Okay, before I start, let me say that credit for the idea that I am about to
When I first read hammerâs post, I found it interesting, but I wasnât quite sure what he was driving at. Being fairly poor at palming, I didnât and still donât fully appreciate the connection between peripheral vision and palming. However, I thought about it last night and realized that paying attention to the peripheral can have benefits that need not be palming-related.
The idea behind acknowledging the periphery is that it prevents strain that comes from staring. Staring? Who stares, you ask? Well, I must confess that the preceding sentences were my first reactions to the lines in Batesâ book that talked about staring. I thought that I didnât stare at all and that it should be the least of my problems. I would later find out that I do indeed stare a lot and that it is the root of my problems.
If you have any sort of strain from every-day tasks such as reading, writing, or watching TV, you should consider staring as the prime culprit. While I understand that central fixation is a good thing, many of us fall into the trap of staring at the center of our visual field, whether consciously or unconsciously. We ignore our peripheral vision completely and in doing so, we strain our eyes terribly. I now believe that even when the peripheral is irrelevant to what is being seen, it is very important to at least âacknowledgeâ it.
Whenever you can remember, take note of the peripheral vision. If done satisfactorily, it should be ânoticedâ but not âseenâ. The difference is very small, but very important. When you ânoticeâ it, it appears sort of like a faded image, almost like you hardly see it at all. When you âseeâ it, you are eccentrically focusing on the periphery and will be able to see with some degree of clarity what is there. However, as many of us know, this runs counter to central fixation and is detrimental to the eyesight and is also very straining for the eyes. A simple way to get the right balance between ignoring the periphery and seeing out of the periphery is to notice the outline of your eyes and also be able to see what is in the center. If you pay too much attention to one, youâre ignoring the other, and neither is good.
The reason that I believe this works is that the main cause of staring is that we put TOO much attention to the center, or to put it in a different way, we try too hard to see what we cannot see. To avoid this, we need to focus a small bit of our attention on the periphery so that we do not ignore it completely. This should prevent the staring problem.
Any suggestions/improvements/comments?
Iâd like to thank hammer for inspiring me (with his post: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.iblindness.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1839">viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1839</a><!-- l -->) to write this.
I've noticed from my own experiences, that staring is the main reason that things such as long swings, palming, and central fixation didn't work for me. Let me illustrate that point with a few examples:
I'm reading a book and I read and read and read, enjoying every bit of it. But when I get up, I feel a bit disoriented, and there are weird kaleidoscopic colors (for me, they were dull red and apple green) that suddenly appear and temporarily blind my vision. Hopefully, some of you guys know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I now come to believe that this is a sign that staring is a serious problem.
When I first tried David's searching for details exercise, I would take a book and look at the details of a letter of fine print, but my problem was that I STARED at it. This, I believe, is a problem quite a few people have with the detail-searching idea. Well, interestingly enough, after a bit of staring, I would notice the periphery disappear and the entire visual field sort of hazy with a slow appearance of the red and green mentioned earlier.
Finally, I come to something I found most interesting, since I had no explanation for it before. When I first palmed, I reported seeing red and green as well. I read the Bates book, which offered no explanation. When I thought about the previous two examples yesterday night, I realized: the problem is staring! As odd as it sounds, I stare when I palm!
Another exercise that I had problems with due to staring was the long swing. For those of you who follow my vision journal, you may know that I reported that my left-to-right swing was better than my right-to-left swing for some reason. It turns out that I was staring when going from left to right and was trying to "realize" the swing, which is a big no-no. Yesterday, I tried swinging back and forth while "acknowledging" the peripheral vision and I noticed an immediate change. My left-to-right swing became exactly the same as my right-to-left swing and after a while, I didn't have to worry about my bad habit of manipulating the swing.
Hopefully, some of the examples I mentioned above are helpful.
