glasses free Sundays

This blog isn’t about glasses, and my goal is always to wear glasses less or not at all, so I tend not to write about how often I wear glasses, or what prescription.  It’s a tiresome subject!  But this post needs a bit of introduction.  Around 2009 I probably wore glasses the least, even managing to do a lot of my work without glasses.  While I was stressed out finishing my phd in 2010 and 2011, I depended on -5 glasses a lot more for computer work, and that led to wearing them more and more in the evenings and weekends (when not needed). 

On Sundays, to encourage myself to use glasses less, I’ve started doing ‘glasses free Sundays’.  I don’t wear glasses at all on Sundays.  This last Sunday was my third one in a row.  I’m enjoying  many benefits from this idea.  Most importantly it reminds me of how much I can do without my glasses.

When I have glasses free Sundays a couple of things happen – I use my computer less!  This means I’m up and moving about more.  I end up taking a break from work/emails/web surfing.  My mantra needs to be:  less reading, more doing.  It is all too easy to read about things I’m intrested in rather than going out and actually doing them, the web really enables this.  So on Sundays my computer time is limited to what I’m willing to do without glasses.  And this is really the bare minimum of emails.  I don’t pack the day full of chores, I leave time for me to have fun.  I’m getting creative again in the way I practice the Bates method.

Although I think reduced prescription glasses have helped me in many ways, by enabling me to go on with the Bates method, but still have a back up for work situations, wearing glasses is a huge hindrance because it is all too easy to simply forget to practice when glasses provide the security  to see.   It is too easy to forget to reduce the reduced prescription glasses to continue improvement.  It also builds a ‘special’ dependence on glasses.  Whereas before (2007) I was ‘dependent’ on glasses, now I feel ‘dependent’ on glasses for important situations.  This situation is almost worse than before because it creates a psychological block to further vision improvement.  When I have a great period with amazing visionl, I have recently become aware of a thought pattern which  says:   oh, this vision is great, but it still won’t be good enough to drive/go to work/watch a presentation, I’ll need my glasses anyway later.  I’m sabatoging myself with these thoughts and with this relationship to using glasses for important tasks!  Accepting clear vision has got to be total – accepting it into all of my life.

So, glasses free Sundays are a way of getting back in touch with what I can do without glasses.  I surprise myself – I can sit down at the piano and often still read the notes!  I can write a few emails and read the text!  When I go for walks I can read licence plates from distances of 5-10 meters.   I can recognize faces across the street.  And I start to accept the fact that my vision is getting better.  On the other days, I’ve still got odd and end things to take care of, and I still reach for the glasses.  But I’m reaching for them less.  I’m back in my exploratory mode of seeking a growing number of experiences where glasses are not necessary, where I can trust my eyes.

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