6 Ways To Improve Vision Naturally
I’ve known for a long time that it's important to use my eyes for more than just to look into my computer screen with. Eyes are designed to be utilized. Eyes want to notice details, scan, measure, compare, assess, look far and look around. I also know from yoga and other physical training, how important sight is for movements, balance and contact to the muscles, yet for a very long time I ignored that knowledge.
But as with most personal developments in your life, you need a problem to drive you to a change. Hence, I have exercised, massaged, and put drops in my eyes for the last 90 days now, and that has changed many things for me, and not just a better vision and healthier eyes.
Let me just start by revealing that I've found out that it's not totally out of context to call your eyes the window to your soul, and I'm very aware now of how much stress, old trauma and your perceptions of life also affect your vision.
“10% of seeing is in the eyeballs, and 90% of seeing is behind the eyes.”
Before I started my eye improvement project, I had my eyes tested a local optician here in Copenhagen (Synoptik at Nørre Voldgade).
I also talked my friend Jeanette to go along with me on the challenge. Jeanette's eyes were worse than mine to start with. She was immensely dependent on her glasses, had a lot eye floaters, beginning stages of cataracts and felt uncomfortable with prolonged eye contact and too much sunlight.
Contents:
The Before State of My Eyes
How I improved my vision naturally
What’s a Normal Vision
Glasses and Lenses Support, but also Worsen Your Vision
The Eye–Brain Connection
How We Destroy Our Eyes and Our Vision
6 Steps to Improve Your Vision without surgery
The State of My Eyes After my Eye Project
This post contains affiliate links to the products that I use myself or can recommend. If you buy products through these links, the price will be the same for you, and I will receive a small commission, which helps to support this blog.
The Before State Of My Eyes
My vision and my eyes are something I've taken for granted most of my life. It’s not attracted much of my attention, because unlike the rest of my family, who all are dependent on glasses or lenses, I've always had sharp vision, so I've probably believedthat if I continued to eat healthy my eyesight would remain the same.
Well that theory turned out to be wrong as I learnt earlier this year, while I was working on a challenging blog post all of a sudden I noticed my eyesight giving me trouble, symptoms like:
Blurred and double vision especially after I’d been on my computer for about an hour.
Short-term extra farsightedness when I’d been looking at my phone for just a few minutes.
It took longer time for my eyes to adjust to "normal" vision after I’d been looking at my electronic devices.
I could feel tensions in my eyes a lot of the time.
It was hard to relax my eyes.
I had eye floaters - not much, but they were there.
I had to switch from the glasses strength +1 to +1.5.
The muscles in my left eye were significantly stronger than in my right eye.
I had astigmatism in my right eye -0,75
The increased strength of my glasses actually released much of the tension and my double vision, but my eye problems in general began to limit my writing significantly, and I couldn’t work for more than one hour at a time.
"We are getting old, honey." was my husband's comforting comment to my complaints. True enough, and that’s ok, but I resist physical decay just because I let go of myself.
My husband recently went through a LASIK surgery where his cornea was reshaped. His vision is now 20/20, but he has to live with night glare from now on, which is starbursts or halos when he views lights at night, and that can be quite annoying for him sometimes. "But I don’t regretted it." He says. "Well, I’m thinking, its to late now isn’t it?"
How I Improved My Vision Naturally
For all of the above reasons, my eyes became my new project; and with a lot of research behind me now it’s actually opened my eyes (hehe) to a lot of new perspectives on so many levels.
The most significant revelation for me was to realize, that just as you can strengthen, improve and heal your body, so you can improve your eyes and eyesight too. It's a lot to do with getting in touch with the behaviors, habits, and programming, which causes the eye conditions. I learnt that it is possible to reverse a lot of eye conditions regardless of age; you do however have to change your diet, reduce your stress, remove heavy metal toxicity, balance your endocrine system, and do some eye exercises.
