Hi again,
Chris, do you think blinking/opening the eyelids contribute in any way to controlling focus or is "eyelid work" just an unnecessary crutch?
I think opening the eyelids and blinking
contributes to active focus or controlling the ciliary but is
not active focus and should
not be confused with it because you're not really using the ciliary muscle, but the eyelids. In my opinion, an easier way for a myope to discover active focus is if you just look at a far object with one eye and put one finger close to that eye. After seeing at far look back to your finger and it may not be in focus so you kind of have to use the ciliary muscle to bring it into focus. This way is kind of easy to discover because myopes can see fine at short distances. If you don't understand what I mean dismiss what I said, but if you understand it then you should test it and see for yourself (no pun intended).
ould you guys please describe for the forum exactly how you attain increased focusing range step by step (e.g. 1,2,3..) and what your strategy is for carrying the effect over to daily life?
There's more to this than I can share in a post but here's a brief explanation of key steps that have helped me:
1. I made sure I perceived the difference between blur and double image (something I learned from the Frauenfeld method)
2. If what I see is blur then I just back up from the image in the screen, while wearing a plus, and when I detect a reasonable amount of blur I stare at the screen and wait till it clears.
3. For step number two, I do it for at least an hour before taking a break because I thinks that a good amount of time for results.
4. After using the plus (as of right now a +2) with active focus for 3 hours a day (divided into three 1 hour sessions or two 1 and half hour sessions) I either wear a +1 without active focus and taking breaks every 20 minutes or don't wear the plus and just stay as far as I can from my screen.
5. Now, I learned from Dr. Alex that if what I see doesn't seem like blur but more like a slight double image then the image's clearness has nothing to do with active focus but more with the brain (or the 'psychological' part of vision)
6. Double images have to be 'resolved' in the brain so I just have to look for a large text (about 18 points) and stare at it without blinking (but without straining) as long as I can until it resolves.
7. Slowly the double image starts to resolve and I try to keep it like that.
8. It's kind of similar to what Sam's dad did when starring at the Snellen, waiting for it to clear and then "holding" the clear image as long as he could.
Blur and double image comparison has even been mentioned by Todd, in his article, when he mentions looking at sharp edges or lines and focus on the clearer image from the double images once vision has improved.
I learned a lot of things from Todd, in the book of David de Angeles, and in Alex Frauenfeld's website but I had so much theory and not much practice so here's my key to success (that I've just barely started applying):
Whatever you do, if you do it persistently and consistently will bring change so focus more on doing little things that you can apply each day instead doing a lot of things just occasionallyI was doing so many things at the same time and tried to gather as much information as I could about vision improvement that it was hard for me to stick to a method and thus I gave up faster. Now, I do a few things but I do them consistently so I've seen much improvement. It's more about habits than about exercises, because it's about keeping our good vision not only about improving it everyday.
Tl;dr?
HABITS ARE KEY - EXERCISES ARE JUST A TOOL.