14. Swaying & Swinging

The Idea: Everything around us is in motion. Walking down the street I see other people walking in various directions, bicycles and trolleys zooming up the avenue at different speeds, tree branches swaying in the wind, birds darting above against a backdrop of clouds floating leisurely across the sky. Even stationary objects appear to move when one is in motion. Riding the trolley past the park, the lampposts in the foreground appear to move by more quickly than the trees in the background, as dogs and squirrels and children run to and fro across the grass. All these things, moving in various ways, can be a soup of muddled vision for some. By accustoming the vision to motion, the eye-brain connection can learn to discern and differentiate the ingredients to that soup.

How To: Here are 2 versions of this exercise, each focusing on different depths of the visual field. Try doing them back-to-back, keeping the eyes and shoulders relaxed, breathing deeply:

Swaying:

Step 1: Hold one finger up about 30 cm in front of the nose.

Step 2. Keeping the finger where it is, shift your weight to your left foot and swing your head gently to the left so that the finger is visible only in the right eye. Next, shift your weight to your right foot, coming back though center, and then swinging your head gently to the right so that the finger is visible only in the left eye. Keep moving the head slowly from side to side with the weight of the body, looking straight ahead—not at the finger.

Step 3: Keep Swaying for 2-5 minutes, noticing the perceived movement of the finger. When you Sway to one side, which way does the finger appear to move in relation to the background?

Swinging:

Step 1: Hold one finger up about 30 cm in front of the nose.

Step 2. Keeping the finger in line with the nose, shift your weight to your left foot and swing your body in a 90º arc over to the left, moving the arm with the head. Next, shift your weight to your right foot, coming back though center, and then swinging over to the left. Keep moving from side to side with the weight of the body, looking straight ahead, finger still 30 cm in front of the face.

Step 3: Keep Swinging for 2-5 minutes, noticing the perceived movement of the background. When you Swing to one side, which way does the background appear to move in relation to the finger?

What's Going On: Swinging works with adjusting to background movements while keeping the eyes focused on something at a near distance. Swaying works with adjusting to closer movements while keeping the eyes focused on things at a medium or long distances. Both exercises together help the eyes stay focused without getting distracted, encouraging the brain to pick up this habit as well. Swinging and Swaying also help the body to loosen up, relaxing the muscles and helping to relax the eyes.

More Info:

• Swinging and Swaying are principle exercises in the Bates Method, developed by Dr. William H. Bate in the early 20th century, and espoused by many vision therapists today.

• Thomas R. Quackenbush’s paraphrasal of Bates is also a good one in his textbook Relearning to See (North Atlantic Books, 1997).

• This is a good exercise to pair up with the similar movements of Sunning.