I just wanted to clarify one point that I may or may not have described correctly: When you "pay attention" to the peripheral vision, I do NOT mean that you should look out of the sides of your eyes or that you should even be able to see what is there. It is important that you experiment with this awareness of the periphery. You should not be able to see anything there, but you should have enough awareness of the periphery that you can "sense" something there. Visual attention still should be directed to the center.
And again, there very well may be errors in what I wrote and perhaps areas where I am completely wrong. It is important that you guys point this kind of stuff out. I think that the key to vision improvement lies in a strong foundation: If you know what to do and you do it right, you'll improve faster than if you simply dabble here and there and hope you have it right.
Pikachu Wrote:I just wanted to add a few more things:
I've noticed from my own experiences, that staring is the main reason that things such as long swings, palming, and central fixation didn't work for me. Let me illustrate that point with a few examples:
I'm reading a book and I read and read and read, enjoying every bit of it. But when I get up, I feel a bit disoriented, and there are weird kaleidoscopic colors (for me, they were dull red and apple green) that suddenly appear and temporarily blind my vision. Hopefully, some of you guys know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I now come to believe that this is a sign that staring is a serious problem.
When I first tried David's searching for details exercise, I would take a book and look at the details of a letter of fine print, but my problem was that I STARED at it. This, I believe, is a problem quite a few people have with the detail-searching idea. Well, interestingly enough, after a bit of staring, I would notice the periphery disappear and the entire visual field sort of hazy with a slow appearance of the red and green mentioned earlier.
Finally, I come to something I found most interesting, since I had no explanation for it before. When I first palmed, I reported seeing red and green as well. I read the Bates book, which offered no explanation. When I thought about the previous two examples yesterday night, I realized: the problem is staring! As odd as it sounds, I stare when I palm!
Another exercise that I had problems with due to staring was the long swing. For those of you who follow my vision journal, you may know that I reported that my left-to-right swing was better than my right-to-left swing for some reason. It turns out that I was staring when going from left to right and was trying to "realize" the swing, which is a big no-no. Yesterday, I tried swinging back and forth while "acknowledging" the peripheral vision and I noticed an immediate change. My left-to-right swing became exactly the same as my right-to-left swing and after a while, I didn't have to worry about my bad habit of manipulating the swing.
Hopefully, some of the examples I mentioned above are helpful.
I just wanted to clarify one point that I may or may not have described correctly: When you "pay attention" to the peripheral vision, I do NOT mean that you should look out of the sides of your eyes or that you should even be able to see what is there. It is important that you experiment with this awareness of the periphery. You should not be able to see anything there, but you should have enough awareness of the periphery that you can "sense" something there. Visual attention still should be directed to the center.
And again, there very well may be errors in what I wrote and perhaps areas where I am completely wrong. It is important that you guys point this kind of stuff out. I think that the key to vision improvement lies in a strong foundation: If you know what to do and you do it right, you'll improve faster than if you simply dabble here and there and hope you have it right.
Hi Pikachu!
From my experience: I think you have a great problem with that strain, so you could first pay attention to your thoughts to help yourself with awareness, so in that way you will be able to understand which thoughts is blocking you.
I know what do you mean with 'kaleidoscopic colors' - but it's all is related to that strain, back to 7 months ago I had a lots of this 'white-stars' when I got up from the sofa. and then I become practically blind for some seconds. Also I've noticed that 'red'like-green' when 'looking for details'.
Now, take a break, and stop straining, I suggest you to read this Bates' article from the 'Better Eyesight Magazine' if you have not seen:
THE FIRST VISIT(Novembre 1921): <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.central-fixation.com/better-eyesight-magazine/better-eyesight-1921-11.php#first-visit">http://www.central-fixation.com/better- ... irst-visit</a><!-- m -->
Also this could be helpful:Suggestions for Myopic Patients(April 1930): <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.central-fixation.com/better-eyesight-magazine/better-eyesight-1930-04.php#suggestions">http://www.central-fixation.com/better- ... uggestions</a><!-- m -->
most likely, you're straining when you're practicing 'looking for details', so stop doing that, instead first learn to relax.