I also became aware through an “Eye Dialog exercise* which is a form of self-hypnosis, that unconscious behavior can affect your vision and eyes. I learnt that I have a tendency to use my masculine side much more than my feminine side, and that has left my masculine side a little unbalanced.
Among other things this realization made me reevaluate how I dress and had me wearing skirts and got me out of my sweat pants for a change.
Strangely enough just by becoming aware of these imbalances got me focusing on my femininity, and by practice I’ve become more receptive and less in control ling all the time, its given me a new feeling of contentment, and I’ve noticed that the strength difference between my left and right eye seems to have decreased a little.
According to Chinese medicine the left side of the body represents your feminine side and the right the masculine.
Most of the eye improvement methods I use are developed by two American Optometrists Dr. William Horatio Bates (1860-1930), who spent his entire life on studying the functioning of the eyes and visual process, and Dr. Sam Berne who for more than 25 years has worked with patients on improving their vision and overall wellness through holistic methods.
Sam Berne was nearsighted as a child and had learning difficulties because his eyes did not work well together, but he’d healed his conditions through a course of treatment and today his vision is completely normal. What eye doctors call a 20/20 vision.
What Is Normal Vision
Let's get the definitions right.
20/20 vision is a term used to express normal visual acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet.
These numbers are based on the standard letter chart - the Snellen chart - that is used to measure visual acuity. The numerator of the fraction indicates the distance to the board - 20 feet - and the denominator indicates is how clearly a person can see the corresponding lines on the chart.
Each line on the chart represents a distance that a person with standard vision could see clearly. On many charts the first line represents the distance of 70 feet. If you have 20/70 vision, it means that you see clearly at 20 feet what someone with standard vision would see at 70 feet.
A person with healthy and “normal” eyes can see the smallest letters on the Snellen chart 20 feet away.
Standard vision: 20/20 (1.0)
Driving license requirements: 20/40 (0,5)
Low vision: 20/60 (0.33)
Legally blind: 20/200 (0.1)
Very sharp vision: 20/10 (2.0)
Glasses & Lenses
Note that glasses and lenses are not designed to improve neither eyes nor vision only to remedy a present vision situation.
“Artificial lenses and glasses are the same thing for the eyes as crutches for a person who’s broken leg has knitted. ”
Prescriptions based on the 20/20 eye chart weakens your vision, because the norm is to give you the maximum lens prescription, which by time will reduce the visual function of the eyes.
An alternative solution could be to start including some vision therapy exercises, which will improve your vision and lessen your need for the strong prescriptions.
A strategy could be to get a less strong prescription, but strong enough to relax the eyes, and still allow them to see clearly.
Vision therapy exercises are kind of like a neuroplasticity training. It’s retraining the brain and the eyes to have a new experience, whether it's integrating peripheral vision, central vision, visual information processing. It's helps change the pattern we’ve set.
The Eye–Brain Connection
The eyes originate from brain tissue. In the first trimester the fetus’s eyes actually grow out from the brain. So every tissue of the eye is brain tissue.
Since the eyes are part of the brain, they qualify for neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a term that refers to the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience, activities, and nutrition.
So like the brain that constantly evolves according to our habits, nutrition and what we learn, so do our eyes.
How We Destroy Our Eyes And Our Vision
The main causes of reduced vision and eye health are due to stress, bad eye habits, lack of nutrients, and toxicities in our bodies, but also grief and trauma, as mentioned, contribute to lessened eyesight. And when our eyes on top of that don’t get proper food and exercise, well then we’re off to a life of wearing stronger and stronger prescriptions or heading for eye surgery.
So there's definitely a very strong link between the condition of our eyes and our lifestyle, thoughts and experiences. And we do have the capability to improve our vision significantly at any age through nutrition, detoxing, de-stressing, and by the healing of traumas.
