I have been busy working on a new look for the website. I spent a lot of time programming to get things working correctly. With a week and a half of long hours, I can feel the my eyesight getting weaker and blurrier. I fell back into one bad habit that I wanted to break. I worked long and hard to get the task done, and I compromised my eyesight to do it. It would have been better if I had looked away every few minutes and focused on something far away. In my haste to get it done, I forgot to take care of my eyes. It’s so easy to fall back into our old routines. I have been exercising my eyes for over a year, but somehow, I didn’t follow the few simple new habits that I was practicing.

Good habits I want when I’m working:

• every ten minutes, I scan the room and trace some patterns
• every half hour, I would close my eyes and massage around the eyes
• every hour, I would take a break and relax my eyes, maybe look out the window

It’s such a simple thing to do, but I didn’t do it. Maybe, I haven’t worked hard enough to form this habit. I’ll try harder to break this bad habit replacing it with this new habit.

When I can’t read or see something clearly, I squint to make it clear. It feels as if I’m using my eyes to grab the image. This normally sharpens the image for a second and then it becomes blurry again. Then, I quint harder to keep it clear. This cycle makes my head feels as if screws are being tightened on my temples and the back of my head. This is definitely not the right way to see something clearly. So, why did I do it every time I want to see something clearly?

Don’t Try

It’s difficult to change because I didn’t know any better. When something is difficult to do, I naturally try harder. But, our eyes doesn’t seem to work on this principle. We can’t flex the eye muscles to see better, and the harder we try the more problem it causes. If we close our eyes, take several deep breaths and relax, when we open them, the image generally looks clearer. It’s easier to see clearly with relaxed eyes than stained eyes. If trying harder doesn’t work, it makes sense not to strain and let the eyes sharpen the image by itself. This goes against my natural instincts to try harder, so I have to constantly remind myself to relax my eyes.

Letting the eyes sharpen an image by itself is easier said than done. Straining to see clearly is a habit, and it’s not easy to untrained. How does it feel not to strain or let the eyes focus naturally? I know how it feels to squint and strain to see clearly. I try many eye exercises and eye massages, but I still strain to see clearly.

Relaxed Eyes

It occurred to me one day, as I was getting ready for bed, that my eyes are most relaxed when I’m asleep. I lay down and sense how the eyes feel when I’m about to sleep. I feel the soothing warm eyelids closing, the calmness of the dark, the tensed eye muscles melting into relaxation and the relaxed eyes sinking slightly inward. I try to remember this relaxed feeling. I want to use this feeling to relax my eyes when I notice that I’m straining them.

Persistence

The challenge is to replace the squinting and straining with this relaxed-eye feeling. I constantly remind myself, “don’t force your eyes to see clearly. It’s OK that it’s blurry; let it sharpen naturally.”

This is the battle I will continue to fight until I’m free of my glasses.

For over 26 years, I wore glasses from the moment I woke until the time I went to bed. I am nearsighted. I depend on my glasses to see far things clearly. I shouldn’t use it when working on things that are near, but I kept it on. It never occurred to me take them off. After reading Dr. Bates book, I decided to use my glasses only when it’s necessary to see distance things clearly.

First Try

I took off my glasses. It was unpleasant. Everything was blurry; I couldn’t see near and I couldn’t see far. Only things eight inches or closer were clear. It felt so uncomfortable to see everything in depths of blurriness. After struggling for five minutes, I had to put them back on.

Second Try

Saturday morning, I tried again. I removed my glasses. Again, it felt uncomfortable. My eyes strained to see clearly. Everything was blurry and in doubles. I went to the garden and my eyes watered and strained from the bright light and blurriness. It took all my will power to keep my glasses off.

After an hour, my eyes adjusted to the blurriness, and it felt less uncomfortable. I am so used to the glasses that something doesn’t seem right without them on like my eyes were naked. What felt distressing was that I saw doubles without my glasses on. Why was I seeing doubles? I didn’t know, but I persevered and fought off the urge to put on my glasses.

Continuing

Day after day, I took off my glasses when I didn’t need to see something far away clearly. Slowly over many weeks, I felt comfortable seeing without my glasses. Slowly, the double image merged to one, although there was still a gap along the edge sometimes. It takes discipline, effort, and time to break the habit of wearing my glasses all the time. To break the dependence in my glasses and improve my eyesight, it’s worth any effort.

Challenge

Fighting the urge to wear my glasses all the time was challenging. We depend on our eyes and not being able to see clearly can be frustrating and unnerving. For all of us who wear glasses and want to improve our eyesight, this is the first and biggest hurdle we must fight to overcome.

I downloaded and read a book on curing imperfect eyesight; the concept seem devilishly simple, and I vowed to improve my eyesight. I printed out an eye chart to test my sight; I practiced the exercises; I saw and felt improvements. Three weeks later, my enthusiasm disappeared, deadlines took over, and the exercise vanished (as if by magic) from my mind. Okay, it may be just a tiny bit more difficult than I thought!

A year later, I found the book again as I was cleaning my hard drive. The concepts flashed back in my mind, and I vowed again to improve my eyesight. This time I have clever plan. I’m going to continue researching on how to my eyesight, continue to add and revise my understanding, and continue to write about my progress.

The book I downloaded was called The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses by William H. Bates, M.D.

I found three important points in this book:

1. We can improve our eyesight

It never occurred to me that I can improve my eyesight. My optometrist had always been interested in how well I can see so he prescribe the right pair of glasses or a comfortable pair of contacts. He never hinted the possibility of improving my eyesight. He had a business to run, so it’s understandable that he helps as many people find the right pair of glasses as he can.

2. Strain is the cause of our eye problems

Strain is difficult to feel. When I’m stressed I tense my legs, back, shoulders, neck or face; I can’t feel that I’m straining. It’s just the way the body behaves when I do things. Isn’t it? Habits developed from years of repetition becomes natural. When tension becomes natural, it’s very hard to tell whether it’s tense or not. Strain will lead to pain or problems in the future. If I have difficulty feeling physical strain, how can I tell if my mind strains to see?

3. Eye exercises can improve our eyesight

To improve our eyesight, knowledge and exercises are important. Ideas must lead to action, otherwise it’s just thoughts that doesn’t serve any purpose. The exercises Dr. Bates shared help us recognize the strain. Once recognized, we can learn to relax them. Doesn’t this sound so innocently simple.

I want to be free of my glasses! You should join me! One day we’ll have the pleasure of smashing our glasses together. At the very least, we get weaker prescription glasses and smash the old thick ones!