How effort hampers improvement

[andrewc]

This was posted by me on another forum recently, discussing with a new member how to approach Bates practice. The person was expressing how hard they were working on everything, and worried that it was so complex they were not on the right track. Just wanted to share it for those here.

[me]
"You're really going about this the wrong way; hard work is for the birds, Bates is very simple, people just make it complex and laborious. Don't ask yourself what do I need to do more of. Instead, you should be asking yourself what do I need to do LESS OF? When you discover that, you will find what brings relief to your poor sight and visual imagination. Time is also not really a variable in the equation either, those with the highest levels can relieve it 'as quick as a thought' as Bates witnessed countless times. It's only a factor inasmuch as it takes to develop the mental awareness of what you're doing wrong, and then the mental discipline to make it stick. And that varies with every individual. Ignore the timetable of anyone else, and walk towards your own path of relief. Otherwise you will just make yourself more anxious, and make the whole process the opposite of what it is meant to be, by infusing more effort and strain into it. "

The person thought the techniques were to 'trick' the mind and eyes into relaxation...

[me]
"I would not call it 'tricking' your mind and eyes, although learning to do some of the techniques can be 'tricky,' in the sense that it's largely counter-intuitive. Yes, you have to intervene and take some action, and those actions (or techniques) are an indirect way to achieve some influence over what is mostly an unconscious effort and strain. We don't have direct access to it, but by providing the right conditions that promote release of abnormal tension (overacting muscles), we can indirectly improve vision, which is directly tied to those overacting muscles. Astigmatism, is just more of the same overacting muscle action, but innervated more asymmetrically. Exercises will not achieve much in helping them to stop overacting, they need to contract less. This is a good magazine regarding astigmatism, and shows how variable it can be from individual to individual:

http://www.central-fixation.com/better-e...930-01.php

The real trick is to learn how to do the techniques without effort, without trying to directly influence vision. Even the slightest amount can prevent it from being effective. So how you approach what you actually 'do,' can make a big difference in what you are able to achieve."

The theme is, it takes no effort to let go, and even things as simple as palming and closing the eyes, or remembering or imagining something can be difficult if we try to make an effort. When we can do these things with the least amount of effort, the greatest amount of benefit will result. Of course everyone is going to make some kind of effort in the beginning, but with practice, and developing awareness and getting feedback from a chart or other objects, we can chisel away at it, and the techniques become more and more effective.

[ClarkNight]

(07-02-2014 06:36 AM)andrewc Wrote:  This was posted by me on another forum recently, discussing with a new member how to approach Bates practice. The person was expressing how hard they were working on everything, and worried that it was so complex they were not on the right track. Just wanted to share it for those here.

[me]
"You're really going about this the wrong way; hard work is for the birds, Bates is very simple, people just make it complex and laborious. Don't ask yourself what do I need to do more of. Instead, you should be asking yourself what do I need to do LESS OF? When you discover that, you will find what brings relief to your poor sight and visual imagination. Time is also not really a variable in the equation either, those with the highest levels can relieve it 'as quick as a thought' as Bates witnessed countless times. It's only a factor inasmuch as it takes to develop the mental awareness of what you're doing wrong, and then the mental discipline to make it stick. And that varies with every individual. Ignore the timetable of anyone else, and walk towards your own path of relief. Otherwise you will just make yourself more anxious, and make the whole process the opposite of what it is meant to be, by infusing more effort and strain into it. "

The person thought the techniques were to 'trick' the mind and eyes into relaxation...

[me]
"I would not call it 'tricking' your mind and eyes, although learning to do some of the techniques can be 'tricky,' in the sense that it's largely counter-intuitive. Yes, you have to intervene and take some action, and those actions (or techniques) are an indirect way to achieve some influence over what is mostly an unconscious effort and strain. We don't have direct access to it, but by providing the right conditions that promote release of abnormal tension (overacting muscles), we can indirectly improve vision, which is directly tied to those overacting muscles. Astigmatism, is just more of the same overacting muscle action, but innervated more asymmetrically. Exercises will not achieve much in helping them to stop overacting, they need to contract less. This is a good magazine regarding astigmatism, and shows how variable it can be from individual to individual:

http://www.central-fixation.com/better-e...930-01.php

The real trick is to learn how to do the techniques without effort, without trying to directly influence vision. Even the slightest amount can prevent it from being effective. So how you approach what you actually 'do,' can make a big difference in what you are able to achieve."