The eyes actually reflect what's going on with our systemic and metabolic health. For example, if we have inflammation in the gut, that actually can be one of the causes or factors of conditions like macular degeneration, or glaucoma, or cataracts. If we have dry eye syndrome, as an example, that's connected to adrenal burnouts (stress), so our sympathetic nervous system is overworking.
And even if you are genetically predisposed to a particular eye condition, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t improve your vision. Several studies show that your environment has a significant impact on eye health, and even some congenital eye disorders can be reduced by eating specific nutrients and by changing some eye habits.
We are more or less unconsciously, imitating and repeating the habits and attitudes of our families and relatives, and we typically ingest roughly the same kind of nutrition as the ones we are living with.
So concerning genetics, you don't have to live out that destiny. An environment can change how our genes are expressing, but it requires attention to the environmental impact.
6 Steps To Improve Your Vision Without Surgery
1. Best Diet For Eye Health And Eyesight
Healthy eating is essential for healthy eyes.
Research suggests that antioxidants and other important nutrients may reduce your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Specific antioxidants can have additional benefits as well.
In the ARED study in 2001 (Age-Related Eye Disease Study) people that took carotenoids and antioxidants for their eyes had a 25% reduction of getting macular degeneration.
The following vitamins, minerals and other nutrients have been shown to be essential for good vision and may protect your eyes from sight-robbing conditions and diseases.
Beta Carotene
This antioxidant and carotenoid is the precursor to Vitamin A.
Beta carotene improves macula and lens, and it reduces free radical damage in the eye. It also improves night vision and reduces inflammation. Foods high in beta carotene are carrots, spinach, mangosteen, sweet potatoes, winter squash, cantaloupe, and apricots.
Glutathione
This is a powerful antioxidant that helps prevent cataracts and reduce toxins, free radicals and heavy metals in the body and eye.
Glutathione (pronounced “gloota-thigh-own”) is manufactured in the body, but needs propper diet and lifestyle to keep up a solid level. This chemical has sulfur, which sticks to free radicals and heavy metals in the body, so glutathione plays a critical role in the detoxing processes. More than 76,000 studies have been published on the effects of this chemical on all aspects of health, including preventing aging, cancer, heart disease, dementia and eye disease.
However, experts are now recognizing that an alarming rate of people are deficient because of:
Infections
Chronic stress
Injuries
Environmental toxins
Genetically modified foods
Artificial sweeteners
Overuse of antibiotics
Foods that boost glutathione: Apples, asparagus, avocados, bananas, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, garlic, grapefruit, kale, mustard, greens, onions, oranges, peaches, pepper, potatoes, radish, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnip, watercress.
Lutein
Lutein is a powerful antioxidant that protects the macula and lens of the eye.
The antioxidant can be found in: Kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, green beans, citrus fruits, orange vegetables.
Magnesium
Magnesium is a key mineral that helps regulate cellular energy for cardiac and skeletal muscles. It helps the eyes by reducing eye twitching and spasms, and also protects the optic nerve and tissues at the back of the eye. Magnesium can also prevent calcium build up on the lens, which can cause early onset cataracts.
The best magnesium-rich foods are: Almonds, cashews, brown rice, avocados, lentils and kidney beans. Or make your own magnesium spray for external use.
MORE: Why Not Getting Enough Magnesium Might Be Your Biggest Health Issue
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 essential fatty acids appear to help the eye in a variety of ways, from alleviating symptoms of dry eye syndrome to guarding against macular damage.
The key actives providing these health benefits are EPA and DHA. DHA accounts for more than one-third of the fatty acids in the retina of the eye.
Omega 3 fatty acids help lubricate the cornea, reduce eye inflammation, and protect the retina and optic nerve. They also reduce joint pain, stiffness & stabilize blood sugar. I eat cod liver oil from Nordic Naturals every day.
Foods rich in omega 3: Cod Liver Oil (clean source), salmon (wild-caught or organic), walnuts, flaxseeds (ground), chia seeds, hemp seeds.
