After getting through the process, the day before the exam was my second appointment and they led me through the two waiting rooms and visits with three different people. I got checked by one of the eye Doctors who would perform the surgery...and he had glasses! I was a little baffled, so I asked. He said he had LASIK done twice and loves it! But that once you pass the age of 40 farsightedness catches up to EVERYONE, and you need to get surgery done again most likely. What?!?!
I was confused. I'd never heard of that--the general assumption that everyone's eye sight goes bad after 40. Well, I wasn't buying it. Strike one! Then I got to the end of the appointment 2 1/2 hours later (and after waiting two different times) and was told to pay for everything. The lady ran me through the papers, which mentioned having see the video explaining the process. What?!?! No one had shown me any video! I told her I hasdn't been shown a video, and she told me to finish the paperwork and then we could watch it. So I told her "no thank you," and that I'd like to see the video BEFORE I signed my life (and wallet) away. Strike two!
Then I watched the video and it was mostly what I was aware of, but there were other things in it that felt a little like when I met with the Doctor. And I just didn't feel settled about things. So...I cancelled my surgery (which was actually PRK, not LASIK. PRK is similar, but they don't cut a flap). And that night I went home and did lots of research. And now...strike three! I have a very different view about eyesight and eye doctors.
First, let me say that eye surgery may be very helpful for those who need it! Some people have had life-changing experiences because they can now focus on the people and things they need to without the hassle of glasses and contacts. That's a miracle and super helpful for many!
And I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but where eyesight is about -3 diopters or better, I think a natural eye improvement course is definitely worth consindering--if you are patient and disciplined in doing the exercises and things required to improve. (As with any exercise routine to strengthen muscles and get "fit.")
So what is this eye improvement mumbo-jumbo?
Well, it started with an Eye Doctor Names Mr. William Bates, from the early 19th century. He believed that vision can improve by strengthening your eye muscles. He wrote a book called "Perfect Eyesight Without Glasses (free online version).
Basically each eye has two muscles opposite each other on the sides, two opposite each other on the top and bottom, and two oblique muscles that wrap around the eye. So as you do exercises to strengthen those muscles you can naturally improve your eye sight. (think about it...our eye sight changes as our eye shape changes.)
A good way to check your eye muscles and see which are your weakest is to hold your thumb just away from your face and move it in a large circle, following it with your eye, without moving your head, so see/feel when your eyes feel sore. Mine were most sore as I looked up/up-diagonally. Mine were not too sore looking down or sideways. So I knew that my upper muscles and obliques needed the most help.
EYE EXERCISES
So to strengthen all your eye muscles, do a little eye yoga: stare at your thumb held out in front of you and breath in and out slowly as you go up and down, three times. Then do it sideways three times. Then do it on the diagonals each three times. (don't do it so long your eyes strain too much)
You could also do some eye tracing: use your eyes to trace sideways figure 8's (infinity sign). (You can pretend your nose is a paint brush.) This will use all those eye muscles.
EYE RELAXATION
Once you are done exercising you should do some eye relaxation. Your muscles need to rest. Like any good workout, have a cool down. Just rub hand together to get warm and then place your hands over your eyes so it's pitch black. Total darkness, plus warmth, allow your eyes a comfortable setting in which to fully relax. You could also do sunning, which allows the warmth of the dawn or dusk sunlight to warm your eyes in a gentle and safe way.
There's also the Long-Swing, which you basically stare at a wall to your left, while body faces forward, and then turn your head and stare at the wall on your right, still standing forward. You go back and forth, like you head is a swings from right to left, left to right. You do this for a minute or two, then you put your thumb up and and keep doing it for another minute or two. Then you close your eyes and do it a third time. (followed by palming) This allows your eyes to relax and not try to stare and focus at one static thing for so long.
In fact, another helpful activity similar in effects is "Magic Eye" pictures. Although it may take time to get it down, if you don't know how to do it. (My husband is awesome at it, but I had to work at it. But I can tell it's helped me by practicing a little everyon few nights---I keep a book by my bed, which my kids come and enjoy with me too.)
