Conclusion #32 – Improve Your Vision By Giving Up Glasses

It’s been about two months since I decided to stop wearing my contacts and glasses and I have to say that it’s one of the smartest decisions I’ve made so far.  Having worn corrective lenses for the last 14 years, it’s such as rewarding feeling to see clearly with my own eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been easy.  I’ve struggled to see my computer each day and I’ve walk around sometimes not being able to see everything around me clearly.  But once I got over the fear that I need contacts to do everything, my eyes started to improve.  Here are some observations I learned from my month of naked vision.

• Your Vision Is Always Changing – Most people think of themselves as having a certain vision.  They’ll say things like I’m 20/40 or 20/200 and therefore get prescribed lenses to correct their vision to 20/20.  What in fact is really going on is your vision is constantly changing.  Factors such as poor lighting and nutrients or stress can decrease your visional clarity while relaxation can make it clearer.  Having lenses that provides a certain clarity limits you to seeing the world in one way.
• Glasses and Contacts Decrease Vision – I’ve worn my contacts during this trial and found that every time I wore them then took them off, it took a couple of days to regain the clarity that I had previously.  Imagine what wearing lenses for several years or decades will do to you eyes.
• Don’t Be Afraid of Naked Vision – I’ve always lived under the assumption that I need glasses for everything.  I always thought I’d be in an uncomfortable situation where I wouldn’t be able to see and wore glasses out of fear of not seeing.  Once you take your glasses off you realize that you can do a lot of things without them.  I can work at my computer, watch TV and go about my day without lenses.  I might need them for viewing a presentation at work or driving, but there’s almost nothing I need them for now. 
• Watch Out For the Clear Flashes – Now that I see everything with my own vision, I start to see what are called “clear flashes”.  Every once in a while my vision will be completely clear.  What used to be blurry will suddenly become clear and I can see for a few seconds.  As the week go on, these clear flash start to become longer and more consistent.  

I haven’t measured my eyesight recently, but it’s not 20/20.  I still have some farsightedness but it keeps getting better everyday.  If you currently wear glasses, here’s some advice on what you can do to lessen your dependence on corrective lenses and eventually regain your vision.

• Stop wearing contacts and glasses – This sounds simple enough, but if you gone years viewing the world through artificial lenses it can be a shock at first.  You can start off by gradually decreasing the time you wear your lenses.  Maybe only wear them at work or while driving.  If you wear contacts, start wearing glasses, so you can easily take them off when you don’t need them.  It all starts when you realize that your eyes will get better – not worst – when you don’t wear glasses.
• Decrease your prescription – After a couple months of not wearing your corrective lenses get a prescription for a weaker lenses.  Buy a cheap pair of glasses so you don’t feel guilty about getting new glasses.  Once you vision gets better continue to get weaker lenses.
• Don’t squit to see – The reason most people believe that not wearing glasses when you need them will make you vision worst is because most people squint to see when their vision is blurry.  Straining and squinting is what causes most vision problems in the first place and doing it only makes your vision your worst.  Instead relax your eyes with massage or palming.  Take deep breaths and realize that there’s nothing wrong with your eyes.  You just been using them wrong with whole time.
• Don’t listen to other people – When other people see you struggle to see without glasses they’ll want to persuade you to change.  People tell that you don’t know what you’re doing.  But remember that they don’t see what you see.  I know my vision is getting better everyday that I don’t wear my contacts, so why would I want to listen to anyone else expect myself.

For now I’m going about my days without contacts.  I’m on deployment right now, so there’s not much for me to do expect go to work everyday on my ship.  I’m thinking about starting an exercise routine for my eyes soon. Possibly incorporating some changes in my diet.  All I know is for now, I’m convinced that I don’t need to wear corrective lenses all day.

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