Learning To Focus & Eye Dryness Solution

Focusing by the eyes is performed so instantaneously that we take it for granted that the whole process is innately given. But focusing is actually something that our brains have learnt to do, because our eye muscles do not have the complexity to understand how far an object is, or what indeed should be within our attention. When something is in focus, the visual details become clearer, and in turn, our brain is 'rewarded' with information; this reward, teaches us how to achieve the same result faster in the future.

With my myopia, I'm learning how to focus on distant objects - in reality, it does not matter how far, because my vision has a refractive error, which makes things appear blurry beyond a certain point. So far, I've discovered that I can put distant objects into focus, if not for but a brief moment, if I relax my body and mind. Often it requires that I stare at a point of interest, without straining my eyes, then the object will become as clear as if I am wearing my glasses. I believe that the more often that the eyes can achieve this, then the better and faster it becomes at focusing.

A problem I encountered early on while trying to focus at distance, were my eyes drying up. As I relaxed my eyes, the objects would slowly come into focus, and then my eyes would suddenly begin to sting and tear up. This transient pain would be enough to cause all my eye muscles to tense up and all the learning effort would be wasted. I came to the conclusion, that perhaps, this was the reason why my myopia was so bad in the first place, that I'm not blinking correctly (sounds silly I know); but blinking lubricates the eyes, and prevents them drying out and hurting - Any type of pain, whether it is in the body or eyes, can create muscle tension. Since then, I've made a lot more progress by practicing blinking, and to blink at intervals while engaged in my focusing exercises.

I've always questioned why myopia is so prevalent in the Chinese population compared to the rest of the world, and my earlier discovery about blinking to relieve tension while 'focus learning' could be partly responsible for this. The Asian eyelid is formed in a noticeably different way from other races, in that many cases, it is insufficiently large enough cover the eyeball without engaging other muscles of the upper brow area. Dry eyes are a common problem in Asia, incidence of persistent dry eyes are estimated to be over 28% compared to 5% in the Caucasians. I believe that this problem can be corrected by learning to blink properly. One exercise that I developed for this, is to just close the eyes lightly, then relax the face. Feel the tension escaping from around the eyes and forehead, then slowly open the eyes without any strain or utilizing your brow muscles, just let the eyelids 'slide' open, keeping all your muscles relaxed while you do it. Then close your eyelids again gently, and repeat twenty times. This exercise will train you to blink fully, and prevent your eyes from drying up.

On a side note, there are many other reasons why people may suffer from dry eyes, from pollution to lack of sleep. The tears that lubricate your eyes are composed of not only water, but also salts and oils. If the oil glands in your eyelids become blocked, then your eyes are not getting the necessary oils to keep them wet. To overcome this, you can use a warm compress over your eyes - just soak a wash cloth in warm water, the fold it into a compress over your eyes for 5 to 10 minutes for several times a day - this will help unclog any blocked oil glands.

So keep your eyes relaxed. I know that many Asians are self-conscious of having 'slitty eyes' so they unconsciously open their eyes more than they should, putting the surrounding muscles under continuous tension, and exposing more of the eyeball area than the tears can lubricate. The forehead and brow muscles should remain relaxed, and if anyone has a subconscious fear of appearing 'slitty eyes' should deal with that psychological obstacle first, before dealing with dry eyes.

Natural Eyesight Healing: Day One

Over the past month or so, I have been considering to have eye sight correction by Lasik surgery, but because I have an aversion to any type of surgery, I decided to look up alternative treatments to improve my sight. I suffer from myopia (short-sightedness), and I stumbled upon the Bates Method, which I remembered reading about from a book I borrowed when I was fourteen.

I won't go too much into it, but the underlying theory is that the muscles that are used to rotate the eyeball are under tension causing a 'squeezing' which deforms the shape of the lens creating difficulty in focusing. The Bates Method involves a combination of exercises and relaxations that are designed to train the eye to be able to see properly again. There have been many books since written, elaborating and building upon the original principle, with very optimistic results from practitioners.

I approach everything with a slight skepticism, but seeing as the underlying theory seems plausible, I'm willing to give it a go. There's no harm in trying, and the process would help me learn more about the fascinating biology of the eyes and its processes.

