There is so much involved in the ability to see clearly that when we break it down its quite amazing any of us can see at all. And it goes way beyond the physical shape of the eyeball. Let’s take a look at what elements are in the flow of clear eyesight.

First the eyes must be in reasonable physical condition, and this is affected by our overall health and wellbeing, as often the lens of the eye can be used as a dumping ground for toxins.

The eyes and brain need lots of energy to operate well, so the other organs and systems in the body should be in fairly good working order so as not to divert too much of the body’s resources. (In our last newsletter, we mentioned that we support this most vital of senses with ¼ of the body’s nutrition, and ⅓ of the body’s oxygen intake.)

Then there is the condition of the various parts of the eye. The lens must be able to flex, the muscles must be relaxed and mobile, the retinal cells to receive and respond to light, the optic nerve to transfer the information. All of this can be    worked with through the physical vision improvement activities.

Then we come to the most important component of eyesight of them all…the brain.

The physical ability to process the light information in the brain cells is just the start of the brain’s influences on visual acuity.  The brain also tells the eyes whether or not it’s OK to move, to flex, to take in and send along lots of information or only a little.

Even if everything else is working great, and lots of messages full of clear light information are coming along, the brain will decide what to do with it, whether to process it into a clear image or a blurry one, whether to fuse the images of the two eyes together into a fantastic 3-D panorama, or not to do this.

And what makes the brain decide these things?  Other factors may play a part at times but the most overwhelming effect comes from the fundamental cause of refractive error: emotional stress.

What else has such a profound effect as to cause a person with perfect eyesight to quite suddenly develop visual blur, even though there has been no damage or other alteration to the still structurally normal eyeball?

Yes, physical stresses such as excessive hours of study can play a role. But not everyone experiencing those physical stresses develops the same symptoms. (And not everyone experiencing emotional stresses develops the same symptoms, but may instead develop issues in other areas of the body.)

However, in every vision student I have worked with there have been identifiable and unresolved emotional stresses that correspond to our guidelines of which refractive errors correlate to which emotions, and to which eye the blur is in. And the primary of these stresses have generally occurred in the 6 to 12 months prior to the person first being diagnosed with myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism.

Additionally, students can get fantastic results doing the physical activities, but especially for those with high prescriptions, they often will reach a stage where the physical improvement will not progress further until some emotional work is done. Why is this the case?

Based on the principles I was trained in and my 16 years of teaching experience it is because these unresolved emotional stresses create physical tension in the body and visual system that preclude the flexibility and relaxation necessary for fast saccadic motion and good visual accommodation. But not just that.

The emotional set-up also incorporates the blur (and the glasses themselves) as a form of protection.  Until the emotional tensions are addressed, there is a physical, mental and emotional habit that says ‘It’s not OK to see’, and this is what the brain acts on.

This means that the student will also have blocks to changing the physical habits that create and retain tension and blur in the visual system. The simplest example of this is breathing. The eyes and brain need lots of oxygen to work well, yet many people tend to breathe shallowly, with tension and frequent unconscious breath-holding. This is a strongly identified habit in those with refractive error.

Our eyesight is like a finely tuned instrument, and our visual system is like a microcosm of our whole self. This sensitive array of processes functions in accordance with our physical wellbeing, mental clarity and emotional state. In order to change our eyesight we generally must also work with the underlying patterns in our brains about how we use our eyes.

Alwin den Biesen, a Personal Eyesight Training Kit student wrote to me yesterday that “It’s silly that we all our lives care about our body, except…..our eyes. We shower, clean our fingernails, do our hair, (and do exercise and massage and a plethora of other types of maintenance) but for our eyes we just clean our glasses.”

Until now perhaps……..?

Next Month:

The Many Layers of Us….I will discuss why we can’t change – and how to change that.

And in April:

Staying on a new path….We look at how to maintain our intended thinking and feeling habits.

Carina

P.S. After a 3 year break we will be again offering a rare opportunity to participate in LIVE seminars with Carina Goodrich this coming May 2012. 

Due to many requests from our valued customers and subscribers we will be offering both an International Telephone Class Series and a Weekend Seminar at Cooroy on the beautiful Sunshine Coast Hinterland (Queensland, Australia).  Stay tuned for further details.