Revisiting Pinholes

Last night Greg Marsh, the well-known vision teacher from Colorado, had a radio talk/class, which you can listen to here. He mostly focused on computer eyestrain, and took several call-in questions. One woman asked about pinholes, and when Greg said they’re not right for everyone, I perked up my ears. I had bought a pair from Peter Grunwald (founder of the Eyebody Method) when I took a week-long class from him 3 summers ago. Peter really encouraged the use of pinholes, as a transition step away from prescription glasses. While I do know of a few people using them religiously at the computer, I had never been able to incorporate them into my own routine.

Back when I first tried pinholes a couple of years ago, I was extremely anxious, needing -4 glasses in the daytime to drive safely, and about -6 at night. I read without glasses then, holding the book pretty closely, and struggled with the computer with my face not far from the screen — wearing glasses was just too much of a strain. When I tried the pinholes, I could see very brief flashes of more clarity, but I felt like I was twisting myself around into a knot trying to squeeze through just one of the tiny holes to see better. It was work, difficult and frustrating. I didn’t feel like I could ever get better at it, if I even knew what I had to do to get better! So I pretty much abandoned pinholes and focused my vision work on other practices.

Listening to Greg, I got out my pinholes and tried them on looking at the computer. Wow! Much more clarity, much less jumping around of the letters. Greg had said on the show that some people try pinholes and their body relaxes immediately, so for them pinholes are great. Others, like me in the past, get very impatient with them, not being able to see clearly and merge the holes into a clear non-honeycomb view. This did not seem to be my situation as much any longer — I was able to relax into the view through the pinholes more than ever before. I started wondering what had changed in me.

This morning I got an excited email from a vision student that she can now see to read with her weaker plus glasses if she doesn’t rush. I’m thrilled she saw this for herself, as I think being impatient slows down vision improvement for a lot of people, me included! I also think this is the difference I’m seeing with the pinholes — I’m more in a receiving mode now, letting the clear images come in, not trying to reach out and grab at them. Yes, the acuity I see on the chart is slowly getting better. However I’m at least as interested in loosening those old end-gaining habits that keep my eyesight limited as I am in seeing another line on the eye chart. (By the way, the eye chart was amazingly clear with the pinholes, and there seemed to be more light on it which doesn’t make sense to me. I had a brief fantasy of being able to take the eye test at the DMV wearing these!)

I plan to use the pinholes more regularly now, probably mostly at the computer. I’m encouraged by the positive feedback from the pinholes, that my eyes are letting in more light now and my mind/body is more relaxed and not so jumpy. My vision, and my life, keep getting better!