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+--- Thread: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal (/showthread.php?tid=2217)
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 01-24-2013
Day 107-117
Hey guys, after contemplating everything about vision improvement and going back to the basics once more, I think I have finally stumbled upon what bates was talking about. Interestingly enough, this all happened when I was thinking about what perfect imagination went and I thought about how it should be something that happens very quickly without any pushing. Around that time I realize that the easiest way I imagine things happens with me almost all the time!
I realized for the first time that my daydreaming habit could be put to good use! I realized that because daydreaming comes unbidden without provocation, I could utilize it in such a way that I could use to it to help me stop straining. Because of this almost accidental relief I got, it really made me start to understand what exactly my strain is like, and what actions cause it.
At this point I definitely see what bates was saying when he said "Myopia is cause by effort to see in the distance." At this point, I have gotten
better at distancing myself from that frame of mind such that there is much less tension. However, this definitely requires the proper state of mind, if you are still trying to put forth an additional effort or try to force it to happen you will have limited success much like what I have experienced up until not.
Now, I get clear flashes around 20/30 or better quite frequently and for longer periods when I rest. And the best part is that it doesn't make me feel more strained, it feels like better vision actually requires LESS effort or toil than blurry vision but the nervous habits think that straining is necessary or the normal state, and you have to be able to catch yourself in your thinking and relax instead (without forcing the relaxing of course).
When you find yourself straining, stop immediately, close your eyes and start paying attention to whatever is going through your mind becoming aware and letting the thoughts come easier and easier without exerting control of it. This is the easiest way for me to do it and I can even do it with my eyes open if I pay attention to what thought are in mind and let them relax me.
Notes
Straining is like deliberately twitching or stretching the eye muscles because you don't have confidence in them or are afraid that you won't see something so you compensate by pushing the eye muscles. this is the exact opposite of what you want to do.
Vision problems are a functional problem because the vision is affected by how you respond (or react in this case) to the world around you or even the eyes themselves.
Successful Vision "practice" is... You are distracting yourself from the act or process of strain, or sometimes not even thinking about it at all. Instead, you can simply be aware of the thoughts and daydreams going through your head and by doing so you allow yourself to relax. The key here is to be aware and conscious about it, but not forcing it in any which direction. Basically experiencing whatever is happening at the moment.
You must be very familiar with what strain feels like to you and what thoughts/action cause it. For me its a constriction in and around the eye muscles, which can escalate to painful if I am trying to force the issue too much (another thing to avoid).
THE GOAL IS TO ATTAIN REST OF THE EYES AND MIND! bates emphasized this the most for a reason, the easiest and least painful way of improving the vision is to learn what you are doing to strain and then laying back and figuring out how to get rest from the strain. Resting from the strain should eventually get to the point where you find that the habit becomes rest rather than strain. That is when I believe that the cure will be permanent.
This is the culmination of what I have learned so far, I may be slightly off base but I think I am very close. After I get a permanent increase I will clarify and understand this better.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 01-30-2013
Days 118-123
Demonstration practice of understanding
It seems that I am finally able to demonstrate to an extent what based was talking about "what parts seen best" which he meant very literally. If I relax and slowly shift from point to point on letters without provoking strain symptoms, I can get the space of about 2-3 words or so to be black and distinct while the rest of the vision is indistinct like white or is like a blur.
I will be practicing each maxim to see if I can demonstrate them, now that I understand what strain is, how it manifests and to some extent what I do to cause it, I can take care not to do that while you practice which is a huge help. Also, understanding that these maxims and practices are to assist you in getting relief changes how you approach vision practice entirely. I was so thick headed before that I did not truly understand that until very recently, once I did I started to have an easier time of things.
This time around, I have a TON of notes, I feel like I should write it all out however since they are they best I have made to date.
Notes
Before I begin, note that some of this stuff may be reiteration on previous points or are repeats, but that this is the way I take notes.
-A successful exercise that I do which gives good results- Central fixate in the imagination by thinking of something or an image without pushing. Let your attention move from part of the image to the next, imagine that you see this point best, ignoring the rest of the image.
