When I got my first pair of glasses for nearsightedness in 8th grade, I was sort of happy. I was a curious person then and wanted to experience what wearing glasses are like, and back then I somehow expected that my vision would never get worse or that even if it gotten worse I would still be able to see the scenery well without glasses whenever I wanted to. I didn't take long to prove both wrong, for so far I have gotten new glasses about 2-3 times, and without its aid things just don't look as beautiful anymore.
One day in December 2008, I accidentally stumbled on a book on natural vision improvement Relearning to See by Quackenbush. Needless to say, I was very excited because I have heard all my life that correcting vision is not possible (except for laser surgery, which just sounds too dangerous to me). After finishing the majority of the book, I browsed websites to have an even better idea of the Bates Method and ordered a collection of Bates Magazine and have been reading it. Now three months have passed, I have tried to wear glasses as little as possible but seen no progress.
I'm now in 11th grade; I can't tell what my visual acuity is, but at the distance I perceive to be 20 feet, I can barely read the largest letter E. The middle dash blurs and it looks like a blurry angular C. The truth is that I find myself quite confused about how to do the Bates method.
-When working with Snellen Chart, I palm and shift around the letters as often read in Bates Magazines and do long swing, but the Snellen Chart doesn't clear up as I usually hear.
-For practicing correct vision habit all day long, I still do not have a good grasp of what central fixation is all about. Sometime I use what Quackenbush suggests by imagining an imaginary pencil drawing the outline of the objects I see, although it does not work very well for filling in the area of the object. At other time I simply pay attention to what's in front of me and sometime notice how my peripheral vision is just as clear, which is what Bates says to be the indication of straining. Occassionally, I can even feel myself straining trying to central fixating but can't stop.
-Regarding practicing correct vision habit again, when my eyes get tired and/or painful, I find myself blinking uncontrollably. As I have read about how blinking really fast is just as bad as not blinking, I try to regain control back by blinking slowly and softly but can't and my eyes still blink really fast and uncontrollably. Therefore, I wonder if my way about the blinking is wrong.
-So far, I find palming to be the most effective for me, especially for the purpose of relaxing. For relaxation, then it accomplishes its purpose splendidly. As for regaining vision acuity, sometime I can see slightly better right after I palm but not as drastic as I read in Bates Magazines, probably because I can't remember nor imagine something very well. However, sometime right after palming things seem blurrier even though my head and my eyes feel relaxed.
-In three months, I have only one clear flash of vision, which was right after I woke up from a nap in study hall. That was strange because my position of napping because it was not the most comfortable. As clear flashes indicate the degree of relaxation, I wonder if I haven't relaxed as much as I have thought.
Hey, tiachopvutru! Well done, it is great that you have started the vision training, the best thing you can do for your self! :-*
Don't give up if all this looks a bit confusing and if noone in your surrounding hasn't done it and can't help you... There are a lot of examples in the world you can read about.
With exercises don't go into too much, choose one or two for your condition and say for a week just do those or do it once a day for 5 mins. Or do just on weekends, allocate half an hour to do palming and sunning.
You have to feel what works for you.
I am not a big expert but am in training similar as you for about 4 months and I can see it works. I fail into strain when palming, recently read that it is happening to many as you are trying to achieve results = seeing black. I started having bigger blur after palming and white stars while palming.
Eventually you can discover your strain, at least I did, I have upper muscels pulling up.
I had a few sets of excercises.
Now am doing long swings once a day, usually evening and all day whenever I can think of I do shifting, just do about 10-20 shifts between two points....To give them movement and the things are really clear, start showing out. Also, I find 3d stereograms are helping me (I have astigmatism to fight)
For you also going thru small print can help. it's a 1 min work, easy.
I think the best is working with chart.
There you need your imagination. Look at the letter close, where it is clear. Close your eyes shortly, put hands over if you need to, and imagine the letter clear, then look again into the letter on the chart and repeat this a few time, it should come clearer. then gradually increase the distance as you progress.