But please note that Omega-3 from plant sources don't provide the same benefits as that from marine animals, as the omega-3 found in plants can’t be converted by your body into the Omega-3 you find in marine oils - the DHA that is so imperative for your eye and brain health .
Selenium
Selenium is a trace mineral that can help prevent cataracts and is important for improving brain function.
Foods rich in selenium: Sunflower seeds, pinto beans, halibut, sardines, grass-fed beef, skipjack tuna, wild-caught salmon, beef liver, oats, navy beans, chicken, turkey, eggs, spinach, tofu.
Taurine
Taurine is a simple sulfur-containing amino acid found in all the cell membranes in the body, which it helps to stabilize and function. It’s not found, like other amino acids, in more or less complex proteins, but is flowing in free form throughout the body, especially in the brain, the eyes, the rest of the central nervous system, and in the heart and muscles.
Taurine can help prevent macular degeneration and glaucoma. The recommended 500-1,000 mg per day can be found in meat and poultry, seafood, dairy products – and breast milk…
Vitamin-A
Vitamin-A helps prevent dry eye, night blindness, macular degeneration and strengthens the cornea.
Foods rich in vitamin A: Butternut squash, sweet potato, kale, carrots, spinach, dried apricots, broccoli, butter, egg yolks. Other healthy vitamin-A foods include cod liver oil, red bell peppers, mangos, mangosteen, tomatoes, cantaloupe, green peas, papaya, peaches.
Vitamin-B
Three types of Vitamin-B help vision and the eyes.
B2 (Riboflavin) helps reduce free radical damage and maintain healthy blood vessels. A deficiency can lead to light sensitivity, headaches, sore eyes and cataracts.
B2 rich foods: Mushrooms, spinach, almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, eggs and lamb. Integrating whole foods into the diet is the best way for the body to receive these useful nutrients, but supplementation may be necessary. When choosing a supplement, be sure to avoid those that contain wheat, rye, barley, oats, gluten, or lactose. Also try to avoid fillers such as magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide, artificial colors, and hydrogenated oils.B6 (Pyridoxine) reduces macular degeneration symptoms. A B6 deficiency can cause blurred vision and cataract formation.
Foods high in B6 include Chicken and turkey breast, grass-fed beef, pistachios, tuna, pinto beans, avocado, blackstrap molasses, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, salmon, sweet potato, bananas and tuna.B12 keeps the optic nerve healthy, protects from glaucoma, improves nerve function and supports red blood cells.
B12 is found in lamb, cottage cheese, tuna, beef, salmon sardines, nutritional yeast, eggs.
Vitamin-C
This antioxidant helps reduce free radical damage, improves mineral absorption in the lens and supports brain and immune system health.
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid) helps the body form and maintain connective tissue, including collagen found in the cornea of the eye.
Vitamin C also promotes healthy blood vessels, including the delicate capillaries in the retina. Studies suggest long-term consumption of vitamin C may reduce the risk of forming a cataract and vision loss from macular degeneration.
Oranges, red peppers, kale, mangosteen, broccoli, grapefruit, strawberries, kiwi and green peppers are all great sources of Vitamin C.
Vitamin-D3
Vitamin D3 helps prevent macular degeneration and has anti-inflammatory properties.
Natural sources of D3: Sunlight: Aim to spend 10–20 minutes of unexposed time in the sun daily (between 1,000 and 10,000 IUs). The range is so wide as it depends on the time of year, how far from the equator you live and how much skin is exposed. If you have lighter skin, less time is needed. If you have darker skin or live farther north (in the Northern Hemisphere, like Scandinavia), you need about an hour of sun in the summer to get about 1,000 IUs of vitamin D.
Other sources: Halibut, carp fish, mackerel, maitake mushrooms (exposed to uv light), salmon,whitefish, portobella mushrooms (exposed to uv light), swordfish, rainbow trout, cod liver oil, sardines, tuna, eggs.