The attention should be away from the eyes and no tension of stress should result from picking out points. Ensure that you aren't holding the image stationary as that causes a strain and that at all times the center of your attention is on a piece that it imagined to be seen best. The rest of the images should only have a vague feeling of being there. This exercise is easiest to do with whatever you happen to be thinking about at the time, be sure to simply explore what is there rather than trying to force a particular outcome, this will cause the exercise to fail.
"change the way you imagine, change the vision"
-You don't/can't see everything at once, take your time with each image. Practice shifting over shorter distances mentally (shifting is just moving your attention to different parts of things as they are, that's it). Imagine that each shift is easier than the last. Proper shifting can be done without fatigue.
-State of mind is king when it comes to the vision. Strain is a lack of composure.
!-It should be noted that above all else, all practices and thought processes should be done without using force of effort to try and force better performance or speed things up. This will actually make it hard to perform even simple tasks without anger,annoyance and fatigue.
Practice Ideas
-Imagine yourself touching points of an object with your fingers.
-Get the feeling of the image in relation to where in space it is, the feel its presence one part at a time. Feeling the images helps you keep them in mind for longer periods and helps the visualization get deeper.
-For exercises with the period, imagine that you are placing the dot on the piece of a letter or image with your finger or have thrown some object into the piece of the image. Shift from side to side of the object imagining parts to be more black. This helps guide the mind to the target image and get a concrete feeling of its location in space.
Note: Regaining a proper sense of distance and awareness of space seems to be crucial or at least effects vision improvement greatly.
so does a proper "sense" of movement, which the swing with proper imagination, central fixation or swings, attention combined with relaxation can provide.
-Feel your body move and interact with your imagination. This will change how you experience it and will give different results.
More notes
-Understanding is developed more quickly you exhibit proper rest and central fixation+movement on whatever problem field you are involved in.
-The whole system is at rest when the whole being is relaxed (ie. no obstructions in bloodflow, neural response, etc.) and the awareness in on that one very small things, feeling or point, and the consciously shifting on it. Your awareness on the space around the object as the mind stays focused on the place or space of the imagined object and the attention will cause the image to move.
-The imagination will hone in or prefer smaller points because they secure more rest.
-Those uncomfortable feelings in your stomach fluids, tension in the muscles,etc are physical manifestations of strain.
-To cure vision problems, notice and ask yourself... What physical symptoms in various parts of the body do I feel when I try hard at something, put lots of effort into something,etc. To help with this, deliberately strain or note the strain when looking at blurry objects and intensify them so you will notice what your strain symptoms are.
-Palming serves as a way to check the progress of your rest/relaxation. That is, the degree of black that you see is the indicator of level of relaxation.
What I am going to be doing is essentially this: Keep refining my understanding, reading the material and using the imagination to help me understand it as I refine my knowledge and experiment until I can demonstrate understanding and get the desired effect (better vision, rest,etc).
Next post I will summarize what I currently think about vision and what I am going to do to regain clear vision.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 01-31-2013
Day 124
I keep generating more and more notes. I feel like I finally understanding a lot of this, I need to follow my own advice and work on demonstrating it in practice. Considering that this is the last day of January, I haven't met my goal of permanent improvement yet. But what I have done is gained understanding of what strain is, what strain feels like to me mentally and physically and have learned the progression on how to improve the vision easier and put bates work into better perspective than before. I know now that it is only a matter of time before my first permanent improvement, I mean it this time.
Every time I go outside I get sharp clear flashes easier than before and have come to understand why I get them, and why I haven't been able to get any permanent improvements as of yet. Its been a very long and tough process, but I am finally getting things down and should be able to explain this in a way that others don't have nearly as much trouble as I did.
I think this time I am going to write out the summaries I made of my current understanding.
This is the order I think things should be done in, as it makes things easier. Keep in mind that these are all interrelated and that my understanding still isn't perfect (after all, if it was I would have perfect vision right now). So keep in mind that it is a work in progress.
Notes
1. Identify strain symptoms
2. Identify what actions and thoughts/attitudes cause strain symptoms
3. Discontinue habits that cause strain symptoms. (or let yourself rest from them, as it is crucial that this happens for the vision to improve)
4. Practice proper vision habits (bates method maxims)
However, these directions imply that you can demonstrate what bates was talking about, which is quite difficult. This is especially so when you are continually trying to force things along in a certain way, or have a stress state of mind, do weird things with your eyes, etc.
