13. New Habits For Using Your Eyes

Trying to restore vision to its perfect condition can be challenging. Every day, we misuse our eyes which further entrench the habits that causes vision problems. Your biggest challenge is to methodically change the bad habits. The way to change old habits is to develop new ones that will support the benefits of the training. By consciously deciding and repeating a few simple new routines, you can override the old habits. After a few weeks of conscious effort and repetition, the new routines will become your new habit. It is important to develop these new habits because you can easily fall back to the old habit which undermine the good effects of the exercises and slow your progress.

General

1. Do not use your glasses unless it is absolutely necessary
2. Spend time outdoor each day practicing week five’s lesson. The lessons teach you the skills to use your eyes correctly. You should use these skills to see every day.
3. When your are watching TV, or reading, use your eyes correctly by looking at one point on the image at a time.
4. Be aware of the any tension in your eye and face muscles. We tense them when we are concentrating on our work and this allow our habits to take control of our actions.
5. Use the time wasted standing in line or stopped at a traffic light to hone the seeing skills.

If you spend many hours working in front of a computer, or reading and writing each day, there will be a big battle between seeing near and seeing far. You need to efficiently see near but you will also need to remove eyestrain to prevent future eye problems. Working too long in front of a computer with no breaks to relax the eyes will undermine your progress. It is important to develop good working habits so that you can lessen the eyestrain. Remember to keep your mind calm, your eyes relaxed, and yourself a break often.

When Working – Do these simple things:

1. Work in bright natural sunlight as much as possible. Pack your books and laptop, and move to a spot next to a window, or under a tree. Allow the sunlight to shine on the book you are reading. Position your laptop to reduce the glare yet still having as much sunlight as possible. Sunlight is roughly 650 to 8500 watts (10,000 lux – 130,000 lux) compare to 75 to 200 watts (1200 lux – 3000 lux) of incandescent light. Our eyes are made for this extra-bright natural light. When we use them in their natural environment, they can strengthen and improve.
2. When doing near work (reading, play video game, watching TV, etc.) stop and look at something across the room or out the window every few minutes. If you are reading a book, do this at the end of each page. Remember that when you look at a distant object, to focus on one point at a time, then return to reading.
3. Keep the reading material at least 20 inches away. If you cannot see clearly from that far back, work your way back to 20 inches.
4. When you are reading, look at one part of a letter and use your peripheral vision to see the entire word or phrase. For example, “as you are reading this sentence” look at the tip of the letter “y” in “you” and use your peripheral vision to see “as you are”. Then, look at the tip of the letter “t” in “this” and use your peripheral vision to see “reading this sentence”.
5. Stop working every 30 minutes. Get up, go to the restroom, refill the cup, dance around, do cartwheels, or do anything that allows your eyes to focus at different distances before continuing with your work.

Summary

We cannot improve our vision by repeating the old habits that strain our eyes muscles. We must change. The good habits listed need to be learned and repeated until it becomes a part of our daily life. Each item is a simple change, and when added together, creates a good basis for improvement. By incorporating correct seeing skills and good eye usage habits, you can help your eyes improve until it no longer depend on glasses to see clearly.