Any of the achy, hot, stiff, or other feelings in the eyes are just the result of putting strain on the eyes, from mentally or physically trying to do something with the eyes that they are unable to do. People who have vision problems have in one way or another simply this chronic eye strain, manifested physically as chronic tension in the eyes. The more fixed the tension is, the less a person is aware of it, because any unchanging stimuli tends to eventually be ignored by the mind.
So when people try to do something that involves feeling their eyes, or in other words an increased awareness of their eyes or sensing the presence of their eyes, they're just directing more strain so that the stimuli changes and they have something to feel in their eyes. The reverse is true also - lessening strain to the eyes has the immediate effect of relieving tension. The way to relieve strain is to learn to use the eyes in a way that does not introduce strain in the first place (which all the Bates exercises are for). When strain is not kept up, it disappears, and the chronic tension has nothing reinforcing it and drops away.
Strain is something that anyone can notice if it's pointed out to be any kind of discomfort, rigidity, or achy feeling in their eyes that they may occasionally feel. I never was given that particular explanation myself by any books or anyone I talked to, but in a nutshell that's all it is. So for me it was one of many things that hit me like "Oh, THAT'S what strain is, isn't it. Well I've sort of been aware of THAT forever, but I didn't realize it was exactly the feeling of what this thing Bates calls "strain". To be more accurate, the feeling itself isn't really strain (because strain is a process, not a "thing"), but it's a pretty direct consequence of it.
So sometimes the way to accomplish something best is to effectively do less, or nothing, but accomplishing that still requires doing something (exercises, habits) in order to learn to stop another specific thing that you are doing (strain).
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Quote:Strain is something that anyone can notice if it's pointed out to be any kind of discomfort, rigidity, or achy feeling in their eyes that they may occasionally feel. I never was given that particular explanation myself by any books or anyone I talked to, but in a nutshell that's all it is. So for me it was one of many things that hit me like "Oh, THAT'S what strain is, isn't it. Well I've sort of been aware of THAT forever, but I didn't realize it was exactly the feeling of what this thing Bates calls "strain". To be more accurate, the feeling itself isn't really strain (because strain is a process, not a "thing"), but it's a pretty direct consequence of it.
Dave, absolutely! The more I practise Bates, the better I understand what you tell us. At first, it sounded much like blablabla to me. One really needs to get enough experience with Bates before he is ready to understand it. At first I didn't even completely believe the whole idea could work. But now, even though I'm yet far not 20/20., I don't imagine myself getting back to wearing my contacts, it's as impossible as to "undiscover" a discovery. I saw the light in the end of tonnel, which is simply the CONNECTION between the strain that I learned to REALIZE and the quality of sight that peeps out respectively when you manage to RELEASE the strain, to whatever degree you are currently able to.