In my own experience, one of the things that holds me back the most is Chronic anxiety in relation to vision or simply about the world around me. The anxious state of mind and the anxious way that I act seems to highly contributes to my strain symptoms. Much of this seems to stem from lack of confidence, and the fear reaction to not seeing something well and the panic induced actions that I do (strain) which causes symptoms that are very negative (strain symptoms). This takes so much energy from me that it becomes hard to even do simple task without getting exhausted. Not from the tasks mind you, but from the anxiety and fear. Vision only improves when I relax, am more receptive and perceptive and don't panic every second I don't see something clearly (it is literally a conditioned response at this point).
I think my new found understanding can help me deal with this, especially since I understand that this line of thinking is what keeps me from permanent improvements and truly experiencing life for what it is.
exercise ideas:
-become aware of all types of movements during the day, instead of trying to force or imagine a swing or movement, try noticing what movement is already occurring. I find this to be quite reassuring and relaxing.
-Rest (suspend additional effort to see and relax until there are no strain symptoms) THEN mentally shift while you rest the eyes/nerves.
Don't freak out if you don't see something clearly immediately, instead stay rested and let the attention wander at smaller points on what you are looking at.
In summary:
-stop the obsession, let go of the strain/stress,be patient and let the attention be drawn to smaller details (or gently guiding your attention mentally while letting go of more and more tension).
-The eye will adjust on its own as long as you don't interfere with it (strain) or try to force it to do something it can't.. things such as...
ex: mentally trying to see larger than a small point all the time, trying to force the attention to stay on one spot or move the attention force fully).
-As vision practice is concerned, you can only easily guide the attention with your mind, relaxing as much tension and or extra effort as possible. This way, you can use the bates method to re-educate the visual system by giving the mind the right instructions and using the attention to see smaller and smaller points (by relaxation, more on that later). Bates method will re-educate the visual system, assuming you don't try to force it along or go about it in a way that intensifies the strain symptoms.
-I think this is where people have so much trouble with vision improvement, they can't get it through their heads that improving the vision is a simple relaxation process combined with looking at things in easier and more natural ways. That is all that it is. Its not similar to physical exercise where you exert force to get stronger (and even then I would argue that you would benefit more from it the more relaxed you are during exercise. Learning should be a gradual, pleasant process that is done patiently, rather than a painful process where you exert tons of extra force that only ends up making the whole process a lot slower, harder and much more painful (maybe even impossible in some cases).
or
Rest-Right frame of mind-Right instructions= Right sight.
That's all for now, today I have actually come up with something more than this, but want to test it out for today to see what I can accomplish with it before posting. Take care everybody, and if you have questions or comments or just want to chat I would be more than willing to oblige.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - lou_deg - 01-31-2013
Tsukiomi Wrote:Don't freak out if you don't see something clearly immediately, instead stay rested and let the attention wander at smaller points on what you are looking at.I like this point. Eyes at rest are not still but are actively moving about. I'm curious if there is a need for larger movements, like long swings or eye muscle stretches?
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Nancy - 01-31-2013
Similar to what others have said (Pikachu at least, I think), I was so determined to avoid the evil dreaded stare that I jerked my gaze across the room as soon as I thought I was staring. This is too much (my tendency is to over-do). Just slight movements are enough to avoid a stare. Wish I'd known this a few years ago. The more I learn about healthy vision habits, the easier and more gentle they seem to me.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Pikachu - 02-01-2013
Yeah, I suppose larger eye movements are okay if it's part of conscious practice, as it helps to notice the effects of shifting and whatnot, but if it's something that happens subconsciously in situations that don't make sense, then it is worth trying to eliminate the bad habit.
I should mention that I have found several similarly bad habits since then: the tendency to avoid a person's gaze when I am not talking to him/her, the tendency to avoid making eye contact in an elevator, the tendency to stare at something when I am waiting for it to change (like a traffic light). These all seem to be based on some underlying fear or worry (e.g. fear of interacting negatively with others, fear of not noticing when something happens, etc.).