Vitamin-E
This nutrient works well with beta carotene and Vitamin C to decrease overall inflammation and protect the macula. It also reduces free radical damage.
Foods rich in vitamin E: Olive oil, sunflower seeds (organic),almonds, hazelnuts, red peppers, spinach, avocados, turnip greens, butternut squash, pine nuts, mangos, sweet potatoes, tomatoes.
Zeaxanthin
This antioxidant is also a carotenoid, and should be consumed with lutein, which it also naturally does because these two antioxidants are both rich in orange fruits and vegetables. Zeaxanthin protects the macula and the lens, and helps filter out damaging blue light that comes from digital devices, which damage the macula. Zeaxanthin can be found in red and orange fruits and vegetables, such as pumpkins, tomatoes, red peppers, and squash.
Zinc
Zinc protects the retina and lowers the risk of developing macular degeneration. It also reduces inflammation and improves circulation.
Foods rich in zinc: Lamb, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, kidney beans, grass-fed beef, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), cocoa powder, cashews, kefir or yoghurt, mushrooms, spinach, chicken.
Probiotics
Some eye disorders including dry eyes, glaucoma and cataract may very often stem from poor gut health because an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the small intestines affects your vision.
Probiotics are important when you want to restore the balance and reduce inflammation.
You get natural probiotics by eating fermented foods like sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, yoghurt, etc., or through dietary supplements.
Pre-biotics: And don’t forget that probiotics also need food (prebiotics) and they love dietary fiber, so its important to also eat foods like chia seeds, crushed flaxseeds, psyllium husk, hempseed, garlic, onions, ginger, ginger, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, green asparagus, artichokes, dandelion leaves, berries, mango, seaweed, apples, not completely ripe bananas, raw honey or dark chocolate / cocoa when eating probiotics.
MORE: Probiotics: All about Benefits, Fermentation and Supplements
To Sum Up. These Are Good Eye foods:
Fruits: apples, apricots, apricots (dried), bananas, cantaloupe, citrus fruits, kiwi, mango, papaya, peaches, strawberries.
Vegetables:asparagus, avocado, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, butternut squash, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, garlic, green beans, green peas, kale, mustard greens, onions, orange vegetables, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radish, spinach, squash, sweet potato, tomatoes, turnip greens, watercress, winter squash.
Mushrooms: mushrooms, Maitake mushrooms (exposed to UV light), Portobella mushrooms (exposed to UV light).
Nuts & Seeds: almonds, cashews, chia seeds, flax seeds (organic & ground), hazelnuts, hemp seeds, pine nuts, pistachios , pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds (organic), walnuts.
Beans & Lentils: chickpeas (garbanzo beans), kidney beans, lentils , navy beans, pinto beans, tofu.
Oils: cod liver oil (clean source), olive oil.
Dairy: butter, cottage cheese, eggs, feta cheese, kefir, yogurt.
Fish: carp fish, halibut, mackerel (organic), rainbow trout, salmon (wild-caught or organic), sardines, swordfish, tuna (skipjack), whitefish.
Meat: beef (grass-fed), chicken, lamb, turkey.
Other: blackstrap molasses, brown rice, cocoa powder, nutritional yeast, oats.
Drink plenty of water: Water is essential for your eyes, body, and brain to work well. Drink eight glasses of water every day. You can fill a water bottle a take it with you and get in to the habit of sipping from it regularly during your day. I get my daily dose by swallowing 3 cups in the morning and 3 cups in the afternoon.
Foods To Avoid
Healthy vision is just as much a result of what you don’t eat as what you do.
Carbs: High blood sugar causes the lens of the eye to swell, which can change your ability to see. You can usually correct this kind of blurred vision by reducing or eliminate, excess sugar and grain intake cutting and eat plenty of veggies, healthy fats and fibers instead.
