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+--- Thread: My Vision Journal (/showthread.php?tid=1596)
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 05-31-2011
1. I find that I always seem to swing better when I least expect it. It is quite frustrating to not get the sense of relaxation that I expect when I swing. Now if only I could find a way to eliminate the expectation...
2. I have a variety of "tricks" I use to get the long swing to work better. Sometimes, it helps to imagine the nosefeather thingy; sometimes, an imaginary horizon in the distance; sometimes, I look out through the middle of the visual field and imagine the objects rolling by; sometimes, it's best when the eyes don't feel like they're moving at all. I don't mind having to keep up with all of these little things, even if I do forget and rediscover them from time to time. What bothers me is when none of the aforementioned methods work.
3. Reading is still a work in progress. The trick is being able to interpret the words without having to devote any attention to them, if that makes sense.
Re: My Vision Journal - Nancy - 05-31-2011
Pikachu, a reading trick Peter Grunwald recommended is to pretend you're reading out loud to a child. This will get you to focus more on the meaning than the letters, maybe creating mental pictures of what is being described.
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 05-31-2011
@Nancy: Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to give it a try!
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-01-2011
1. The reading to a child approach works, but only as long as I remember that I'm supposed to be reading to a child! I get the feeling that I've tried this before. Anyway, the trick is not getting too sucked into the reading, which happens to me a lot.
2. I managed to get the sway just right. I was swaying for about thirty minutes and at a couple of points in time, I got a sort of sleepy sensation, which I believe is a sign of relaxation. I was quite excited about it, perhaps too much so, for I quickly left that relaxed state, but I appreciate that I was able to enter said state to begin with.
Re: My Vision Journal - arocarty - 06-03-2011
Hi Pikachu,
With regard to reading, have you given any consideration to the normal illusions often spoken about by Bates? What I'm referring to is the illusion of the halos that surround lines, words, and inside the openings of letters - that slight brightness that stands out from the surrounding white area. I have found it to be very helpful in breaking the habit of concentrating and looking to hard at the text itself. Another one is noticing that the words/letters themselves are not stationary, that they have a slight, constant motion to them when you fixate on any point between saccades (he called it the Optical swing). I know it sounds like another one of those contradictions - a constant motion while fixating. Buts that's what it is, the normal at doesn't want to rest, or remain still when fixating a point. To do so is unnatural, and strenuous. These illusions have help my reading focus and fatigue tremendously. But it does call upon one to use the imagination to perceive it.
Andrew
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-03-2011
@arocarty: I am reasonably with both, but as with most helpful tips, they only work when one remembers to follow them. In the Bates method as a whole, I find myself constantly discovering, forgetting, and re-discovering ways to relax. Thanks for bringing it to my attention again!
To be honest, I have difficulty seeing the halos. It does help though just to pay attention to the white area around the text instead of the text itself. More successful for me has been trying to read slightly below the text ("reading between the lines" so to speak). What I have found most interesting is that I simply cannot read without strain if I try to read quickly (which happens from time to time when I am reading a good book), and, whether I am relaxed while reading or not has a lot to do with whether I'm concentrating on the words or whether I'm just sort of regarding the text as a whole. Just sitting here at my computer and thinking about it has brought about a realization: When I look at objects - trees, buildings, food, etc. - I sort of just notice that it's there. Yet, when I read, I don't see the same way; I sort of concentrate. The key then is to read as if I was looking at any other object.
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-06-2011
1. I had the long swing going for seventy consecutive minutes yesterday. It felt really good afterwards and I had improved vision (is it called a clear flash or is a clear flash usually closer to 20/20?) during most of the seventy minutes. I also noticed that it felt quite "fun" to see afterwards - don't know how else to explain it. I also had two other stints of about fifteen minutes later in the day, with lesser results. It seems that swinging is more effective during the morning. The key to my success? I used a pointer (my two fingers) that helped me notice the swing better. Before, I felt that it was sort of like "training wheels on a bike" and refused to accept the pointer, but by accepting the pointer yesterday, I was able to make some improvement.
