Sharpening the senses - Vision part 1

 My goal with seven day clusters is that you feel positive change over a relatively short period of time. For this week, and the next two, it’s about your eyes and vision. I am curious what a 21 day focus will do!

We have just finished two clusters about hearing and sound and now we get to eye health. As usual, we will explore both the physical side and the subtle (energetic) side of seeing.

Here’s a quick question to kick things off…

“what if you could slow, halt or even reverse illness related to aging”?

Well, I believe that in many cases that positive change and yes, disease reversal is entirely possible. 

Before we get to this week’s focus on the eyes, I would like to re-cap the significance of some day to day lifestyle ideals.

The short and the long term view

I say this a lot…

“what you do on a daily basis determines your health outcome in years from now”

If we take the example of eye health, imagine just seven days where you dedicate good care for your eyes… that you:

• Do eye exercises
• Practice eye relaxation techniques
• Take walks in nature
• View long distance
• Reduce screen time
• Get great sleep
• Hydrate well
• Take appropriate supplements
• Cut out junk (processed) food
• Reduce exposure to unnatural light (that’s screens and bulbs of any sort) and,
• You think positive thoughts

In a nutshell, you give your eyes a spa-like holiday… just an all-the-time Holliday!

Then compare that to a week of high stress, with computer work, all day indoors, poor sleep and fuelled by junk food! What if either of these weeks became a month, a year and beyond? I think you get the message, but if still unclear…

YOUR FUTURE HEALTH IS DETERMINED BY YOUR DAY TO DAY ACTIONS

There is one word that comes up a great deal in relation to Dojiva movement and philosophy and that’s…

Nature

Can you organise your life to be immersed as much as possible in the natural world? This includes movement, food choices, sleep rhythms, indoor/outdoors time ratio, lighting, etc. And to act a bit more like you’re living a thousand or more years ago!

Why? Because I don’t think human biology can keep up with the pace of technology. And a disconnect from nature may be a lead cause in physical and mental stress. Amoung all body parts, I feel eyes have really been hi-jacked a lot especially by unnatural light.

Nature knows the way, knows balance, has cycles and in terms of health conditions, living naturally can help with healing.

Personally, I have arranged my life to prioritise time for a variety of health giving practices. This is not because I am unwell, it’s to reduce the chances of becoming unwell. In other words let’s aim to be proactive rather than reactive. Having said this, the lifestyle practices for prevention are much the same as for the cure!

I call it a health pension based on lifestyle

(Whatever happens to monetary finances, it’s a pretty sound investment)

So, to keep in touch with nature (and support good health), here is a list of things I do most days:

• I eat a clean omnivore diet based on local, seasonal, whole foods (no highly processed foods)
• I hydrate well with filtered water and electrolytes 
• I sleep around 8 hours a night (approx 10pm to 6am)
• I get sun exposure on my skin (including morning sun, evening sun and even in the peak of day).
• I sun gaze. This is where you look directly at the sun at some point during the first half hour and/or final half hour of the day as there are no UV rays at those times.
• I am aware of my alignment
• I stretch/self massage my body
• I workout (three times a week)
• I take time to contemplate
• I do a job that I love!
• I spend many hours outdoors 
• I go wild swimming (seasonal)
• I earth with my hands and feet (barefoot in the morning grass plus gardening/farming)
• I turn off the modem at night 
• I use minimal lighting after sunset
• I keep screen time to a minimum 
• I say positive affirmations and practice gratitude

Now, this is just my list and there may not be much here that resonates with you. And the reality of what you can do depends on where you live, what foods are available locally, your time commitments to work, family and community and your personal beliefs about what natural health entails.

However, you could re-read the above list with each one as an affirmation. Simply select the ones that ring true and add your own ideas to make a personal cluster of affirmations. So… this time, in your own voice…

“I eat a clean omnivore diet based on local, seasonal whole foods”

“I hydrate well with filtered water and electrolytes”

“I sleep around 8 hours a night”

“I get sun exposure on my skin”

“I sun gaze”

“I am aware of my alignment”

“I stretch my body”

“I workout”

“I take time to contemplate”

“I do a job that I love”

“I spend many hours outdoors”

“I go wild swimming”

“I earth with my hands and feet”

“I turn off the modem at night”

“I use minimal lighting after sunset”

“I keep screen time to a minimum”

“I say positive affirmations and practice gratitude”

Ok, this week’s classes are waiting for you and I’m sure your eyes will appreciate the attention.

Next week we will get more detailed with what degrades eyesight, about the subtle side of seeing and a fun mindfulness practice.

 Thanks for reading

Take care

Danny

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Onto this week’s recommend Dojiva classes:

Sunday 20th April 2025 - Mindfulness 30 - Please join with this 30 minute mindfulness practice that is like a mobility class for your eyes. It has ideas and exercises that support day to day eye health. To help reduce day to day eye strain, you can select certain of these exercises to do anywhere, anytime.

Monday 21st - Mini fitness 108 - Today's class is focused on the upper body which gives the lower body a rest (no impact at all). However, we do use the legs to generate power. We have 10 dynamic sets, however nothing is too fast!

Tuesday 22nd - Mobility 32 - We cover a lot in this 47 minute class including... spatial awareness, dominant eye check, proprioception tests, alignment of hips and application to gait.

Wednesday 23rd - Relaxation guided 13 - Deep, restorative relaxation for your eyes - The guided practice is for 15 minutes and the binaural music in the delta range continues for a further 45 minutes. It is best to play this when you do not have any commitments after and if appropriate, you can let yourself fall asleep. 

Thursday 24th - Workout 109 - You choose... looped bands or dumb-bells (maybe a mix of the two)!Your body responds better to variety than repetition, so if you tend to only over use dumb-bells, do invest in some bands. We have 9 sets of strength training in under 40 minutes. 

Friday 25th - Mobility 32 - For embodiment and improvement, please repeat Tuesday’s class.

Saturday 26th - Mini fitness 88 - Even though I do all nine intervals with a bosu, this class works just as fine without!