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 Aim
Visions of Joy aims to increase public awareness of the alternative
to glasses, contacts or laser surgery. I want the whole world to know
that eyes can heal too! Blurry vision is not a life sentence,
it is only a signal to us that we are doing something wrong and that
we need to make a change. The natural approach to eyesight improvement
has no negative side effects (actually it has many beneficial side effects!)
and it is the cheapest. Also, in my humble opinion, it gives the best results, it just takes
a little patience and persistence.
Allow Visions of Joy to help you discover how you can improve your own
eyesight. One hint: It does not involve staring at a bee on your nose...
Because that's not relaxing at all. 
How long will it take?
The typical first question is: "How long
before I will 'see' results?"
My answer is: "That depends... "
Stop straining to see...
It is different for everyone and varies with the strength
of the prescription and the number of years glasses were worn.
It depends on how well you understand the principles of natural eyesight
improvement, on how much you apply them, on how good your overall health
is, how stressed you are and how you deal with that stress. Furthermore, it depends on the experience and ability
of your teacher. There is
no set time. Everyone is different. Many people have used corrective
lenses for years, or, like me, squinted for years. As much as we'd like
to see clearly NOW, it's unlikely that years of blurry vision
will completely heal instantly.
My own experience proves that 16 years of
blurry vision can clear to 20/20 clarity within a few weeks,
under relaxed circumstances and with conscious awareness of vision
habits. There have been cases in Dr Bates' clinic who regained
perfect eyesight almost immediately. I've had one man come to me
who only needed one hour and was then able to pass the drivers test
that he had just failed for the first time. And a nearsighted friend who couldn't see any letters on the eye-chart
without his glasses read the 20/50 line without glasses after one
month. This speedy improvement may
happen for you too, but it is not similarly fast for everyone.
How long did it take you to get to this point of deteriorated
vision?? Often many years of bad habits need to be unlearned, and
it takes some determination and persistence to get back to healthy
vision. Ultimately, it is your
choice. The good news is, it does NOT matter how old you are or
how bad your vision is, everyone can benefit from natural eyesight
improvement, and it usually doesn't take as long to return to clarity as
it took to get to your current level of blurry vision. In my
classes, I find that most people experience a brief (temporary)
improvement in their vision within the first hour, and that many people
get lasting improvement of some degree within just a few weeks.
If you really want a rough time-line before you'll even give the Bates
Method a chance, I suggest you use the following equation: Count on
needing at least one month for every diopter of prescription. Add a
week for every year glasses were worn. Multiply by your levels of
health and motivation (1 is best/highest, 5 is worst/lowest).
Subtract a month for every year of experience your teacher has. If
the answer is more than 12 months, you may want to increase your
motivation or change teachers... :-) Okay, I'm just kidding.
Maybe now you understand why it is hard to predict how long it will take.
Before we start
First, let me make clear that I am a teacher - not an ophthalmologist
(as Dr Bates was) nor am I an optometrist,
therefore I do not diagnose eye diseases nor prescribe corrective lenses,
but I do love to help people regain good eyesight in a relaxed effortless
way. (Please read the disclaimer)
There is a lot to learn about natural eyesight improvement, and you've
come to a good place to start. Visions of Joy will point you in a new
direction, whether your problem is nearsightedness, farsightedness,
"middle-aged vision" (presbyopia), astigmatism, "cross-eye"
(strabismus), "lazy eye" (amblyopia), floaters, or other vision
challenges.
You will find links to other related websites,
with lists of Natural Vision Educators world-wide. Attending classes
with an experienced Bates teacher gives you the best chance of improving
your vision. If you can't take a class just yet, you may want to get
started with the suggested book list. Either
way, it is nice to have an idea of what to expect, so the following
are some basics to get you on your way to clearer vision.
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O who's who??
Ophthalmologist - this is an eye surgeon
Optometrist - an eye doctor who examines your eyes, and who can prescribe glasses
Optician - the technician who grinds the lenses, makes glasses and fits them to your face
Optimist - you and me, who believe we can happily live our lives without glasses
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What happened?
Seeing, like breathing, is something we do without much conscious thought.
But as we grow up, we don't all keep doing it right. Some of us have
stopped breathing abdominally - now using the chest instead, and some
of us have stopped seeing effortlessly - now straining to see instead.
