May 2022 Newsletter

Hello, and a more-than-ever May to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about details, the good and not so good. Enjoy!

When thinking of details, an overwhelming to-do list may come to mind, or interruptions upon interruptions, like in the image. Or maybe you think of an intricate tapestry, filled with delicate colors and designs. What to focus on first? It feels like too much sensory input to take in.

Paying attention to details, and deciphering them to make meaning of what we see, is a major focus in vision improvement. Sometimes I think way too much emphasis is given to seeing the eye chart more and more clearly, with the other important aspects of vision like color, depth, and light/shadow neglected. Yes, clarity is important, yet consider the pleasure of looking at an impressionist painting, with its fuzzy muted outlines. Sharper outlines would ruin this effect.

If an impressionist painting had stark clear outlines like a black letter on a white background does (thinking of the eye chart again), its beauty and artistic effect would be lost. Yet sometimes we do want precise detail in our seeing, like when we're looking at our bills, or reading. Years after starting vision improvement myself, wearing ever-weaker glasses, I avoided practicing with the eye chart, even though it's a great aid for learning to focus on clearly defined details. I was sure it would only tell me how poor my vision was, and that I was not improving fast enough.

Once I realized I could practice looking at details outdoors in Nature, it became a lot more fun. Does that little flower have 7 petals, or 8? Counting anything is a wonderful way to help your gaze easily decipher details, one by one without straining or staring. You can look at the veins of a leaf, or notice how the leaves of the oak tree are so different in their outline from the leaves of the maple. Just noticing the houses, who put new curtains in their window, or who else painted their front door, is practicing looking at details.

Details don't have to be tiny. You can trace the edges of the clouds overhead, observing those round or wispy feather-like shapes, or look out to the trees on that faraway hill, to see if you can see the main branches or even some of the smaller ones. The more you look, easily and gently without demanding your visual system "perform" for you, just appreciating the images delivered to your brain, the more and better you'll see. Pretend you're an artist, sketching the scene before you, intending to capture its every nuance.

Back when I wore thick glasses or contacts, I had the bad habit of taking a mental snapshot of what was in front of me, then scanning over those details in my mind, not keeping my gaze connected to the actual scene. When I reluctantly started using the eye chart, and with my obsessive top-student mentality, I was afraid I would get the "wrong answer", so looked at the letters in a fearful way, again not truly connecting to the simple shapes. Let your visual channel take in all the details before you without interference, savoring and appreciating each contour and design. You may then become delighted by what you see.

To read about an often misunderstood vision practice for seeing details, 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 mesmerizing month of May. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!