seanyboy Wrote:Creating a halo has been extremely useful in centering also.

I wonder if I could have some impressions from people as if what I'm experiencing is along the right track.

Finding the centre seems to be a two step process. First I move my head into position where attention "between the eyes" roughly gets me into the general area for viewing an object. Then from that position The "attention" is on the finer part of the object. I can feel my eyes moving whilst I'm doing it. But I'm not thinking 'eyes move up, move down, side to side etc.' I get a feeling of movement across the eyes. And it's almost as if the object is brushing up agains the eyes. There's no tension there or attempt to feel, it seems to be an aliveness that washes over my eyes.

Whenever I put my glasses back on for computer work/driving etc. I get the feeling of a "shutting down", or a deadening or dulling down of my eye sense. I find centering a lot more difficult to do with my glasses on. I can "feel" the periphary as I try to remember the vision habits, but these feelings are vastly diluted compared to without the glasses on. This deadening/dulling down wasn't something I used to be aware of.

What an incredible journey this is.

David Wrote:Some Bates teachers advise things like the nose feather, pretending you have a feather attached to your nose and essentially pointing your nose (or face) directly towards what you're looking at. Others don't advise it, as it isn't something that's in what Dr. Bates wrote, and they feel it's an incorrect way of practicing shifting.

One thing that struck me recently is I think that there might be a tendency in people with refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia, etc.) to not face directly what they are looking at, and that this is why the nose feather and similar methods can have a noticeable positive effect.

Try this for a day or two and report back here: Remind yourself frequently to look straight ahead out of your head. If you're looking down at a book, turn your head down, not your eyes. If you're looking into the distance, turn your head towards what you're watching. Check to make sure that your eyes are primarily (the majority of the time) pointing straight out of your head, not slightly up, down, or to either side. See if you can tell about what position that is. There might be centered position that you think might feel a little more comfortable. If something to your left catches your attention, you can certainly lead with your eyes, as your eyes can move quicker than your head, but do turn your head to face it head-on, so that your eyes are not kept in an off-center position that requires significant tension on the part of your eye muscles to maintain. The idea is that this tension greatly to the strain put on the eyes and the refractive error produced as a result. Do you sometimes unconsciously turn your head so that one eye (perhaps your better eye?) is closer to the object you're looking at? When you look straight ahead and your eyes are kept mainly centered, they aren't tensely held in an awkward position for a significant period of time (not more than the second it takes to turn your head towards what your eyes look at). As you look at details of an object, however, you don't need to try to turn your head tiny amounts as if brushing it with a nose feather. Nobody does that, right? No need to. There's a certain amount of movement your eyes can do and still pretty much be pointing straight ahead. Your eyes, after all, were made to move a lot; they just weren't made to be kept in a significantly off-centered position for more than an instant.

Check out how someone with normal vision reads a book. More than likely he doesn't keep his head up and turn his eyes down, he turns his whole head down or moves the book up or whatever, to somehow directly face the book.

Dave