When you practice the rest of the exercises in this book followed by long swinging, you will absorb the exercises better because long swinging alleviates tension and stiffness in the brain, in addition to preparing us to learn and benefit from new visual techniques.
I will never forget the time when I was walking in the streets of Tel Aviv with my eye instructor, Jacob, who was then only sixteen years old. Jacob told me to look at a building full of windows. In the corners of the windows I could see tiny, fuzzy black squares, which I later realized were air conditioners. At Jacob’s instruction, I looked from window to air conditioner, back and forth for a whole summer, not understanding why I was doing this. Slowly, by looking at windows and air conditioners, looking at patterns of squares, a new habit developed in me, a habit of looking and not freezing. Long swinging helped to prepare me for this exercise and alleviated the rigidity that prevented me from looking at details, which allowed the program to sink in.
The reason that long swinging is referred to as an integrative exercise is that it takes you away from the stress you’re used to. When people wear thick glasses that have a very specific focal point, they often strain their eyes so much that it becomes very difficult for them to look with vitality at the world. They look without seeing details, partially from fatigue and partially from the habits they have developed by straining to see. Long swinging breaks that tension. You cannot stare with this exercise, so more light enters your eyes through the movement, and therefore you won’t need to strain to bring the new programming to your brain.
The long swinging exercise will also help you to develop your peripheral vision and to create a better sense of orientation. You don’t have to swing for forty minutes at a time. In fact, even two minutes of twenty swings can help you loosen up. Think of it as warming up before a workout.
Step 2: Looking into the Distance
It is no coincidence that our school is located near the beach. In fact, it took us almost five years to convince San Francisco authorities and neighborhood groups to allow us to operate in this residential area. The reason this location is ideal for us is that we look at the waves on a daily basis and use their sparkling beauty in our work. They shine in sunlight and have different coloration, even in the fog. You can almost always see waves here, even when the weather is gray.
Look at the waves. Look at the sky. Look at the clouds. Look at the hills and valleys.
If you are not near the beach, look out your window at the many other buildings.
When you look near (as when staring at a computer screen), you unknowingly strain your eyes. The ciliary muscles contract, and this changes the shape of your lens from flat to round. When you look into the distance, however, the ciliary muscles relax, and the suspensory ligaments keep the lens flat and more flexible.
Many people in our culture are used to eyestrain from looking at computers, televisions, and books so much of the time. They pay attention to the contents and not to their eyes, which causes them to strain. Looking close makes you strain. Looking with boredom makes you strain. When you push on with the computer project, or the television show, or the book, you strain your eyes—even when you are aware of the strain.
Figure 2.2. The reason this location is ideal for us is that we look at the waves on a daily basis and use their sparkling beauty in our work.
Pay attention so that your face is relaxed and your jaw is not clenched. Release and rest your eyes. If it is possible, give yourself a few hours away from close work. Even if it is a deadline you are struggling to meet, do yourself a favor and take ten minutes to rest your eyes by looking into the distance. Look at the movements of the waves or the clouds. Look into the distance.
Never look closer than forty yards away, because you need to look far enough to rest the eyes from looking near. Know that when you look into the distance, you don’t have to stay focused on one point; you can scan or look at different areas within the point you are looking at. Remember to blink and to avoid straining to see it. If it is fuzzy, let it be fuzzy.
For at least ten minutes every single day, look into the distance. If you wear corrective lenses, be brave: take your contact lenses out, take your glasses off, and allow your eyes to enjoy a breath of fresh air. One student in San Francisco came to me and said that after two and a half weeks of not wearing her lenses, she had started to feel comfortable, because of “the air bouncing on her eyes.” This habit will reduce your dependency on glasses or lenses, and it will gradually strengthen your visual system.
Looking into the Distance Can Help to Prevent Cataracts!
If you can share this simple concept with other people, you will help to create a revolution in the world by helping to prevent the otherwise predictable cataract. Today, most physicians believe that, sooner or later, most people will develop cataracts. Looking into the distance can prevent the onset of cataracts because it gives the lens its full mobility and more life.
I realize that even if you practice this exercise every day, you will probably not look into the distance as much as life requires you to look near. Nevertheless, looking into the distance for eight to ten minutes, three times a day, will at least allow your eyes to rest and will compensate for the strain of looking near.
Step 3: Exploring the Periphery
It is impossible to strain your eyes while looking centrally if you remember to simultaneously focus on your periphery. In our culture, we suppress parts of the eye that help us to see well naturally. It is a subconscious suppression. We suppress the periphery because we make it irrelevant to our lives. As we focus on objects in front of us, we simply don’t pay attention to what’s around us. On the other hand, our ancient fathers and mothers, our predecessors, had to pay attention to their surroundings; in the jungle, you wouldn’t last more than a week without noticing the periphery. In fact, you would be eaten or you would starve to death if you didn’t notice what was around you.
