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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Trying to see without glasses

Recently I came across a book called "Relearning to See" by Thomas Quackenbush which gave me the idea to experiment with the so-called Bates Method for regaining natural vision habit. It claims that poor eyesight is due to bad habits such as staring, over-concentrating etc. hence straining the eyes. In the book it describes 3 principles of natural vision: movement, centralization and relaxation while the good habits to acquire are sketching/shifting, breathing and blinking. Well, I think the bottomline is to have relaxed vision at all times. This includes a positive mind - like telling yourself that you can 'see clearly' (wait! - this company went bankrupt for bad practices) and a suggestion kindly given by Esther Joy (whom I contacted via her website) - if I were trying too hard - to forget about my eyes and imagine that I see. I have been mostly unaided hy the glasses for more 2 weeks now. Wow! On hindsight, I should not have allowed my excitement to make me abandon my glasses without proper planning and preparation. So, in the 3rd day, I was really struggling psychologically. The feeling was like drifting too far out to sea already and yet there is no land in sight. It was neither there nor here - my originral glasses seem too strong for me to wear now and yet without them, I was "legally blind". It was miserable because all I could do was listen to audio/music.....but believe it or not, I oould still cook breakfast, lunch and dinner, wash dishes, strain my neck to surf the net occasionally....in the afternoon, I would just sleep 4-5 hours (super long nap). This could be good as I might be chronically underslept anyway in view of my adjustment to new hours (jet lag). That is when I desperately reached out to others (Esther, Tom) to get help and they responded to my plea. I was very encouraged by Esther's mail. Tom's student, Sue, was supposed to get back to me. Hmm, maybe she forgot. Anyway, a little angel did come to my rescue. And instead of going to the nanny, she stayed with me until today. Kept me company and busy too. Who? Zoey lah. I made her cry a few times too though - mostly because of makan issues. So, where do i go from here? I think I should get a 20/40 prescription by end of this week to relieve my hardship. It's tough playing badminton wearing my wife's glasses. It must have been like 20/160 and without glasses, I think I must be 2/200! My original prescription is aout 700 or 7.0D (for Diopter) for both (each) eyes. I read some of the vision blogs in effortlessvision.org forum or something and it horrifies me what people had to go through for such a long time. Not sure if I can do it. There are a few exercises to do before going to sleep and after rising....the long swing (like elephant swinging its trunk), the sway and centralization, in addition to sunning and palming. Maybe post some pictures later. Anyway, it is pretty tiring to type without wearing my glasses....and so see you next time.

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