Massage is also excellent! Just take your thumb and pointer finger and put it under your eyebrow and push along the bone above and below the eye. you can also do some tapping along the that bone in a sideways figure-8 pattern while taking deep breaths (and I like to says some affirmations about seeing clearly and loving my eyes--which is funny because I normally don't love saying affirmations because it feel silly to me. But I do love my eyes...so why not?) :)
I knew this basic stuff three years ago and had a really great experience with it when I tried it for a week. But then life happened and I forgot all about this stuff. So after this near-LASIK experience I did lots of YouTube "natural eye improvement" video searches and read some articles and websites and books.I also joined some facebook groups for natural vision. This guy has a lot of helpful tutorial videos on some of the exercises I shared. So if you are confused about any, look them up.
VISION SELF-CHECK
It was interesting to me to learn that our vision fluctuates. It is actually not as static as we think; and that is why at the beginning of the day we usually see better than after a long day staring at screens. You can test this by taping up an eye chart in your bathroom, and every morning, afternoon, and evening staring at it from the same distance. You will see different lines differently. This is a great way to check your eyesight daily, but also with improvement over time. (My eye chart is about 10 ft away...because that's at what distance I could read the top letter. So do what works for you.)
Since starting my eye exercises two months ago, I've noticed my eyesight fluctuate a lot during the day, and I'm aware of my eye muscles better. I notice eye strain better than before, or atleast understand better what it is and how to counteract it. And as with any pain-awareness...now I can use that signal as a chance to change some behaviors.
BUILDING GOOD VISION HABITS
There's a few helpful habits that will reduce eye strain.
1. 20-20-20 Rule: If staring at a screen for 20 minutes, stop and take a short break (twith your eyes trace something atleast 20 feet away). Then you can return to your screen staring, should you choose. But also, try to make sure computer screens are atleast 20 inches away from your face if you can.
2. Active Vision: Always hold your books or hand-held devices far enough away that you can read the words, but they just start to get a little blurry. This is helpful because it allows your eye muscles to keep to actively working, instead of getting lazy. (sidenote/plea: please don't let your children sit with their nose practically touching the media screen! This litterally is ruining their eyes!
3. Media Light: Short wavelength blue light produced by low intensity displays such as smartphones and televisions has been identified as being damaging to human eye cells (rods and cones which receive light). The light is more damaging in low-light scenarios, so smart phones are starting to have better night-setting features to make up for this. But it may be a good idea to not read or watch things on your phone at night time...bad for the eyes (quite literally).
4. Reduce your dependence on Glasses: You should literally get reduced-perscription glasses. Zenni.com is the only place I know that you can enter your perscription. Both my eyes were -3 diopters, so I just go -2 for both. And my eyes are so much happier. I knew the -3 diopters were too strong for my eyes--which is why I would frequently pull them off. I always hated how eye doctors give you super strong perscriptions and now you have to test them every year. Hated it! And now I'm loving my reduced glasses. I can still see so much, but I don't need to see fine details far away the whole day. So not wearing them allows my eye muscles to actively be engaged all day (instead feeling like they are getting weaker--like being in cast). So try limiting how much you wear your glasses. (there are other alternative methods that allow you to wear glasses or contacts, if you'd rather take a different approach; but I'm not doing that method so I can't tell you details about that).
And lastly...
Mental Vision
It's easy to do physical exercise and think that's it. Life is phycial and that's where we focus a lot of time and energy. But, great athletes know that envisioning the win, the victory, the goal is as important to success as if the physcial daily exercise. It's said that 80% of our vision we can control, but 20% is subconcious...so why not work on visualizing. Do some meditation/thinking in your mind. Mental creation is work. Just because it isn't physical, doesn't mean it isn't hard. IT takes practice, but the more you can work on your imagination and actually visualizing things in your mind, the more that works on the subconcious 20%! Cool huh? It's not all in your head...but some of it is. (Like that author who wrote the books...Change your brain, change your life. He's got a point!)
And a Side note:
Flashes of clarity
As you work on improving your vision you may get flashes of clarity. This is where you may look at a word and see it super clearly for a second or even a half-second, and then it gets blurry again. I've experienced this recently, at the end of my second month doing all these things regularly. Basically when I started I could only read the top letter of the chart from 10 ft away. But now I'm reading the seoncd or third row. But, with a flash of clarity I read some of row 5! It was awesome! I was so excited I had to share with my husband. (I don't think this means my eyesight is improved right this instant, but its a step along the long path and gives me hope that my eyes are getting stronger--even if it takes a few years. (Just like taking time to do a 60-second wall handstand each day will slowly over time help your arms be stronger and give hope that you may do/hold a real handstand for longer than one second.) :)