Somewhere along the line, something interfered with our natural habits,
and we started on a downhill slide. Can you remember a time when your
vision was perfect? What happened when it began to deteriorate? Were
you doing lots of reading or close up work? (School years are often
the start period for nearsighted people.) Did you go through a stressful
period? Was there an accident? When asked these questions some of my
students discovered a link between the beginning of their vision problems
and a major change in their life. For one person it was a neck injury,
someone else went through divorce, yet another had a hard time living
up to expectations during college, and one person realized his vision
problems began when he got a job involving long hours working indoors
without windows. My visual blur started when I was 17 and in a relationship
that my parents didn't approve of. The emotional turmoil caused mental
strain which caused visual strain, and it resulted in nearsightedness.
I really didn't want to deal with the big picture at that time. Tracing
the initial cause may help us understand the current problem and can
be the first step toward healing.
We don't see things as they are
~ we see things as we are.
Anais Nin
Is there a way back?
Can you regain the clarity of vision that you once had? Is there a chance
for you to rid yourself of those cumbersome glasses and contact lenses?
Many students of the Bates method, including myself, have done exactly
that. We relearned natural vision habits, regained our natural clear
vision, and no longer need those eye 'crutches'. Now it is your turn
to follow in our footsteps. Although you can
not undo your past experiences, you may be able to view those experiences
differently, and you can learn to undo the continued resulting strain
on your eyes. There are many simple things we can do to help our eyes
cope with the demands we put on them. Our eyes are designed to last
a life time and will serve us perfectly if we know how to take care
of them.
 No anatomy, no exercises
You'll be pleased to know that there is no need to know much about anatomy,
about the structure of your eyes. It may be handy to know some anatomy/physiology
basics and understand why Natural Eyesight Improvement works, but that
is simply not a requirement for improving your own eyesight.
More importantly, Natural Eyesight Improvement isn't really about doing
eye exercises. Seriously!
Why no exercises?
Because it is not due to a
lack of eye exercises that your vision became blurry!
Dr
Bates discovered that the main cause of functional vision problems
is tension. So I do not recommend "eye push-ups" - the muscles
around your eyes are likely tight already, and adding strain to tense
muscles will not do much good. Seeing is such a natural function, you
just need to learn how to stop interfering with what your eyes and brain
are designed to do effortlessly.
Dr. William H Bates
Vision fluctuates
Have you ever noticed times where your vision is better or worse than
usual? Perhaps you find that sometimes you see clearer in the morning
after a restful sleep, and that your eyesight gradually gets worse during
the day as work requirements demand attention. Or you see better on
a relaxing day spent at the beach in the sun, while indoors under artificial
light you need your glasses all the time.
On one of my trips to the USA from Europe I was stopped at the immigration
check point in Atlanta airport. I hadn't done anything illegal, but
the interrogation to which I was subjected was stressful enough that
I tensed up, worried about missing my connecting flight. I noticed my
vision deteriorate dramatically, the flight details on the monitor became
a giant blur. My vision returned to normal a few hours later when I
was aboard the plane to the West coast and my tension and frustration
had dissipated. Vision is clearly not static. Vision is subject to fluctuation.
So, if your eyesight can fluctuate on a hourly basis, it makes sense
that there must also be a way to reverse the downward slide you are
on, and start improving your vision on a more permanent basis.
The only thing you can change in
the world is yourself,
and that makes all the difference in the world.
cher
 Relaxing
your eyes - moving versus staring
Many people associate relaxing with not moving. For the
eyes, this is not appropriate. The eyes like to move. They are designed
to be on the move all the time; shifting 70 times per second is normal
for healthy eyes. Staring is not your eyes' favorite pastime; it can
actually be painful. My definition of staring is keeping your head still,
your eyes don't move either, you don't blink, and there is no change in
focal distance (i.e. you keep your eyes locked on one fixed point).
Try
that.
- Okay, how did that feel?
My eyes don't like it at all any more;
they hurt when I stare, and the object I'm staring at quickly becomes
blurred. Staring demands that the muscles around the eyes tense up. Those
muscles don't like that, they are designed to move. Movement helps blood
flow, blood flow brings nutrients and oxygen.
Staring is out...
Holding tension for prolonged
periods is unnatural for eye muscles. They prefer to shift regularly between
near and far vision, and they generally like to move around. Staring also reduces the rate of blinking
drastically, which can cause the eyes to become dry and prone to infections.
Are you in the habit of staring? If so, next time you catch yourself staring,
shake off that stare, move your head and eyes, take a deep breath in,
and return to regular relaxed blinking. Your eyes will be grateful.
