stress does not effect you (and your vision) are long past. Stress, anxiety, fear, all of those things really ARE connected to your vision (and your temper, happiness, job/school performance and everything else!). Again, for me self hypnosis has really helped. But whatever method you use, don't neglect this or you won't succeed. Imagine someone who is obese trying to loose 50 pounds of fat and keeping it off -- while being depressed, negative and stressed and the same time. What do you think their chances of success would be? Zip, nadda and zero are some of the correct answers. Itâs the same thing with you and your vision.
In the end remember, you're doing something great, Something that may be far from easy, something that is so far beyond most people's perceived possibilities that you might as well say you're going to fly to the moon. You can't help all of them out of their self imposed cages. But for some odd reason, many people will have an active interest in making sure you stay in your cage. Don't let them. Smile, be optimistic, be kind (even to the nay sayers) be PATIENT, and live well. This is a tremendous thing to do. Imagine learning to not stress about your vision, which, in turn, will teach you to not stress about anything else either, and THAT is a GREAT gift and ability, easily worth the great effort is takes to obtain it.
Bob
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Bob - 03-03-2010
One more thing!
Iâve found that if I MAKE myself Sketch, Swing, etc. it seems to also make my vision feel tense in short order also. So donât do that. What I mean by always practicing good vision habits is to RELAX, and LET YOUR FOCUS AND VISION MOVE AROUND. It seems like your vision âwantsâ to anyway. You just have to figure out how to LET it. You still need to practice Central Fixation and Movement, just donât tensely MAKE yourself practice Central Fixation and Movement
Relax, and "let your vison go.â Pay attention to the small things it likes to jump around to â if that makes any sence.
Bob
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Nancy - 03-04-2010
Bob,
GOOD for you! I hope you had yourself a big party after passing the test. Thanks for taking the time to post for those of us who are still plugging along.
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - sorrisiblue - 03-05-2010
Hi Bob, congrats! That's fantastic news!
Thanks for posting it here, it's one of the best success stories, I think. I'm still 'plugging away'. Your tips are really good, and yes, what you wrote in your second post about letting the focus move around and letting the eyes do central fixation instead of making them do it did make a lot of sense. It put words to something I've been noticing about my clear flashes lately, so thanks for that.
I hope you add to this thread as your vision continues to improve even more!
Sorrisi
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Alexndre - 03-05-2010
Congratulation Bob!
As you probably know, by being here, you are a model for a lot of peoples!
I agree with what you say but for not checking your snellen, it depends. If you are in a clear flash mindset, looking at chart/plates will often bring a clear flash, but if you get depressed by what you see, I completely agree with you that you shouldn't rely on the chart too much. By practicing enough, it's sure that everyone will improve, but some don't want to acknowledge that the process may take some time.
These days, my sight is really good and I have tons of clear flashes, so maybe I'll have my story here soon, who knows?
Have a nice day of improvements!
-Alexandre
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - David - 03-06-2010
Bob, all good points. You've done good work with yourself. I can tell from the way you write about it that you have a really good handle on what this is all about.
If anyone's going to use an eye chart, I recommend they use it to get in front of for at least 1/2 hour as they experiment and get good feedback on how well they're doing in the moment as they learn to look at the letters in the right way. It gives really good feedback, because you can tell very small changes in focus with it. But just checking or testing your vision, like you say, is likely only going to lead to frustration when just used as a test. Bates recommended reading the chart each day, but I suspect he had in mind actually reading the eye chart from top to bottom and not just glancing at it and saying immediately "too bad, I still can't read line 4." The idea was partly to become familiar with it so that you can look at it more casually and not think of it as a test to dread. And for people like kids whose vision problems are only just on the onset or very minor, the feedback may be enough to get them to instinctively do things right.
If you never give up, you never fail.
Dave
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - clarknight - 03-06-2010
I love this forum!
This is one of the main reasons I read it, always someone telling a positive experience and teaching us.
Variety of relaxation experiences that have worked for each individual.
I have recommended this forum to two new Bates students.
I know they will recieve benefit here.
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - clarknight - 03-12-2010
Bob did 'on his own' what vision improvement teachers state: to practice, then let the eyes alone, don't try hard to practice shifting...let the eyes move, function on their own. Thats completely natural.