On a somewhat related note, I'd like to mention that I have already gotten over my need to look at the next step when going up or down stairs. I don't necessarily close my eyes all the time (it looks funny), but I am able to do so without any problems. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is possible to replace these bad habits with good ones as long as you really want to.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Nancy - 02-01-2013
Pikachu, yes, I am noticing more confidence on steps myself, not as much as on flat ground but a lot more than I used to have. My alarm meter when I was on stairs used to be pretty high. With traffic lights, I used this to prove to myself that my peripheral vision works fine. I would deliberately scan something to the side of the light, and then when the light changes realize I do notice it with no problem even though I wasn't looking directly at it. This took several tries for me to get it but now is not a problem either. I trust my vision to see what I need to see, more and more.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 02-05-2013
Days 125-129
A very productive few days, I have been able to frame vision improvement in a such a way that I find myself understanding it much better. I have been working on understanding the mental side of vision improvement and what is required along those ends. I will write more of that sometime this week or sooner if I get another breakthrough. It mainly about how we experience the world and respond to it.
I have also printed out all the sections of bates Better Eyesight Magazines labeled "demonstrate" and have been working to see which things I can demonstrate and to what extent I can demonstrate them. Looking at vision improvement from a demonstration perspective has helped me understand much more about the mindset involved and how you apply it.
Notes on demonstrations
Due to somewhat of a workload, I have only been able to do a few over the last couple of days but these are my results.
-At the near point, I seem to be able to demonstrate that I can see one word darker and more distinct than the rest of the page.
-I can also demonstrate that when palming I can see a sort of soft static all over the vision and a occasional flashes of various indistinct colored blobs. According to bates this is because I have mental strain.
I plan to over the next few days see if I can demonstrate central fixation over shorter points/areas at different distances. The weird thing is, I distinctly remember having this static and colors as a kid, but at that point I had better than 20/20 vision. I also distinctly recall seeing floaters when looking up at the sky when I was 4 years old or so, but at the same time being able to see an apartment number down a large hill perfectly(must have been at least 100 years).
Upon further study of what this "static" that I see to a minor extent during the day and a much more noticeable extent at night or in the dark is called "visual snow." I'm sure bates would say it has to do something with mental tension, or "imperfect" imagination. Unfortunately not much is known about the condition, but at this point I think its neurological and I can probably recondition it like I can with visual acuity. If solving my myopia issue doesn't solve the visual snow issue, then I'll write about that and spend some time problem solving to identify the cause and remedy.
Next I'll be playing around with my state of mind and type of attention to see how it affects my vision. Looks promising.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 02-08-2013
Days 130-132
I know I have been posting far more often lately, I have been far more productive than I have been over the last month and a half or so. Its one discovery after another, it becomes easier and easier to frame this problem, my questions about it and my thoughts on it the more I work on it.
Again, I will make a summary of my notes as I have over 10 pages from the last 3-4 days (half a notebook is full). I find that keeping a notebook allows me to advance my ideas far more quickly, and intend to do some freenoting to see if I can get even further. I feel like I am on the cusp of getting permanent improvement for the first time in quite a while, any ideas or comments would be much appreciated.
Please understand that these notes are guidelines of sorts to myself based on my experiences with vision, and will be a work in progress until I gain full understanding of the process.
Notes
"vision is influenced by how you interact with your experiences,thoughts and feelings in the world and within the mind"
exercise idea: Learn how to lessen the glare from bright object (street lamps,sunlight,etc)
New concept: Pressure
For me, pressure causes the greatest strain. This pressure is the kind of pressure that you generate when you feel like you have to do something well, quickly, in a particular way,etc. This pressure creates a great and unmanageable strain, which drains my energy whenever it is present during any type of activity (thus making it hard to complete things).
The pressure starts out mental and quickly can become physical (similar to how you can feel nervousness in your stomach). The additional effort that pressure takes, causes me to freeze. I lose the ability to think straight and my energy plummets.
All this pressure is self generated, it became a habit right when I got my painful eye twitch and try to force it away (the wrong thing to do). This issue is that if you are a myope for long enough, pressuring yourself becomes the only way you know how to do things and it creates an unnecessary level of anxiety on even the simplest things at its worst.
on imagination
Imagination is a simulation of a memory or an idea, involve yourself in the simulation as if it was actually occurring right now.