The theme is, it takes no effort to let go, and even things as simple as palming and closing the eyes, or remembering or imagining something can be difficult if we try to make an effort. When we can do these things with the least amount of effort, the greatest amount of benefit will result. Of course everyone is going to make some kind of effort in the beginning, but with practice, and developing awareness and getting feedback from a chart or other objects, we can chisel away at it, and the techniques become more and more effective.

I saw your article on IB, liked it mucho, copied it for myself and linked here on the astigmatism thread to the Bates article you posted. I didn't paste your post as I did not want to seem like I was stealing it from the other forum.

Thanks for sharing Andrewc!

Everyone; feel free to link to any other website, forum, group which discusses a condition we are working on here. There's years of posts containing the true Bates Method, healthy and effective training by andrewc and others on these forums, groups.

[andrewc]

(07-02-2014 07:21 AM)ClarkNight Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 06:36 AM)andrewc Wrote:  This was posted by me on another forum recently, discussing with a new member how to approach Bates practice. The person was expressing how hard they were working on everything, and worried that it was so complex they were not on the right track. Just wanted to share it for those here.

[me]
"You're really going about this the wrong way; hard work is for the birds, Bates is very simple, people just make it complex and laborious. Don't ask yourself what do I need to do more of. Instead, you should be asking yourself what do I need to do LESS OF? When you discover that, you will find what brings relief to your poor sight and visual imagination. Time is also not really a variable in the equation either, those with the highest levels can relieve it 'as quick as a thought' as Bates witnessed countless times. It's only a factor inasmuch as it takes to develop the mental awareness of what you're doing wrong, and then the mental discipline to make it stick. And that varies with every individual. Ignore the timetable of anyone else, and walk towards your own path of relief. Otherwise you will just make yourself more anxious, and make the whole process the opposite of what it is meant to be, by infusing more effort and strain into it. "

The person thought the techniques were to 'trick' the mind and eyes into relaxation...

[me]
"I would not call it 'tricking' your mind and eyes, although learning to do some of the techniques can be 'tricky,' in the sense that it's largely counter-intuitive. Yes, you have to intervene and take some action, and those actions (or techniques) are an indirect way to achieve some influence over what is mostly an unconscious effort and strain. We don't have direct access to it, but by providing the right conditions that promote release of abnormal tension (overacting muscles), we can indirectly improve vision, which is directly tied to those overacting muscles. Astigmatism, is just more of the same overacting muscle action, but innervated more asymmetrically. Exercises will not achieve much in helping them to stop overacting, they need to contract less. This is a good magazine regarding astigmatism, and shows how variable it can be from individual to individual:

http://www.central-fixation.com/better-e...930-01.php

The real trick is to learn how to do the techniques without effort, without trying to directly influence vision. Even the slightest amount can prevent it from being effective. So how you approach what you actually 'do,' can make a big difference in what you are able to achieve."

The theme is, it takes no effort to let go, and even things as simple as palming and closing the eyes, or remembering or imagining something can be difficult if we try to make an effort. When we can do these things with the least amount of effort, the greatest amount of benefit will result. Of course everyone is going to make some kind of effort in the beginning, but with practice, and developing awareness and getting feedback from a chart or other objects, we can chisel away at it, and the techniques become more and more effective.

I saw your article on IB, liked it mucho, copied it for myself and linked here on the astigmatism thread to the Bates article you posted. I didn't paste your post as I did not want to seem like I was stealing it from the other forum.

Thanks for sharing Andrewc!

Everyone; feel free to link to any other website, forum, group which discusses a condition we are working on here.

