What Are Your Eyes Saying?

Eye problems plague society today and have for many years. Many of these problems and ailments can be avoided if we would stop and listen to our eyes. They are the best factors in deciding if we are overworking them. If your eyes are straining and tense, your eyes are being damaged. You wouldn’t continue straining your arm muscles for long periods of time, you would stop when it hurt and take a break. The eyes should be treated the same way.

The eyes are full of small muscles that are responsible for shortening or lengthening the lens so we can see clearly. Take a look at your eyes right now. Are they straining to read the words on the page? Are the eyes flowing over the words are staring hard at each word? Are you smiling, frowning, or concentrating too hard? If you said yes to any of those, your eye muscles need to relax as soon as possible.

Thoughts can actually affect our vision. When you are thinking pleasant, happy thoughts the eyes are more relaxed. Relaxed eyes have better focus and allow the eyes to make smooth movements. Negative thoughts cause the eyes to strain. Strained eyes tend to stare and the movements of the eye are jerky causing the eyes to hurt.

The eyes don’t lie. If your eyes hurt or you feel tense behind the eyes, they are simply trying to tell you to relax. Feel a headache coming on near the eyes or behind them? You are straining your eyes too much and need to relax.

The good news is that it only takes about 15-20 minutes to relax the eyes. Relaxed eyes can focus better and help with comprehension of the things you are reading or looking at. Simply close your eyes and concentrate on the darkness. Forget about the negative stressors going on around you, and think about positive, pleasant things. Picture yourself relaxing on the beach, the waves lapping at your feet, a cold drink in your hand. Keep your thoughts focused on as many pleasant things as you can for the entire 15 minutes. When you open your eyes, you should feel more relaxed and the eyes more focused.

Listening to what the eyes are saying and relax them when they are tired. Taking time out to relax, will help your vision for years to come.

Improving Your Vision – A New Way of Learning

The worst thing we can do to our eyes is strain them. Too much mental strain and focus can actually harm our eyesight and cause the eyes permanent damage. Bad habits start from childhood, especially once school starts. These bad habits carry over into adulthood and cause damage to the eyes. Most of eye problems and ailments are simply caused by the bad habits learned in our youth.

Children have a natural curiosity to learn new things. Ask any kindergartener or first grader if they are excited for school and they will almost always say yes with genuine enthusiasm. Ask the same question of a junior high or high school student and they will moan at the thought of going back to school for another year.

Why the huge difference between the two? School is too disciplined and children are forced to spend hours each day learning and memorizing things that don’t interest them. Any subject that is uninteresting causes more concentration and the eyes to strain through. Not every person enjoys the same subjects, yet all children are forced to memorize and learn things in an uninteresting way.

The eyes strain when forced to concentrate on images that don’t interest us. Like numbers on an analytical report for work isn’t going to interest all the employees, mathematics, science, and English won’t interest every student. This doesn’t mean that have a well-rounded education should be thrown out the window. It simply means there needs to be a change in how children are educated.

The Bates Method was discovered by Dr. William Bates, a famous eye doctor. In his method, Dr. Bates put together a large, poster-sized card covered in common shapes and letters familiar to most school age children. The card was hung at the front on the classroom and offered the students something to look at when they were feeling tired or overwhelmed. The purpose of the card was to give the children a chance to relax their eyes. Looking at new material puts strain on the eyes, but familiar objects allow the eyes to relax.

Teaching children not to strain their eyes from a young age will help keep their vision sharp for years to follow.

Keep Your Eyes Moving

A clear mind is always on the go. The mind is constantly working out solutions to problems and solving the issues of the day. A mind that is stressed or strain struggles to work properly. The mind can get overwhelmed and then freeze and become stagnate. Problems don’t get solved and issues continue to pile up. Likewise, the eyes need movement to work properly. When the eyes are relaxed, they are moving around and enjoying the world around them. When eyes are strained, they stare and vision worsens.

The eyes love to stay busy, rapidly moving around and taking in the sights all around us. Eyes don’t like to stop moving and focus on only one item. When this happens, the eyes start to strain and concentrate and vision is not as accurate. Your eyes and brain work at a much more rapid pace then we give them credit for. When we are out in nature, the eyes are moving quickly from one tree or flower to the next. The only time they stop and stare is when your brain isn’t aware of what it is looking at. If you are looking at roses and then a unknown flower comes into focus, you will stop and stare until you realize it is a daisy and then move on.

Eyes never stop moving, unless we force them to. Even when we are asleep the eyes are moving around in the darkness. When the eyes are still for too long, they start to become damaged and lose the focus. Eye movement should always be smooth and flowing, never jerky or bouncing around.

You can teach the eyes to move smoothly by tracing objects. The eyes don’t have to look from one item to the next in jerky movements. Try tracing around the edges of objects. Look out the window allowing your eyes to outline cars, buildings, trees, and bushes. After a few times, the objects should start to get clearer and the color brighter. You can trace just about anything, couches, chairs, and the television. Do this exercise at least once a day to train the eyes to really look at things and not just stare.