Improve Your Eyesight Naturally

by Leo Anghart

  This exercise should be done with good daylight illuminating the page. Before reading the text below, remove your reading glasses and rest your eyes for a few minutes by palming. Then turn the page upside down and proceed to scan the white space between the lines and as you do so imagine that the background is brilliantly white like sunlight reflected on water or snow. Keep your breathing nice and deep. Continue to scan the white spaces as if you were reading. Go all the way to the bottom of the page. Now turn the book right side up and notice how many more words or paragraphs you can read.

  There is no need to read each paragraph – it’s the same text in different font sizes. Continue this exercise for 5 minutes or until you can read to the bottom paragraph. That is, read it from any distance within arm’s length. You will first notice that words appear to become clear, then sentences and finally the whole paragraph will be clear. For some people this process is very rapid but for others they need to practice a few times before they relax enough to allow their eyes to adjust. It is about allowing yourself to explore the possibility of developing more flexibility and discovering how it would look and feel. It is an intriguing question, isn’t it? How would I feel if I could read print this small?

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point, or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced by photography until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced by photography until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading, but all those eye troubles which so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced by photography until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading and near work, but all those eye troubles which now so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Persons whose sight is beginning to fail at the near point or who are approaching the so-called presbyopic age, should imitate the example of a remarkable old gentleman I met. Find a sample of really small print and read it a few times every day. Start in good daylight then in different kinds of artificial light, bringing it closer and closer to the eye until it can be read at about 15 cm or less. Or get a sample of type reduced by photography until it is much smaller, and do the same. You will thus escape not only the necessity of wearing glasses for reading and near work, but all those eye troubles which now so often afflict people. Nature intended that you should have natural clear eyesight.

  Congratulations, if you can read this comfortably with both artificial light and in daylight then you have 20/20 near vision. To maintain your near vision you need to read small print like this or smaller at least a few times every month. Take something you are really interested in reading and use a photocopying machine and have the magazine or article reduced to small print like this. Then read it with regular light and with just one candle. You can have a glass of wine as a reward. When you are reading with the absolute minimum light possible, you are training your visual system to function comfortably with very low light. Now go and find the darkest spot in the room and read this again. How did it go? Now do this about once a week from now on and your eyesight will be fine for the rest of your life.

  If you can read this in daylight then you have perfect near vision. Most people can only read this small print with sunlight. Keep playing with your ability to read really small print and you will also maintain your optimum near-point visual acuity.

  The next step is to check if there is a difference between your two eyes. Look at one of the small print paragraphs that you can comfortably read. Close your left eye. If you need to move the book there is a difference betw
een your eyes. Now, switch the eyes and look at the small print with your right eye. Again, if you need to move the book there is a difference.

  To equalize the reading distance between your two eyes, close the near eye. Move the book to the point where the eye that read the furthest away can see the text clearly. To encourage the eye to adjust, begin to move the book just a little bit closer so the text starts to become blurred. The eye will now attempt to adjust for the slight difference and in most cases succeed in doing so. Continue this backwards and forwards movement until your eyes can read at the same level.

  Finally, you will want to train your eyes to read in a variety of light conditions. In bright daylight the cone cells are active and provide you with crystal clear vision. In low light you will need to use more of the rod cells which are highly sensitive to light. You naturally move from one type of cell to another and have the ability to read small print in very low light conditions. This is similar to reading the phone book in moonlight as mentioned above. Train your eyes to be able to easily read multicolored menus in dimly lit restaurants.

  When you can read the above paragraph in good daylight then progress to read it in lower and lower light. Step inside the room and notice how this changes your ability to read. Continue to find different light levels until you can read fine print with just one candle.

  Lazy reading exercise

  The purpose of this exercise is to develop flexibility in focusing between the near point and far point and sharpening your focusing powers. This exercise also develops the ability to read smoothly without regressing

  1. Find a book or a magazine printed with plenty of white space between the lines and a typeface that appears slightly blurred when you hold the page up in front of you.

  2. Turn the page upside down so that you cannot read the text.

  3. Run your eyes gently and slowly around the margins a few times, looking as if from the back of your head.

  4. Now choose two points at the top corners of the page, and another, such as a box of tissues, at a distance within the room.

  5. Shift your eyes from the page to the box and back and forth.

  6. Next, scan the white spaces between the lines, going down the page as if you were reading. By the time you are halfway down, everything may seem clearer, but do not strive for clarity, keep going.

  7. When you reach the bottom, turn the book or magazine right side up, and look along the white space below the first line of type.

  8. Close your eyes now, and from memory paint imaginary white in the space below the first line of type, back and forth.

  9. Open your eyes and scan the spaces beneath the first few lines, imagining them as being bright as snow in brilliant sunlight. Repeat this several times, alternately closing and opening your eyes.

  10. Now float your eyes back and forth over the lines without reading.

  11. Look away then return to the page. The black of the type will seem blacker and the white of the spaces will seem whiter than you have ever seen them. The words will stand out sharply.

  Devote 15 minutes a day to this exercise. In the weeks to follow gradually reduce the size of type with which you are practicing until you are able to easily read small print.

  Circle exercise

  This exercise will teach your centering muscles to work in partnership with your focusing muscles. Usually when your eye-crossing muscle lacks tone, you will automatically over-focus and your near point is pushed out beyond the page you are reading. This can lead to presbyopia and astigmatism.

