1 wellness for eyes

8/14/2019 1 Wellness for Eyes

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VISION IMPROVEMENT

Like other vision improvement teachers, Meir Schneider believes that we have a collective blindnessto an important concept - hat we can improve the health and function of our eyes. In part one, of atwo-part article Meir Schneider and Carol Gallup report just how much can be achieved.

w e have the same kind oflearned helplessnessabout self-care for theeyes that w e 'once hadabout the body as awhole.Nowadays, many people see a strongconnection between lifestyle and health;we feel confident we can get healthier andlive longer through body/mind practiceslike yoga, good nutrition, regular exercise,and meditation.

But we don't make that kind ofconnection in terms of the eyes. We assumethat we may be doomed, by chance orinheritance, o nearsightedness n childhood,farsightednessin middle age, and blindnessfrom diseases of the eye in old age or at someother time, and that there is nothing at all wecan do to prevent or overcome any of theseproblems. 'In my opinion', says MeirSchneider, 'these conditions are a long timein the making, and have everything to dowith chronic visual stress and patterns ofunbalanced visual behaviours'.

'It's my experience in more than 20years of teaching vision improvement, thateven with diseases of the eyes, we cancreate better eyesight and healthier eyes.The medical establishment disagrees withme. But increasingly, in many parts of theworld, I'm meeting a different kind of eyedoctor- holistic or behavioural optometristswho specialise in eye exercises forprevention and vision improvement, andeven ophthalmologists who are open tothis approach. In fact, some of them havestudied with me.'

For Lula Vee, who became a client ofSchneider's at his Center for Self-Healing inSan Francisco, the discovery that her eyeswere unhealthy coincided with a momentof terror: 'I opened a telegram, and it said,"You'll never see your children again."'.Her estranged husband had abducted theirthree small children and flown them toanother country. As she read the telegram,Lula lost her eyesight. 'I was aware of th elight shutting off, as if a shade had beendrawn,' she said. It turned out that sh e hadsarcoidosis, a serious disease that creates

Lula Vee, who recovered from seriousvision problems, performs a favourite

eye exercise - uggling.small tumors and inflammation in manysystems of the body. It manifested asarthritic symptoms in her fingers, anduveitis, an inflammation of structureswithin t he eye.

After 18months' effort, Lula regainedher children. The problem with her eyesremained serious. Her left eye was strickenwith glaucoma, excessive pressure withinthe eye that is destructive to the optic nerveand often occurs with uveitis; vision soonfaded away in that eye, until even lightperception was gone. Since childhood, Lulahad used glasses for farsightedness andastigmatism in her right eye, and her brainhad learned to ignore its messages in favourof herdominant left eye, which had furnished

normal vision. A dominance pattern like thisis hard to overcome, because it is part of theorganisation of the brain and personality.

'When my left eye was going blind, Ikept experimenting looking through myright eye in a different way,' she said. 'Inoticed how, week to week, it cciuld seemore - I could even read with it, which Ihadn' t been able to do before. I feltawakened to another part of me wanting toexpress itself.I felt a need to integrate thesetwo selves represented by my two eyes.'Lulawas exploring the body-mind link. Usingmassage therapy, meditation, diet, andvitamins, she stabilised the glaucoma. 'Istopped taking all the medicines, even thedrops. The pressure had gone up to 50 [anextremely high intraocular pressure] in myblind eye, and they told me if I didn't takethe drops they'd have to remove the eyebecause I'd have unbearable pain in it, butI had no pain, and the pressure was stable.'Meanwhile, the right eye lost itsfarsightedness and astigmatism and insteadbecame nearsighted.

