Your eyes can’t do it alone. They need each other, they need the brain and they need YOU. You control your mind which is the gatekeeper of all other activity of your body, seeing included. In this part of the program, let’s assess your relationship with your eyes and make a shift to set you up for success. If you have gone through this exercise before, do it again. You may be surprised by what transpires. Use the pages in your Vision Journal alongside the instructions of this section.
DESCRIBE YOUR EYES
If you were asked to describe your eyes, what would you say?
Open your journal and write down a description of your eyes. Think of your left eye and write your thoughts down just as you were thinking them. Then do the same for your right eye. You do not have to repeat the detailed findings from your eyesight discovery. Instead, use general words, your feelings towards your eyes.
When you are finished, read it to yourself.
Chances are that words like a bad eye, weak eye, the eye that cannot see, etc. are now coming out of your mouth.
If you were your eyes, would you like it? Would you like to be friends with a person who thinks of you that way?
HERE IS THE THING …
THERE ARE NO WEAK AND STRONG EYES
The clarity with which we see is influenced by several factors. Among those factors is the health of the extraocular muscles that are responsible for the movement of the eye, as well as the eye’s shape. Depending on your condition it may be the most critical factor of them all.
While these muscles are relatively small compared to other skeletal muscles in the body, they are incredibly precise and work together to ensure coordinated eye movements. The strength of these muscles is deemed to be such that each of the muscles can hold a bucket of water. Weakness by definition is the state or condition of lacking strength. Given it does not take much force to move the eyeball, it is unlikely that either of your eyes is weak.
THERE ARE NO GOOD AND BAD EYES
Even if you think of weakness as a disadvantage, or fault, it is hardly your eyes who are at the root cause of your compromised vision. More likely it is you and your habits, the lack of care and maintenance. When you get a tooth ache, do you blame the tooth or do you blame yourself for not flossing regularly? You get the point.
ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THE STATE OF YOUR VISION
You do not have to like the current state of your eyesight, but simply knowing what it is a step forward. Consciously acknowledging your eyesight’s status quo gives a signal to the brain that there may be a need for adjustments. Given up to 90% of all seeing is in fact happening in the brain, this alone may be a pretty good first step.
Additionally, if you know how you got there, accept it too, and forgive yourself for not taking steps towards protecting your vision sooner.
In just a few months, that is if you stay the course, this will be a distant past. So promise yourself that you will not let your thoughts come back here. Acknowledging does not mean to dwell on it, so let’s move on.
GIVE YOUR EYES A NAME
This is not a silly game, this is serious business. For some, it is a major revelation. Naming your eyes immediately changes your eyes from being a random organ to something that really matters. It shifts your relationship from indifference to care, from you vs. them to you and them, from adversity to partnership.
Sit somewhere comfortable, close your eyes and think of them. Think of your left eye first and give it a name, one that evokes the deepest love, compassion and kindness in you. You can name it by your favorite friend, your child, your pet or even your favorite activity. Now do the same for your right eye.
From now on, never call your eyes the “weak eye” or the “strong eye”. Talk and think about them (at least to yourself) as your best friends that you would never let down and who would do anything in their power to help you.
While it doesn’t sound like much, this little step may significantly speed up your progress. Afterall, three can achieve more than one and, as mentioned in the introduction, you really cannot do this alone.
CHANGE YOUR VOCABULARY (aka WATCH YOUR MOUTH)
The success of our actions is often driven by how well we know what we want them to deliver. So give your vision journey a destination. Imagine your future eyesight, dream up the vision you want to have. What does it look like? What do you look like? What do you do or not do when you have the eyesight of your dreams? Have new life opportunities arisen from the pure fact that your eyesight is no longer limited?
What would your newly be-friended eyes think of it? Would they be on board?
Close your eyes and see it. Then feel the excitement of it all.
Think of this vision often, perhaps make it part of your practice routine.