Even those of us who are fluent in natural healing may not yet have extended this paradigm to our eyesight. We may still think that corrective lenses or surgery are the only ways to improve our eyesight. Fortunately, we now actually have many options to cure the root cause of our poor eyesight rather than just masking the symptom with lenses.
My vision was great until I went to university. Looking through the dimly lit lecture hall with 300 students and squinting to see the text on the slide projected onto the wall destroyed my vision. I also noticed that my night vision decreased significantly as well.
I was given glasses for when I really needed them – when I couldn’t sit near the front of the class or drive late at night because fatigue made my vision worse – but I tried them as little as possible to use. My father is an optician and he told me the more you rely on glasses, the weaker your eye muscles become and the more you have to wear your glasses!
Well, over the past few years, the Bates Method of improving your eyesight through a combination of relaxation and strengthening exercises has become increasingly popular. With many spin-offs offering a special version of this and therapists trained to guide you through the process – teach, guide and keep updated just like a personal trainer.
First, let’s look at some lifestyle factors that you can get used to on a daily basis – these are things you should be doing to maintain your eye health, even with good vision.
Simple things to maintain and improve eye health
Here are some simple actions taken by natural vision experts to help you shape a part of your normal life, such as: B. brushing your teeth:
- Do not use sunglasses except during intense activities such as skiing or boating. There are 1200 wavelengths in sunlight that nourish the eye. So wear a cap / hat that will shade your eyes but don’t cover them with sunglasses.
- Don’t squint to see better. Instead, blink your eyes quickly to relieve tension. Tension around the eyes, neck, and shoulders is a major cause of vision deterioration. So make yourself aware and blink quickly to relieve tension. You can see better without blinking. that is harmful. I always remember my dad yelling at me, “Stop squinting!”
- Do not enlarge the font on your computer screen, etc., for ease of viewing. Blink and use eye exercises instead.
- Lower the brightness of all of your screens. Mobile phone, computer monitors, iPads, etc. to protect your eyes. A great app for this (and the one I use) is Flux, which automatically adjusts the brightness and hue of your monitor based on the time of day. that also makes it easier for your circadian rhythms.
- Do not stare at a phone or small device near your face for more than a few minutes or you will have trouble seeing clearly from a distance. even a short distance. This is also not a good idea because of the radiation exposure!
- Yawn as much as you can in front of your screen or when visibility is difficult – this will relax your eyes, increase oxygen and blood flow.
Okay, now you have some simple tips that you can incorporate seamlessly into your daily life – all you have to do is remember to do them!
Let’s get to some of the simpler, yet very effective eye exercises that you can do yourself without an instructor.
Unless your vision problems are severe, you will likely see a great improvement when you do these exercises on your own. If you have permanent or severe vision problems, you will likely need to see a Bates method teacher.
Simple exercises to improve your eyesight
1. Palming – Rub the palms of your hands together quickly to warm them up if necessary. Cover your eyes completely (do not press your eyeballs) with your palms and close your eyes. Relax. Aim for 3 minutes of palms, then pause, then another 3 minutes of palms, pause, and then another 3 minutes.
2. Solar bath or sunbathing – Turn your face towards the sun, close your eyes and gently move your head back and forth for as long as it feels good. If you live in a very hot climate, do so closer to sunrise or sunset. If it’s a very bright, sunny day, do this exercise between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. or between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
3. Near-far shift – This is shown in the video below. Go out. Start with your right eye open and cover your left eye. Focus on your thumb in front of your face for 10 seconds, then focus on the object farthest away from you (a mountain top, tree far away, etc.) for 10 seconds. Keep your thumb in front of your face when switching to the distant object. You want to force your eyes to ignore the nearby object and focus on the distant object instead. Repeat 15 times. Do the same with your left eye and repeat 15 times. Then, uncover both eyes and focus your sight on your thumb for 10 seconds and then on the distant object for 10 seconds. Repeat 20 times. It is normal to see 2 thumbs when you focus on the distant object with both eyes (even though you only hold 1 thumb up). When you do this, you will have the sun behind you – that is, so that you are not looking at the sun.
4. Massage and / or tap around your eye trajectories (affects sympathetic nerves and acupuncture points) – your eye trajectory is the circle of bone that surrounds your eyeball. Simply tap the bone comfortably with your fingertips or massage it all around. Hey, another good reason to do EFT tapping!
Here is a good video demonstration of the first three exercises. Note that these are equally good for farsightedness or nearsightedness:
Note: He’s quite beefy with the bolsters – maybe you need to be gentler!
If you want a more scientific approach to improving your eyesight, here is a great presentation from Todd Becker MS. While using myopia as an example (because it’s so common), he also stressed that the same information applies to farsightedness. If you spend a lot of time at the computer, this method may work better for you:
And astigmatism?
If you’ve never seen an optometrist before, you probably don’t know whether or not you have astigmatism (an irregularly shaped cornea or lens).
But here’s an easy way to check:
Remove any glasses or contact lenses.
Cover your right eye with your hand and look at this numbered wheel with your left eye.
If some of the spokes appear darker and others appear lighter, you have astigmatism in that eye.
Do the same with your other eye.
You can also use this astigmatism wheel to improve your eyesight by doing astigmatism exercises with it!
Originally posted April 2016. Last updated May 2021.
Jini Patel Thompson is an internationally recognized expert in natural digestive disease healing. She healed herself from widespread Crohn’s disease and has been drug and surgery free for over 20 years. Jini has appeared on numerous podcast, television and radio shows in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, giving people hope and vision on how to cure their Colitis, Crohns, Diverticulitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in all natural methods . Her books on natural digestive disease cures have been sold in over 80 countries around the world.
