The ‘Bates Method for Improving Eyesight was developed at the beginning of the 20th century and many today still practice it. Basically, the philosophy is that eye problems are due to stress and/or tension in the eye. Eye muscles become fixed on an object which causes eyestrain. Therefore it is thought that exercises can relax the muscles and improve the link between the brain and the optic nerve. Here is a brief description of four of Dr. Bates’ exercises for the eyes.
Palming — Sit comfortably in front of a table relaxing your eyes; rest your elbows on pillows high enough so as to bring your palms up to the level of your eyes. Closing your eyes, cover them with your palms to keep out light. Then breathe slowly and evenly. Practice this for about ten minutes two or three times daily.
Swinging – The objective here is to relax and keep your eyes moving. Stand and focus at a distant point, blinking your eyes as you sway from side to side. (The blinking cleans and lubricates your eyes). Repeat about 100 times a day.
Vision shifting — When you feel that you have been spending too much time at a computer monitor or TV, shift your vision to look at something on the wall or perhaps an object outside your window.
Sunning – No doubt you have heard doctors telling you that the sun damages your eyes. This is true, but the sun also has a very powerful healing effect on the eyes helping you get better vision. Therefore you do need to be careful when Sunning. Fully relax your eye muscles while you are outside or next to a window. Early during sunrise or late in the evening before sunset would be the best times to do this. If this is done in the middle of the day there is the potential of developing eye floaters which often leads to forming cataracts. If you can’t get some sun either outside or next to a window, you can use a lamp with a 150 watt bulb. Here’s what to do. Sit facing the light covering one eye then spin your head from side to side not focusing on any particular thing. This should be done for two minutes or less for each eye.
The Bates Method for Improving Eyesight probably has been around the longest; but there are several other programs based on the theory that eye exercises can enhance vision. To learn more about these, please see our articles on ‘Rebuild Your Vision’, ‘Program for Better Vision’ and the ’See Clearly Method’.
