The body is designed to heal itself, and your eyes are no exception. In the united states, about 3 out of 4 people have some form of vision correction, and it’s even worse in some countries. Over 100 years ago, the numbers were about 6% of people. Something is clearly wrong. What has changed? Glasses are treating a symptom, but when you remove the underline cause of a disease, it will either stabilize, or get better because there is nothing there to make it worse. They’re various ways to improve the eyes.

What causes our vision to be blurry?

1. Wearing glasses/contacts- This may seem obvious that people with poor vision wear these. Taking it a step further, these themselves actually cause strain by forcing the light on the eye. Also, they do the work for the eye, so overtime, they get weaker, and weaker. Just look at anyone who needs them, and you will see them get a stronger prescription every year. Now, this might not always be possible to stop doing this based on your current state of the eyes, or a certain situation. For example, you may need glasses for driving, but not the dishes. Take them off when you can.
2. Straining- Some people start straining when they take off their glasses. People want things to be clear, so they try and force it. Vision can’t be forced, it’s designed to be effortless like the rest of the senses. Do your best to relax your eyes. It’s okay if things aren’t perfectly clear.
3. Staring- We have saccadic eye movements, which are micro adjustments, or movements of the eye. This happens 60-100 times per second. People with good vision tend to have more saccadic eye movements, and people with poor vision tend to have less. This is because people tend to stare more if they don’t see well. You can remove this habit by moving the eyes more, and releasing the muscles around the neck, and shoulders. These are intimately connected to the eyes. Also, through the breath. Staring is associated with shallow breath. Take deep breaths to help.
4. Overworking your eyes- We often ignore the messages our eyes are sending us. Our eyes are designed to be primarily used during the day. Today, we can turn on artificial lights, and do tons of work at night. Access computer work, reading, or work up close can strain the eyes. When our eyes feel overworked, we need to give them a break by resting them.
5. Mind blindness- Our brain is what sees, our eyes pick up the light, and deliver it to the brain. When we don’t see clear on the inside, we don’t see clear on the outside. Things like memory, imagination, and visualization our important for our vision. Seeing clear with these, and improving those senses will lead to better vision. The areas of your brain that are associated with vision, are also associated with those.

How to Improve the Eyes

There are various ways ti improve vision, but the main one is called the Bates method. This was designed by an ophthalmologist in the early 1900s named Dr. William Bates. We was a conventional ophthalmologist, until he asked the question, “why are glasses not making patients better?” He realized that glasses are just treating the symptoms of poor vision, but not treating the underline cause. He found that when he employed the Bates method, which is a system designed to relax the eyes, and retrain the eyes to see, his patients regained their vision without artificial lenses. He not only saw this with conditions like myopia, and hypermetropia, but also with conditions like Glaucoma, and Cataracts. This makes sense when you think that everything in the body is designed to heal. It consists of both practices, and habits. I’m going to go over some of them. The Bates method is not eye exercise. People often mistake this with eye movements, or looking in all directions repeatedly. This has it’s place, but the method is designed for relaxation.

Practices-

In the method, it’s taught that vision is 90% mental, and 10% physical. So, it’s really about the mental involvement while your practicing. Make sure that you are engaged in the process.

1. Palming- This is rubbing the hands together until they become warm, and then covering the eyes. When you open your eyes, you should be in complete blackness because your covering your eyes. Visualize complete blackness, and feel your eyes, as well as your mind relaxing. Do this for 5 minutes, or longer.
2. Swinging– This consists of standing about hip width apart, and turning your body left to right at 180 degrees. You can lift the heel anytime you turn. Focus on oppositional movement, so when you turn to the right, focus on everything looks like it’s moving to the left. Do this for 5 minutes, or longer.
3.  Sunning- Sunning is being in the same stance as you would be for swinging, but facing the sun. Do this when the sun is low in the sky, in the morning, or late evening. Close your eyes while your looking at the sun, and move your body side to side, like you would while swinging. This increases blood flow to the eye, and strengthens the iris, which is the muscle that regulates how much light gets in the eye.

Habits-

Habits are the most important part because it’s really how you use your eyes throughout the day that will determine your results.

1. Centralization- Centralization is defined by what you see in the center of your vision is most clear. In our eye, we have something called the fovea centralis. This is a structure in the back of the eye that is the most clear in our vision, but it’s only a tiny fraction of our visual field. If you look at any word in a book, you will notice that the words around it are not as clear because they are in the peripheral vision. The word your focused on is in the line of the fovea centralis. You strain your eyes when you try to see your whole field clearly. Instead let the center be clear, and the rest be not as clear.
2. Shifting- Shifting is the moving of your eyes from one point to another. It is the opposite of staring, which is focused on one point, and not moving your eyes. Shifting is very relaxing to the eyes, and breaks the stare. Seeing things moving, and noticing oppositional movement is key. Blinking is another way to keep the movement.
3. Dynamic relaxation- This refers to keeping your eyes relaxed throughout the day, not just during practice. Doing things like shifting, blinking, and closing your eyes can help. Blinking is key because it helps lubricate the eyes. Many people forget to blink during up close work. When you do this for a while, you may experience something called clear flashes. These are glimpses for clearer vision for a short period of time. This is a sign that your vision is getting better. Overtime, the flashes will last longer, and longer, and will be your new baseline of vision.

Nutrition

Nutrition also is very important for the eyes. I’m going to keep it brief, and go over key nutrients. You can supplement with these, but food is always first. These are fat soluble nutrients, which means that you should eat them with fat to maximize absorption.

Lutein and zeaxanthin- Lutein and zeaxanthin are known as known as a powerful antioxidants, and  carotenoids. They are concentrated in the macula for filtering light. They are also responsible for good night vision. These are very important for the retina, and the brain. The retina is in the back of the eye, and reflects light. They can be found in eggs, and cruciferous vegetables, like kale, and collards.

Astaxanthin- This is a powerful antioxidant that is 20x more powerful than betacarotene. This is anti inflammatory, promotes detoxification, and prevents chronic degeneration. This can be found in algae, and in seafood with that dark red pigment, like salmon, lobster, and krill.