Vision Training: Improving Your Eyesight

Vision training reduces your dependence on strong compensating lenses and enhances your visual interaction with the world. Vision deficiencies are changeable training helps make your eyes function more efficiently by using a combination of exercises, nutrition, light, color, awareness, and reducing the use and strength of visual aids. Vision fitness includes visual acuity, the ability of the eyes to work together, and the ability to visually interact with your environment without eye problems or emotional blinders

History

Dr. W. H. Bates, a New York ophthalmologist, is considered the pioneer of vision training. In the early 1900s, he developed the Bates Method for vision improvement which focuses on breathing, relaxation, memory, imagination and eye drills. In over thirty years of research, he showed that vision defects are usually the result of functional problems that can be overcome, and not permanent flaws in the shape of the eye. His work was not accepted by most ophthalmologists.

The Bates Method was used with great success by many practitioners and notably by writer Aldous Huxley who, within two months of using this method, was able to read without using Braille or a heavy magnifying glass. He was so impressed that he wrote a book called The Art of Seeing.

Dr. Robert-Michael Kaplan is an internationally known consultant in complementary vision care who has used a multifaceted approach to develop a comprehensive vision training system that incorporates exercise, diet, lifestyle and mental and emotional awareness. The self-help techniques of Bates and Kaplan are becoming more popular as people are realizing the benefits of natural health care.

How Can It Help Me?

Vision training improves dyslexia, far-sightedness, near-sightedness, eye strain, astigmatism, eye coordination, memory, photosensitivity and will enhance overall well-being. Emotional patterns such as beliefs, fears and angers, and perceptions picked up from your parents and teachers, distort vision

Causes of Eye Problems

Eye problems have many causes, including mental and physical tension, unsynchronized eyes, strain from looking sideways instead of directly at things, traumatic events that alter our visual perception, fluorescent lights and improper nutrition.

Although 20/20 prescriptions help you to see perfectly, they increase eye stress, reduce natural depth perception and produce strain and fatigue after extended use. Strong prescriptions do not give your eyes an opportunity to regenerate themselves naturally and result in a dependency on compensating lenses.

How Does It Work?

Conventional compensating lenses hold the eye in a fixed position and inhibit the eye muscles from naturally adjusting to accommodate near and far focusing. Avoiding corrective lenses or using a reduced (less than 20/20) prescription permits your eyes to function more naturally.

Kaplan's concept of vision fitness lenses (20/40 instead of 20/20) allow your eyes to relax, producing a calming effect. The reduced lens prescription also means that your eyes are given a chance to increase their natural function, and you are able to notice any fluctuations in vision that are triggered by your activities, diet and environment.

Eye exercises and general exercise improve circulation, oxygenate the blood and enhance nerve function. Proper nutrition improves the health of the entire body, including your eyes.

Vision training reveals your inner perceptions, either current or from the past, as they manifest themselves in your eye condition. By understanding the "mind's eye," you learn how emotions affect the way you see, and you can overcome these visual limitations.

How Is It Done?

Improving vision starts with specific exercises including the following: head movements to loosen the neck area and relax the mind; swinging your torso from side to side while looking between your two outstretched arms; placing your palms over your eyes for relaxation; near and far focusing; blinking; blinking into sunlight; scanning; stretching the eye muscles; crossing your eyes; breathing; acupressure (for more information, see earlier part of this section) and non-staring. Visual aids such as glasses and contacts should be removed for at least a few hours a day so that the eyes have an opportunity to function naturally and regenerate.

Eye patches are also used to stimulate perception and peripheral vision. Rate of improvement depends on the effort you put into the program and the severity of your vision deficiency. Be patient and relax emotional strain will also affect your vision.

Vision Exercises

Here are a few simple vision training exercises you can use for your own self-help. Palm your eyes after these exercises to relax the eyes.

Strain from Close Work and Reading

• Changing Focus Distance: Frequently look away from your work to an object in the distance.


• Near and Far: Shift focus between a near object and a far object several times.


• Blinking: Blink every three seconds.


• Crossing Eyes: Cross your eyes by focusing on an object that you bring to touch the bridge of your nose.


• Scanning: Move your eyes quickly to different objects within your visual field.

Tension

• Palming: Rub palms together and place over your closed eyes, but not touching your eyes, to block all light and relax for a couple of minutes. When you are completely relaxed, you should see pure black.


• Neck Stretch: Stretch your head down to the chest. Repeat ten or more times.


• Side-to-Side Neck Stretch: Stretch the head sideways to look over one shoulder then look over the other shoulder. Repeat ten or more times.

Stimulating

• Up-and-Down Eye Stretches: Keep head still and without straining look up and then down. Repeat three times.


• Side-to-Side Eye Stretches: Keep head still and without straining look left and right. Repeat three times.


• Left-to-Right Diagonal Eye Stretches: Keep head still and without straining look up and to the left and then down and to the right. Repeat three times.


• Right-to-Left Diagonal Eye Stretches: Keep head still and without straining look up and to the right and then down and to the left. Repeat three times.


• Crossing Eyes: Cross your eyes, by focusing on an object that you bring to touch the bridge of your nose.

What Can I Do?

When your eyes are tired, give them a break and stimulate them with some vision exercises. Take time to relax by breathing and stretching. Avoid looking sideways to prevent straining the eyes. Instead, move your head to look directly at what you want to see. When reading, use a 100-watt light source behind you and keep your work directly in front of you. A healthy lifestyle including exercise, proper nutrition, natural light and relaxation is also important

Where Do I Go Next?

Check at your holistic health book store or natural food store to find a vision fitness practitioner, or contact the International Society for Eyesight Education.