 Blinking
Healthy eyes blink every 2 or 3 seconds on average. It is a quick, effortless blink,
lasting only 1/40th of a second, which is barely noticeable and does not
interfere with seeing.
Blinking lubricates and cleanses the eyes. It also gives the eyes a mini-rest.
Catch up with blinking: do some fast blinking, or do a squeeze blink,
and allow your face muscles to squeeze also, making funny faces, then
return to relaxed mode.
Ask a partner/relative/friend to tell you when you are staring. The more
you increase your awareness, the more chance you have of eliminating the
staring habit and the sooner you will return to a healthy blinking habit.
Blink effortlessly...
Breathing
Did you know that the eyes and the brain use more oxygen than any other
part of your body??! A deficiency of oxygen significantly reduces our
ability to think and see clearly. Therefore our breathing pattern affects
our vision, and a return to clear vision requires a return to natural
breathing habits.
In my classes I give a simple test, and while everyone is concentrating
on doing this test, I ask if anyone is still breathing.... Gasp! To
most everyone's surprise, they find that they were so busy doing something
new and unusual, that they 'forgot' to breathe. Breathing tends to become
very shallow when people concentrate. We tend to hold the chest and
belly area tight and thereby restrict the movement of the diaphragm
and ribcage, and thus the ability of the
lungs to expand outward and fill fully with oxygen. In the second run
of the same test, people discover that it is really easy to breathe
abdominally while still paying attention, and that the task then becomes
more relaxing; less effort is required. This is a dynamic relaxation:
doing more with less effort.
A lot of people have different
ideas about how we should be breathing. One thing is for sure; the more
we can use our full lung capacity efficiently, the better our health
and vision will be. For more information, go to the page on natural
breathing.
Central
Fixation
Dr. Bates wrote in his books about the importance of 'central fixation'.
What does that mean?
 Well,
when you look at the cross-section of the eye at the right, notice the
retina which lines the back
of the eyeball (red
line). At the center
of the retina is a small indentation named the 'fovea', also known as
'fovea centralis'. Without getting technical and detailed (come to a
class
for a more in-depth explanation of this), the fovea is the area of the
eye that gives us our clearest vision. With that small central area we
see details the best. This means that only objects in the center of our
field of vision can be seen with total clarity.
Our peripheral vision does not give us a clear picture; it is somewhat
blurry and is not designed to give us vision that is quite as sharp as
our central vision. Peripheral vision is our safety net; it is quick to
notice movement, and it serves us well in low light, but it can not give
us a sharp image. So central fixation is simply an awareness
of seeing best in the center of our field of vision, while at the same
time remaining aware of our peripheral vision.
This awareness
of best clarity in the center, combined with a continuous relaxed easy
movement of the eyes, results
in a more relaxed way of seeing, because the eyes are designed to see like
that. Trying to see the whole picture clearly is a strain on the eye,
because it simply is not possible for the eye to see everything clearly
at one time. Instead, to get a complete picture, the eyes move all over
the picture, picking up details here and there, wherever our attention
wanders.
What we see
depends mainly on what we look for
John Lubbock
The key
Overall, the key to eyesight improvement is relaxation, and relearning
to use our eyes the way nature intended them to be used. In vision
improvement classes we cover the natural vision habits in detail, exploring a
variety of ways to relax our eyes. Together we also look at the influence
of posture, massage, positive attitude, diet, left/right brain dominance,
color lights and sunlight. You'll learn which of the various
vision support tools help you most and you'll soon be well on your way to
clarity.
Throw out your glasses?
Dr. Bates knew that the quickest way back to clear vision is to stop
using corrective lenses altogether. However, many people can not see
clearly enough to accomplish their daily tasks without using corrective
lenses some of the time. For these people, it is impractical to throw
out the glasses or contacts on day one of their natural vision course.
Instead, they use reduced prescription lenses which correct the vision
to 20/40 acuity. 20/40 Acuity is legal for driving in all states of
the USA. This slightly blurry 20/40 vision will allow the eyes some
room for improvement. Through practicing natural vision habits these
'20/40s' will gradually give 20/20 vision, which indicates it is time
to progress to the next reduced prescription. This way we can work our
way back to clear vision and to that wonderful day when we can ceremoniously
discard our glasses forever... Visions of Joy.
The
more light you allow within you,
the brighter the world you live in will be.
Shakti Gawain
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