Four or five years ago, her visionworsened when cataracts, anothercomplication of uveitis, appeared in botheyes. A cataract is an opacity of the normally-transparent lens, which changes shape toallowthe eye to focus for nearvision. Doctorstold her that the poor health status of hersighted eye made surgery impossible, andwarned her to expect a gradual extinction ofall functional vision as the cataract matured.'I didn'twantto hearthat,' shesaid. 'I couldn'timagine myself blind. I decided to leave myjob [teaching at high school and college] andwork in a creative way on myself. I came t oCalifornia in August 1996 o work with Meir.The fact that he had healed himself of thesame conditions that I had inspired me tobelieve that my "incurable" situation couldbe reversed.'

Vision improvement teacher DrorSchneider (Meir Schneider's wife) seesstrong similarities between Lula's processof recovery and her husband's. At age 17,Meir Schneider overcame congenitalblindness caused by a number of serious


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conditions, ncluding cataractsandglaucoma,using the eye exercises of the Bates Method,which he learned from another youth.Unsuccessful surgeries in early childhoodleft behind such an array of scar tissue thatthe better eye lets in less than 1% ight.

For Lula, and for Meir Schneider beforeher, copious amounts of self-massage of theface, and use of two major eye exercises -palming, a visualisation of blackness, andsunning, in which the closed eyes arecarefully bathed in sunlight - brought therelease of chronic tension which sets thestage for improvement. 'The relaxation youget from facial massage, palming, andsunning may at first seem to increase theblumness of your vision,' Dror Schneidersaid. 'You're letting go of your short-termsolutions for bad vision - frowning andsquinting. Even ifthey momentarily sharpenthe image, these strategies worsen youreyesight over time. It can be difficult toaccept the increase in fuzziness and continuethrough this stage. But it's essential. Thekey to vision improvement is bombardingyourself with relaxation - good eyesight isbuilt on it. Meir spent hours sunning on theroof of our apartment building in Tel Aviv,and palming while listening to pop music -I can' t believe he found that music relaxing,but it worked for him.

'Lula had recently trained as a massagetherapist, so she was very sensitive to he rown body. She learnedthepalming, sunning,and self-massage easily, and created Self-Healing support groups to practise the eyeexercises among friends, and trademassages. But ultimately what worked forherwas the beautyof nature, which allowedher to see in a relaxed, accepting way. Everyday, she would take a long walk around thelake near her home in Oakland, and enjoylooking for details she hadn't seen before.During her sessions, we'dgo to the beach topractise shifting with distance vision, andshe loved it.

'In the shzjtingexercise, you look for thesmallest details you're able to see - for oneperson, a small detail in the distance mightbe a twig, for another, a treetop. In normalvision, the eye easily makes continual smallmovements from one small detail to another;shifting imitates this kind of softly relaxed,fluid movement. With poor eyesight, youhave a rigid, inflexible gaze, as Lula did.

'For Meir, shifting led to his first bigbreakthrough. Using a sighted person'sdescription of windows, he stood acrossthe street from an apartment building forweeks, visualising them and looking forthem where they ought to be; finally, oneday, he saw them. For him, the world wasone big blur, and in trying to break it u p intoseparate objects, a window was an

'Using a sighted person'sdescription of windows, Meirstood across the street from anapartment building forweeks,visualising them and lookingfor them where they ought tobe; finally, one day, he sawthem...He immediately beganlooking for the next smallestdetail,air conditioners in thosewindows, and gradually, hebuilt up functional vision. Afew years later, he passed hisdriver's licence test. And hecan still show you his oldblindness certificate.'

appropriately small detail to search for. Heimmediately began looking for the nextsmallest detail, air conditioners in thosewindows, and gradually, he built upfunctionalvision.A ew years later, he passedhis driver's licence test. And he can stillsho w you his old blindness certificate.

'Lula's distance vision was very poor t obegin with - she could read the big Eon aneye chart from 20 inches, but 25 inchesaway, she couldn't see it at all. It was achallenge to avoid walking into telephonepoles and parking meters. But she did havethe advantage of a visual memory, and Meirdidn't. Since it was election time, we workedwith campaign posters; gradually,she couldsee them further and further away. Onceshe had progressed enough to be able to seebuildings across the street, we worked onpicking out shapes and compaEing colors inthem. But it was the natural world that gaveher s o much joy in shifting that she couldreally stretch her distance vision. On hernature walks, she would shift with nearvision, and then the distance shifting wouldbe more successful - a good strategy.

