February 2022 Newsletter

Hello, and a festive February to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about how your memory can help you or hurt you. Enjoy!

Dr. Bates, the natural vision improvement pioneer who practiced over 100 years ago, wrote "Remember your successes, forget your failures." What? Do you mean I should forget how difficult it was for me to see in those thick eyeglasses I wore as a child, when I couldn't catch a ball no matter how hard I tried? And I should remember and cherish that momentary clear view of a bird flying high up across the sky, when I was alone outdoors on a sunny day without my glasses? Yes!

As with most things about vision improvement, this is way bigger than eyesight. Vision happens in the brain, after all, not in the eyeballs. Remembering that financial or relationship "failure", going over and over in your mind about what a loser you were back then, doesn't really move you forward. And it surely doesn't feel good. How about looking at what you learned instead, or how well you recovered and changed to a more useful direction for yourself? The only people who never fail are the ones who never do anything new!

As I write this, I'm adjusting to a new computer, and also expecting a new part tomorrow for my broken printer. Like I told a friend, I don't enjoy loose ends unless I'm tying them up! Too many incomplete tasks, especially when I have to wait for someone else to get back to me and I can't keep moving forward, can make me feel nervous, overwhelmed, and out of control. This is a familiar painful feeling, too much coming at me for me to handle with the resources I have at hand. I need to keep reminding myself that I've gotten through chaotic times like this before, and can do it now too.

The sensation of overwhelm, feeling "it's too much for me!", is directly related to how I see, and how I can feel about seeing. In my history as a nervous energetic child who was usually trying too hard at everything, I often felt not good enough. Somehow this lack of confidence in myself and my capabilities then got associated with my visual system. I "saw" myself as a seriously limited human being, and my less-than-ideal eyesight mirrored that back to me, reinforcing the belief. I thought if I wasn't perfect, I wasn't acceptable.

Whatever the cause of this deep insecurity, whether it's due to my sensitivity or to my well-meaning but strict parents or teachers who wanted me to excel, it doesn't matter much now. What's important is that I know my eyesight, and the rest of me too, is good enough and getting better as I learn and grow. I'm taking Dr. Bates' advice to remember my successes, that is, when I did something well. He recommended glancing at the eye chart and noting a blurry letter, then closing your eyes while remembering and visualizing that same letter clearly. Now open your eyes to see it better. Then repeat.

In general, remembering something you succeeded at, whatever success means to you, will help you consider yourself a winner, and fuel you to accomplish more as you go forward. Concerning vision, it's particularly gratifying to think of something which used to be difficult to see, which you now realize seems easier for your eyes to decipher. Aim for progress, a little bit at a time (remember back to when you couldn't see this clearly?), and appreciate every detail of what your healthy eyes bring to you.

One way I've strengthened my memory, and improved my ability to notice details, is in paying close attention to my dreams. These often tell me something about my vision improvement. For an example, click here.

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Please send me your questions and comments
Let me know what you've wondered about concerning energy medicine or vision or dreams. I'll be glad to write a short article addressing that topic. Thank you to those who have sent me questions, or see a question you asked me in a private session written about here. You're helping many other people! Enjoy the start of this fabulous month of February. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!