Trans fat. A diet high in trans fat also appears to contribute to macular degeneration by interfering with omega-3 fats in your body.
So eliminate refined sugar, bread, pasta, soft drinks, juices, sweets, cakes and virtually all food made at factories from your diet.
2. Detox Your Body And Eyes
Several eye disorders such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are often due to the accumulation of waste products in your body and in the eyes. So if you want to prevent more serious eye problems or want to keep a sharp vision all your life, you can start by removing all the toxins your body is exposed to on a daily basis, from diet, cleaning products, pollution, pesticides an so on. You can read more about how you do that in my blog about how to balance the hormones.
Clean And Freshen Your Eyes With Msm Eye Drops
MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) is a sulfur-rich compound and sulfur actually is like sticky flypaper that attracts toxicities, and it helps flush those toxicities out of the body. Sulfur is needed to recycle glutathione, which is the “master antioxidant” in the body, and critically important for eye health.
MSM eye drops soften all the tissue, reduce inflammation, and help to remove toxicities from any part of the eye – especially the vitreous, which is the back, jelly-like part of the eye.
Moreover. MSM increases cell permeability, which improves nutrient flow and absorption throughout the eye. This is important for balancing intraocular pressure, removing toxicities from the eye, and repairing damaged membranes.
MSM eye drops can help eliminate eye floaters and relieve eye problems such as cataract and glaucoma.
I make my own eye drops because most store bought eye drops contain preservatives and chemicals that our eyes should not be exposed to long-term and can cause eye irritation to become worse.
MORE: All about MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) and its Fantastic Beauty and Health Benefits
Quit Smoking
Studies have shown a strong link between smoking and the development of both Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Cataracts. In fact smokers are four times more likely to develop AMD and smoking even impairs the effectiveness of AMD treatment.
3. Give Your Eyes Light – And Darkness
We need light and darkness in the right amounts.
It’s only less than 200 years since we had electric lights installed in our homes and out on the streets. Before that it was pitch dark at night and sun and fire were our only sources of light.
Our bodies and hormone systems have adapted to the light and darkness hours of the day and the seasons for millennia and that didn’t change just because a light bulb was invented.
Through the retina, light and dark signals are sent to the pituitary gland and the pineal gland - the glands in the brain that control our circadian rhythm.
MORE: The Best Tips to Help You Sleep Well
Blue Light
Blue light from a 10:00 AM sky or blue light from your light bulb, television or computer screen at midnight sends the same signals to the brain – that it’s the daytime. And when the body thinks it's day, it produces more cortisol and less melatonin. Which makes it harder for you to relax, to fall asleep, and to get into deep sleep. And it's in your deep sleep your body really has the opportunity to clean up and repair.
Blue Light can also damage all of our eye tissues, our retina, our macula, our vitreous, our lens and it might also be a contributing factor to the development of floaters.
If you feel vulnerable with blue light, you can wear blue-blocking glasses, which actually block the blue light or you can remove the blue light from your devices.
My iPhone is set on “night shift” ALL day, it gives off warmer, less blue light. It also gives a slightly darker screen though that you have to get used to, but boy that has helped my eyes. The momentarily extra farsightedness I used to experience after looking even just briefly on my devices is gone. For Android you can download an app called "Twilight".
I’ve also installed f.lux on my computer (it's free) and my Mac screen is now set 24/7 on that yellowish color.
For several years now I’ve also worn a pair of orange tinted glasses every night – called Blue Light Blocking Glasses.
It’s not super sexy, but I can watch TV and my YouTube videos at night without interfering with my body's melatonin production.
Before I started using these sleep goggles I had restless sleep, and often woke up shortly after I’d fallen asleep, and I rarely felt like I’d had a deep sleep. Now I sleep like a teenager again.
Note! If you've had cataract surgery, you are very wide open to developing macular degeneration (AMD) if you don't use blue-blocking lenses - very important if you use digital devices.
