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Progress...

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#1
This didn't seem quite right for either the Bates Method or the Success Stories sub-fora, so I thought I'd put it here.

After a little more than a week, I honestly feel like I'm starting to get some benefits from this method. I still find that I get episodes of eyestrain but they are less than before, and I now have an excellent toolkit to help address strain when it arises. I seem to have improved a shade; I've gone from being almost-but-not-quite unable to read a certain line on my chart to being ju-u-u-st about able to read the letters.

I've thrown myself into the method pretty sincerly, despite my native skepticism. Though I have very poor sight I have abandoned my glasses. (I don't drive and I work from home, so it's easier for me to do this than for others.) I palm very frequently--many times a day, often for 20 minutes and up. To aid in swinging (as well as posture & other things) I replaced my computer chair with one of those giant excercise balls. I am rather stuck with the computer since I work from home as a freelance writer, but I've blown up the text so as to be legible without strain and installed some add-ons that make the windows "swing" while I'm working. I also take regular breaks to palm, read my chart, and just look out of the window. I'm trying to observe when my sight is better and when it's worse, and note what's different.

Venturing out into the blurry, indistinct world was scary at first, but all-in-all I think my general environmental awareness is not much worse than with glasses. My focus is worse but my depth perception and peripheral vision are better. Colours are brighter. My night vision is stronger.

I have also had the experience of clear vision flashes: brief, tantalising instants when the fog lifts and the world is crystal clear. The first two or three times I dismissed it was wishful thinking, but I'm coming around to the idea that those little flickers of clear vision might be for real. I'd never have believe it if I hadn't experienced it.

It remains to be seen, of course, if I can achieve any measurable or significant change in the state of my eyes. The improvement is very slight, and of course purely subjective. Still, a subjective improvement is still important, since it affects my quality of life.

(Edited to add: One other very tentative observation I've made is that I seem to retain written information better if I come at it with habits of clear sight in mind. I suffer from a psychiatric condition that affects my cognitive abilities; concentration and information retention are a struggle for me. For some reason the work I'm doing with the Bates method seems to help with all that. As I say this is a VERY tentative conclusion; I haven't been doing this very long, and thus there could be other factors at play besides the vision work.)
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#2
Other success:
Sassisailor also started at about -8 diopters. She is an Electrical Engineer working on a Ph.D.
As a rough calculation you can translate this -8 to the Snellen by multiplying it by 70. So this would be about 20/560.
After some very intensive work over about one year, she was able to read the 20/40 line in excellent light. That was an amazing result -- and she was dedicated to using Bates methods.
So it can be done. Otis
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#3
Good! Just keep observing yourself: noticing what I am doing when my vision is blurry vs. what I'm doing when it's clear has helped me a lot. Bates writes that people with clear sight have better memories. By far most vision problems are in the brain (what he calls "wrong thinking"), not in the eyes. Keep up the good work!
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#4
This past week, things went back a bit. No more clear flashes, and for the first time I got lost without my glasses. I was walking up and down my friends' street trying to find their building for ages because I couldn't see enough detail to pick it out. I'm also finding the lack of my glasses intrusive in a way it wasn't at first; I keep reaching up to adjust them or clean them, because I can't see, then realising I don't have them on.

I've also been finding the experience of trying to function with myopia very triggery. All the feelings and memories connected with not being able to see are of the not-fun sort, and given that I'd barely thought about all that stuff in years I was surprised by how strongly and clearly it comes back.

"Can't you read?"
"I was signalling to you! Why were you ignoring me?"
"Oh, of course you can see that. Stop playing around."
"Can't you even tell the time? At YOUR age?"
"You're not looking."

I spent quite a long time thoroughly convinced that everyone else had some special, clever way of using their eyes that I was just too rubbish to master, as if normal sight was something you learned--like reading, or headstands, or riding a bike. I fully believed that I must be a particularly stupid person not to be able to do this very simple thing.

There's an upside to of all this, however, which is that if those negative emotions are keyed into my bodymind in that way, it may be that they can be addressed by working on the emotional component of my visual function. I've actually gone through similar processes in the past.
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#5
Yeah, I think the emotional component is big for anyone with high myopia. It feels to me like you're on the right track, & good for you for not backing away from the painful stuff & just slapping on glasses to avoid it. See the blog post I wrote last night: I have this kind of situation too. It gets better, believe me. The first time someone asked ME for directions I was stunned; they actually thought I knew where I was going! (I did.) Growing into my visual confidence is sometimes still a stretch. But it's so worth it!
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#6
Nancy Wrote:Yeah, I think the emotional component is big for anyone with high myopia. It feels to me like you're on the right track, & good for you for not backing away from the painful stuff & just slapping on glasses to avoid it.
I concur completely. Part of the trick is seeming like you know what you're doing like everyone else. You'll feel like an impostor at first when you're fooling everyone you can see as well as they do.

