Redefining the Meaning of Movement
by Irena Castle
Seeing movement belongs among the fundamental visual skills without which clear seeing is highly improbable. The eyes that perceive objects to be stationary often lack context needed for central vision to properly engage. They struggle with strain and therefore have difficulty to focus.
I often hear my students argue that seeing movement makes no sense. If the coffee cup in front of them simply sits on the table, then it is obviously stationary, right? Wrong!
DEFINITION OF MOVEMENT
The misconception here is that they think of movement as an action during which the object of focus changes its physical position. Physical movement is not what seeing movement means in the context of visual skills training, that is until you reach the point when your vision is ready for judgment of speed. And if you are that far in your vision development, then seeing movement comes as naturally to you as moving one leg in front of the other when you walk.
The movement that we refer to in vision training lessons is RELATIVE MOVEMENT. Instead of a physical action of the regarded object, your awareness of constant and never ending movement of all objects around you should be thought of as the change of the position of each object relative to the point of your focus. The emphasis here is on the words change and relative. As soon as your eyes move from one place to the next, and regardless of the size of that movement, all objects change their position (vs where they were perceived before) when compared to the new point of focus of the eyes.
TRY IT
Let me demonstrate what I mean.
Take a pen, place it 10 inches in front of your nose and look at it. The position of the pen in relation to the center of your gaze is “in front of your nose” or in the center of your gaze. Now, keep the pen where it is and turn your eyes and your head about 45 degrees to the left. Where is the pen now? It is no longer in front of your face and in the center of your gaze. It is now located to the right of your face. The physical position of the pen has not changed, but its position relative to the center of your gaze has changed by 45 degrees. Therefore, we can say that it has moved to the right measured in relation to the position of your eyes.
Now, let’s start over and instead of a large change of 45 degrees, move your head in a sequence of 3-5 degree intervals until you reach the 45 degree position. Every time you stop, evaluate the position of the pen. It will appear further and further to the right of your face as you turn, creating an illusion of a continuous movement.
And that is the movement we are after. A constant awareness of the constant and continuous change of relative positions of all objects around us.
TECHNIQUES THAT TRAIN AWARENESS OF RELATIVE MOVEMENT
Begin with the long swing, then transition to a very broad head swing. Over time learn to see your Snellen chart move, then a large letter. An optical swing will allow you to notice a movement of a small letter and finally that of a period at the end of a sentence. This on its own will benefit your ability to relax, look with ease, and to improve your acuity. If you are facing astigmatism or perhaps even conical cornea, learn to add dimension to your movement awareness through the practice of the variable swing.
MOVEMENT - REDEFINED
So, if you struggle with “seeing movement”, let go of the conventional understanding of what it means. Change the way you think about it. Call it an illusion if you’d like, and learn to see it. At any given time, leverage vision obstruction tolls or use your imagination to guide you.
Seeing relative movement using the techniques above is this month’s focus of the content inside Boundless Eyesight community - the space where we teach, discuss and effectively train the advanced versions of many visual skills, and where students are guided, step by step, towards the ultimate end of their vision journey. You are welcome to check it out.
May your eyesight be boundless.
IC
/i-see/
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