-Imagine something as if you see it perfectly with your own eyes. Don't push or pull on the eye muscles or give extra pressure, if you are seeing better don't do anything with the eyes as a reaction, this will soon ruin the improvement.
-Imagine in the way you would like to see, and mentally that will become the norm and reality will come to reflect it. (this requires patience however, since imagining clearly requires you to be at a greater degree of rest.
-One goal for the imagination is imagining the experience as restful as you imagine demonstrating what bates talked about (demonstrations).
-Remember that all strain is unnecessary for good and normal visual performance. See without ANY extra effort.
-While doing vision exercises, consciously put less and less effort(pressure on yourself) into doing it and easily focus on what you are doing.
-Its important to note the following: Improved vision requires less effort, is less straining, is more restful and is done with no pressure and thus is less taxing on the visual system. The first instinct is for the myope is to strain once there is an improvement in attempt to "keep" improvements. This ironically causes improvements to go away and strain symptoms will develop.
-As vision exercises are concerned, do whatever is LESS straining on the visual system. Less strain/pressure=more rest which= better, easier vision.
On strain
Strain or stress is feedback from your visual system that you are doing something wrong or pushing too hard to do something that requires no pushing. Thus, whatever you do or stop doing to lessen these things, is a rest for the strained visual system.
Is it securing more rest, lessening strain symptoms and not producing them? if no then what you are doing is a strain.
My experience of Central fixation
"Its like a laser beam of centered attention comes from the forehead, and this small spot at the center of your forehead is the only thing that sees or is used to see" Imagine that you can only see an area as large as this point and let it move with your attention, you attention centered on this point, seeing best from this point,etc.
On rest
Rest requires you to face the strain, uncomfortable feelings, etc. initially and be uncomfortable while you consciously relax more and more. A certain level of acceptance is required, as it only makes it worse to try to force the uncomfortable feeling away.
New state of my vision improvement theory
I am now convinced that all bates exercises are useless unless they are used to help attain or are in conjunction with securing rest.
When dealing with strain, you need to approach the act of vision with less pressure or effort to see to do what you are doing in a easier and more natural way.
Rest means that you have freedom from and do not generate strain symptoms. Ironically vision improvement comes with doing less about the vision or doing less things to see. (as bates said, effort to see spoils the sight).
Dodge the instinct to make effort to see. Instead imagine what the vision experience should be like and experience that imagination as if it was happening right now.
Don't try to tackle everything at once. Take things one part at a time, and let this thought or part express itself above all else. That's what I think central fixation is all about.
The way to improve your understanding is by refining the current understanding until that knowledge brings forth another one. Consistently re-read the material and developing your thoughts about it, then test those ideas out. If you do this consistently more and more of it will start to make sense.
Keep in mind that seeing perfectly is synonymous to how you choose to react and interact with the world. After all, aren't you tired of all you attention and energy being put into straining?
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Imagineblack - 02-09-2013
Hi Tsukiomi, spoke to you on chat yesterday as Imogen Black. Reading your journal. Interesting. Really agree that being under pressure is the worst for seeing. If I get stressed or nervous I can't see as well. Especially when I know I can't take my time to see if necessary cos people around etc and the sight is unfamiliar like the menu on wall in a coffee shop and there is a queue behind me.
I also have to force myself to do most things. Strange never thought of that as having myopic origins.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 02-10-2013
Imagineblack Wrote:Hi Tsukiomi, spoke to you on chat yesterday as Imogen Black. Reading your journal. Interesting. Really agree that being under pressure is the worst for seeing. If I get stressed or nervous I can't see as well. Especially when I know I can't take my time to see if necessary cos people around etc and the sight is unfamiliar like the menu on wall in a coffee shop and there is a queue behind me.
I also have to force myself to do most things. Strange never thought of that as having myopic origins.
