Sharpening the senses - Vision part 2

Building on last week’s eye focus, this week we get detailed on what degrades eyesight, about the subtle side of seeing and a great mindfulness practice that you can do now. 

First up though, a few notes about aging and beliefs

When it comes to genetics verses environment, I have a different view than the mainstream. As the wise saying goes: 

‘gene’s might load the gun but lifestyle habits pull the trigger’!

So, whether you’re considering your fitness level, ability to do complex math, how many press ups you can do or you likelihood to get an illness…you do not have to go down the same route as your parents, grandparents and beyond down your blood line. I think a better path/thought focus is to focus on optimising your surroundings.

Here is a reminder of ten basic lifestyle ideals that I harken on about quite often:

1. Spend more time outdoors
2. Enjoy daily walks
3. Where possible expose your skin to safe sunlight
4. Enjoy 7 - 8 hours of sleep
5. Take time everyday for R n R
6. Enjoy a clean diet and effective hydration
7. Embrace a balance of dynamic and stretching exercise
8. Keep up with good postural awareness and ergonomics during desk work and gait
9. Seek out work/hobbies/community projects that you enjoy 
10. Take time for reflection (body awareness, mindfulness, inner listening, self enquiry)

These are all part of a continuous self care longevity practice

Ok, let’s deepen our focus on eye health - What degrades eyesight?

I believe the function and health of your eyes goes way beyond time, aging and genes. Here is a shortlist of factors that can negatively affect your vision:

• Overly relying on glasses when some time without might be better.
• Misuse through straining when glasses were needed.
• Over-use of near vision (reading books, using screens)
• Under-use of far vision (gazing into the distance).
• Unnatural lighting such as LEDs that flicker on on off without you realising (you can test this with a slow-mo video on any smartphone/tablet. When you play it back, you’ll see the flicker). Best use fires, candles, salt lamps or incandescent bulbs in the red/orange spectrum after sun down. In time your eyes will adjust and you might find your sleep/wake rhythms improve.
• The use of all screens (here we have more unnatural light and the same flicker problem).
• Always wearing sun glasses when you leave the house. Can you experiment with some time without those sunnies?
• Too much exposure to UV rays from the sun. As much as I love the sun, if you work or spend a lot of time outdoors in peak hours then your eyes might enjoy a wide brimmed hat.
• A sedentary job/lack of exercise - regular exercise helps to manage high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes both of which are related to eye health.
• Forgetting to do your eye exercises such as cupping, tracking and looking near and far (each eye has six muscles… use them). This was all covered in Mindfulness 30 last week.
• Smoking - this is linked to just about every disease and is a major factor in inflammation.
• Dehydration.
• Lack of sleep (getting to bed early and at a consistent time can help with so many health conditions.
• Staring - whether a book, a TV, a phone or the dinner you’re cooking, do you need to tense your eyes so often? Can you remember to relax your eyes and blink more often? That includes now!
• Poor posture - If you jut your head out forward or look down too often, you could compromise nerves, tissues and fluid flow from your head and neck.
• Beliefs  - you may have family history of eyesight deterioration and could be influenced by those beliefs.
• This includes your food choices that (A) might lack eye health nutrients and (B) include inflammatory foods (more on nutrients and supplements next week). 

By reducing these and adding more of the first list above list, I think you’ll give yourself the best chance to minimise eye degradation and even repair what you have. And, remember that the body is always regenerating… old cells get metabolised and eliminated and new ones are produced (by the billions every day).

But it’s not just your environment and physiology that will help lay down new heathy cells, there is another side of vision to consider and for this, we’re going to shift gears to…

The subtle side of seeing

Seeing is more than just about the eyes as an organ of sight and encompasses other factors such as your personal vision for life, what you want to see in the world, fear of what you might/might not see and of course your beliefs.

Seeing clearing and directly is a great doorway to presence and when you’re in a more clear and present (meditative) state, there is an associated feeling of expansiveness. It’s when your eyes and mind soften, dilate and relax to see and experience more of what’s actually here. Which is quite the opposite to a narrow vantage staring into a screen 18 inches away while lost in work, the news or social media.

Want to do a mini eye easing mindfulness practice right now?

Start with a little pre test of looking at something across the room and also something close up like your palm. Then try this:

• Gently tense (a strong, delayed blink) then release your eye muscles a few times.
• Then lightly and slowly blink several times (look away from the screen as you do so).
• Close your eyes and take three or four long, slow and deep nasal breaths. Soften your brow shoulders. 
• Now, imagine your eyes are set further back so that you can see expansively from the back of your head. You can do this with your eyes open but a little glazed to get a sense of your peripheral vision. Just look around for a moment as you consider the floor and ceiling, to the left and right and near and far. Blink occasionally. You might start to notice that you feel yourself opening up and being more relaxed.
• Lastly, close your eyes slowly, let them be at peace and repeat the words ‘thank you’ several times as you feel appreciation for your eyes

How do you feel? That mini mindfulness experience was only a minute or two but may have changed things for the better. Test with a look around the room and at your hand. I find this ‘setting - back - of - the - eyes’ practice to play way to relax the eyes at anytime of the day.

Ok, I hope this gives you a few ideas to support your eye health this week. More info about nutrients here next Sunday and be sure to play as many classes as you can this week. Then let me know how it goes.

 Thanks for reading

Take care

Danny

To access all Dojiva classes, start the 10 day trial - click here

Members, log straight in here

Onto this week’s recommend Dojiva classes:

Sunday 27th April 2025 - Mindfulness 46 - In this short class, we do our own little eye experiment. For the first part, have a book handy to read a short snippet, but then be ready to step outside or open a window to see well into the distance. Make some notes or a short video of yourself about how the two tests go. Then give it a week or even a month before repeating the process.

Monday 28th - Mini fitness 18 - A great mix of intervals and explosion power training moves!

Tuesday 29th - Mobility 80 - A great class for body awareness as we stretch everything from fingers to shoulder blades. We then apply this new level of awareness and flexibility to a move in your favourite sport.

Wednesday 30th - Meditation 90 and

Mindfulness 44 - Sit with me to meditate and enquire to what you might be missing! 

Thursday 1st - Workout 71 - In total we have 12 sets of strength training with a mix of standing sets for function and mat-work for the core. To help contrast left and right, we have lots one-sided sequences and sensing.

Friday 2nd - Mobility 118 - Tractioning exercises for the spine

Saturday 3rd - Mini fitness 113 - Today we have a class that does not involve high impact, or moving too fast. It is still potentially rather challenging so do keep listening out for the right intensity.