I was wondering if you have a exercise routine, for example:
''Everyday, when I wake up, I palm for 5 minutes then work with the Snellen chart.
Before I sleep, I stretch my eyes.''
I want to see if I can build a good exercise routine for myself, since nowadays I only
pratice good vision habits, without doing any specific exercise.
If you don't practice good vision habits all day, it won't matter what routine you do in the morning, afternoon, or night. Our routines are to secure relief from mental and physical strain/tension. It is undermined as soon as we fall out of good vision habits, and the more we wear lenses. Bates is not a canned set of exercises as so many of those that are touted on the internet for a $fee$. What works for one may not work for another. One has to try a little of everything, and find what works best for them, and custom tailor, accordingly. (and what one has time for). You can alter techniques, combine them, mix them up so you are not always doing the same thing. Sometimes people get in a rut, because they just keep doing the same thing, ineffectively. Routines do not work for everyone. But if something does work for you, and you have seen the positive results, by all means, use it as often as you feel the need to.
What have you found to work best for you? What has not helped you get relief?
I agree with arocarty.
For me exercises are not a sort of practice to strengthen the eye muscles or make them more flexible as a sort of gymnastics or sport.
I think you can't uses eye exercises like body-building exercises to train and shape your muscles and get good results even if you sit in your office and afterwards in front of the TV or Computer for the rest of the day without using the trained muscles any more.
The good seeing habits which are learned during the exercises have to be practiced during the whole day (as much as possible) to replace old faults; otherwise no improvement can be achieved.
The letters of the eye chart with their clear and simple lines and various sizes of details are an ideal object for exemplary practice and from the clear feed-back you can more easily become aware of mistakes and see the success of the correct use of your eyes.
But then you have to 'go out' and apply what you have learned and understood in 'real life'.
The reason why i've asked that is because i've been only practicing good vision habits for a while now (2 years), which have helped me a lot. But lately, i feel like my improvement has slowed down compared to the beggining, so I was afraid I was missing something.
When I say good vision habits, this is what I do: focus on small details, mentally try to relax my eyes ( I can actually feel my eye muscles moving ), blink as much as possible and breath correctly.
I completely agree with you two, one should do the things you feel is helping relief the strain. Those habits have been the ones with the best result for me.
If you have some other habits you consider a "must-try", please, let me know.
Hi rei
Me too, I've been practising for almost 2 years now.
And I also find, that in the beginning, progress was very fast and the more I'm approaching 'the end' the more it's slowing down to mini-steps.
There are still some deep-rooted 'mistakes', which I can overcome momentarily - and get sometimes 20/20 vision at the eye-chart (even interactive) and have longer periods of very clear vision.
But the problem is, that I can't make these periods permanent and not even 'produce' them deliberatily.
The quality of my vision still depends on too many factors (for example if I'm stressed or relaxed).
So, that's what I do mainly now, is try to find out those 'mistakes' and work on them.
One (and maybe the most important) is, that when I focus on small details, I'm 'controlling' my eye-muscles too much instead of just concentrating mentally.
This 'interference' with the 'normal' focusing of the eye - following naturally the attention - slows down the (unconscious and subconscious) eye-movements and reduces the precision of the focus.
And - closely related to this - is to 'hold the focus' on a small detail instead of 'widening' the attention again and 'integrate' the details in a 'full-screen' clear image as normal sighted people do.
I think, the crucial point is to find the right balance between 'influencing' and 'letting things happen naturally'.
What makes this so difficult, is the need to 'give up' some of the control over the vision which has been acquired with hard work and which has already given some good results.
I agree with you. I feel like some times I have a perfect vision, then a blink later the vision
gets worst. I don`t know why this happens, but I believe the visual system is getting used to
the new way you`re using it.
The thing you said about looking to small details more ``mentally``, I agree. I can tell you that,
since I started looking at the smallest detail I can while trying to keep my eyes relaxed have
given me the best results so far. Before that, I tried to look at a small detail at all cost, without
caring about other things.
I guess it some of these details that differs someone with perfect vision and someone with near perfect vision.
But one thing I can tell you is that at night, my vision gets very bad. Guess is because there`s less light. But
it gets extremely worse. Any tip on that?
The only thing that 'works' for me is relaxation.
The more you worry about your vision getting worse in low light, the more you start straining your eyes and you see even more blurry.
I see best when I tell myself: "These are difficult conditions and it is not easy for my eyes to adapt themselves; but the chances for a good adjustment are best, if I don't interfere too much and give them enough time. So just try to make the best of the situation " (keeping in mind Bates,: Chapter 17: Vision Under Adverse Conditions a Benefit to the Eye).
But if you have to drive a car at night, it is not easy to keep cool...