There's years of posts containing the true Bates Method, healthy and effective training by andrewc and others on these forums, groups.

Thanks, I wouldn't want anyone copying my posts without my permission, and I wouldn't copy anyone else's without their explicit permission, out of respect; that's why I just briefly summarized the other poster's question/concern.

[ClarkNight]

Agree.

I save your posts and some of the other experienced people on different forums in a little booklet for my private use. I scale it down with my printer into fine print 4-6 per page and read in Boston on the common or Revere beach; sunlight!

[ClarkNight]

After a neck injury (caused by a chiropractor in 2009) I had to switch computer mouse hands;

Injury on lower right > C-6 vertebrae bottom of neck out alignment sticking out to right and shoulder area, other spine vertebrae out alignment.

When I used the mouse with the right > hand for long time; I got vertigo, lot weird muscle problems along right neck, arm and leg. When move right arm, leg especially when lay down I feel the nerve, muscles pulling, stuck feeling all along right side body and head and then with it, the vertigo.

(Not much at all now as the injury has healed a lot over 3+ years with good doctors help.)

So I switched to the left hand for using the mouse. This aggravated the left < side injuries; C-1 and 2 vertebrae out alignment.
(Lot nerves from spine in that area of the spinal cord, brain stem go to the eye muscles. Blood vessels to brain...)
This aggravated the vision, eye problem that the neck, spine injuries caused, it greatly increased the imbalance of the left < eyes movement and increased astigmatism in both eyes.

The astigmatism and wandering left eye was the scariest; the scenery would be double for a few seconds from the wandering eye when looking to the far and the astigmatism made the sidewalk, roads, trees... move like jump left <, right > up ^, down... when my eyes, head moved. So uncomfortable.

In time with physical therapy and staying with the Bates method this eye-vision problem healed.
To this day my left eyes vision will go down if I do a lot of Photoshop on the computer, few days with left mouse and heavy lifting causes more tension. Eyesight returns to clear usually on it's own in a hour off computer. If not; I do some extra Bates practices if needed to ensure the clarity remains, prevent blur.

Reading fine print helps a lot. I notice that after the injury I must read it more often to keep that clear close vision.

So; the neck, muscles, posture definitely affect the vision, can cause astigmatism and other conditions.
My posture was wrong for a long time after the injury. Was helped alot by the honest medical doctors who corrected all the injuries, misalignments the chiropractors caused.

(Eye vision problems increased in pollen, sinus congestion time of year. Congestion presses on the eyes. Many people are diagnosed with astigmatism, blur in spring time and its only pollen, sinus. It heals if you avoid glasses. Use a salt water flush nasal-sinus flush and humidifier with pure filtered, boiled to kill germs, then cooled water, with little pure sea salt.)

[andrewc]

(07-02-2014 08:07 AM)ClarkNight Wrote:  Agree.

I save your posts and some of the other experienced people on different forums in a little booklet for my private use. I scale it down with my printer into fine print 4-6 per page and read in Boston on the common or Revere beach; sunlight!

Saving for personal use - no problem, I used to do that too, with some of the older folks like Parsons, Tom1 on Bates forum... one never stops learning from others -

[ClarkNight]

(07-03-2014 07:21 AM)andrewc Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 08:07 AM)ClarkNight Wrote:  Agree.

I save your posts and some of the other experienced people on different forums in a little booklet for my private use. I scale it down with my printer into fine print 4-6 per page and read in Boston on the common or Revere beach; sunlight!

Saving for personal use - no problem, I used to do that too, with some of the older folks like Parsons, Tom1 on Bates forum... one never stops learning from others -

Andrewc;

If you have time someday, do you remember posting about a thing Parsons taught you;

It was about the pulsing 'natural vibration of the eye' that he taught you to see when you look at something. I think you told me you tried to look for it one day as he instructed and you saw it. Maybe when looking at the cornea of a roof? A continual movement reflecting the, caused by the vibration, natural tremor of the eye.