Indeed. The more and more I think about it and get into this, the more convinced I am of the mental origin of myopia. How you think and interact with your feeling and experiences, real or imagined has a very profound impact on the sight- more profound than any exercise I have done. The mindset and how you are aware and feel each of your experiences and actions is of utmost importance when it comes to changing any habit.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 02-26-2013
Days 132-150
Its been awhile since my last journal posts, I have had a lot of productive conversations on the chat with some of the people here who are really close to recovery. They have been very eye opening and have been influencing my progress subconsciously, I am glad that the chat is catching on. I will likely now post things only when I have things to say, I feel like the journal repeats itself quite often as it is the progression of my understanding of the same subject. This time around I have discovered (or rather rediscovered) some things about vision improvement and had 2 consecutive long clear flashes that both lasted longer than an hour. This is a new record for me and shows me that I have stumbled onto the right track again.
You know whats a nice side effect of all this? When I encounter something that I really want to do or a problem I want to solve, I no longer procrastinate for so long and I feel comfortable working on things over time. It feels like I have been strengthening my perseverance mental muscles and am becoming far more driven than I have ever been. Not to mention I have become far more proactive in all my other self improvement endeavors and have been coming up with my own ideas of how to proceed (because I needed to be able to do that with bates method out of necessity). I know now that the regaining of perfect vision is only part of what I am going to obtain at the end of this, its very exciting.
I am now going to write out the best excerpt from my notes from the last 2 1/2 weeks. Again, Keep in mind that this is written in the style of self-advice.
"Feel the feedback you get from your actions. Allow the feeling and movements of the world and body to express themselves, dont fight it. Try less and less to see, as it is effort that spoils the sight. Bates exercises are to be used in such a way that they bring relief from strain and its symptoms- distract you from it, not as an obligatory act that you stress and pour a bunch of effort into only to end of sabotaging yourself. Don't force the attention at one place, just keep the part regarded in you mind best and be sure to experience and feel the feedback assossiated with it. Adjust your practice based on the feedback and you will find the method that works best for you with much less guessing involved. Let yourself feel comfortable with your body and the sensations you are currently feeling- feel relaxed in your own skin. Mentally, think of smaller parts or sensations, letting yourself feel their feedback and letting them express themselves (don't force yourself to do anything with them). Do not try to process everything at once! Process the bits of information and sensations as they come. Gradually do less and less, relax and let go of the urge to strain or do a bunch of weird things to TRY to see better (as this is what lowers it in the first place).If you force the process to be a certain way, it ends up being counter-productive. Remember that we are aiming to attain rest from bad habits that cause our problem, identify these habits and the vision improves proportionally."
Feedback: When you become aware of the feedback you are feeling, you realize that whether you were conscious of it before or not that you have been doing all sorts of weird thing in attempt to see better (usually its a simple as you stare at the object and tense your eye muscles). This is why there is such an emphasis on being aware of your feedback as they are the messages you get from your body based on what actions you take and within the context of these messages a person can figure out the answer to his problem.
Interestingly enough: what seems to work best is removing all the current effort you find yourself doing to see, I remember bates writing about how strain=effort to see and I didn't understand what that meant until recently. I found myself comparing how easy and automatic it was to see at the near point and what a terribly uncomfortable experience it was to look into the distance. At that point I became aware of these terrible feeling and sensations "strain symptoms" I call them and form there I would look into the distance while being aware of the feedback and would try different bates method stuff to lessen the strain. Mainly shifting, becoming aware of subtler and subtler parts of what I was already aware of, especially the sensations I was feeling, or sometimes just keeping in mind that I need to do less and less about it. Doing this requires you to be aware and in the moment feeling your feedback and not forcing the process any which way. It requires patience and persistence, but over time it becomes easier and easier to see and the vision improves proportionally with it.
When getting a clear flash, I have noticed that the parts I see better (or my central vision) when improved feels a bit off center, has anyone else feel like this?
Any suggestions on how I can improve my journaling writing style? Writing directly from my notes makes it all seem very disorganized. I will likely over the coming days go back and note down my current understanding of each bates fundamental and practice and the mindset involved with it. I feel like that will take my understanding I currently have further and then I can apply that to the pages of the method I have printed out.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - arocarty - 02-27-2013
Hi Evan,
You sound like you're really starting to develop greater awareness - that's going to reallly help you in the long run.
Tsukiomi Wrote:Gradually do less and less, relax and let go of the urge to strain or do a bunch of weird things to TRY to see better (as this is what lowers it in the first place).If you force the process to be a certain way, it ends up being counter-productive. Remember that we are aiming to attain rest from bad habits that cause our problem, identify these habits and the vision improves proportionally."