'Her near vision was never asproblematic. When we started, she couldreadvery large print at a distance of three orfour inches from her face. With a lot of near-vision shifting, eventually she could readsmall print in strong sunlight.'After five months of full-time visionimprovement work, Lula's doctors told herthat the sighted eye had probably becomehealthy enough to withstand cataractsurgery; the inflammation was gone. Shedecided to risk it. 'I saw light at the end ofthe surgery. The next morning, clarity andlight returned. Everything came rushing atme, beautiful, spotless - birds, ripples onthe water. I'd been living in the dark for 10years. I'm still so excited when I open myeyes every morning. All day long, thingspop out at me I had never seen before.'

The Computer Screen -A Limbo for the Eyes

Within the past five years, eye doctors havebegun to keep records of a new kind ofvision problem - computervision syndrome,or CVS. American optometrists reported 15million cases in 1996, and industry figuresshow a steady rise of about a million a year.Symptoms nclude eyestrain, general fatigue,headache, neck and shoulderpain, dry eyes,and difficulties with focusing.

Before the rise in computer use,optometrists tended to start reducingprescriptions in nearsighted patients in their40s, as their nearsightedness began to beoffset by middle-aged farsightedness. (Innearsightedness, the eye is over-focused,and in farsightedness, it is under-focused,so the two refractive errors lie in oppositedirections.) Increasingly, nearsightedpeople who use computers are insteadgetting more nearsighted in middle age.Holistic optometrist Iole Taddei, whopractisesinCalifornia, explains that chroniceyestrain with near work always brings onnearsightedness or makes it worse.

Like carpal tunnel syndrome, also awidespread problem for computer users,CVS is a repetitive strain syndrome. Themuscle that is strained is the ciliary. Thissmall muscle within the eye changes theshape of the lens to focus the eye for nearwork. The brain tells the ciliary to set up afocus for a given distance, 16 inches, forexample. To determine that the page you'rereading is exactly 16 nches away from youreyes, your brain analyses the edges andspaces of the letters. Unfortunately, thereare no definite edges and spaces on acomputer screen. There are only pixels -tiny, fuzzy grey dots. Bereft of essentialclues, the brain endlessly searches for afocal length. As you look at your screen,your ciliary muscles are on the move everymoment, making tiny changes, looking fora focal point that can never, ever, be found.

This is unhealthy exercise. It's as thoughyou decided to exercise your biceps byquivering them through only an inch or soof their range for hours o n end, rather thandoing biceps curls through the full range ofmovement for a few minutes. The strain onyour ciliary muscles after hours at thecomputer is like the strain on your heartafter running a marathon.

As the strain spreads outward from youreyes to your forehead, you frown and squintto try to help yourself focus. 'The constantsearch forafocal length creates unconsciousanxiety,' Dr. Taddei said. 'Your eyes are thenavigation tool for your whole being, andyou literally don't quite know where youare. Meanwhile, your hands get carpal tunnelsyndrome and your posture is regrettable.


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VISION IMPROVEMENTIt's even worse if the job you're working onis die cu lt , frustrating, or boring.'

If computerwork is harmful to the eyes,it is partly because we bring bad visualhabits into it, Meir Schneider said. 'Peopleget poor eyesight because of straining tosee, and computer work aggravates thishabit.

'The whole body tenses up to supportour effortful way of seeing, and we wind upwith stiff, sore bodies and bad posture.Have you ever noticed the way many of uscrane our heads so far forward that it lookslike the head can't wait for the body tocatch up with it? The head and everythingsupporting it becomes a platform fromwhich we aim an anxious, searching gaze.'

