This morning I went to the optometrist. No, there was nothing wrong with my sight as far as I could tell. I just went for a checkup since I’m on a quest to check out all body systems. This year I went onto the expensive comprehensive plan on Discovery Health. Just for this year. So now that I’m in the Above Threshold Benefit, I’m making use of it by checking out all aspects of my health. For example, the other week I did R3000 worth of blood tests!
Anyway, coming back to the optometrist. I actually find it quite fun to go through all sorts of tests, especially if I do well in them! The results were actually very interesting which is why I thought I’d share them with you.
My distance vision is excellent. The optometrist, Ariella Meyerowitz, was very impressed by how far I could see. As I knew before, my left eye is stronger than my right eye. In fact, it turns out that the right eye has a slight astigmatism which Ariella says is completely normal. Astigmatism means that the eye is not completely round, but slightly elongated.
Just a brief explanation of how eyesight works: Each eye sees a slightly different view of the world. Each image is fed back to the brain which then superimposes the images on top of each other to make one whole image.
Now I probably don’t have the following absolutely correct but this is what I remember Ariella telling me. Instead of my eyes working together properly, each sends its own image and the brain keeps swapping between the two images. It’s not like one eye is dominant, which would indicate one hemisphere of the brain
taking prominence. Instead, each hemisphere of my brain is active. Right and left brain. And this is very true of me.
Let me quickly mention the theory of left-right brain specialisation. Broadly speaking, the left brain is concerned with language skills and linear reasoning while the right brain is concerned with visuo-spatial and mathematical abilities as well as artistic creativity. Women are generally considered to be left-brain dominant while men tend to be right-brain dominant. In my case, I am equally proficient in both areas – I am very good with languages and I have a very analytical, mathematical mind (over-analytical if you ask me!).
When I was a young teenager, an optometrist prescribed me glasses for reading. I probably had them for a few months. Then an eye specialist said that I didn’t need them and wouldn’t need glasses til I was 40. I told this to Ariella. She said that glasses might have helped to teach my eyes to work together.
Over the years they have adapted very well to working the way they do, but it has been a form of compensation. What she finds fascinating is the link between how we perceive the world physiologically and our psychological experience. Does how we physically “see” the world affect the way we “view” the world? For example, perhaps there would have been increased communication between the two halves of my brain if my eyes had been trained to work together. Maybe the way my brain works now is two sides working well, but more separately than together. Interesting stuff to ponder.
Ariella also told me that I find it hard to relax my eyes. Did you know that there are two ways to focus on something? By tensing the eye muscles (which is the only way I thought we focus) and by relaxing the eyes. I think the different ways of focusing have to do with near and far vision. It seems that sometimes things come into focus when we relax our vision. Hmmmm…. Doesn’t that give food for thought? Anyway, it turns out that I’m constantly tensing when I focus, and that I don’t relax enough. You try telling my brain to relax!
I’d like to think that this is probably due to the fact that I work all day at a computer building websites, so needing to stay focused on the screen in front of me. And then when I come home, I’m usually on the computer again. It turns out that my not watching TV is maybe not such a good thing sometimes!
Watching TV is considered relaxed vision. The remedy is to make a habit of looking away from the computer for a period of 10 seconds. This could mean just looking around the office at other people. Or staring out the window. Not bad options…
So while for now there’s no need for me to get glasses (my script would be almost zero), I need to practise relaxing my eye muscles.
Life’s lesson for today: Relax and let things swim into focus on their own.
P.S. Ariella Meyerowitz is a wonderful, warm, friendly, knowledgeable, patient and helpful optometrist based in Glenhazel. I can definitely recommend her.
Meira's world 