INSIGHT FOR HEALING YOUR EYESIGHT

Vision Lost & Found

Like many of you, I believed that eventually my vision would worsen, and I'd be stuck wearing glasses for the rest of my life. Inevitable, unhealable, irreversible, eternal. I'd been an "optical slave" for almost 10 years to glasses and contacts, the bridge between my "failing" eyesight, and the ability to function.

Imagine my surprise and delight when my eyesight went back to normal. I knew the correlation between stress, and dis-ease. I understood that how we think and feel affects our life at every level. But I had never put it all together until my eyesight normalized--that visual blur was not hereditary, but simply a form of stress. By learning the classic Bates Method, I learned that eyesight could be improved and heal as easily as any other part of the body. After all, it is primarily muscles being out of balance causing the majority of our common vision problems. The Bates Method is a method of re-education based on relaxation of the visual system, to do again what we used to do before we needed glasses.

My Journey Back to Natural Sight

My dissatisfaction with the status quo, living as a "programmed slave to a distorted optical disc on the front of my face", and becoming a "sheep walking to the optical shop for the rest of my life", simply would not do.

After wearing glasses for several years for near seeing (farsightedness) and noticing that my midrange and distance vision was also beginning to blur, I decided to explore a different approach. A natural one--the Dr. Bates Method. I learned to relax and see again. This visual blur was a "red flag", a warning that I was doing something wrong, from the inside, to obscure my vision. I was right. This experiential program taught me to relearn the proper vision habits, and to reintegrate them back into my daily life. Not eye exercises, instead, using my vision properly.

I relearned good visual habits and practiced these until they became my natural and original way of seeing again. Within months, my glasses were gone. I could see far, near, mid. and got rid of the headaches, neck-pain, and bloodshot eyes--or the need to purchase stronger prescriptions year after year. No more searching in every nook and cranny for my glasses! What freedom, my joy of seeing had returned. This was a well-kept secret treasure within me, and I felt as if I had found the key to unlock my eyes again. Almost anyone can learn the Bates Method. Eliminating the interference within the visual system. Proper vision habits can be relearned at any age, at any time, and regardless of how long you have worn glasses. What we are doing is unlocking the stress that effects many areas of our lives, our vision being only one system that shows us its stress with a 'blur'.

Vision Is A Whole Body/Mind Healing

Dr. Marc Grossman, O.D. in New York, says: "Vision does not just happen in the eyes: it involves our entire self. Our sense of touch, and our awareness of our body in space also participate in developing our visual sense. How we listen, speak, and think determines what we seeing front of us. And our emotional hopes and fears commit us to seeing what we want to see...and not seeing what we fear to see. Vision develops in concert with all our faculties, so vision training enlists the participation of the senses, the mind, and the emotions." Far West Journal, April 1990

Dr.William Bates, M.D.

A well-known and respected Ophthalmologist, (1860-1931) Dr. Bates found that poor eyesight can be improved and, in many cases, completely normalized through a simple process of education and relaxation. Letting go of the "effort to see", and allowing our eyes to see for us, without stressful mental eyestrain.

Dr. Bates proved that errors of accommodation (including farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, presbyopia, crosseyedness) are all caused by excessive strain in the six external eye muscles. When relaxed, they function correctly, naturally changing the shape of the eyeball, longer and shorter, so that we can see clearly up close and in the distance, much like a camera. When stressed, eyes are squeezed out of shape and lose their natural ability to accommodate (allow focusing near and far). Have you ever squinted in order to manipulate your eyes to see more clearly? Squeezing the eye out of shape. Blur is caused by a person acquiring improper vision habits, which usually occurs unconsciously during a period of stress, and then not knowing how to break the bad habits. Bates states, "over 90% of vision problems are caused by mental eye strain, and almost all vision problems can be corrected by relearning proper habits".

