Improving Eyesight - Understanding Astigmatism

Astigmatism is normal as people age. Astigmatism happens when the eyeball loses its roundness and vision starts to become hazy. Astigmatism can also be caused by years of stress and strain on the eyes. The eye is surrounded by tiny muscles that help the eye ball elongate and contract. Years of tension, can weaken these muscles and cause problems when the eyes need to change shape.

           

The eyes are never ever truly round; they are constantly changing shapes depending on the situation. Everyone has astigmatism every once in awhile. In fact, you can create the illusion of astigmatism right now by pulling on the eye lids and blurring the vision. The eyes will usually fix themselves in a few hours or days; without the use of glasses. Artificial lenses mask the problem and prevent the eyes from healing themselves.

           

The eyes are amazing organs and they are the first line of defense against tension; we just tend to ignore those signs. If vision because blurry or distorted, your eyes are telling you to relax and take it easy.

           

When you feel tense, there are some activities you can do, and they only take a few minutes. The first thing to do is relax. Stop what you are doing and take a quick break. You don’t have to leave your desk or the area you are working in. Simply move your eyes around. Look away from the screen or the papers in front of you; focus on objects far away and give your eyes a chance to move from near to far.

           

If you are at home, you can lie on the floor and have someone swing a pendulum over your head. This allows your eyes to focus and follow an object and move. The eyes need to move to work properly. They are not design to start straight ahead for hours at a time. They are made to move and absorb the world around us.

           

An easy solution to astigmatism is to eat more fruits and vegetables. Eating a more healthy diet can help improve health and eyesight. The important things to remember is to keep your eyes in motion and give them a break every 15-20 minutes. 

Protect the Eyes from Glasses or Contacts

The eyes are one of the most important of the five senses. We need them to see and enjoy the world around us. They allow us to read and get work done. They help remember images we once saw, and they keep our dreams alive at night. The eyes are also sensitive and vulnerable to outside damage. They are one of the few organs that are on the outside of the body, protected only by a thin layer of skin, the eyelids.

           

The sun is a powerful wonderful thing. The sun is great for your skin and gives us valuable Vitamin D. Each day find the time to spend at least an hour in the sun. The sun has great healing powers and the natural light is as important as food, water, and air. Never look directly at the sun; of course, it can burn the retinas. Wear some kind of protection like a visor or hat to protect the eyes.

           

Televisions and computers are used in our daily lives but they are hard on the eyes. They force eyes to stare for too long and don’t offer the eyes enough movement. The distance and angle doesn’t ever change, so the eyes remain looking at a still object for too long. It is not always possible to avoid the television or computers, especially computers. Look away every so often and focus on things far away to give your eyes a chance to move and adjust. Try not to spend the entire day in front of the television or at least let your eyes wander during commercials.

           

Reading is never harmful for the eyes, but it helps to enjoy what you are reading. The eyes will be more relaxed when reading a novel than when reading a text book full of new information. Learning to relax no matter what the subject is the key to enjoying reading. Dim lights and small print may be problematic at first, but the eyes will adjust when relaxed. Reading in bed can be relaxing and reading while driving doesn’t have to make you sick.

           

The eyes are sensitive organs, but learning to relax and keep them protected can ensure great vision for a long time.

Eyesight Improvement - Keeping the Eyes Moving

A clear mind is always on the go. The mind is constantly working out solutions to problems and solving the issues of the day. A mind that is stressed or strain struggles to work properly. The mind can get overwhelmed and then freeze and become stagnate. Problems don’t get solved and issues continue to pile up. Likewise, the eyes need movement to work properly. When the eyes are relaxed, they are moving around and enjoying the world around them. When eyes are strained, they stare and vision worsens.

           

The eyes love to stay busy, rapidly moving around and taking in the sights all around us. Eyes don’t like to stop moving and focus on only one item. When this happens, the eyes start to strain and concentrate and vision is not as accurate. Your eyes and brain work at a much more rapid pace then we give them credit for. When we are out in nature, the eyes are moving quickly from one tree or flower to the next. The only time they stop and stare is when your brain isn’t aware of what it is looking at. If you are looking at roses and then a unknown flower comes into focus, you will stop and stare until you realize it is a daisy and then move on.

           

Eyes never stop moving, unless we force them to. Even when we are asleep the eyes are moving around in the darkness. When the eyes are still for too long, they start to become damaged and lose the focus. Eye movement should always be smooth and flowing, never jerky or bouncing around.

           

You can teach the eyes to move smoothly by tracing objects. The eyes don’t have to look from one item to the next in jerky movements. Try tracing around the edges of objects.  Look out the window allowing your eyes to outline cars, buildings, trees, and bushes. After a few times, the objects should start to get clearer and the color brighter. You can trace just about anything, couches, chairs, and the television. Do this exercise at least once a day to train the eyes to really look at things and not just stare.

