Well, it's a funny thing. I've been practicing the Bates methods now for about two and a half weeks, and I must say that it's been interesting. I know I haven't been doing it for two long but I can already see that this may take some time to accomplish. When I first started I made such quick progress for the first few days and I thought it was all going to be so easy. Alas, now my progress has slowed a great deal now, and it can get discouraging at times, but progress is still being made so I guess I'll just have to stick to it.
But I do have some questions. One thing is that I thought as my vision improved I'd see things more clearly at progressively farther distances, but this doesn't seem to be happening like that. What seems to be happening instead is that I can see object at a distance -- when I'm least expecting it -- in a blurry fashion. These object are stuff I couldn't make out at all before I started. But as I walk towards them they stay blurry until I get right up close to them.
For instance, I'll be able to make out what a street sign says a pretty fair distance away, but as I walk towards it it will remain blurry, but legible, for a good distance until I get right up close to it whereupon it will be very clear. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this.
Also, my right eye is very much my dominant eye, but it's also the eye that sees the worst. My left eye sees better, but I hardly use it. I was wondering how common that was? I should point out that I had eye surgery when I was four years old (in 1968) for "lazy eye." Maybe that has something to do with it?
The same blur at different distances is normal, and it's good to hear that it's something you couldn't see at all earlier. Maybe see if you can shake that up even more. Experiment with different ways of looking at the sign at different distances, always considering another way of looking at it that could possibly mean seeing with less effort or less strain. All the Bates exercises are geared towards getting you to do this.
In every endeavor I know of, there is a concept known as "beginner gains" or "beginner's luck" or something along those lines. It's very real, but I think what happens is as we start to get into things we have a tendency to overthink things and introduce anxiety. Vision is a more fundamental, innate skill than skills that have to be learned, but the same principle seems to apply.
Your surgery is very significant, and it may mean you need to be ready to put a lot more time into this than someone who doesn't have that history. But the body is smart, and if you give it your faith and care, it can find a way to resolve any injury inflicted upon it.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
If strain is bad -- which I know it is -- then let me ask you the following. Since I've been trying to learn these methods I've sort of settleled on just a few of them. I Palm occasionally, I Swing a deal more, and sometimes I sit back and let my eyes wonder around the Snellen chart. All of these things are activities that I take time out of my day and "do."
But when I'm not doing these things I try to do the Quackenbush thing and pretend that I have a pencil on my nose and Sketch, and so on.
However, life goes on and frequently I forget to do these things at all. Sometimes, like now, when my mind begins to focus on what I'm typing I immediately feel myself start to stare, and my eye soon begin to hurt. Other times, like when I'm out in garden I've found that my eyes feel the same way, they begin to hurt.
But at other times, like last night while I was gardening again, I still forgot to do the Sketching thing, but my eyes never hurt at all. I remarked at this in my mind when I was done because before this activity caused my eyes to hurt/strain.
On the weekends I get out of my routine and I forget to Sketch for hours on end, yet most of the time my eyes feel just fine when I'm done doing whatever I was doing. But I then chasten myself for forgetting to Sketch even though my eyes feel fine.
So my question is this: As long as my eyes feel rested, does it matter that I've been forgetting to Sketch, or is it really a 24/7 thing that you need to practise Sketching/Central Fixation to be making progress?
∓quot;Bob"\ Wrote:So my question is this: As long as my eyes feel rested, does it matter that I've been forgetting to Sketch, or is it really a 24/7 thing that you need to practise Sketching/Central Fixation to be making progress?
If I may answer for Dave since I'm just doing a read through of the message boards: sketching/central fixation/etc. essentially describe proper vision habits. These are not temporary exercises until your vision improves, they are how you're suppose to use your eyes. It's possible you may be doing it without consciously thinking about it, and if that's the case then it means you're really absorbing the process.
I hope it all means that I absorbing the process. I wonder because after a few hours of forgetfulness I try and remember how I was seeing things and I'm pretty sure that I never let my vision rest on anything for very long -- which is what you're supposed to do. But I also can't remember ever really trying to focus on a given point as my eyes jump from this to that to the other -- which is also what you are supposed to do, but I'm not sure that I am.
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it. You're learning to do less so your eyes can do more on their own, so sometimes practicing less makes sense, if it's working. What's that Tao quote... "In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is gained. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped."
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
One thing about my situation since I started this process is I have not been able to expand my work area, when I write software, to the full extent of the screen. Writing messages like I'm doing now was also a brutal experience in that my eyes would quickly start hurting as I automatically started to stare and attempt to see the whole screen at once.
But yesterday, both things just seemed to stop. All the sudden I could expand my programming area to the full 24 inch area of my monitor, and while I'm writing this my eyes feel just fine. I don't sense that I'm doing anything new, it just doesn't hurt anymore.
