20/20 Vision Restored Naturally (update)

I had a step-change in my vision this week which was really exciting and actually pretty emotional.

I discovered the important concept of “trying” to see without straining. It was important to make an effort to have distant objects come into focus. The eyes are used to being passive and letting the glasses/contacts focus the image so they aren’t used to working. The key point here is, however, that healthy eyes don’t FEEL like they’re working when they are working. It FEELS effortless and yet there is focus involved.

It kind of reminds me of what I thought at the time was a kind of hippie, bullshit pamphlet I paid for at a health fair several years ago that described a system of “exercise without effort”. The guy was so nice and sincere and the concept was so wacky I felt it was worth paying for it, if only for entertainment value.

Turns out restoring your vision involves exercise without effort, or at least without strain. Thinking about it another way, why would you want to have to strain all the time to see normally? You don’t want to practice feeling that way if you don’t want it to be a permanent condition.

What is happening when I practice seeing distant objects without strain is that my eyes water more and I blink more frequently. I also feel the need to stretch out my jaw more. Sometimes that leads to yawning, which waters my eyes more. Somehow my jaw tension is related. Once it is more relaxed, I see better. My dentist tells me every 6 months that my jaw muscles are too tight and I’m grinding my teeth. I also get better results when smiling and imagining that distant objects are easy to see, counteracting the info my brain is telling me that they are blurry.

Anyway it’s pretty exciting. I’ve noticed the most change first thing in the morning. I can see things across the room slightly sharper, almost like a double image, where before they’d just be a blur.

But it is full time work to blink frequently and not let distant objects register as blurry. I can see why it is recommended to take several days off for every few days of work.