Experts Support The Bates Method

Dr A. M. Skeffington, O.D. , a proponent of vision therapy, says "good vision habits are the result of the relationship between the eyes, the brain, and the rest of the body. This is not a view held by the medical community, where the eyes are considered independent of the body as a whole and often separate from one another". Dr. Mitchell Scheiman, of Pediatric/Binocular Vision Service at Pennsylvania College of Optometry, says "Ophthalmologists and optometrists receive completely different education. Medical doctors have no training in vision therapy and know nothing about how it works. They refuse to recognize the great body of optometric literature that proves the validity of vision therapy as a successful mode of correction, and do not inform their patients of this option. As a result, many people are not getting the help they need, the help that is available". Natural Health May 1992

Dr. Robert Brooks. O.D. Coming To Austin On April 11

When an optometrist improves his own vision naturally, their practice is never quite the same. Dr. Robert Brooks, O.D. Tucson, Arizona, says "I corrected my sight from 20/300 back to 20/60 in a year and a half. It would have taken less time, but my peers were giving me such a hard time that I was choosing this natural direction. I was seeing better all the time, and to deter their ridicule, I practiced my playful vision games, and natural techniques when away from them". Brooks says "natural vision proponents focus on three areas to improve vision: Relaxation techniques; vision games, proper vision habits, and visualization of attaining clear vision. What it all comes down to is a healing of the whole person, and along with that, the person's vision. A gradual process is best. The Bates Method is balanced, playful, fun and gradual".

Costs Go Up as our Vision Goes Down

Statistics show that over 30% of Americans are discovering complimentary, compatible, and natural alternatives for their health. Natural vision improvement is only one way to relearn what we have forgotten. Compared to the rest-of-your-life cost of glasses or contacts, natural vision approaches are relatively low cost, and permanent

If we consider the ongoing accelerating cost of exams, eyewear, and the latest designer frames, let alone the progressives, tints, anti-reflective treatments for lenses, along with the contact solutions, cleaners, and the "visual luggage we are forced to remember", all these are the high cost of "artificial sight". Have you ever noticed people's vision getting better after they have worn glasses year after year? Or after the risky and costly option of surgical procedures, (not knowing what the long-term outcome may be) do you find yourself in glasses again anyway? Relax and See.

Jeanne Fitzsimmons

Certified Natural Vision Improvement Instructor

The Natural Vision Improvement Center of Austin

1-800-617-2533

Stress the Major Component

Dr. Janet Goodrich, Ph.D Vision Improvement Teacher and Trainer in Queensland, Australia, says "Each vision problem has its underlying emotional, physical and mental root resulting in different kinds, and ranges of blur. The physical aspects are covered with vision activities to enhance the flexibility of the eye and facial muscles. Re-educating our stressful postural habits supports the eyesight greatly. Bringing all areas into balance is the key to perfecting the vision and has a lot to do with countering stress. There are many little ways stress creeps into seeing.

In this increasingly technological age, more and more communication is visual. TV news is graphic footage, whereas before we had only newspapers and radio. Education, with its increasing use of visual aids, videos, and computers encroaching on "teacher talking time", and books. Advertising especially relies on visual impact-attention grabbing scenes and images that have an emotional message. And much of our leisure time is spent in front of a screen-TV, film, or computer. Longer hours in enclosed spaces-offices with dead air, no sunlight, (essential for good eye health) homes, or cars, when our eyes have limited and repetitive vision. All this means that our eyes have extra demanding work to do and it's not surprising that eye problems are more common than ever before?.

A Next Step to Seeing Better

Come to a free introductory given by the Natural Vision Improvement Center of Austin and see if this natural direction is for you. Attend the first class free. Call the center at 327-5683. Balance is the key. For natural seeing and less visual stress---relax and see!

Angelica Jeanne Fitzsimmons

Certified Natural Vision Improvement

Perfect Sight: The Natural Vision Improvement Center of Austin

Certified Light and Color Balancing Program

COVD Affiliate

March 22, 1995