The face is the index of the mind, and the eyes are the windows of the soul, and "the fastest way to bring the mind into concentration is through the eyes", Swami Sitaramananda said.
Anyone who practices yoga will
have experienced how releasing stress and increasing flexibility benefits
the body’s health. However, a part of the body that is often forgotten or
ignored is the eyes, and many people are unaware of what can be done to
improve vision.
The pioneer in natural vision
improvement was New York ophthalmologist William H Bates (1860-1931). In
the years he worked as an assistant surgeon at the New York Eye Infirmary, Dr. Bates examined thousands of eyes and discovered not only that eyesight
changes all the time, but contrary to the conventional belief, which
still prevails today, that it was the muscles around the eye that are
instrumental to focusing, rather than the lens inside the eye.
Although Dr. Bates’ ideas were
not accepted by the scientific community and he was expelled from the New
York Post-Graduate Medical Schoo,l where he taught ophthalmology, when he
taught medical students how to improve their near-sightedness, he
continued to develop his theory and also a method of vision training. In
1920, his book, Better Eyesight Without Glasses, was published, which is still in print today.
In the 1930s, Indian ophthalmologist, Dr. RS Agarwal, became interested in Dr. Bates’ work and
founded the School for Perfect Eyesight at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in
Pondicherry.
Leo Angart, the author of "Improve Your Eyesight Naturally," wore glasses for 25 years before restoring his
vision from -5.5 (severe myopia) to 20/20 vision in a period of only
three months. For the last twelve years, he has helped thousands of people
around the world improve their sight.
"The muscles in the
eye," Leo Angart says, "are used to focus, but the focusing is
due to intention. Your intention starts, and your eye follows. Vision is
90% in the mind."
Angart says that what is most
important is to believe that it is possible to have better eyesight and
also to understand that natural, clear vision is effortless. When Leo
Angart cured his own vision, he searched for a method that would give him
quick results. He believes that vision improvement is the combination of
four elements:
- Belief work – resolving any limiting beliefs related to what you, at one point in your life, did not want to see or because your beliefs must not be seen.
- Physical exercises – if you wear correcting lenses, your eye muscles do not get used as much as they normally would, so they must be regenerated by exercise.
- Energy work – pranic healing and acupuncture exercises can help remove eyestrain and give energy to the eyes.
- Visualization – imagery and memory are important parts of healthy vision.
Astigmatism:
To release the tension causing
astigmatism, use the Tibetan Wheel.
- Hold the Tibetan Wheel 3cm from your nose, with the tip of your nose at the white circle in the center. It does not matter if you can not see the chart clearly.
- Inhale and move your eyes up the left-hand side of the spoke at the top of the page until you reach the black ball at the top of it. Exhale and move your eyes down the right-hand side of the spoke. Inhale and move your eyes to the top of the needle-like spoke at one o’clock, and exhale as you move your eyes back to the center.
- Continue around the chart in a clockwise direction. Then close your eyes, rub your hands together, and cover your eyes with the palms of your hands for one minute (this is called palming).
- Repeat the Tibetan Wheel exercise in an anticlockwise direction and palm again.
Do this exercise four times a
day for at least two hours. The eye muscles should
regain their flexibility between a few days and a few weeks. Check your
progress using the Astigmatism Test Chart.
Myopia:
Take an object like a ball pen
with some clear print on it more than 2mm high.
- Cover the left eye with one hand.
- Holding the pen with the other hand, slowly move it away from you.
- Find the furthest point your right eye can see the print on the pen clearly.
- Slowly move the pen backward and forward past your point of clear vision. As you do so, your eyes attempt to focus on it, and this extends your vision.
- Repeat for the left eye.
- The movement is similar to the action of a trombone player, so it is called tromboning. The more tromboning is done, the better.
Energy Exercise
- Activate your hands by lightly touching the center of your palms and the tip of each finger, and finally, shake your hands.
- Close the four fingers of one hand to form an imaginary arrow. Close your eyes and imagine apple green energy flowing from the center of your palm down through your folded fingers to create a beam of green energy. Hold your hand so the fingertips are 10cm away from the Ajna Chakra, the third eye. Breathe in and out seven times as you imagine apple green energy flowing in an endless stream from your fingertips to the point between the eyebrows and filling your eyes with cleansing green energy. Green energy works like soap. Then energize by visualizing the Ajna Chakra with yellow energy for two breathing cycles. Yellow energy has a sticky effect that binds the loosened energy together, so it is easier to remove.
- Now imagine you are wearing a glove of transparent green or violet energy, which extends about 10cm from your fingertips. Use your extended energy fingers to scoop away tired and old stress from your eyes. Clean the eyes all the way to the back of the eyeball. This clears the tension and tiredness in the eyes.
- Next, focus your attention on the Ajna Chakra with violet energy for seven breathing cycles. This strengthens the eyes.
- Find the energy point at the back of the head at the same level as the eyes, and for seven breathing cycles, visualize white energy flowing from your fingertips through the head and into the eyeballs.
- Imagine your hand is a paint roller dipped in blue sky energy. With a couple of sweeps, paint a layer of blue around the energy you have projected into your eyes. Blue stabilizes the energy.
- Finally, rub your palms together until they are warm, and finish with about 30 seconds of palming. You may see colors when you do this, and it is the energy being absorbed into the system, but don’t be concerned if you do not see colors.
For maximum benefit, do this
exercise every two hours, because it restores energy to the eyes. Leo
Angart has had myopic participants who have improved their eyesight by as
much as 8 diopters just by doing this exercise.
Presbyopia:
- Look at a paragraph of text and move it away from your eyes until you can see it very clearly.
- Move the text a fraction closer, so it begins to blur. Then move the text back and forth like a trombone player. You will notice that your eyes begin to focus closer.
- Once you can read the paragraph clearly at 15cm from your eyes, find some smaller print and repeat the exercise.
- Then move the text from an arm’s length away to within 15cm of your eyes in order to develop the range.
- Finally, practice reading small print in different kinds of light.
This tromboning for reading
can be done frequently. It builds up flexibility in your muscles just
like when you do asanas.
If
you want to know more about these methods, please take a look at the Ph.D.
LMT. Meir Schneiderr's videos: Meir
Schneider - Yoga for Your Eyes (Part 1) and Meir
Schneider - Yoga for Your Eyes (Part 2)
Meir
Schneider is the founder of the School of Self-Healing located in San
Francisco, California. He used Bates's methods to help heal his own eyes.
Yours sincerely,
Ron
