Im 34 now and my eyes have gradually been getting worse and worse over the years (short sighted). My lenses are getting thicker and thicker and basically i detest them as i feel they make me look awful!!
Anyway, i recently got Improve Your Eyesight by Jonathan Barnes.
Now, i consider myself to be reasonably intelligent but i found the way he describes most of the methods to be infuriatingly complicated! ive actually thrown the damn book from one side of the room to the other once or twice as i struggle to understand fully what he is describing (im not usually this bad tempered! :)
I so badly want to understand all the techniques but i tie my brain up in knots trying to comprehend fully what the hell im supposed to be doing.
So, this forum is kind of my last hope before i just about give up on the whole thing for good.
Can somebody explain to me in the most basic, simple terms how to 'shift' using a letters chart? I have read countless descriptions on the internet and still am having trouble fully grasping it. e.g. i look at an E - then i look away and look at the L next to it. Am i supposed to be fully concentrating on the L? or looking at the L whilst still being able to see a blurry E 'out of the corner of my eye' or am i merely glancing at the L whilst trying my best to focus on the E even though im not actually looking at it?!?
Please someone explain - explain it like you would to a 4 year old! cos i think this is the only way i am fully 100% going to understand!
Lastly, can someone also , again very ,very simply explain 'swinging' between letters on a chart? one thing i dont get is - if im looking at an E do i move my head fully to look at the L next to it? or do i just move my eyeballs to look at the L? i notice i only see what can be described as a swinging motion if i actually physically move my head to look at the other letter or object. If i just move my eyes i dont see any swing at all.
I hope you can just explain these two seemingly basic principles to me better than Mr Barnes did as the man has me tearing my hair out! ???
I generally just palm a few times a day and do some fusion excercises but ive noticed that amongst other people the shifting and swinging seems to be the two main most important methods. This is why im desperate to fully understand so i know im doing them correctly and not just wasting my time doing them wrong.
Sorry this is long but i really, really want to have a good go at this but at the moment im close to throwing the towel in for good.
Quote:Can somebody explain to me in the most basic, simple terms how to 'shift' using a letters chart? I have read countless descriptions on the internet and still am having trouble fully grasping it. e.g. i look at an E - then i look away and look at the L next to it. Am i supposed to be fully concentrating on the L? or looking at the L whilst still being able to see a blurry E 'out of the corner of my eye' or am i merely glancing at the L whilst trying my best to focus on the E even though im not actually looking at it?!?
The major problem with imperfect eyes is the loss of central fixation. When an individual with a refractive error looks at an object, he tries to see it all at once. However, the eye is not physically capable of that due to the fact that the vision is usually clear only at one small point - fovea centralis. The idea is to inhibit that habit by practicing central fixation. You look at one letter and imagine that the other letter next to it is seen worse. By see worse I don't mean blurry, I mean the direction of your psychological awareness. Get it through your mind that you are looking at that letter, or that part of the letter only, and whatever you aren't looking at is not as important, and consequently not as detailed. Throughout the exercise, make sure you aren't staring. As you become good at this, you can practice this on smaller letters, and perhaps even parts of the letters - shifting between smaller distances.
Quote:Lastly, can someone also , again very ,very simply explain 'swinging' between letters on a chart? one thing i dont get is - if im looking at an E do i move my head fully to look at the L next to it? or do i just move my eyeballs to look at the L? i notice i only see what can be described as a swinging motion if i actually physically move my head to look at the other letter or object. If i just move my eyes i dont see any swing at all.
In this particular technique you are mostly interested in the motion of your eyes. Swinging is an illusion that's produced if your eyes are shifting properly (rapidly moving). If you look at the top part of the letter it appears to be moving downwards. If you have trouble observing the swing, try varying the distances, like larger letters, multiple letters, smaller letters, or even your whole eyechart instead. The idea is that as you get better, you can effortlessly swing smaller areas. When you become an expert you can easily swing any object or letter or part of the letter no matter how small it is.
Dave has written a nice guide in both shifting and swinging. In addition to his link on shifting, here are some more on swinging:
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Welcome to the forum, and please hang in there!!! There is lots of support on this forum and reading things others have written has really helped me to start putting it all together. Hopefully, that will be true for you as well.
At the end of the link Dave gave you on shifting, he likens shifting to feeling grapes and then apples. That analogy really helps me. It's so simple and nonintellectual. I just identify each letter I am observing as "apple" and on an almost subconscious level think of the others as grapes.
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