In time, Mordant, you'll feel more confident doing things. And don't beat yourself up if you feel you need to wear them again from time to time. It really took about 3 years before I felt like I "belonged" or was comfortable without correction in daily life. Some people can manage faster like Sassisailor did. But for me, rushing it meant I would've given up trying to improve my vision. When I go to the optical for a change of lenses (my frames were still good), on more than one occasion a salesperson thought I wore contacts. It was amusing when one of them warned me that my new glasses would look weird with my contacts currently on. Big Grin

I remember panicking when I'd lose my glasses before I cared to improve my vision. Funny enough, this was when my prescription was a diopter or two better than my current one. So much of the problems we create for ourselves are imagined or originate in our psychological states, as Mordant and Nancy have pointed out.

Let objects appear clearly before you when they're ready. The more you force things, the more frustrating this process will be.

That being said, I sometimes envy my boyfriend who has natural 20/15 vision. Tongue
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#7
catsup Wrote:In time, Mordant, you'll feel more confident doing things. And don't beat yourself up if you feel you need to wear them again from time to time. It really took about 3 years before I felt like I "belonged" or was comfortable without correction in daily life.

Hmmm... I greatly appreciate the support, but I'm not comfortable with a model of improvement that emphasises "passing" as a person with normal sight more than real, demonstrable reduction in myopia. I don't mind looking foolish now and again, so long as what I'm doing is actually improving my eyes. My current level of functionality is genuinely impaired to a degree by my not wearing glasses; whilst I would prefer to be able to do without them for good and all, if my eyesight doesn't improve to a quite significant degree some form of refractory correction is going to be a necessity, at least some of the time.
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#8
Ha ha! After a bit of a dry spell, I had another clear flash earlier this evening.

I was slouching in bed reading a PDF on my laptop. As per usual, I had blown up the page so as to be easy on my eyes.* I was immersed in the text, but after a certain point I decided I'd been lazy enough for one night and went to remove my glasses. They weren't on. I'd enjoyed at least a couple of pages of crispy-clear Times Roman without correction.

"Well, so what?" you might reasonably ask. The text was blown up to a large size. Of course I could read it. The thing is that legible text is not the same as clear text. It's just text that has been blown up enough that the blur around the letters no longer obscures them. It's still fuzzy. This was clear text. No fuzz.

It passed after a short while, and could not be said to represent 20/20 vision, but it was one of the longer clear flashes I've had.

Edited to add: The punchline is that I was reading an ebook version of Huxley's Art Of Seeing. *A-BOOMtshhh*


*I have started doing this now even on those occasions when I am resorting, reluctantly, to the dreaded coke-bottles, since I've noticed less strain when I do--not just on my eyes, but on my back, shoulders & arms. I suppose I must unconsciously have fallen into the habit of leaning in to peer at the screen when reading, thus upsetting my posture.
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#9
Mordant Wrote:Ha ha! After a bit of a dry spell, I had another clear flash earlier this evening.

I was slouching in bed reading a PDF on my laptop. As per usual, I had blown up the page so as to be easy on my eyes.* I was immersed in the text, but after a certain point I decided I'd been lazy enough for one night and went to remove my glasses. They weren't on. I'd enjoyed at least a couple of pages of crispy-clear Times Roman without correction.

That is WONDERFUL!!! I think this is a very important step in one's development to clear vision. I got this sense too, that I assume I'm wearing glasses but I'm not. It usually occurs during driving. However it took me years to get to that point, and my myopia is very slight. So that you got to this point so quickly is good news for yourself, and might mean your progress may be rapid compared with that of others.

Mordant Wrote:"Well, so what?" you might reasonably ask. The text was blown up to a large size. Of course I could read it. The thing is that legible text is not the same as clear text. It's just text that has been blown up enough that the blur around the letters no longer obscures them. It's still fuzzy. This was clear text. No fuzz.

I think reading blown up text(without glasses) on your laptop would be very good training for your eyes. If you strain, blow the text up bigger or move the computer closer to you, or palm or close your eyes till the strain has gone away. Another excellent thing to do is to move your head and eyes back and forth, same direction and observe the text and computer moving in a direction opposite your head and eyes (noticing stationary objects moving). This latter practice is one of the best exercises there is for relieving strain. Bates recommended it frequently. Getting the text ledgible enough to read but not perfectly clear and reading it without glasses is an excellent practice for relaxing and improving your sight. If you're relaxed, the text will clear up and the eyes will relax.