  Position this page so the circles are very close to your eyes. The left and right circles will float together and form a three-dimensional image in the center. The inner circle now floats above the outer circle like a multilayered cake. The word SEEING floats on top and you will see two words one above the other.

  If you see the “R” and the “L” that means your fusion is not quite complete. The perfect alignment shows the word SEEING in two lines, perfectly aligned one above the other. No “R” and no “L” are seen. Keep this image and slowly move the book away from you until it is at arm’s length. You should be able to maintain the fusion and the image in perfect focus at all distances from about 15 cm to arm’s length. Next look away and back again. You should be able to get the fused image back instantly. Practice for a few minutes at a time and frequently until you get the image. If you notice that your eye muscles are becoming sore then stop the exercise. This is about developing flexibility, so be gentle.

  Hold the diagram at your normal reading distance and begin to slowly move the page in clockwise circles, progressively making larger and larger circles. Do the same in a counter-clockwise direction. This will train your ability to keep fusion all over the printed page.

  Eventually you should be able to get the perfect fusion from close, up to arm’s length, as well as being able to look away at something in the distance then switch back and get the perfectly fused image instantaneously. Once you can do that you can stop doing the circle exercises.

  This is what you should see.

  18. Hyperopia

  Hyperopia or far-sight is common in young children. As the name suggests, your vision is good but near activities cause discomfort. Research indicates that most infants are about 1 diopter hyperopic. However, the natural process of growing up normalizes the vision and only about 10 percent of children still have hyperopia during their school years.

  Hyperopia has been associated with reading and learning problems. For example, in 1989 Rosner and Rosner compared the visual characteristics of children who had difficulties in school. Surprisingly they found that 54 percent of them were hyperopic. Looking at the children who did well in school, they found more than half of them were myopic and 16 percent were hyperopic. Rosner looked at 710 schoolchildren aged from 6 to 12 years. He found significant visual analysis difficulties in as many as 82 percent of the children with hyperopia, whilst only 14 percent of the children with myopia had visual analysis problems.

  The reading problems associated with hyperopia are generally attributed to the extra demand that leads to mental strain while reading. Consequently, children tend to avoid this activity as much as possible. In addition the near-point convergence becomes stressed.

  It is easy to imagine how vision problems and learning go hand in hand. Having difficulty in learning links systemically with many other aspects of the life of a child. Tension held in the eyes, which is the root cause of hyperopia, is perhaps a response to holding off or maintaining stability in a situation where things may be very confusing.

  Eye-care professionals have two main approaches to hyperopia in children. One school of thought prescribes plus lenses in order to relieve the eyestrain. They feel that hyperopia, if left untreated, may lead to binocular difficulties like amblyopia or strabismus (Ingram et al., 1986). The other school of thought discourages the use of lenses even with refraction errors as high as +7 diopters (Raab, 1982). The rationale is that children’s ability to focus their eyes is far in excess of what is required to cope with hyperopia.

  Hyperopic resting point is further away

  This of course poses a dilemma for parents as one doctor will say, “Don’t use glasses” whilst another will say, “If you don’t use glasses then this and that will happen.” It is best that plus lenses should not be prescribed until a child demonstrates a “need” for them. These children have no difficulty in reading the blackboard, but when reading close-up they develop eyestrain, headaches, inability to focus for a long time and even behavioural problems.

  Hyperopia (far-sightedness) is different from presbyopia which develops as you grow older, typically around the mid-forties.

  From a Vision Training point of view, we use exercises that develop the near-focus ability of the eye. This is mainly a muscle exercise which produces excellent results.

  Vision Training principles for hyperopia

  • Encourage relaxation of the entire visual system.

  • Make sure the near poi
nt of clear vision is no more than 15 cm from the eyes.

  • Read small print regularly.

  There are several ways you can relax your eyes. The simple Bates exercise of palming is an excellent way to do this. Simply rub your hands together as you would on a cold winter day. When your palms are nice and warm, place your hands over your closed eyes. Your hands should be held so your palms are directly over the eyes. Your fingers do not have much effect. The warmth from your hands as well as the polarity difference between your hands and eyes results in you relaxing your eyes.

  Another excellent way to relax your eyes, and possibly to reduce wrinkle lines around them, is to place teabags on your closed eyelids. The temperature should be so that it is pleasantly warm. Chamomile tea is an excellent choice because the chamomile has soothing properties as well.

  Alternating hot and cold towels over the closed eyes is another effective way to relax them. When you fly long distance flights attendants will offer you hot towels when it is time for you to wake up. Placing the hot towel over your closed eyes washes away the tiredness from them. The cold towel will activate your blood circulation in the same way a cold shower does after a hot sauna. Do this a couple of times and you will experience a new vitality in your eyes.

  Remember, in the case of hyperopia you already have the ability to focus close-up, so you just need to exercise that ability. Take every opportunity you can during the day to examine the smallest detail you can see at as close a range as possible. When I work with children I tell them to go and look in the eyes of ants, at the minute structure of a wall, the bark of a tree and so on. The goal is to exercise your ability to focus at the near point so it no longer requires so much effort. You will find that after a few days of doing this you can read for much longer periods without discomfort.