Do NOT try to see clearly only the center of the visual field, in this way you will strain, you have to notice the periphery.
@lordofthesun: Thanks for the advice. Fortunately, that is exactly what I have been doing of late. I was actually hoping that by posting my own experiences with strain, I could save other people the trouble. I have since eliminated most instances of strain and it's been a long time since I've seen the colors (hopefully, I won't see them again). As for the detail-searching, I've decided to give it up, at least until I get a better grounding in relaxation. I believe it was Bates who wrote that any exercise that causes stress should be abandoned after a few failed trials.
Pikachu Wrote:@lordofthesun: Thanks for the advice. Fortunately, that is exactly what I have been doing of late. I was actually hoping that by posting my own experiences with strain, I could save other people the trouble. I have since eliminated most instances of strain and it's been a long time since I've seen the colors (hopefully, I won't see them again). As for the detail-searching, I've decided to give it up, at least until I get a better grounding in relaxation. I believe it was Bates who wrote that any exercise that causes stress should be abandoned after a few failed trials.
Yes, it is, if that 'exercise' don't improve your sight, don't do that, you will only lower your vision and create more and more strain doing things wrong. there are many form of relaxation which will improve your sight.
Also don't try to learn all things at once. All in good time.
July 1929:Better Eyesight Magazine:"Treatment".
Quote:If you have imperfect sight and desire to obtain normal vision without glasses, I suggest that you keep in mind a few facts. In the first place the normal eye does not have normal sight all the time, so if you have relapses in the beginning do not be discouraged. First test your sight with a Snellen test card with each eye at twenty feet, then close your eyes and rest them. Cover them with one or both hands in such a way as to shut out all the light and do this for at least an hour, then open your eyes for a moment and again test your sight with both eyes at the same time.
Your vision should be temporarily improved if you have rested your eyes. If you vision is not improved it means that you have been remembering or imagining things imperfectly and under a strain. With the eyes closed and covered at rest, with your mind at rest, you should not see anything at allâall should be black. If you see colorsâred, green, blue, or flashes of lightâyou are not resting your eyes but you are straining them.
But honestly I think that statements as 'Don't try to do that' 'Do not...' 'Do not stare' 'Keep your eyes moving'......breathe, blink, shift, could be harmful. Instead to relax you will become anxious, and discouraged . That doesn't work in that way, just let things happens on it's own, forget you eyes, now, learn to relax. I'm speaking you from my experience so far, I've made lot of progress when I stopped worry about things like that, so relax!. Anyway we're all diferrent, just an advice.
Pikatchu,
You need the foundation of relaxation, the peripheral awareness is fantastic, because it relaxes your eyes, your mind and memory in the brain, imagination, you get much better learning abilities and memory too, hearing and so on.
But, there is a but here, you need balance too, you need thus to activate both the central awareness and the peripheral awareness at the same time.
A wide peripheral awareness improves the detail searching, because the wider you see the peripheral the more accurate and sharp you see a detail, Think of it, infinitely small, infinetely wide, there is no location in between really to be honest, because there is no reference, so the mind needs the infinite endpoints (infinitely small and infinitely wide) as a reference, the mind builds its own reference. You need both peripheral awareness and central awareness, else your vision will fail.
I have figured this out and I follow these rules all the time during my way.
I have another very deep explanation for this that is built upon holographic functioning of the brain and the universe, so I myself do not hesitate about it.
And, don't forget, the detail searching is vivid, but the peripheral attention is the foundation of relaxation that you just caan't live without.
@lordofthesun: I agree with that last statement of yours, for the most part. Of course, it is most relaxing for your eyes when you make no effort to blink, breathe, shift, or anything else for that matter. The catch, of course, is that if you don't blink, breathe, or shift properly when you ignore your eyes, you will end up straining your eyes anyway. I think that it is important to do all of those consciously first, through said exercises, and only after they become so natural that they seem to be automatic should anyone begin to ignore their eyes. But what do I know? Maybe ignoring the eyes can help create normal vision habits. Regardless, I think that those with high degrees of myopia (like myself) ought to practice these habits consciously.
