My story, and a question about relaxing

[apavel]

Hello,
First of all, I have to say that I'm glad I found this forum.  This seems like a very friendly community to participate in while improving my eyesight.

Just a few things about myself (if you don't want to read all this crap, you can skip down for my question, which appears after the second dashed line :-)  )
----------------------
I am in second year University Biochemistry in Canada.  My eyesight is currently around ~20/60.
In grade 11, my biology teacher always put up small class notes in very small print on the overheads (too cheap to buy more transparencies and use larger font), and the entire class had to copy them down.  I sat at the back of the class and it was very hard for me to see them.  The teacher also went very very fast through the material and I had to write down as much as possible.  As I had to read small print as fast as possible and copy it down, there was a HUGE amount of strain on my eyes and by the end of the school year, my optometrist gave me -0.5 glasses.  This wasn't the only contribution to poor eyesight.  Additionally, I became fond of a first-person-shooter action game, and as my computer was slow and laggy, my eyes strained as they attempted to stabilize the jumping image that was created as a result of slow computer. (For parents:  Buy your kids good computers if they play many video games!!!)  Not aware of the drawback of wearing glasses, I started wearing them during lectures and while in the car even though my eyesight was good enough without them.  After a year, my prescription went up to -1.0 in both eyes.  I was very upset and asked why my eyesight was degrading, and got the generic "its because of your genes" response, and when I asked if there is anything I could do to hinder the progression of myopia, I got the usual "nope, laser surgery is the only way" response.  I realized that my -1.0 prescription was so powerful that I could read a newspaper posted over 20ft away!!! and as a consequence, considerable strain resulted and my eyesight worsened.  I have never consistently wore glasses, except during lectures or when driving.  Right now my eyesight is constant at 20/50 - 20/70 (day - night), but sometimes it is 20/30 in the morning on a sunny day. 
I was very upset so I went out to do some research.

1.  I found a program for $35 by an institution that was doing research on natural improvement methods
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.program-for-better-vision.com/">http://www.program-for-better-vision.com/</a><!-- m -->
That program consisted of 20-minutes of eye exercises each day.  These exercises were very cheesy, boring and painful (psychologically painful, because they were boring!).  Nonetheless, I finished the 8-week course and had absolutely no improvement.  I got my money back and went on.

2.  I looked at rebuildyourvision.com  program, but it was more expensive and it appeared to me that the author was making too many definite claims, which probably means that he is lying.  I found there are many websites and forum postings that promote that program, and none of those sites of forum users have any sort of contact information.  Plus their "testimonials" are made of very common names, so there is no way of tracing those people and asking them whether the testimonial is true.  I also e-mailed the optometrist that supposedly "promoted" the program -sent a very nice e-mail asking whether this program is true, but he never responded.  Thus, I never bothered to purchase this program.

3.  I decided to look at the source of all these "eye exercises", so I looked at Dr. William Bates' studies.  I read his book "better eyesight without glasses".  I found some techniques weren't very clear, but I loved his research and it really had an influence on me and allowed me to see the "conspiracy", if you will, in the field of modern optometry, and how badly all those eye-improvement programs misinterpreted Dr. Bates' results.  At first I tried the palming technique for a number of reasons.  I palmed for 20 minutes each day for one month, with absolutely no improvement in eyesight (wasted a lot of time ) .  I also tried sunning, and no improvement.  I tried shifting/swinging etc...for many months but no avail.
Next, I purchased and read a book titled "Relearning to See" authored by T. Quackenbush.  I found this book is amazing as it conveyed techniques that are ready for reader's use.  Also, it made me realize that improving vision isn't about exercises, but about habits.  I started using his methods "sketch, breathe, blink" for many months, but no improvement came.  However, my eyesight stopped getting worse, yet I was still getting very discouraged and felt like I had nobody to ask for assistance (there are no bates teachers in my area).

However, about a month ago, I met an old friend from high school.  She said her father was using the Bates method to successfully improve his eyesight from -3.5 lenses to -1.0 in 1.5 years.  I was so glad I found someone else to use the method, i asked what her father was doing.  She said that in the beginning, like me, he was constantly doing eye exercises, and then he simply constantly relaxed his eyes, which eventually led to improvement.
-------------------------------------

All of the sudden, due to my previous palming/sunning/swinging, I noticed the eye strain that I never noticed before.  And in addition to my awareness, I was able to relax my eyes at will.  So about a month ago, I began to constantly relaxing my eyes - more than 20 times each day (simply at will, no exercises, takes less than a second).  I realized that about 5 minutes after I relaxed them, the strain came back. 
As I worked to relax them all the time, this interval was increased to 30 minutes before the strain came back.  I also noticed that when playing my old computer games, the strain came very quickly, and returned 1 minute after I relax it.  After 2 weeks, I noticed that I can put my computer screen farther and still see it with a relaxed gaze - but still at 20/50 based on the snellen eye chart (no significant improvement) 
I kept relaxing them for over a month, and now I am at the point where my eyes are constantly relaxed, and I feel that I can't relax them anymore.  I trained them to be relaxed when looking at the computer screen, reading projectors during lectures, and when looking into the distance.