Relaxing All the Way Down

Relaxation is important for overall health. It reduces stress and helps the body calm down and sleep more soundly. Relaxation relieves unwanted tension and gives an overall good feeling. Relaxation also helps the eyes see more clearly and focus better.

           

The hardest part of relaxing is silencing the mind. Thoughts move at a rapid pace and as the ‘to do’ list grows so do the racing thoughts. Shutting down the mind is the tricky part of total relaxation, but it is possible. The key is to move all that energy stuck in the head down through the entire body and out the feet. May sound like hocus pocus, but it actually works through a process known as ‘exhaling through the feet’.

           

Here’s how it works. Lie on your back in a dark room, works great just before bed. Imagine your breath moving from your lungs down through the entire body. As you exhale, picture the air moving down toward your toes. Picture your breath passing through every organ, heart, liver, kidneys, and continuing down the thighs, calves, ankles, and toes. Exhale completely, until all the air is out of your lungs and the next breath naturally comes. Inhale naturally, don’t force anything, and let your body do its own work. Once the lungs are full once again, start the process again of picturing the air moving through the body.

           

Repeat the process as many times a possible until you fall into a deep sleep. The next morning you will feel relaxed and refreshed ready to face the day. A great night’s sleep is important to reduce stress and strain and start the day out right. Staying up late and waking up early, leaves us feeling groggy and lacking sleep. This can leave us ‘off’ for the remainder of the day. We are not as productive and the eyes are straining through the day. Plenty of rest, but not too much, starts the day out right and in a positive mind frame. We will feel more productive and happy to get work done.

           

Learning to relax is an important habit to pick up. Once you learn good relaxation techniques, getting to sleep will come more naturally. Your body and eyes will thank you.

Sharp Your Eyesight - Focus on the Center

Eyesight is perfect when you see things dead on most clearly.  This is called Center Fixation and means whatever you see in the center of your vision is what you see the best. Perfect eyesight works when you look at things straight on and don’t have to move your head or eyes to the side to focus.

           

When your vision is off, you actually look at the side of an object to see it clearly. Test this theory and see where you currently stand. Find a piece of paper with small print on it. Look at the words straight on and then turn your head to the side until you can read the print. Move your head one way and then the other until you find the best position for reading the print perfectly. Are you straight on or to the side?

           

The retina is located in the center of the eye and is full of small light sensing rods. This area is called the fovea centralis and is the area of the eye created to have the best line of vision. If you are tilting your head to the side to see properly, the fovea centralis is not working correctly.  The fovea centralis may actually even be turned off. As a defense against outside dangers or stress, this area can shut down to protect itself. If it is turned off, your vision will not be as perfect as it can be.

           

Vision can be affected by our feelings and emotion. Center fixation can be off because of negative feelings inside our minds. Negative memories, experiences, or people can force our eyes to turn away and avoid head on contact. A lot of vision problems are ‘all in our heads’. Learning to deal with tough situations in a relaxed way can be difficult, but it’s necessary for good vision. Every situation should be looked at and dealt with head on, not with a turned away from.

           

Simply learning how the eyes work can help us to use them properly. Training the eyes to focus on things straight on will help avoid strain and keep them relaxed.

Are Your Glasses Actually Hurting Your Eyes?

Almost half the population in America wears some sort of artificial lens, glasses or contact lenses. Artificial lenses may help improve your vision, but it is just a temporary fix. Glasses and lenses can never fix your eye problems. Artificial lenses can help you see things more clearly, but they are mainly for the symptoms of eye problems and do not cure the actual ailment.

The main problem with artificial lenses is they teach you bad habits and allow your eyes to work incorrectly. You quickly become dependent on the lenses and keep your eyes from healing themselves. If you can teach your eyes to be more relaxed, the need for glasses and lenses would go away completely.

The main cause of most eye ailments is mental stress and strain on the eyes. The key is to learn how to avoid strain in the first place. That is not always possible, so learning new habits to deal with strain is the next step.

One of the largest problems with artificial lenses is finding the perfect prescription. Your eyes are constantly changing. Many things play a factor in how well you can see. Weather, health, mood, distractions, and outside stressors all play a part in your vision. When it’s sunny and bright out our moods are usually better and so is our eyesight. For a doctor to find the perfect prescription is impossible. You may go to the doctor when you are in a bad mood and its dark and rainy out. Your prescription will reflect this making them not work at all when you are happy and it’s bright out.

Try going without your glasses for a few weeks and see what happens. You may be surprised at the results. Of course at first things may be blurry, but once your eyes start to adjust to a life without artificial lenses things will become clearer. The trick is to make sure you are free of too much mental strain. Try some relaxation techniques and rest your eyes when things start to get out of focus.

Wearing artificial lenses can make our eyes lazy and teach us many bad habits. Concentrate on fixing the problem of mental strain and don’t just cover up the problem.