Looking at a computer screen tends toshrink the visual field. So does wearing

The whole body tenses up to support an efforlful way of looking at the computer sreen.glasses; you tend to limit the world to whatyou see within their frames. In both cases,peripheral vision - everything around whatyou are looking at - is habitually ignoreduntil much of it is functionally lost. This istrue for so many people that it probablycontributes to the incidence of trafficaccidents. As peripheral vision diminishes,central vision becomes strained andoverworked.

In many people, there is a tendency forone eye to dominate the other to somedegree; a tendencywhich can be aggravatedby computer work. As a result, one eye isstrained from overwork, while the othersuffers because the brain is suppressing itsinput. Many eye exercises that enhanceperipheral vision also have the effect ofbalancing the use of both eyes together.

Schneider suggests breaking up theworkday with brief sessions of the eyeexercises described below - perhaps a fewminutes' exercise for every hour of work.The exercises can be minimal. Wagglingthe hands beside the ears reduces the strainon central vision by stimulating peripheralvision. Similarly, briefly appreciating a fewenjoyable details n the distance (the shiftingexercise) while looking out a window ishelpful; the eye is at rest with distancevision. Briefly alternating near and distanceshifting creates a more flexible, lively gazeand relieves eyestrain.

Taking a break for the palming exercise at the computer; massageenhances the relaxing effects.

~p~~~1 .In Port Two, we look of severa l of the vis~on

Stimulating peripheral vision at the computer.

improvement exercises in detail..Guide d eye exercises are available, inclu dingMe ir Schneider's Mir acle EyesightMethod, a three-hour vision improvement seminar on audiotapepublished by Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado,USA. Contact The School for SeTa rav al St., Son Franc isco, CA 94 nail :[email protected]*Meir Schneider w i l l lead \professional raining courses in he melr ~cnn eide rSelf-Healing Method in the UK ininformotion, contad Magg ie Lyonsor Zeljko Bozic (01225) 723176

If-Healing, 11 16, USA. e-r

1999; fo r f u ~;(01225) 722


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VISION IMPROVEMENT

EXERClSES oRTHEEYESIn this, the second part of our article by Meir Schneider and Carol Gallup on creatingwe1 ness for the eyes, particular eye exercises are introduced for self- help vision improvement.

o matter which eye exerciseyou're doing, start withrelaxed, slow, deep breathing,and continue it throughout theexercise. Blink often. Massage

around your eyes. This is a good time torelax your upper body and increasecirculation to your eyes by correcting yourposture. As you do the exercise, stand upand move around, yawn, stretch, and wiggleyour shoulders ndependently of each other.

Most of us need to make deep-seatedchanges inourvisual habits- orprevention,or for better eyesight. As we get older, it'smore of a challenge to maintain the healthand function of every system of the body,and it takes more time and attention. Visionimprovement is not a set of mechanicalexercises, to be performed by rote whileour attention is elsewhere. This is body-mind work. The exercises should be used toget deeply in touch with our eyes anddiscover their changing needs.

Of all the principles of visionimprovement, this is paramount - evenwhen the eyes are working hardest, theyneed to function out of a sense of total,unconditional relaxation.Vision improvement exercisesAs you explore the eye exercises, noticewhat you feel, and aUow your own intuitionand invention to awaken. Glasses andcontact lenses should be removed.*Palming This supremely importantexercise creates the relaxation hat amplifiesthe effects of all the other exercises. It reststhe optic nerve and the muscles of the eyeand relaxes the nervous system. Darken theroom, play soft musicif you like and positionyourself for maximal comfort, with yourelbows well supported -you will need to sitquietly for a while with the palms of yourhands covering your eyes.

Warm your hands by rubbing themtogether and drop your shoulders. Closeyour eyes. Gently cover them with yourcupped hands without pressing on youreyes(the heel of each handrestson a cheekbone).Breathe deeply and slowly. Now start toimagine everdeepening blackness.