Children And Electronic Devices
So when we have our original hardware, our original lenses, there's a pigment that block some of the blue light, but that doesn't fully develop till about age 11.
Not only that. When you're on digital devices it creates visual confinement. You focus in one position for long periods of time and that shut down your visual system.
So you might want to consider how much time your child should use digital monitors a day.
Sunlight Is Good And Important
Sunlight is a food and when it enters the eyes, it affects our endocrine system, our nervous system, and our visual system.
Part of the light that enters the retina, stimulates the photoreceptors and signal is sent through the optic nerve back to the brain and that's how we see.
We are heliotropic species, we go towards the light just like the plants. And yes, we need to protect our eyes from strong sunlight, but it's very important too that you get 30 to 60 minutes of natural light every day - without sunglasses.
I don’t mean looking directly at the sun, but being outside in the light – you can use a hat if you feel you need to squint your eyes because of the light.
Color Therapy
Color therapy is a form of light treatment, where you look at different colors on a screen.
The photoreceptors in the retina that can go to sleep due to stress, trauma, and toxicity, can be reawaken through different color frequencies, which help open up the peripheral vision and improve your depth perception, your memory, and your body balance.
4. Deal With Old Traumas
An old trauma can also be part of the reason why our eyes let us down. We store traumas in our eyes and our visual system.
Our eyes are basically receptacles, especially when we’re very young. We take in information and we don’t necessarily have a way to express, so this trauma gets stored in our eye tissue, optic nerve, the brain etc.
According to Dr. Sam Berne, releasing trauma can definitely help improve eyesight.
Some techniques can help you release traumas, and one of them is called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy.
The EMDR technique: Your therapist asks you to recall the memory of the traumatic event you want to put behind you. As you recall this memory in detail, you move your eyes rapidly back and forth, as if you are watching a high-speed Ping-Pong match.
The negative thoughts are processed and replaced with positive ones while the eyes are moving back and forth.
The sensation is strange, but many therapists and patients swear by the technique, and there are scientific studies that show good results from the method. But as it’s a confrontational technique, it will not be tolerated by everyone.
Hypnotherapy is another effective trauma releasing method - and a combination of the two can be quite effective.
5. De-stress Your Eyes
Most holistic Eye doctors believe that many visual defects are due to the incorrect use of our vision, and that bad habits related to the use of the eyes always are closely linked to their strain and stress.
Very often less than perfect vision is the result of having muscles that are too strong, because they are constantly contracted and under strain.
Stress and tensions in our eyes affect the whole body, but with the adoption of good vision techniques - especially relaxation techniques, the stress in our eyes and the whole body will lower.
The ability of passive and dynamic relaxation is the first and basic thing you can do to improve your vision. Not just the general ability to relax muscles, but also the relaxation of mind, is important for your vision. In many cases, the relaxation techniques can turn out to be sufficient for improvement of your sight.
These Eye Relaxation Techniques Have Good Track Records:
Blinking
And eye pillows are amazing to deepen your relaxation.
You'll find descriptions of the techniques in my post about How to De-Stress Your Eyes to Improve Your Eyesight
These 3 Basic Rules Are Important Before You Can Get Your Body To Relax:
Sleep. Get enough sleep to rest your body and so the eyes.
Move. Engage your body in a lot of movement. Especially things like swimming, running, cycling, dancing, ice-skating, skating or even an ordinary evening walk. Choose an activity you enjoy, and your body, mind and eyes will return the favor big time.
Unwind. Before you do your vision exercises, relax your eyes, body and mind with some of the relaxation exercises – pick one or two.
6. Exercise Your Eyes
Like all of our limbs, our eyes have muscles, tissues, and nerves that need to be strengthened, kept supple, get some blood circulation going and have a good massage regularly to perform well throughout our lives.
And as I've mentioned several times now, that's not what most of us spend too much of our time and effort on doing. We focus our gaze within small frames and distances, and when our vision fails us, we get even stronger prescriptions and continue doing that or go for surgery.
