For years, as a yoga and yoga therapy teacher, I have been practicing a holistic approach to health in my immediate family. In addition to a good and balanced diet, exercise and healthy habits, we also take care of our eyesight. In my workshops and yoga classes with the public, we incorporate exercises called eye yoga, especially to exercise the eye muscles and lens accommodation. In today's technology-saturated age with eyes focused on a glowing screen, our eyes deserve loving care. If we don't start paying attention to them early on, it may not be until we ask for a check-up at the eye doctor's office and then a pair of glasses on our nose that we are alerted to the need for a change in approach. But it doesn't have to be that way. Even if you already wear glasses, you don't have to give in to them. You can put them off. But it's not free. I'm not referring to the financial side of things, but primarily to our own activity. Just ten minutes a day, persistently, and miracles happen.
If I didn't have people in my immediate circle who had permanently put away their glasses, I probably wouldn't believe it right away. People at my seminars resist, arguing that it's not possible... these people have become so attached to their glasses that deep down they don't really want to give them up. What is behind this reluctance and distrust? Fear? For those who are not afraid, let's talk about it some more. Five years ago, a close friend of mine and her daughter both wore strong prescription glasses. My friend had -2.75 for distance vision and her daughter had +10.5 for both eyes. Both practised very diligently and persistently for about six months. Then little Alenka put her glasses away and apparently bumped into everything during her first days at nursery school. Today, she doesn't wear glasses, she is full of energy and paints beautifully. Her mother, a doctor, also put her glasses away. And so did other people around her.
Our compelling story of the treatment of eye defects begins in the second half of the 19th century in New York City. There, in 1885. William Horatio Bates graduated as a physician from Columbia University Medical and Surgical School in New York. The young Bates soon became a respected ophthalmologist and lectured in ophthalmology at the New York Postgraduate Medical School. However, he was dissatisfied with the conservative treatment of refractive errors, i.e. the ability to focus (myopia or hyperopia). Specifically, he opposed the prescription of glasses as a treatment. He asked himself and his colleagues: „If glasses are supposed to be an effective treatment for an eye defect, why is it that over time the condition of the eye does not improve and the opposite is true?“ Through his own observation he discovered a very close connection between emotions and the ability to focus the eye. He even observed that the eye's ability to focus is not static, but varies with the experience and emotional attitude. He developed his own method, the Bates method, and treated those who were prescribed glasses by conservative doctors. With success.
According to Dr. Bates, poor vision is primarily due to these three causes:
- Stress or psychological tension
- Poor eye habits
- Wearing glasses
However, some of his colleagues and the hospital management had a problem with his approach. (In this respect, Bates„ story mirrors common medical practice today.) He became independent, opened his own practice, and then organised ”free clinic days" at the Harlem hospital several times a week, where he usually had a long line of people waiting for his help. He cured himself of presbyopia, or age-related farsightedness. He published dozens of professional articles, ran his own magazine for a time, and wrote several books on the subject.
A few decades passed, and Bates' method found its way to one man, to whom it was literally sent from heaven, an Israeli named Meir Schneider. Meir Schneider was born in 1954 with a severe eye defect. After five unsuccessful operations, doctors gave up on his case and he was declared blind at the age of six. Meir learned to read using Braille. As he writes in his autobiography, his childhood was full of frustration, but somewhere deep inside he had faith that his sight would return. When he was 17, a friend introduced him to the Bates Method. Meir threw himself into the exercises with incredible vigour, undeterred by the scepticism of his family, doctors and teachers. He practised for up to 13 hours a day. After six months, he began to see outlines, and after 18 months, he was able to read without glasses. He continued with the exercises, which he developed and modified based on his experience. He added self-massage and physical exercises. This opened the way for him to regain his sight and improve his overall health. Today, Meir drives a car and reads without glasses. According to doctors, his diagnosis remains that he should not be able to see. Nevertheless, he has met the conditions for obtaining a driving licence without restrictions.
Meir discovered that the same principles that helped him regain his sight worked for his whole body. He later called this method: The Meir Schneider Method - Self-healing through body work and movement. The basis of the method is to relax the eyes, face, neck and shoulders. Deepened breathing and blood circulation brings the necessary revival of the entire visual system. The eyes are better supplied with nutrients and oxygen and harmful substances are flushed out. The method works comprehensively with all parts of the visual system: from the cornea to the optic nerve. However, the human eye is not just a camera - the resulting vision takes place in the brain. The psychology of vision comes into play. If one is to learn new skills, one must first break bad habits. Some of Meir's recommended exercises serve to break stereotypes.
A varied programme awaits you at the seminars, where you can get to know the Bates and Schneider method: for example, testing the condition of the eye, indoor and outdoor exercises, ball games and even a walk in total darkness. You may be surprised at how much fun it can be to train your peripheral vision with a ball or black perforated blindfold, how refreshing and soothing a walk in the dark can be, and how beneficial sunlight combined with the darkness of our hands can be for the eyes.
I have long ago convinced myself that shortcuts in life don't work and that only the path of self-driven effort and perseverance leads to sustainable results. When it comes to health, this is doubly true. When we find ourselves in distress, we go to the doctor and he or she provides relief. Short-term. Occasionally, it will help solve the cause of our problem. Sometimes it doesn't. It's not so much about the doctor, it's about us. When I go to a doctor for a quick solution, I get a pill, a crutch, an orthotic or glasses. When I go to a doctor with a problem and questions and wonder what I can do for my condition and what I should change in my life, a really good doctor will give me something of his time and attention besides a crutch, offer advice and possibly refer me to another specialist.
Whether your doctor prescribes glasses, orthopaedic insoles, crutches or massage therapy, continue to explore what you can do yourself to improve your condition. It stands to reason that if we support the human body externally over the long term, we may experience short-term relief, but the body will gradually weaken and the muscles will atrophy. This is an inevitable process. Change and improvement always come from the inside out. It is good to keep reminding ourselves of this. We know this, but we like to forget this universal rule. Perhaps because we have so much work to do... And we put off things that really matter UNTIL... but that's another story.
This article was published with the kind permission of of the magazine Sphere
casopis-sfera.cz / gnews.cz-HeK
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