One of my goals was to increase my MOVEMENT. I wanted to get more active. You see, I have this belief that I consistently reinforce with self-talk that if I move now, it costs me energy and pain later. This is a false belief. It has been proven over and over again that exercise and movement actually leads to more energy and a decrease in pain, in general.

This morning I listened to an episode on a radio talk-show called "Future Talk" entitled "Meir Schneider, Ph.D.-
Self Healing Through Movement." In this show I found more confirmation that movement is not only necessary, it heals.

Meir Schneider, author of "Yoga for Your Eyes," has developed a program that increases visual acuity. Sounds like miraculous voodoo, right? Yes. But suspend your judgement until you hear the logic and science behind it. None of us are ever going to buy his books or do his program, but we can benefit from his information, if only for intellectual stimulation.

So this guy was born with cataracts. Ninety percent of his eye was covered with scar tissue. Through the exercises he outlines in his workshops, individual sessions with hundreds of clients and at conferences throughout the world, he says he was able to heal himself and regain 50 percent of his vision.

Big deal. I hear miraculous healing stories every day. How does that benefit me?

He claims that far-sightedness and near-sightedness can be prevented and reduced. Since we live in an age where we wallow in media - books, computers, and television screens - our eyes adjust accordingly.

Think about our ancestors in pre-literate times, they did not have near-sightedness problems. Near-sightedness is a condition where the eyeball grows long. It grows long in the way in which we use it.

He says to correct this, we need to train our eyes to look away, at least twenty minutes a day twice a day. Look into the distance, look at the stars.

Hey, that is doable. And it makes sense. But I need more science to break out of the mindset that I have been bombarded with that "alternative" medicine is quackery and to be immediately mistrusted.

Accordding to research done in Hong Kong, children who learned to read starting at age 4, between ages 6-19, 62 percent of the children became near-sighted. In the same study of rural Tibet, 3 percent of the kids are near-sighted.

For a guy like me whose vision deteriorates each year I spend at the computer monitor intensely staring at the screen (I work hard, dammit! I'm trying for a master's degree in computer science and I have two jobs!), this is having direct relevance to my existence. You have my attention, Mr. Schneider.

I'm going to be staring a lot more out the window from now on at work. It is for my own health, I'll say. But the idea behind this is movement, which corresponds to my goals of getting healthier. My experience with my chiropractor suggest the same thing: move the ligaments and joints to keep them healthy and lubricated and to keep your spine healthy. Everywhere I look, movement seems to be the solution.

In the first phases of Early man's life, most of his waking moments were spent in the pursuit of food. Only after they were able to solve this food problem was man able to begin the transition to laziness, philosophy, and drunkeness that characterizes the age we live in today.

By now, some of you are saying to yourselves, "This isn't cynical enough for me. I'm going to listen to Rush Limbaugh." Wait! Give me your attention for one more anecdote.

From the San Francisco Chronicle article, "EXERCISING YOUR EYES" by Joshunda Sanders, Chronicle Staff Writer:

"But if all it took for people to make their eyes stronger was breathing deeply and spending more time outdoors, why wouldn't more people do it?

"Because they don't see an alternative (to glasses or contacts)," was Schneider's only answer. The idea that poor eyesight can be corrected through a few simple exercises and relaxation techniques is not new: In 1920, Dr. William H. Bates, M.D., created the Bates Method, which emphasized rotating the eyes and changing the focal point of one's vision to give the eyes a good workout. Optometrists in the Bay Area caution that this method of improving eyesight is a trend that seems to go in and out of style, like meditation or clogs.

Dr. Pia Hoenig, O.D., chief of the Binocular Vision Clinic at UC Berkeley, says the methods themselves are not faulty; they simply "go against" everything that optometrists stand for. She stopped short of calling visual exercises a farce but would not say whether they have proved, during the 30 years she has practiced medicine, to be successful.

According to Jobson Publishing LLC, a firm that compiles optometry industry statistics, vision is big business: The Web site allaboutvision.com, says about 170 million people in the United States wear glasses or contacts. In 1998, the optical industry made about $30 billion in sales from eyewear, exams, fees and the rest. "

So there is a vested interest to keep people with bad eyesight! Fucking bastards.

If anything, I learned today to walk away from my computer or TV more often. We can at least all agree that that is a great action to take.