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Transform Way You Work and Create More Reliable Vision
•Sit Straight and Breathe - Back and neck strain create tension in eyes and slouching prevents lungs from expanding properly as well. Plenty of oxygen is crucial to eyes (and your brain!). Take deep breaths whenever you think of it. Keep a window open, when weather permits. Have hanging green plants over your workspace.
•Ten-Ten-Ten - Every ten minutes, look ten feet away, for ten seconds or otherwise you will create near-point stress. Our ancestors were gatherers and hunters—farsighted occupations. Our genes have not yet evolved for sustained arms-length work. A good freeware program that reminds you to take these "micro-breaks" is Workrave.
•Blink, Drink and Splash at Sink - The flicker rate of monitors causes our eyes to blink less and thus dry out. Writers, try getting into habit of blinking every time you read or type a period. Designers, use moving of an image as your reminder. Drink plenty of water and make a point of wetting your eyes every time you use restroom.
•Don't Use Your Eyes - Close your eyes whenever you can. If something is loading or you need time to think, close your eyes. While closed, keep eyes turned upward to prevent sleepiness.
•If you're typing a rough draft, try doing it blind. Experiment with your computer's voice synthesizer for reading long on-line documents or reviewing your own work.
•Palming - Whenever you have a minute, cup your palms over your eye sockets (without touching eyes). This total absence of light will give your eyes a true rest. Rarely does average person experience total darkness. Sleeping in pitch black is highly recommended for strengthening vision.
A Super-Technique for Relearning How to See
1.Retype an excerpt from a piece of writing, such as an inspirational quote, a grammar rule, or a spelling definition. 2. Print excerpt out in small print. As small as you can read when held at arms length. 3.Cut this out and tape it across top of your monitor. 4.Sitting back, take first letter in excerpt and mentally trace an outline around it. Include every nook of particular font. 5.Now close your eyes and visualize character as filling your entire field of vision. Imagine it is pitch black on a pure white background. See edges of character as being very sharp. 6.Open your eyes and trace letter once more. Then read entire line. 7.Repeat this a few times throughout day. When you feel your vision is sharper, print out another quote at a decreased point size.
Reading small print is like lifting weights with your eyeballs. This technique has created microscopic vision in its most serious practitioners. Many legally blind people after intense practice with Bates Method now have driver's licenses.
Unlike Spiderman, we need to work for our "spidey"-powers. But you can always try microwaving a spider and see what happens when it bites you.
Resources
The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses (1920) by William H. E. Bates, M.D.
Self-Healing: My Life and Vision by Meir Schneider, Ph.D., L.M.T.
Relearning to See: Improve Your Eyesight--Naturally! by Thomas R. Quackenbush
Vision For Life at www.improveyourvision.com.
John A. Manley is an Ontario, Canada based freelance writer who specializes in direct mail response projects. He also writes science fiction with a metaphysical bent. His work has been published in Freebird at www.freebird-zine.com. Contact John at creativityrising@distributel.net.