I don't have time for this, but whenever I did this it is clearing my vision.
The biggest thing is this, as quoted from Dr Bates:
Quote: "...I have written a book on The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses which contains several hundred pages.
The freckle-faced boy told in three words substantially what is contained in that book:"No use tryin'"..."
Good luck, try other people's stories...everything can help
Well, I agree that I have been trying to see black, or more accurately, I have been trying to imagine something--anything. I don't really understand what imagining looks like or feels like. Since I have read about not making effort to imagine, I have been cautious about making effort, but somewhere in my mind I still have the idea of trying. As for tension in my body, I do notice the tight feeling in my jaw but do not know how to relax it.
The two areas I have most trouble with are imagination and central fixation... (I can't acquire oppositional movement, either, but I suppose that will happens by itself when my eyesight gets better)
I had trouble understanding central fixation too, but I believe it is just about noticing details. If you shift your eyes about once or twice a second from one detail of an object to another then I think that's what meant by centralising. The shifts can't be too quick or too close together in the beginning or else it creates strain. For example, if you are reading something at nearpoint, you might shift every few words. The eye moves a couple of inches. That would approximately be the same for objects in the distance, in which case you would shifting from one large object to another. I could be wrong about this, but this is what I do and it seems helpful.
exactly the same is happening to me.
- problems with imagination:
it started being real problem when I red I have to do it while palming and practicing the chart.
Then a few comments stopped me being stuck here:
comment1: when you are reading a book aren't you imagining what's happening there...?
and yes, I realised that I am imaginig the story, characters, their conversations, any descriptions
try with other senses, can you recall some parfume you or someone you like had, or some food smell, or touch - of silk say...
Apparently, I read here somewhere someone is making comments that we are wrongly trying to see, like myopic people are imagining they see thing in front of their eyes, when actually you need to think of the object or color. And that's true, eventually I started trying to imagine I am seeitng the black ball, or black truck, or letter or black dot. Instead it should be in your mind, easy and clear, with no strain in your eyes.
Once I for wrking with chart by imaginig the whole clear. I would close my eyes and imagine = think of the chart as being seen clear and I am probably scanning in my thooughts all the parts of the chart and am telling myself "I see this chart clear". And look again - it's clearer. Close again eyes and imagine again , and by repeating it is really workink. I think this is what they say mind and body working together. We got to have our mind backing up our eyes/vision.
In case of color, you think of something that has that color. For example you want to imagine yellow, you think of lemon, green - think of apple, etc...
But, in general there is a missing link with my imagination. I think that is case when I am buying some clothes and can't decide out of the many. There is where you need imagiantion, and I know I was always having hard times, couldn't match things, while there will be other people that easily can match things and know what goes with what and matching colors. That is an exampel of being able to imagine.
I think I read somewhere that we all quys with vision problems have decided along the way that imagining is stupid to do, it's not a real thing, etc and we are not allowing ourselves to imagine and produce what's imagined.
I also never liked paining or any art, there was noone to help me or spend time with me, I had never had a respect for that.
But, that is a way to help boost your imagination: do some paining! that's why this is very improtant activity for children.
Aye... that exactly is the problem I'm having. Even when I relax--or at least, I think that I relax--no picture really appears inside my mind. I previously didn't know what imagination is, but it seems that my intuition is correct regarding how it's like seeing a clear picture. However, when I try to imagine, all I'm able to do is shift around a make-believe image, or a non-image, that I can't really see. For now I suppose I have to live with believing that the image is there until it somehow helps and the image pops up
My difficulty to imagine probably also stems from my lack of usage of it. I think I have never really tried imagining anything and imagination only comes to me spontaneously. I mostly utilize the phonetic part of my brain (when I remember something, I often hear a voice instead of seeing a picture, which is a shame because many mnemonic techniques use visualization).
I rarely ever draw, but I'm interested in drawing.
