16. Learning Better Eye Movements

Your eyes will give you the kind of vision you demand of them—no more and no less. It is not enough to prac­tice exercises for a few minutes a day and then revert to bad eye movements habit for the rest of the time. You must make proper seeing habits an intrinsic part of everything you do, and as the habits become routine and subconscious you will reap the reward in improved vision, in re­laxed tension, in increased clarity of mental function­ing and control.

After all, since you use your eyes all the time it is obviously important to use them right all the time. Except when our eyes cause us trouble, we are apt to be unaware of them or of the way in which we use them. Here are some ways of incorporating your new seeing habits in your daily activities.

1. Riding on subway, train or bus.

Look around you on any vehicle and you will observe the faces of the other passengers. They are staring vacantly around them, their expression is blank with boredom; or they are fidgeting because they are late, tense because they are attempting to crowd past some­one else; frowning because they are carrying their worries along with them or peering at signs whose fine print they find it difficult to decipher.

Has it occurred to you that you are giving the same impression of tension and in so doing that you are creating conditions of strain which affect your vision?

Sit back comfortably with your spine straight and your head erect. Don't stare or let your eyes glaze as you keep them fixed on the landscape. Shift your eyes easily from the windows on your side to those on the other. Let the landscape slide toward you as effortlessly as the scene on a motion-picture screen. Let your vision shift from near to far distance as though you were doing the Long Swing.

Nature has provided the finest and most natural rest for the eyes in the form of eyelids. Close your eyes lightly, shutting out the glare, and do some mental drills, visualizing as vividly as you can. To prevent staring, summon up pictures that have movement in them so that the eyes will start eye movements behind the closed lids.

For instance, as the train or bus moves along, imagine that you are passing a fence with smooth, sharply pointed pickets. See the fence. Paint each picket carefully with white paint. Then slowly dip your mental paintbrush into black ink and on the first picket paint a clear black A, a B on the second, a C on the third, and so forth. Stand back to admire your handiwork, seeing clearly each black letter on its white picket.

Open your eyes and hunt for a black letter on a white background in one of the billboards that usually adorn trains and buses, or on a passing sign outside the window. Compare the printed A with the one you have painted and look from one to the other.

2. Driving a car.

Nearly everyone who suffers from eyestrain is con­scious of pain in the back of the neck while driving, of headache and blurred vision, of becoming jumpy and tired—sometimes even nauseated—from a long trip. For such people the glare of headlights in night driv­ing is a nightmare.

Most, if not all, of this discomfort can be avoided by following a few simple rules :

1. Instead of staring at the road ahead—that be­ mused gaze which is typical of most drivers—practice shifting the gaze from the instrument board to some distant object and back again, blinking frequently as you do so. This exercise encourages rapid accommoda­tion, prevents staring, and relieves tension.

Sit erect with your head up and your eyes looking forward. That is, don't sink your head on your chest and peer upward or look from the side of the eyes. Keep your neck relaxed. It is always a mistake to drive for long distances without changing position. Stop the car, straighten up, pull your neck up high and move your head from side to side, taking deep breaths.

3. Glance at some distant object—a tree, house, or boulder—and watch it come toward you swiftly.
   
   
4. In night driving, keep in mind your exercises in sunning—whether you use actual sunlight or a powerful light bulb. Remember that you swing the head easily from side to side, looking through rather than at the light. Do the same thing at night when cars sweep toward you with glaring headlights. The moving eyes prevent you from being blinded by the glare. Look below the lights or to one side rather than directly at them.
   
   
5. Night seeing, as we have pointed out earlier in this book, is done with the peripheral retinal nerves, which play a large part in protecting you on the high­ way. It is from the side, for instance, that you are aware of passing traffic, even when you are not actually looking at it. As a matter of fact, without the use of these peripheral nerves your sight would be greatly circumscribed.

Test this for yourself by rolling sheets of paper into long, narrow tubes. Hold one to each eye. You are cutting off all vision to the side and can see only directly forward. This will reveal the extent of the assistance which the peripheral nerves give you in traffic.
  
3. Taking a walk.

In walking, create the illusion that the world about you is in movement rather than static and you will be relieved of any tendency to stare. As you progress down the street, imagine that the sidewalk, road, trees and hedges are coming toward you. This illusion of mobility in the objects around you will release tension and you will find very shortly that you are able to dis­tinguish signs more clearly and see more vividly.

4. In your home.

Whether you are in your home or your office or your workshop, remember to limber up your eyes at fre­quent intervals.

Stand at the window and look at a distant object— the top of a tower or a chimney or a tree. Then glance at the face of your wristwatch. Shift your eyes back and forth from far object to near one. Don't look hard at the distant object, trying to make out the details. Give it quick, easy glances. When you look at your watch, however, focus on a single number on the dial in order to encourage central fixation. Repeat from ten to twelve times.

If you do this at frequent intervals during the day you will discover that you see better when you return to work and that you can work for longer periods of time without eyestrain or fatigue.

5. Looking at people.

There is nothing so annoying as to have someone stare at you. At once you become uncomfortable and self-conscious, wondering what is wrong with you, and you feel a vague antagonism toward the person who is doing the staring.

The person with defective eyes has a tendency to stare at people in an attempt to see faces distinctly. Do not fix your... [Chapter Incomplete]

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