What does Bates mean by strain?

[johnwayne]

Is anyone able to say what Bates means by strain? Is it different to eyestrain (I believe it is)? What did Bates mean by relaxation? Is it just physical relaxation - relaxation of the muscles surrounding the eye etc. - or mental relaxation, or both? It seems to me that those practising Bates' methods at the exclusion of other ones could miss out in some ways as different forms of relaxation techniques might help different people. (I do not mean purely with eyestrain, as it's very clear to me that Bate's practice's are a wonderful way to produce relaxation in the eye muscles.) For example, you might use Bates' techniques to reduce eyestrain, but you may not be physically relaxed because you may not be breathing correctly. Could a holistic approach to vision improvement might be the best option for many people, particularly myopes? I wonder if it's actually possible to relax the eye muscles that much if the other muscles in the body are tense also?

Cheers, JW

[clarknight]

Modern teachers do incorporate alot of holistic methods.
Relaxation of mind, body results in relaxed eye muscles.

[johnwayne]

Yes, I can see why they do this.

Cheers, JW

[johnwayne]

It would be interesting to see whether those successful in improving their vision tried methods other than Bates to improve their vision. I would be pretty sure many would have. That doesn't mean to discount Bates' work. But I'd guess that many people with vision problems have a whole host of issues they would have to address before they could make full use of Bates. Ideas about relaxation have advanced considerably since Bate's time.

Cheers, JW