However, with this relaxation, I feel a bit of pain pain.  What I feel isn't exactly pain, but pressure at the back of my eye that is getting annoying when my eyes are relaxed.  When I palm, the pain goes away, but returns later. 
I am wondering if this is ok?  Does anyone else experience this pressure when they relax their eyes? 

Has anyone tried simply relaxing their eyes all the time? Is there anything I can do to spark improvement in my eyesight? 
What exercises can I do?..there are so many!!
Please let me know your thoughts,
Thanks a lot guys!

Paul

[David]

Hi Paul,

The most important thing I've gotten from your post is you suddenly identified the feeling of strain. Not everybody gets that far. But it's pretty obvious now how strain feels, isn't it? At least the topmost layer of it. If your vision doesn't clear completely when you stop straining, then there's still more strain that you'll suddenly notice only as it goes away temporarily, like an air conditioner stopping.

So the feeling of pressure could be a different tension, like other muscles tensing that you don't even feel until the others stop, or it doesn't even exist until then, as in "I have to put this tension somewhere." It can also be the area being unused to being relaxed and having to start making a small long-term adjustment.

As far and as constant as you can take the practice of letting go of your eyes and body to be as loose as possible, with only minimal energy put into any task, it's absolutely worth it to do so. People carry a lot of things on their shoulders that aren't there.

You've tried a few exercises pretty thoroughly, but there's something in the way you're doing them that is stopping you from relaxing, or else you don't do them long enough at a time. How do you do palming? Include as many details as you can as far as your body position, the way you breathe, how you feel, what you think about, and if you visualize anything.

You've put a lot more work into it than many people do. If you keep at it, you don't have any chance of failing.

And lastly, there was something about the way you were using your eyes when your vision started to get bad as you frantically copied down the notes. Contrast how you would do that and how you would copy notes if you had all the time in the world. You can only think so fast and act so fast. Small print itself isn't the problem.

Dave

[apavel]

Thanks Dave,
I haven't done palming in several months now.  I did it for 20 minutes each day, for over a month, spending lots of time on it and not seeing any improvement, I gave up.

I have a low bed, so I used to put my knees on the floor, and put my elbows on the bed to palm, while listening to some relaxing music.  I imagined whatever came into my mind...childhood events, interesting scenery, but whatever I imagined, I imagined seeing it clearly.  Is that how you normally do palming?  It seems like there are so many techniques you can do, but I don't know which are the most important, that's why I stopped some of them and tried new ones.  Given my history, which techniques should I be using on regular basis?
Please let me know.

Dave, are you a myopic?  Have you seen improvement and how long did it take you?  Which methods did you use?

I am 20 years old, I had poor eyesight for 2-3 years, my eyesight is 20/60-20/80 (depending on time of day), and I wear my glasses minimally.  To me, i seem to be a good candidate for the Bates method, but despite my efforts for about 10 months, I have not seen any improvement as of today....it's very discouraging    The only reason why I haven't given up is because I get flashes of clear vision maybe twice per day and it makes me remember how good my vision can be.

Nonetheless, I haven't been using regular techniques, I try something for a month and switch to something else if no improvement comes, not knowing which are most important.  A daily routine would be nice.

Paul

[David]

Paul,

What situations do you get clear flashes in? If you don't know, keep track and see if you can find any commonalities, because that's very important. It means you're instictively relaxing your eyes at points throughout the day, but when you do any of the exercises you must be trying to something completely different from that. Because it should be relatively easy for you to get benefit from multiple exercises if you get clear flashes often, and the only reason you wouldn't get benefit from anything is by having an idea of resting your eyes that's completely off base.

You might as well lay off palming. I could suggest some more things to help with palming, but I think you need to ditch it for now.

Have you tried shifting with a chart? See the descriptions on shifting on the Method of the Week board here. There are other exercises you can do there too.

I had moderate myopia (you have very low), and I can usually read 20/20 or 20/25 on the chart.

There's no daily routine except for doing some exercises at least half an hour per day, or every weekday at least. You should only do a couple exercises - definitely stay away from making up any routine that has you spend 5 minutes on 5 exercises.

Dave

[Otter]

I've only had a clear flash once, and it was 5-7 months ago when it was cloudy outside and I was getting a ride home.  Can anyone please tell me how I can obtain these clear flashes?