In the beginning I strongly suggest that you follow the exact program recommendations. There is method to the madness, and you want to get the best possible starting point. I spend a lot of time thinking of how to best balance strain reduction while keeping your lifestyle requirements in consideration. I look to balance positive stimulus with keeping you from being uncomfortable.
It is a careful balancing act, along with giving you as much information as possible, while preventing you from feeling overloaded with content. That’s the first month or two.
From there though, if you have been at this project for some time, eventually you want to take liberties. Everyone responds differently to this method, and you will want to find out where your own best case scenario lies. Initially you should be conservative on the stimulus end, and just stay serious about limiting close-up strain. After that’s well under control though, stimulus becomes something you will want to experiment pushing your boundaries with.
Sara who spent a long time not so much focused on stimulus, has lately been exploring her own possibilities for improvement. A particularly encouraging account made it to the forum:
Well, last night when I got home from camping, I realized that my eyes were feeling sharper. When I tested them with the Snellen, the 20/20 wasn’t hard to get. Then I tried on my -3.50/-3.75 pair, and they felt better. So I went to bed last night, woke up this morning, and switched to the new glasses.
I think being outside and looking off in the distance a lot for a few days really helped. There wasn’t that much text, so I didn’t do much focus pulling, but I probably needed the rest anyways.
It’s amazing how much better my vision is without glasses when I go swimming or to the lake now. I can see people’s faces from much further away. Yes, the world is blurry, but there is quite a bit more definition than there used to be – I am more aware of what’s going on around me.”
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Beautiful, yes?
The full thread is here: https://endmyopia.org/myopia-forums/topic/new-normalized-glasses-arrived-too-early-to-switch/
This is where you want to get to. Getting that lower prescription, assessing your own state, lining up some time away from all the close-up, introducing lots of relaxed distance vision, and then comparing the before and after results.
There is always, always progress in this format of activity.
A baseline of low strain, adding a productive blur horizon, really dialing in the best prescription scenario (having the next lower prescription on hand is quite helpful here), and a consistent environment to compare your results – you will never be disappointed by working this way.
I love her description of the benefit of the days outdoors. We really neglect to understand just how much all that close-up isn’t great for our eyes, and just how much positive effects come from taking that out of the equation, at least once in a while.
And then there comes the point, when you are working with even over three diopters, that you get some meaningful clarity without glasses. Far from 20/20 vision, but useful in that you can navigate your world without being completely dependent on vision correction.
Thanks to Sara for taking the time to post!