@hammer: Thanks for the insight. I don't know what the experiences of others are, but for me, I found the whole central fixation part really difficult, and rightfully so, because I was staring the whole time I was doing it! So when I tried the peripheral awareness, I found out two things: 1. I was staring a lot and 2. It was relaxing. Therefore, I think that at least for me, the right approach is to go with the peripheral awareness approach and eliminate staring before going on to central fixation. There's really no point in trying to improve my vision if I'm staring while I'm doing it.
lordofthesun Wrote:...back to 7 months ago I had a lots of this 'white-stars' when I got up from the sofa. and then I become practically blind for some seconds.
That happened to me too. I went blind & deaf for like 2 seconds & nearly collapsed.
I was quite amazed when I discovered that I actually could control my relaxation with the peripheral attention method,
and I remember that I got lots of clear flashes out of it.
When I started to exercise the searching for details method I didn't get clear flashes that often at all anymore, maybe it generates some strain.
Instead I got some improved vision at some certain distance, that was more centralised and it felt like if I had to fight for the improved vision when I searched for details,
then the improvement was gone, and I had to fight to get it back and so on.
When you just relax with the peripheral attention method the clear flashes are much more effortless, intense and much wider, they are coming without having to fight for them.
This was also my original goal that the vision improvement should come automatically and effortless.
Hmm, I am still a little bit confused also concerning this detail searching Pikatchu,
I actually like the clear flashes that comes out of the peripheral attention much more, since they are effortless.
I am still trying to combine the two methods into some mix, but I cannot say that I have succeeded yet.
I feel like being in a temple or something when I pay attention to the peripheral, this is the way I personally want to approach better vision.
I don't like staring at a detail, and I don't think anyone likes it actually.
I think you focus enough already onto details in the daily life, it should already come naturally through the way you live.
But, of course you need to be aware of the central vision, that I explained earlier, this however doesn't mean that you need to exaggerate the way you look at a detail.
I think there is something missing in the detail searching, some effortless component, that I cannot identify by now.
In this thread I described my method that will cure (or at least I hope so ) myopia automatically and effortless through your daily life, so I have thought about this a long time (crazy mind of me ):
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@hammer: Your ideas seem very reasonable. I believe Bates himself said that if any one exercise causes strain for the eyes, it should be discarded after a few trials. It seems to me that quite a few people found detail-searching immediately helpful, but I personally found it difficult and it seems you have too. For some, it might be effortless, but if it puts a strain on the eyes, then I say it's probably not worth it.
I still find peripheral vision very helpful, too. I wondered a lot about why it can work and only recently I realized that it really is quite simple. Paying attention to the periphery removes some of the strain to see what is in the center. Also, it relaxes me because I accept that I shouldn't see so well what I am not directly looking at, since it is off to the side and because I use my memory of the things off to the sides and so removing the strain and concentration of what is in the center. Bates's "Easy Swing" in one of the BEM's is the closest thing to peripheral vision I have found so far. He tells patients in the office to do the long swing while remembering not what they actually see but things inside a room of their home.
This thought actually takes me to think more that paying attention to details is actually harmful, because paying attention = interest = eagerness = anxiety = lower vision...
@Andrea Major: Yes, although I would consider "interest" a dynamic characteristic. The most puzzling thing about it all is that interest is often necessary to proper vision, but too much interest to the point that other things are blocked out creates the very strain that we should avoid.
I think I'm getting better at this but it's still difficult to remember to just relax and "take it all in" when I'm occupied with work to do.
I don't know what the experiences of others are, but for me, I found the whole central fixation part really difficult, and rightfully so, because I was staring the whole time I was doing it! So when I tried the peripheral awareness, I found out two things: 1. I was staring a lot and 2. It was relaxing. Therefore, I think that at least for me, the right approach is to go with the peripheral awareness approach and eliminate staring before going on to central fixation. There's really no point in trying to improve my vision if I'm staring while I'm doing it.
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