Discovering Your Strong Eye
About 20 percent of the people that I’ve met have no difference in strength between their two eyes. Even so, the majority of people do have very different levels of strength between their eyes. A small number of those people have one eye stronger for looking from a distance, and the other is stronger for looking near.
If you experience an extreme difference of ability between your two eyes, you probably already know it by now. You may know which eye needs a stronger prescription for correction. You may have had an injury to one of your eyes, or you may simply be aware of which eye you tend to use to look. If you are not sure which one of your eyes is your dominant eye, there is a way you can test it.
To see which eye is dominant for distance, make a loose fist with a pencil-sized hole through the center, like a telescope. Hold your loose fist about a foot away from your face. (It could be closer for people who see poorly or farther for people who see sharply.) With both eyes at the same time, look at some distant point through the hole in your fist. Now close one eye and see if that point disappears. For example, if your stronger eye is your left eye, when you close the right eye, you will still see the object through your fist. When you close the left eye, you will not see the object, and vice versa. Then you’ll know which eye is stronger.
To see which eye is dominant for close distances, look at a page in this book, with its big and small letters. Look at the smallest letters you can see, and then close one eye at a time. Whichever eye can see the small letters better is your strong eye for nearby vision.
If you cannot figure out on your own which eye is stronger, you can go to an optometrist and ask for help.
Figure 2.3. Discovering the dominant eye.
But we ignore the periphery so we can focus on computers and paperwork all day without being distracted by our environment. We try to concentrate on the task at hand and can’t be distracted by the commotions around us. When we don’t notice the periphery, the strain on our central vision becomes much greater, which, in time, makes us use it poorly. This causes us to
strain our central vision, decreasing its clarity and eventually losing it. The old adage that says use it or lose it holds true here. With time, we lose the connection between our brain, our optic nerve, and the rod cells of the periphery. Along with genetic tendencies, this can be a cause of glaucoma.
What we need to do right now is to exercise our periphery.
Periphery Exercise 1: Look into the Distance
Sit somewhere comfortable where you can see something in the distance that you enjoy looking at. As you look into the distance, start to wave your hands to the sides of your head to notify your eyes that a periphery exists. Don’t look at your hands waving; just look into the distance. Allow your eyes to recognize the movement of your hands.
Wave your hands in such a way that your fingers point toward you and your wrists are loose. Do this for a minute or two. As you do this, you should feel your eyes release their tension; this relaxation in your eyes is vitally important to healthy vision.
Figure 2.4. Will wakes up his periphery with a wave of his hands as he looks at the distance.
Periphery Exercise 2: The Small Pieces of Paper
Cut out a small piece of opaque paper (about one inch by two inches) and tape the paper horizontally on the bridge of your nose so that the wide parts are centered in front of your eyes. This will disrupt part of your vision.
Walk around in a familiar environment with this paper on your nose for a minute or two. Now sit down and wave your hands to the sides of your head like you did before. Stand up and sit down several times, moving your whole body up and down, as you wave your hands to the sides. As you do this, it reveals to your brain the existence of a moving periphery with which it normally does not connect.
Figure 2.5. Will uses the smallest piece of paper to block his central vision while activating his periphery.
In the past, people used to walk at night, sometimes in total darkness and sometimes with light from the stars and moon. Imagine how important it was for them to notice things moving in their periphery at night! For millions of years, our ancestors used to walk this way. Now we have the city lights at night, and our peripheral cells are hardly being used because they are mainly designed for night vision.
Waving our hands to our sides wakes up the peripheral cells because the rods of the retina respond to movement rather than to still images; conversely, the cones respond better to a still picture. These cones are mainly in the central part of the retina (the macula) and are used to look at details. An overwhelming number of the retina’s cells are the rods, which respond mainly to the impression of movement. When we exercise these rods, we take away a lot of stress from the overworked cones, and we make it easier for them to function more correctly. Instead of the brain forcing the eye to freeze and to strenuously see a picture, the brain will command the eye to look gently and easily in order to see the entire landscape better.
Figure 2.6. (a) Will blocks even more of his central vision. (b) As he waves, he leans forward and back to create more movement in his periphery.
Next, put a longer piece of paper (one inch by five inches) on the bridge of your nose and repeat this exercise. Then use a piece of paper that is one inch by seven inches. By blocking so much of your central vision, and even some of your peripheral vision, you will discover a periphery that you hardly ever use consciously. Now go back to the medium-sized paper and repeat the exercise. Then use the small piece of paper and repeat the exercise for a final time. You may find that the small piece now seems even smaller in your perception. That is because much of your brain that had been suppressed is now engaged in peripheral vision.
To finish, take the small paper off, stand, and do the long swing so your brain will absorb the exercise you have just performed.
Step 4: Sunning and Skying
Sunning
Surrendering to the sun briefly each day can make a huge difference in terms of our overall feeling of well-being.
