I've read a couple of places that shifting is to be done all day untill it becomes a habit. I'm kinda confused. Is shifting to be done so it can become a habit or is shifting a means to get relaxation?
From what I understand, shifting consciously is not such a good thing. Try it for thirty minutes or so and you will know what I am saying - shifting is a strain on the eyes. If you keep shifting for a long time it will definitely hurt the eyes.
The relaxed eyes shift very minutely even without our awareness even if we appear to be staring. This is the actual condition to attain where we shift effortlessly and without even aware that such a shift is going on, it is so natural to the healthy eye. The idea behind the shifting exercise is to consciously try to imitate the normal eye and hope that it picks up the habit. Shifting must be accompanied by central fixation to be really effective. This is the idea behind shifting between two objects to see the object worse when we look at the other object. This distance should be lowered until you can see worse on the smallest letters on the test card.
Shifting consicously is bad and not ideal for the healthy eye. But staring is even worse. Therefore, it is better to shift atleast imperfectly rather than staring. We start by shifting imperfectly and when this is combined with other techniques that yield visual relaxation we strive to achieve the perfect unconscious shifting of the normal eye.
As Ram explained, shifting is an entirely unconscious effect. Bringing it into the conscious control would result in strain.
The best we can do is use other tools, such as central fixation and imagery of a black period, to enhance our shifting.
Keep in mind that central fixation brings great relaxation to the eye, and the eye inevitably improves shifting. Everything is connected.
You can practice shfiting with an eye chart, paying attention to a part of a letter at a time. But keep in mind it's just an exercise, whereas natural shifting is done pretty much unconsciously. The exercise is meant to get you into noticing eventually that you see best only where you're looking, and that you can't keep looking at a single point effectively (unless it appears to move slightly, in which case you aren't). The point of pointing out that natural shifting is unconscious is so you don't try to take control of it and try to make rapid shifts consciously.
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