No where is it more true than in vision where less=more. Less effort, less strain, less forcing, less tension and you get a healthier and more efficient functioning of the eyes, mind and body. That's great that you are realizing how much it extends beyond simply vision. I've never really thought about my vision being 'off center;' Sometimes feelings can be deceptive - maybe what you thought was center for so long was really not? We condition ourselves to do something the wrong way for so long, to us it becomes the right way, and then when we really do it the right way, it feels and seems just wrong. Are you actually seeing with much more clarity in your eccentric field? I also know that some research has shown that we don't actually use dead center of our fovea, it's mostly a little off center. Everyone is maybe a little different in how off center they really are. I'm not sure if one can be conscious of that fact. I wouldn't think too hard about it, if you are getting 20/20 clarity - where that is, you fovea has to be processing it, as it's physiologically impossible to see with that level of clarity in the area outside the fovea.
Regards,
Andrew
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 03-20-2013
Thank you for your feedback. Lately my notes are becoming extensive enough to warrant the writing of longer posts. My understanding has advanced far in the last 6 months, and has been getting steadily faster to the point where as of late every week or two I make several major leaps in progress. My philosophy on self change and vision improvement as a consequence have changed entirely. I realize that now I have enough to say that I would overcrowd this forum topic.
I have made a decision that I am going to start my own vision blog which has been inspired with all the effort and activity on this forum as well that my experiences of the last 6 months. I believe that I need to write about the subject extensively to do the subject justice as many people are far too brief (including myself in this topic). Being on the cusp of recovery and having made several very important discoveries, I hope to put the work of Dr.Bates and others into perspective so that people who aim to recover their vision will be far less confused than I was. Perhaps I will even make the process much simpler, but at the very least I will do my best to make it much more understandable. I know that while I keep working on my own situation while writing about it in an exhaustive and extensive manner with reviews and fundamentals re imagined along the way, vision improvement can become much more understandable and do-able in the future. I hope that as a community we can all do what we can to contribute to the rise of this field beyond a small fringe-movement so that we can remedy this global problem of epidemic proportions and improve the lives of people everywhere.
After all, life becomes difficult if you can barely see in front of your face. The mental side effects are literally mind muddling and destroys mental efficiency like no other process I know of. Sometime over the coming weeks I will setup a blog an link my next post to it. In the meantime I will write about everything I know about the subject and develop my thoughts a far as I am able. It looks to be an interesting few weeks indeed.
Re: Tsukiomi's Vision Journal - Tsukiomi - 05-21-2013
Hey guys, I know it has been two months since I last posted on here. I have been taking extensive notes and have had several large leaps in understanding when it comes to vision. I had a day where I was teetering back and forth between 20/20 and my normal vision. I have been at this 8 months now, and I have a feeling that if I think things through some more I will be successful in a full cure by the end of the summer.
The only thing I want to mention is that most of the things I did those 8 months were the exact opposite of what I should have been doing! Vision is not a process where you are trying to force it to do a million different things and panicking when it doesn't-. it is automatic and is unavoidable. My understanding of what mental strain is grows over time, and I find myself drawn to the thinking side of the vision argument: as no physical action seems to help me in any way whatsoever. I think that over the next month I am going to take this from the top and develop my thought process just as much as I have in the last 8 months as I know that I am finally on the right track.
I am going to read through bates book and develop my understanding about that too. My intention is indeed to cure myself but my actual goal is to have a good understanding of the core behind the bates method, I want to be able to explain it better than bates did at the fundamental level and show the common pitfalls that can occur and explain why your thought process WILL sabotage you at every turn if you are not aware of these things. I think it would be useful for me to write about my myopic tendencies to give a good example of what I find commonly produces the soil for mental strain.
Its time to take this In a more systematic and less random manner- my goal is understanding and comprehension- not simple repetition of what bates said without actually getting it. I hope that my own comprehension will rise to a new way of describing this, as our generation has much trouble with what bates wrote. I definitely think that MUCH more attention needs to be given to the mental side of things- I will likely be taking that type of angle.
Take care everybody, don't push it- that only makes things worse
-Evan
PS. Still intend to do the blog, It will be up in June.