You may choose to picture a blackobjecton a moving or still black background, avery dark place, or a black world whereeven your breath is black. You'll seea lot ofcoloured phenomena until your optic nerve

quietens down. Don't try hard; relax andallow yourself to be inventive. You mayexperience some of the pain you've beenshutting out; if you do, stay with it until itclears up.

Regular sessions of 15 to 20minutes arerecommended, along with occasionalmarathon palming sessions with friends. Ifyou have glaucoma, palming sessionsshouldbe no more than five minutes, but can beperformed frequently throughout the day.*Sunning Unhealthy eyes find evenmoderate sunlight painful - we react byreaching for sunglasses. Sunning teachesthe eye to accept strong light withoutresisting and creating tension, and adjuststhe eye to different intensities of light. Youreyes set up a narrow window in which theycreate clear images out of very smalldifferences in light intensity, and then adaptto changes in ambient light; thus, they needthe flexibility this exercise supplies.

When you can, perform your sunningsessions at the beach or in a park. Above all,work them into your schedule as often aspossible every day.

Lightly close your eyes,mise your face tothe sun and move the head from side to sideas far as you can in either direction, as ifsignalling 'no'. To make sure your head isrotating through afull 180 degrees, includeyour shoulders and upper body in themovement. Now gently massage aroundyoureyes o prevent frowningand squinting- hemuscles in the area need tobe very relaxed.Sunningshouldbeinterspersedwithpalming,which enhances its effects wonderfully; justturn away from the sun for a moment, rubyour hands together and palm.

Afew safety rules:No sunning throughglass. Avoid the strong sun of midday. Thehead stays in motion continually, since youare trying to bathe aU parts of the retina insunlight equally and not overexpose anyone area. Sunning is done only with theeyes closed.-Blinking This exercise bathes andmassages the eye, relieves tension aroundit, breaks up staring. Most people with badeyesight have lost the ability to b l i asilyand often; when you see someone wearingthick glasses, you'll notice that they arestaring unblinkingly. Blink effortlessly, whilebreathing deeply and relaxing your upperbody, about 300 times. Stop and visualiseyourself blinking, then do it again.

*Extending The Pdp he ry Since, ike mostpeople, you probably have lost someperipheralvision simply because your brainhas acquired the habit of ignoring theperiphery, this exercise usually results in animmediate increase. Sit down, and have anassistant stand behind you (your assistantcanbeachild - his is a good family exercise).Look straight ahead while your helperwiggles his or her thumbs just outside yourfield of vision and then into it, above, belowand to the sides. When a hand comes intoyour field of vision, grab it.As you discoverwhere the borders of your periphery are,you can tease them back with the sameexercise. Between attempts, stop for amoment and visualise that you see thethumbs easily and weU.in a position justbeyond where you can see them now.

If you're working without a helper, tapea piece of black construction paper,2"highby 4" wide between your eyes and, gazingstraight ahead, wave your hands on eachside of your head, then above and belowyour face. Use the same piece of paperwhen you are a passenger in a car. Yourbrainwill begin to find the moving sceneryat the sides more interesting than the paperand register more of the periphery.Take a walk on a beach or in a parkwithout your glasses and notice how muchof the world on your left or right exists foryou. You may tend to ignore one side.You'll find that not only is it an effort tokeep up an awareness of that side, but thatyou have the slightlyweird feeling of fightingwith your own brain, whichwants to distractyour attention and shut down that part ofthe periphery.As with many eye exercises,you gain a direct experience of how muchof your personality is invested in the wayyou see.

The Long Swing This exercise breaks upthe habit of straining to see, stimulatesperipheral vision, and balances the use ofthe two eyes together. Forpeople with lowvision, the exercise creates an improvedsense of where they are in relationship toobjects around them. I

Standing with your legs about two feetapart, holding a fmger in front of your faceabout two feet away, begin to sway theupper body to the left and right far enoughthat the back heel lifts. Keep looking at yourfinger and let the rest of the world - theperiphery -move in the opposite direction.

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