2. I was also quite frustrated with my lowered vision during other parts of the day (yesterday) and even part of today, and I know that it's not at all beneficial to be frustrated, but I was and I think that it helps for me to come out and say it. I try not to get all crazy over little fluctuations in the vision, but it is so hard after I've seen the improvement already. I guess I'll learn to overcome this problem soon.
Re: My Vision Journal - arocarty - 06-07-2011
Hi Pikachu,
I think Bates might have once referred to it as 'flashes of clearer vision', which is probably a better way to capture any level of improved vision. Any level of improved vision is a success, in my estimation, because it's movement in the right direction, even if only of a short duration. I don't really experience that anymore, since I now spend most of the day in the 20/20 range, with small fluctuations for the better or slightly worse (originally I was around -3, half of that astigmatism). So for me it's more like going from a standard television, to a high definition one when I can completely release and relax any and all tensions.
In reading your journal, you've learned an incredible amount in a very short period of time, and I don't think it's unusual for one to learn quicker on an intellectual level than an experiential level. We have to remember that anything we do from a mechanical standpoint is all aimed at relaxing the mind, which in turn will help release tension. Then vision just happens, we need do nothing else. Seeing clearer/clearly is definitely exciting, and fun. Poor vision is such a drag, it saps something out of the fun of life, for sure. Just thinking of our strain, and all the different ways we strain IS a strain, so it's definitely more beneficial to keep our minds off it, and on positive things. When I feel strain I try to remember things from my past, my younger years, when I did have normal sight, how easy and effortless it felt. I try to forget about how the 25 years of poor sight felt. It's not always easy when it's been such a big part of our life. But you have a new thing going on now, which can trump all that. It will all seem fleeting at first, but eventually we learn how to maintain it. Really think about how you felt during that episode of clearer vision - did anything feel different, in your head, the rest of your body - like something let go? We get so distracted by our improved vision that we miss the vital signs of what brought it about, and can bring it about repeatedly.
Keep at it, you are doing great.
Andrew
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-07-2011
@arocarty: Thanks for your encouragement! Sometimes I wonder if I perhaps learned TOO much. I don't know if anyone here is a baseball fan, but it really reminds me of pitchers.
Typically, pitchers want a strong fastball and one or two breaking pitches - like a slider, curveball, or change-up. However, it turns out that many pitchers who have just the one or two breaking pitches do better than those with three or four (or even more), simply because these pitchers occasionally suffer from having too many options! I feel like that sometimes: Should I notice the swing or my breathing? Should I search for details or move my whole head in a long swing fashion? Should I think about a happy moment or a black period?
It's kind of interesting because your post got me thinking. Is there a pattern to my improved vision? Well, my optimums are when I eat without paying any attention to how I see, and when I shower (though this one is possibly related to the moisture level). Swinging and sunning also improve the vision temporarily, though not always the case. It would seem to me that my vision improves when I take it off of "overload" mode. When I just tell myself to do one thing ("best") and ignore the rest of my thoughts, the vision improves a bit. Then there comes the temptation to nitpick and make minor (and likely irrelevant) adjustments here and there, or to try something else at the same time.
I'm generally satisfied with how I do the long swing, so I'll just stick with it and see what comes of it.
Re: My Vision Journal - arocarty - 06-10-2011
Pikachu,
Yes, good perception. It's very easy to overload and strain as a result, too. The goal of all the Bates techniques is relief. When it becomes laborious, it can't also at the same time be a relief, relief from the chronic tension/strain underwhich we are already struggling.
Bates had an arsenal of techniques, because patients often responded to things differently, some didn't respond to any. Finding something that clicked with them and gave them relief, even momentary, was the challenge. If you can master one technique, that is really all that is necessary, but it may not always be the one you expect. I spent years throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it, but never expected that something as simple as that day when, with no expectation, just closing my eyes and resting my mind and eyes brought about one of my most powerful Bates experiences. I wish I had spent more time with that so much sooner, but as is typical, I wanted to blast it out with more direct force.