Since the 1980s, physicians have warned us against the dangers of exposure to the sun. Now they understand the benefits of sunlight and recommend that we have some exposure to it daily. The sun is one of the best nurturers that nature has given us. It is important, however, to adapt your eyes to the strong light of the sun. Sunning is a great exercise for this purpose because it is relaxing to the eyes and can also help you with your sleep.
I once had a patient who complained about terrible insomnia. She had not slept for many nights and had a tremendous amount of tension. I taught her the sunning exercise and massaged her in the sun. After her first session, she went home and slept right through the night; after taking only three sessions at the school, she reported that she had slept much better. That was years ago. To this day, she practices the sunning technique and no longer experiences sleep deprivation.
Today, physicians suggest that we should not expose ourselves to the sun, except before 10 a.m. and after 5 p.m. In my opinion, we should sometimes expose ourselves to the sun even at midday. If you are sensitive to sunlight, you should start by practicing the sunning exercise early in the morning or near dusk, or for just five minutes at a time in the middle of the day.
To begin sunning, all you need to do is close your eyes and face the sun. Now move your head from side to side, rotating it from shoulder to shoulder. As you face the sun, the sphincter pupillae constrict the pupils. As you move your head away toward one shoulder, the radial dilator muscle dilates the pupil, even though your eyes are closed. Some people find it easy to move their head 180 degrees from shoulder to shoulder. If you find this full range of motion difficult, simply bring your opposite shoulder forward slightly; it will help you to move your head all the way toward the side and to compensate for the limited range of motion until you loosen up. The more you practice this exercise, the more your range of motion and flexibility will increase.
Figure 2.7. (a) Move your head from side to side, rotating it from shoulder to shoulder. (b) As you face the sun, the sphincter pupillae constrict the pupils even with the eyes closed. (c) Move your opposite shoulder slightly forward if your neck does not move as freely as this yoga student.
The movements should not be fast, but they should not be slow, either. Just relax, breathe deeply and slowly, and visualize that the sun, with its energy and light, is penetrating your face and nurturing your eyes as well as your mind. Your eyelids should be closed softly; don’t squeeze your eyelids shut. You want the eyelids to close as gently as if you were about to go to sleep. The less you squeeze your eyelids, the more relaxed your eyes will become.
When I was in high school, I had been doing this sunning exercise on a camping trip. Seeing me rotate my head back and forth, a girl asked, “Why do you keep saying no? Can’t you say yes?” So I moved my head up and down as if to nod “yes,” and I had a revelation. I noticed that this movement led to a greater variability in the angles at which light reached my eyes, thus awakening more parts of them. This additional exercise allowed for greater stimulation and an increased sensation of lightness and darkness. I would recommend that this additional exercise be included during sunning.
Whenever you experience that difference between extremes of dark and light, your pupils become stronger. The pupils of most modern people are very weak because they wear sunglasses when they’re outside, which weakens the pupils. Automatic activities, like those of the eye’s iris muscles that affect the pupils, are influenced by function and use. The more you constrict and expand your pupils, the stronger the iris muscles become. Your retina also benefits from more concentrated light, and blood flows much better to the eye as a result of the pupils contracting and expanding.
The sunning exercise is mandatory for people who want to improve their vision. Like any exercise, it doesn’t create drastic change for everyone. But quite a few of my clients have experienced huge vision improvement and have reduced the strength of their eyeglass prescriptions when they have diligently practiced sunning. When you have a break at work or school, I recommend sunning instead of smoking cigaret
tes or drinking coffee.
Skying
Skying is a simple exercise. It is similar to sunning, but you do this as an alternative when there is no sun. You just put one hand behind the back of your head and one hand on your forehead, applying pressure so that you massage your head as you turn it from side to side. Now move your head from side to side like you are sunning and blink rapidly at the sky.
After two minutes of skying, do a minute of swinging. Then do three minutes of skying and two minutes of swinging. Then do three more minutes of skying and two more minutes of swinging. This is an antisquinting exercise, and as you sky and then swing, you are letting more light into your eyes and stopping the tendency to squint.
Figure 2.8. Apply great pressure to the head, holding the arms fixed as you blink at the sky and turn only your head from side to side.
Figure 2.9. Long swinging and skying go hand in hand.
Step 5: Night Walking
Night walking is the complementary exercise to sunning. The idea is simply to walk at night, in the dark, with only the light of the moon and the stars to guide your way.
Most of us, even if we live outside of a city, are surrounded by the glow of city lights. Those of us who live in remote areas often use flashlights. We have all learned to live with artificial lights, but once you get completely away from them for a time, you begin to realize how profoundly the city lights burden your eyes. Yes, we are happy to have them because they light the streets, making us safer and allowing for activity after the sun has fallen. But remember, as valuable as they may be to our industry and safety, this constant light is not beneficial to our eyes. For this reason, we must take part in exercises (like night walking) that strengthen our eyes and compensate for the burden of city lights.
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