Relearning to See - My 4th Week without Glasses

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This week I have been reading Relearning to See like a nutter. It is quite fascinating really, learning about sight. It probably isn’t to someone who has beautiful natural vision, but someone like me who is in a blurry mess most of the time, learning natural vision is quite interesting. It is a shame it has come to this, but nevermind, I am attempting to change it and with each day I am more and more confident it will be soon that I shall reach my goal.

Quackenbush teaches the 3 principles of natural vision – movement, centralization and relaxation. Knowing how we see and knowing these three principles is crucial in improving your vision. I have spent the week consciously incorporating them into my life. When speaking of movement, Quackenbush refers to how we see – not just staring at a particular object and trying to see it, but moving our eyes around the object, ‘sketching’ it. Our eyes are constantly shifting from one point to another – our eyes are never still. Movement also refers to blinking. In those individuals who have blurred vision, these qualities are often reduced substantially (we don’t blink as often) or are simply missing (our eyes don’t move they just stare). In order to see clearly again, one must learn to sketch/shift and to blink often and lightly. Quackenbush references the way children behave – they constantly are moving, exploring. Unfortunately we as adults are continuously telling them to be still, and trying to instil in them unnatural restraints that essentially have caused our problematic eye issues. Instead we should be like children and we shouldn’t restrict ourselves. Movement is essential to good vision. It is natural.

Centralisation goes hand in hand with movement and is the notion that the human eye can only see one point clearly at any moment. It is having one’s primary visual interest at one small central point at any moment and this is the only point that is clear and most colourful. Anything else is less clear. Anything in the peripheral is not clear. This does not work unless you keep shifting your attention to different points, to ultimately see the entire picture. When you stare you diffuse instead of centralise and this causes strain.

Now for relaxation, you cannot relax properly unless you breathe properly. Abdominal breathing is natural, normal breathing. Breathing through your nose is natural normal breathing. A quick 6 steps to abdominal breathing is:

1. Sit or lie comfortably.

2. Put one hand on your chest and one on your stomach.

3. Slowly inhale through your nose.

4. As you inhale, feel your stomach expand with your hand. If your chest expands, focus on breathing with your diaphragm.

5. Slowly exhale.

6. Rest and repeat.

You shouldn’t pull the abdominal in while inhaling and shouldn’t lift your shoulders up. This is extremely important and once done enough this type of breathing can become automatic again.

These are the three principles that I have been trying to incorporate into my everyday life regularly – all day and all night (with the breathing).

Everyday I have made sure I kept my eyes moving, my head moving and neck at least partially moving. I have sketched objects, blinked a lot and also tried to establish centralisation as well. I don’t think I am quite there with the centralisation (although I imagine I am – imagination being important too), but with the exercises I have I am hoping this will be in my grasp in the very near future. Whenever I sit down and have a moment I have sketched and attempted centralisation more consciously.

I have also noticed I tend to tense my jaw up a lot – I guess this is with the lack of movement in my neck and head. From the start of the week I had already made abdominal breathing an automatic function. I also tested this when I was quite stressed. As soon I felt overwhelmed I checked my breathing and found I was still abdominally breathing – this is usually when you might slip back into old habits! I also noticed with this that my shoulders and neck didn’t tense up and cause me excruciating pain as they normally would when I am under pressure. I have also found that I tend to not get as stressed as I used to.

By the end of the day my eyes are not sore and tired – they still are very fresh! When I walk about I notice how much I can see clearly and can read signs that I would have never been able to weeks ago. Also when I look at things I don’t *try* to see – trying hinders vision. When I do this I have had flashes of clear vision and although it is very quick it is fantastic! Overall I have had a very good week. I am enjoying the less tense, less sore lifestyle already. Of course I still have far to go, but once I have cracked centralisation I should be there fairly quickly. I look forward to relieving the all of the tension in my neck and shoulders completely. But this coming week I shall be incorporating some of the exercises every day in order to gain back centralisation. Wish me success!