It could also be some unique variation of a technique that brings YOU relief. But the principle is always the same, regardless of the technique or variation - to facilitate relief. In one of his magazines, Bates tells of a girl with a high degree of myopia who had difficulty for many months trying all the different ways to find some way to get improvement in her vision. They finally found a swing method that worked - a rectangular swing pattern that for some odd reason clicked with her. When you find that something that clicks with you, you will know.
If just doing the same swing gets tedious, don't be afraid to throw a little variation into it, even just swinging with the eyes closed can bring relief. Or a combination of opening & closing while swinging. You mentioned that you felt something positive when you were practicing some blinking - I would encourage you to keep working with blinking/breathing, but maybe try different patterns/variations of slower blinks, with longer durations when the eyes are closed. I've watched a lot of people with normal sight, and like to study their blinks. Sometimes they blink so slowly, lazily, with very long durations when their eyes are closed.( a couple seconds or more). When starting out, I think it's better to not keep your eyes open for more than a couple seconds, and when open, to immediately shift a couple times so as to avoid the compulsion to stare. I like to practice while timing it with breathing. I think we are most relaxed on an exhale, so I time the opening of the eyes just at the end of the exhale, and close them on the inhale.
Blinks are often coupled with a shift, in normal sight too. A blink-shift, so to speak, where the blink is just before the onset of the shift. A good habit to get into, as it helps add many more blinks into our everyday seeing.
Andrew
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-10-2011
@arocarty: Hm, I actually haven't given blinking much thought for quite some time now. I'll look into it again.
It's nice to know that my experience isn't a unique one. I feel like I'm in one huge maze, and I keep running in circles!
As always, I appreciate your words of encouragement very much!
Re: My Vision Journal - arocarty - 06-11-2011
I just mention that because you seemed to have some positive things to say about it back around December.... then seemed to get away from it. I would say to anyone, never underestimate the effectiveness of just closing the eyes and taking a couple deep breaths. When our eyes are closed, it helps us to take better stock of what's going on internally.
Andrew
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-11-2011
Yeah, I tried it again yesterday and it seemed to reasonably successful. You were right: blinking during the exhale was considerably easier than doing it during the inhale. There wasn't too much improvement in the vision from doing this, which is probably why I sort of strayed from it earlier. I'm feeling a bit more relaxed from blinking though, so maybe I just haven't mastered it yet.
Closing the eyes is refreshing, but only if I'm already very strained, or not strained at all! (Weird, I know) And I seem to start straining again after two or three seconds, which I'm guess has something to do with the fact that I start to think about other things.
Re: My Vision Journal - JWLBOYCE - 06-12-2011
Hi - it sounds like you are doing great
I have been listening to some of Greg Marsh's cds called the secerrs to reclaiming your vision. In that he says that when you swing, just letoppositional movement happen, either with your eyes open or closed - he emphasises it a lot especially when doing a short swing.
He also made an interesting point that is you are far sighted, small text is really good for you to read, as it would be easier for you to diffuse of the letters are large.
With regards to "letting go of your eyes" he suggests using a nose paintbrush, whch feels to texture of what you are looking at rather than just seeing it - for me it has been great.
Hope this helps,
James
Re: My Vision Journal - Pikachu - 06-14-2011
@JWLBOYCE: Nice to see that you're back!
Interesting comment there about oppositional movement. A question: How does oppositional movement manifest itself when the eyes are closed? I cannot even begin to imagine how the black can move opposite that of the movement of the eyes.
I haven't tried the nose paintbrush in quite some time now, and I'm not sure when I plan to try it again. It didn't work all that well when I tried it the first time, so I'm going to give it some time before trying it again.
1. I've managed to pretty muchs synchronize my breathing and blinking so that I blink right when I start to exhale. I just have to remember to breathe now! I've also tried David's suggestion of imagining a point during a blink. It's a little more difficult, but I hope to keep at it.
2. Vision is still about the same, with the usual fluctuations. Patience...