TL;DR: thanks to my practice, my vision is the best amongst my sisters; thinking about practicing a dial chart for astigmatism, what do folks think on that?
I haven’t posted in over a month. It’s just not fun to post anymore. I do go on the internet, I have winter break now so I have been keeping up with my Snellen card practice–but posting is sort of a nuisance.
My father was really surprised when I told him about Zenni optical, he ordered some glasses for my sisters off of there. He was happy that they were so cheap.
Both of them needed to pay $9 extra because of the extra strength. One of my sisters has something like -8.25/-8.75, so that’s extra. My other sister has milder myopia than me (-4.00/-5.00?) but has -2.25 astigmatism in one eye (I can’t remember their prescriptions exactly).
I could be like them, but I’m the only one whose prescription is regular strength. My father is confused, “how can anybody get to -9? At -3 or -4 people say you’re blind!”, yet he says needing glasses isn’t a disease. By definition it is…you’re not at ease (relaxed, or even really happy).
I wish I could convince them, but I feel that even if I returned to perfect sight, they still wouldn’t listen to me.
I’m not in perfect health, of course, I suffer a lot from strain and stress that I have been easing into removing by practicing my Snellen chart, palming and running. I can get so dizzy sometimes and my neck is just a killer, plus I have been having trouble with tinnitus.
The only way I really know to remove this is to do my eye stuff, by relaxing I can remove the pain. Running, as exercise, is a stress reliever as well. I wish I had some more potent tools at my side. Well, not that the tools I have aren’t potent, I just don’t know how to use them well enough to make them potent. That’s what I have been learning to do.
I work on the Snellen chart indoors a lot nowadays. It’s not too cold, but sitting outside for a long time is a lot easier when it’s warm.
So I sit in my bedroom, I’m about 7-8 feet away. I can get about 7/30 if it’s daytime, it’s more like 7/50 at night using incandescent light bulbs. What I focus on doing, however, is to keep moving back up to the 200 line (giant E). I tell myself that the important thing is to make sure that I can see the E. Since the chart isn’t a monotonically increasing ability, I can’t always see 7/50, 7/30 or even 7/200. I have to move back up, remind myself of what I’m doing, close my eyes, to clear that E again. The reasons for this is I don’t want to strain myself by forcing onto lower lines (it’s a tool, remember?), and also if I can do this consistently I may be able to see the giant E clearly at the doctor’s office. That’s the 20/400 line, there. Last time I went I ended up on the finger test because I couldn’t clearly see the E. So that would be a giant step up for me.
Also I looked at a dial chart the other day. The lines seemed about equal except for the 90° line (straight vertical). My astigmatism is minor -0.50×170 for right eye -0.75×175 for left eye at last checkup. Of course the treatment is the same as for myopia–relax, do your chart, swing. There are also stereoscopic vision cards, which I’m afraid of. I’m thinking about eliminating the astigmatism because that would help my overall vision and is a little less scary than thinking of overcoming my whole myopia (gotta break it down into smaller goals).
I’m thinking about practicing a dial chart, or a dot chart. It’d be a break from the regular Snellen and interest my brain in a new way. If anyone knows more about this, please let me know!
4 Comments
Hi Helena!
If you have pain in your neck, I really recommend you to do 20-30 long swings and to strech yourself just before sleeping and when you wake up. It really helps. I don’t know if the effect is caused by the mechanical loosening of the neck or by the relaxation of the visual system, but it is always a great help during the day to pratice in the morning. If you say that you don’t have the time, you just have to wake up 5 minutes sooner and because you will be more relaxed during the day, you will have much more energy and you will have less fatigue.
Also, because it’s much easier to relax during the christmas break than during the school, it’s a good time to pratice!
Have a nice day of improvements!
-Alexandre
Hi Alexandre,
It often seems like stretches help very minimally (and only for a few days). I have to constantly try new things to help. I definitely have time for stretches, even at my busiest, because I can take a small break during the day. But switching up things is rather difficult.
Do you (or anyone) have any ideas for effective stretches, especially that which would work deep muscles (levator scapulae or rhomboideus minor/major)?
Helena,
Hi. One of my sisters gave me a book on jin shin jyutsu for Christmas which I haven’t started to read yet. Did you mention this before? I’m wondering if it would be helpful with your neck pain. The tinnitus may also be related to neck tension. Rubbing the trigger points mentioned in this link I got from iblindness have helped me with my own neck tension a lot. http://www.round-earth.com/HeadPainIntro.html
About your father & sisters, I’ve pretty much given up on trying to convince anyone in my family of the benefits of NVI. It’s a waste of energy; I know it works for me and that’s enough.
All the vision teachers say astigmatism is easier to eliminate than myopia. Keep doing the Tibetan Wheel or dial chart, easy eye stretches in all directions paying extra attention to any area of soreness, and of course keep focusing on relaxation in general. If you get another pair of glasses and could eliminate the cylinder correction that would probably help. Of course going without glasses at all when you can is always good.
Like any other healthy practice, this has to be a way of life, not a one-time “fix”. Do the chart or whatever your other vision practices are on a regular basis and keep noticing what improves, celebrating it — I am so happy when I can see something I couldn’t see before! Also, I’m glad you’ve got the running, since this has helped me a lot, both in letting go of tension and in looking far in the distance. Keep up the good work!
Nancy
Thanks Nancy.
That’s very interesting, why is astigmatism easier to eliminate than myopia? My glasses don’t have astigmatism correction at all, like I said, it is mild enough.
I found a good Tibetan wheel to practice on, it feels like I’m engaging my brain in a new way, sort of.
I have never heard of jin shin jyutsu before, so I don’t know where you could have heard of it before.
Of course things have to be a way of life, but at the same time you don’t want your brain to go on autopilot. So I feel like I am looking for the correct balance of how often one can do something, how much one must mix it up. But if I do something multiple times and don’t realize any worth in it (and can’t even see where such worth would come in), then I feel as though I must shelve it for awhile, at least until I’ve grown into it to understand it.