Eye training is not only an effective way of preventing your eyesight to get worse, but it can also actually improve your current vision.
Your eyes, brain, and body have a specific pattern. What is going on in your eyes is also somehow reflected in your posture, movements, emotions and brain processes.
So eye exercises can help reprogram us and make new and better patterns in relation to how the eyes, brain, and body work together.
These exercises have strengthened my vision, expanded my field of vision, and made my eyes and my eyesight fresher and clearer.
Eye Scanning
Tongue Clock Palming
Eye dialog
The Eye – Brain – Body - Game
Focus Shifting Exercise
Too Strong Glasses exercise
Step up exercise
Wake up exercise
Persistence is the key to better vision.
I recommend doing two to three exercises every day. It takes less than 10 minutes in total - I promise, and in about a month's time you’ll notice that your surroundings are much clearer.
Always finish your eye training session with a palming exercise and if you have the time to do an eye massage too.
Choose exercises that suit your current needs. If your eyes are tense for example, the palming exercises are eminent and should be done daily. Sunning is also very de-stressing for your eyes (you’ll find all the relaxation exercises here).
I am (was) dealing with eye floaters, astigmatism, stressed eyes and far-sightedness, so I do the MSM massage, stretching exercises and the Too Strong Glasses exercise every day. Besides that, I do one or two other exercises on the list for a week at a time. I start and finish my eye training with one of the palming exercises to relax and release.
So in total, I do five exercises a day. It may sound a lot, but the more I get used to them, the more I naturally merge them into my daily life. For example, I often scan instead of staring, I do the sunning when I'm outside anyway. If I’ve been gazing at my laptop for a long time, I get up and do a few thumb rotations, if I feel a tension in my eyes or body, I do palming, etc.
Descriptions of the exercises and videos are on the way, but you can already find some of them in my post about farsightedness.
My Eyes And Vision After 3 Months Of Training
I have trained, fed and relaxed my eyes for more than 3 months now and what’s changed so you might think. Here's what I do differently and have experienced so far:
WHAT I DO DIFFERENTLY
I exercise my eyes every day.
I eat eye food - lots of spinach, kale and asparagus.
I expose my eyes to the sun.
I put my MSM drops in my eyes daily.
I massage my eyes daily.
I do eye relaxation exercises.
I have changed the colors on all my computer and mobile screens to warmer colors – on both day and night, because the blue light bothers my eyes.
Hanne’s Eye Log
Improvements after week 1:
My double vision is gone
My vision comes back to normal much quicker after I’ve been looking at my screen for at longer periods.
The tension in my eyes is gone (for the most part).
The white in my eyes is significantly whiter.
I look fresher.
After week 3:
I’ve established good eye habits. Not only do I do the week's exercises. I do scanning and sunning op top of that.
I forget to wear glasses once in a while, even if I have to read something.
After week 5:
I do not use glasses anymore unless I’m working on my laptop.
After week 9:
Astigmatism gone from -0,75 to -0,5.
My eyes ability to adjust their focus has increased.
My eye floaters have almost disappeared. There’re only tiny shadows left.
I take better care of my eyes.
I regularly take small breaks from the screen and the writing, and do a bit of eye scanning, get a little sun on my eyelids or cover them with my palms for a resting.
I'm not so light sensitive anymore, and my need to wrinkling and blinking outside in bright sunlight is drasticly reduced.
Good Eye Literature:
Disclaimer:
All information in this blog is strictly for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The statements made in this blog have not been evaluated by The Danish Health Authority. The products linked to in this blog and any information published in this blog are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided by this blog is not a substitute for a face to-face consultation with your physician, and should not be construed as medical advice. The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of Hanne Robinson. By reading and using this blog, you agree to only use this publication for personal informational use and not as a substitute for medical or other professional advice.
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