Another good practice for you if you haven't tried it would be reading fine print as close to your eyes as possible. Print out some fine print (5pt. should do) place it on a card, and then put it right up to your eyes and move the card up and done. Do it with both eyes, one eye closed. Some people do it for hours on end, but it can be done for brief sessions also. It is one of the best techniques for improving high myopia.





Mordant Wrote:It passed after a short while, and could not be said to represent 20/20 vision, but it was one of the longer clear flashes I've had.

Edited to add: The punchline is that I was reading an ebook version of Huxley's Art Of Seeing. *A-BOOMtshhh*

It's not surprising you had a clear flash. If you can, read without glasses whenever you get the opportunity, it's very good practice ('Art of Seeing' is a great book!!)
I've had lots of clear flashes, a few lasting a couple of minutes, but very few if any were 20/20. Most of them would be 20/70 or 20/40 tops.

Anyway, nice going Mordant. Let us know of any further improvements or setbacks your getting.

Cheers, John
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#10
Thanks, John.

I am attempting to avoid using my glasses as much as I can. For the first two-and-a-bit weeks, I put them on once, for less than a minute; I recently started to wear them for computer work when I find myself tired and tending to strain. (Unfortunately I can't just ditch the computer, as I telecommute.)

I'm liking the Art of Seeing. I don't agree with everything in it (when did I ever agree with everything in anything? Not much!) but Huxley is at least coming from a place where he admits of the good intentions & success of conventional therapies--as far as they went. One of the first things that Huxley does is acknowledge the distinction between earnest folk who wish to support natural improvements in eyesight, and pure quacks who want to profit from suffering. He also lays out, experientially, what he did and why he thought it worked. Even if in the end I come to a different conclusion, I could be doing far worse than studying this text.

(The book could have been tailor-made for skeptcial old me. You have to cut us naysayers a little slack, you know; if met halfway we'll often come around.)
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#11
I understand the skepticism completely. My prescription has not changed since doing natural vision improvement, so I could be skeptical myself. I still don't fully believe in Bate's theory of accomodation, which critics say his whole method is 'based' on. Still, his method works for me, whether it can be tested by an optometrist or not. I'm guessing then you prefer 'The Art of Seeing' to Bate's writings, like 'Perfect Sight without glasses?'

Cheers, John
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#12
Mordant,
Hi -- I just got back from being away for a few days so am only now seeing these last few posts. Nice going! Sound the trumpets! Most of my clear flashes are still only momentary, so a prolonged one is really cause for celebration. It's outstanding & thrilling that you got one so long so soon. I agree with John that this bodes well for your quick improvement -- just be careful of end-gaining, like expecting to improve at a certain steady rate, or reach a certain level of improvement by some specific future time. When I first read Huxley's phrase "greedy end-gainer" I was stunned: he was talking about over-achieving me! How did he know??
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#13
Nancy Wrote:just be careful of end-gaining, like expecting to improve at a certain steady rate, or reach a certain level of improvement by some specific future time. When I first read Huxley's phrase "greedy end-gainer" I was stunned: he was talking about over-achieving me! How did he know??

Haha! Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Letting the best be the enemy of the good; toxic perfectionism; obsessing over how far or fast you are improving, and thus, ironically, impeding that improvement. I get mired in this to a ludicrous degree. A friend of mine has a quote (I think it's a Buddhist phrase) that he always reminds me of when I do: "think always of the ploughing, never of the harvest."

I'm discovering that this is one of the wonderful things about the Bates method. You can only ever improve if you practice self-compassion, since anything smacking of force or over-doing things will impede your progress. It requires a certain outlook, one which is patient and equanimical rather than thrusting and demanding. You literally can't push it.

An obsessive athlete can squeeze out more training per day by ignoring the natural pain response of her body; the compulsive dieter can pare down his body by forcing himself to go without adequate food. Ultimately the athlete faces injuries that will put her out of action for months, and when the dieter stops dieting his trashed metabolism will pile all the weight back on in short order. But in the short term--which is all many of us are really encouraged to value--both will see results, of a sort. With this method though you don't even get that transient, illusiory reward. Even a little strain knocks you back.

It is much like meditation, I have found. You cannot learn to meditate by wrestling violently with stray thoughts, by telling yourself "Now, CONCENTRATE! Make your mind a BLANK!" and beating yourself up when it goes wrong. With meditation you must treat stray thoughts with gentleness, neither fighting them nor letting them take over. It's like that with eyesight improvement. Straining for clarity makes your eyes worse, so you have to accept whatever level of clarity you have at any particular time. More clarity? Great. More blurring? Hello, little blur, see you again some time.

Toxic perfectionism being the wholly counter-productive thing that it is, this is another excellent benefit from the Bates method.
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