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Summer - 03-22-2010
That's some great organization you've collected there. I wish the best for your future CLEAR life. That's probably one of the more inspiring stories I've seen.
Thanks tremendously for sharing it!
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Mzero - 03-25-2010
I passed my drivers license test when I was 18 and later when I was 21 and I had to renew. I just guessed my way through. My vision was somewhere around 20/60 to 20/100. Where I live you need 20/40, I think, and youre good to go. In germany you have to have 20/20.
You see with your mind, your intuition. The eyes simply follow. I remember driving at night and hardly see anything.
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - spydermann - 03-27-2010
congrats Bob!
I like what you say about how visual HABITS are our responsibility, not the acuity. I so often "Test" my vision on things and feel that draining reinforcement of the fact that i cant see... but what you said has turned blur from evidence of failure to more of an opportunity for clarity!
So now that you look back on the past few years of gaining clarity visually - do you feel like you've gained clarity in other aspects of life? Like more clarity in your relationships and in your emotions, ect.?
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - marcdeleeuw - 04-07-2010
Hello,
It is great for me to read this succes stories of people practising the Bates method. I 've practised this Method for the past two years. And this method is very succesful in my case. One of the most important things I've learned is that having worried thoughts about seeing en trying to see are wrong. Let nature do it's own thing, forgot the eyes, forgot your eyesight. That's it, in my case. Sometimes when I fall back into strain, little shifting or deeply breathing, or both, are helpful.
The first year I was hardly trying to see with the Bates method all over the day, continuously thinking about my eyes. Very wrong! Now I have removed my worried thoughts by experiencing the nature is doing his own thing: providing clear eyesight.
My eyesight is still improving. A fascinating process!
Marc
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Bob - 05-01-2010
Thanks for all the feedback you guys. Some of you have asked me to keep you posted on how Iâm doing, so here is some more feedback. In short, my eyes are better than ever. A couple of weeks ago I flipped my Snellen Chart over on a Saturday morning when I was all nice and relaxed, and lo and behold, I could see about 1/3 of the letters on the 20/20 line, which is pretty good for me.
So, not much to say I guess other than Iâm still slowly improving. I guess that if I had to make one GREAT BIG POINT from my experience with this whole Bates Method/Vision Improvement thing it is this: some people improve slowly, but they DO improve. That has been my experience, so if you are like me, donât sweat it and donât worry about it. It is what it is. Come this July 6th it will be 4 years that Iâve doing this, I bet there are those on this forum who have been doing it longer, so the key for us slow leaks is to be patient, optimistic and enjoy life.
Thanks again for all your positive thoughts!
Bob
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - Bob - 09-07-2010
Spyderman,
Heh, sorry for the late reply. The answer to your question is, YES, I have found the bates method -- and learning about my mind in general -- has changed many things about my outlook on life. The Bates methods helped me understand that the mind's well being should not be negleted. Previously, I thought the only thing you should do for your "mind" was try to learn new things (languages, math, whatever) and that was all you could do to work with, and take care of, your mind.
But Bates taught me that the mind is so much more. The emotional state with which you comfront the world is so very important. Not only because your emotions affect your decisions, but even more so, because your emotions and attitudes affect your health.
Bates led me to give self hypnosis a try, which has helped me greatly too. I'm still on the path of exploreing my mind, and I am still very much a novice. But hey, I can leagally drive now without glasses, my blood pressure is slowly lowering, my confidence in my future is increasing, and all things are getting better. I beleive the Bates method has helped me along this path by making me aware of my mind, and opening my eyes to a whole new world of possiblity.
Bob
Re: I Passed My Driver's Licence Test - JMartinC4 - 09-07-2010
Bob Wrote:Spyderman, Bates led me to give self hypnosis a try, which has helped me greatly too. I'm still on the path of exploreing my mind, and I am still very much a novice. But hey, I can leagally drive now without glasses, my blood pressure is slowly lowering, my confidence in my future is increasing, and all things are getting better. I beleive the Bates method has helped me along this path by making me aware of my mind, and opening my eyes to a whole new world of possiblity. BobBob - Great to read of your success; I am interested in the self-hypnosis that you tried. What can you tell us about it?