Before going to bed last night, I practiced some of the Bates Method eye exercises. When I woke up this morning, I resisted the temptation to grab my spectacles. Apparently, when the eyes are relaxed the vision is better, because the muscles are not deforming the eye structure - I decided to take advantage of possibly improved vision after a relaxing night's sleep. I'm quite blind without my glasses, with quite a severe myopia of more than -6.0 in each eye; so at first I felt quite handicapped unaided by them, feeling retarded and clumsy when performing my usual tasks.

After a while without them, I found that I started to develop more confidence at doing things. One feels as clumsy without glasses, as one who has been depending on crutches to walk all his life. Initially, I struggled to think to do the most simplest things like making a cup of coffee, but that may be because of the distraction of the blurred environment. But there is no reason why I couldn't perform these tasks because if a blind person can do it, then there's absolutely no reason why someone who has partial vision cannot.

I thought about the difference between people who depend on glasses and those with perfect vision. People who look through lenses all day long have built a habit of locking their eyes forward (fixating on the optimum part of the lens), so that without glasses, they tend to look as if they are staring - ie, they don't have the soft stare that perfect vision people have. People with perfect vision scan more with their eyes, the movements are miniscule, yet small enough to notice. Someone who uses glasses, rely more on the movement of their head to look at things, whereas those with perfect vision move their eyes. That small but essential differentiation, is the reason why people with perfect vision have a faster peripheral vision. I decided that I would break the habit of my locked gaze, and be more conscious to use my eyes to scan, in that way, it would also work those muscles that have perhaps atrophied over the years.

So I tried reading a book, it was possible but uncomfortable because I held the novel so close to my eyes that I could smell the ink. When I used the computer, I had set my font size to 150%, and activated the magnifying tool, but even then it was difficult to read the screen without compromising my posture, so I decided to use my glasses for now whenever I used the computer - but removing my glasses when away from the screen to use the toilet or get a glass of water, etc.

Luckily, I have a mild obsessive compulsive order which makes it easy for me to keep up with things like these tedious eye exercises. These repetitive eye exercises which involve moving the eye up/down, left/right, clockwise/anticlock, etc, I imagine, are designed to mimic the natural eye movements of a full sighted person that us short-sighted people lack. I didn't expect to see any immediate improvements in vision after doing the exercises, especially after such a short time, but my eyes certainly did feel a lot more looser, as if someone had lubricated my eye sockets.

I've always had a fear of being blind in public, so I decided to challenge that fear and go out to lunch without the aid of my glasses - although I brought them along incase I needed to read anything. At first, I felt quite uncomfortable going outside without glasses, almost naked, and when I'm not wearing my glasses, I never know what to do with my eyes, they automatically lock into that straight forward, mannequin gaze. People appear as a blur to me, but I'm able to see enough to avoid a collision. I mimic the eyes of someone who can see, scanning my environment as if every object was sharp. It's easy just to stare blankly straight on because when everything is a blur, it's not very interesting, but I decided to be interested in the different types of blurs and fuzzy shapes. I managed to enter the mall without smacking my face into a glass door.

I feared my vision would be even more limited indoors, and I was right. As soon as I entered the mall from the sunny outside, the contrast between objects became even fuzzier and abstract. I got the feeling of jumping in at the deep end, but I decided that I'd feel more comfortable once I got used to it. I didn't collide with anyone, and I also made the effort to keep looking around, gazing into shop windows as I passed them. When everything is blurry, it's tempting just to isolate the larger shapes and ignore the smaller ones. Textures, words, and small collections of objects are extremely demoralising when you're half blind, but I decided that I would make a concerted efforted to 'scan' them, and not look like a semi-blind person stumbling through a mall, but more like a shopper taking a leisurely stroll. After a while, my eyes became more comfortable and relaxed, and after having lunch, I found that I could even read some of the text from the billboards at a distance. I could also begin to 'decipher' textile patterns on clothing, and start defining people's faces, although still blurry, I had the confidence to look at them, rather than avoid them as 'too difficult'.

I don't know if by this method I'll ever have perfect vision; I've read some people claim to go from 20/500 to 20/30 - 20/40. But I'll be happy with 'functional' vision, where I can perform daily tasks without depending on my glasses. I'll keep up this experiment for now, just to ... see. Off with my glasses again.