The Bates technique is a practical guide to correct vision without glasses and surgery. William G. Bates, an American ophthalmologist, examining vision problems, came to the conclusion that a significant part of the refractive error occurs due to the pathological tension of the eye muscles. The strenuous efforts that a person takes over and over again, trying to examine distant or close objects, eventually lead to the development of anomalies such as myopia, farsightedness or   astigmatism. Bates exercises relax the eyes and teach them to passive vision, without exertion.

Method Bates – effective exercises to restore vision

According to Bates, any eye strain should be minimized to maintain good vision. The organ of vision only works perfectly when it is in a relaxed state. But most of us used to focus our gaze with tension and effort. This habit is maintained and exacerbated by constant nervous overloads: modern life is full of stress, and any psychological discomfort makes the muscles, including the eyes, strain. Arbitrary and involuntary strains of the eyes over time cause changes in the structure of the visual organ and lead to various kinds of refractive errors.

The Bates method is based on two principles. First, to improve vision, it is necessary to learn how to relax eye muscles. Secondly, it is impossible to relax the eyes while maintaining the overall physical and mental discomfort. That is why the complex of exercises Bates combines techniques of relaxation of the body and mind. The Bates method contains separate recommendations for various abnormal eye conditions (myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, etc.), but its basic   exercises   can be performed with all types of refractive disorders.

Bates exercise complex for eye health

The easiest way to relax your eyes is to close them for a while and be at rest: sit in a comfortable position, think about what is pleasant. But such relaxation is not effective enough. The retina in this case is not completely protected from light, and the organ of vision cannot relax as much as possible. Bates suggests using the palming technique. This is an effective exercise to relax the eyes, in which they cover their palms in a special way.

• Palming.

For performance of a palminga (English palm – a palm) comfortable sitting position or lying position is accepted. Sitting posture will be more comfortable if you sit at the table and lean on his elbows. The palms are folded so that the fingers of one hand crosswise lie on the fingers of the other.With joined palms you need to cover your eyes without pinching your nose and without pressing your hands on the eyeballs. If the rays of light still penetrate under the eyelids, you need to slightly move your palms or move your fingers more closely. Before starting work, it is recommended to warm up your hands with a light massage or rubbing your palms together.

Next, you need to calm your breath and wait until the light flashes under the eyelids disappear. To speed up this process, you can mentally imagine spots or objects of rich black color. Only having achieved maximum blackness before the eyes, one can say that the level of excitation of the nerve cells of the visual analyzer has decreased sufficiently, and the eyes have completely relaxed. Such a vacation is very good for the eyes. The procedure can be repeated an arbitrary number of times during the day, as soon as it became necessary to remove the accumulated fatigue. It takes three to five minutes.

• Nice memories.

A simple psychotechnique, based on a well-known fact, helps to achieve complete relaxation in the exercise “palming”: plunging into pleasant memories of the past, a person relaxes to the maximum. Having closed your eyes, you need to concentrate on something positive and try to restore a pleasant event in detail, with all the experienced emotions and sensations. You can not represent the whole picture, but some kind of (pleasant) taste, smell, sound. Such concentration ideally relaxes the psyche. It is recommended to use the technique when performing palming or with normal relaxation with eyes closed. Subsequently, you can cause a state of rest and with open eyes. Palming and “memories” are effective exercises, the combination of which gives the most complete rest to the organs of vision.

• Mental representation.

The ability to represent visual objects is closely related to the process of memory. With poor eyesight, visual memory suffers, which means that the process of remembering is also hampered. To train a mental presentation, Bates suggested the following effective exercises:

1. In the exercise “palming” one should not just wait for the bright spots under the eyelids to disappear, but actively replace them with black images. It can be a black dress, a bird, a curtain, a blot — any object of a deep black color. Some imagine ideally black letters in front of their minds, sorting them out one by one – alphabetically.
2. Take a table for the diagnosis of visual acuity and place it at a distance of 3-6 meters from you. Take a look at one of the letters in the line that is as low as possible, but clearly visible. Perform palming. Recall the letter you just saw and imagine it painted in a rich black color. Opening your eyes after palming, you need to look at the letter and make sure that it has become more visible (like the other letters of this line).
3. Rocking and moving.

The eyes get tired if the gaze focuses for a long time on a single point. In this case, the complex of exercises for moving and swinging will help:

1. Use the table again to check your vision. Take a look at one letter, then move your eyes to another, located in the same line. Continue to move the look in a similar way, stopping on each letter for 2-3 seconds. There should be a feeling that in the process of work the line is shifted from side to side.
2. Repeat the exercise, but choose other letters: one large, the other smaller and located far from the first. If the eye movement is performed correctly, the table will move up and down.
3. Look from one end of the letter to the other. You can keep a look vertically, horizontally or diagonally. In the process, the letter should start to swing.

• Solarization

Sun baths are good for eye health. Solarization is very simple: the eyes are closed and the face turns to the sun. It is necessary to bathe in bright sunshine, exposing the sun to either the right side of the body or the left. You can slightly raise one eyelid, looking down. Then close this eye and open the other. If your eyes suddenly become uncomfortable, you need to blink often and often.

Contraindications to doing exercises Bates

Method Bates has virtually no contraindications. It is used for myopia (myopia), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism, strabismus, presbyopia, cataracts, and amblyopia. An obstacle to the implementation of a set of exercises is the threat of retinal detachment and the recent surgical operation on the organs of vision. After surgery, you need to wait about six months to recover   health   eye, before you start training on the method of Bates.

The technique gives different results. Someone can significantly improve vision, someone – just slow down its deterioration. It also happens that training does not have a noticeable effect. The main recommendation for those who hope to restore their sight with the help of Bates exercises: you need to do it systematically, without taking long breaks. If you give up a workout for a week or two, the accumulated results will be lost. You should train without glasses. If the vision is reduced, but the person does not wear glasses, it is hoped that in a short time the vision will be restored to normal.