About 11 years ago, I met Louis’ father, Tommy, who very quickly changed my life in more ways than one! He wears glasses all the time for a myopic condition that makes it hard for him to see in the distance. It did not take long for him to point out that I was asking him often, to read a sign or point out some detail in the distance. It was beginning to annoy him. One evening we were at the movies and he suggested that I put on his glasses. To my absolute amazement and horror I realized that I too had a myopic condition. The next day I rushed off to the optometrist who prescribed a pair of glasses that I was supposed to wear to see better in the distance. As most of us know, once you start wearing glasses, you can’t stop as your eyes stop trying.

Well, my resistance to becoming totally dependant on glasses and my pursuit of an alternative has led me to share with you the following information.

20:20 vision is an arbitrary number for perfect vision. In fact our craniums do not really want to see so clearly and our eyes do not need to. After a few months of dizziness and headaches I discovered a behavioral optometrist who explained that my prescription was too strong and that with certain exercises and a weaker prescription I could actually improve my eyesight.

A new prescription and diligent exercise has removed my astigmatism and reduced my myopia. Today I have 2 pairs of glasses, one for reading and one for distance. Neither creates “perfect 20:20 vision” and both together actually work to assist my eyes to see in a relaxed fashion. Consequently, my eyesight is improving monthly.

Here are some of the exercises I was taught that are easy to do and will strengthen your eyes and help prevent deterioration.

  1. Place the palms of your hands against the orbits of your eye [the palms shouldn't touch the eyeball, only the bony area around it]. Apply enough pressure so that you have total darkness in both eyes. Keep your eyes closed and covered. Look up as far as you can. Now look straight ahead. Then look as far as you can to the right and go back to the center. Now look straight down as far as you can and back to the center. Now go all the way to the left and back to the center.

  2. Hold a pencil straight out in front of you at arm's length. Focus both eyes on the tip of the pencil. Slowly bring the pencil in toward your face, keeping your eyes focused on the tip until it touches your nose. Now slowly move the pencil back to arm's length, still focusing on the tip. Try to keep the tip in focus at all times. As your eye muscles become stronger, this exercise will get easier.

  3. Hold a pencil at arm's length and look straight ahead at all times. Do not move your head during this exercise. Slowly move the pencil upward until you can no longer see the point with your peripheral vision. Now move it slowly back down to center--keep focusing--and all the way to the right until you can no longer see the point, and back to the center. Then go all the way down until you no longer see the point, bring it back up to the center and do the same thing going to the left and back to the center.