Man Is an Eye Animal

Isn't it nice that we're allowed to see what we love with our eyes, sharp and in color? Landscapes, plants, animals, art, technology, a beautifully laid table, an exciting film and our loved ones.

By nature, our eyes are actually made for roaming freely in the distance and aiming at targets in the distance. But we'r definitely staring too much at our cell phones, sit in front of our PCs and TVs, or read books (yes, that still exists).

And so, we're just accepting the fact that one-third of people in the industrialized nations are already nearsighted, in Asia even half. The tendency to defective vision is increasing worldwide from year to year. We're using the visual aids prescribed to us and make ourselves dependent on them without wondering whether there might be a reason in our behavior that our eyes can no longer see "sharply" in certain areas.

If nature had endowed us with such poor vision, we'd hardly have survived as a human race, would we?

However, a tiny counter-movement has already risen for some time now to consider more self-responsibility for our good vision and also to offer very practical solutions.

Those who are happy with top-stylish glasses or contact lenses may give little thought to changing this condition, or may not even consider the possibility that one could improve the visual performance of one's eyes.

But if it's from year to year that the visual performance decreases and the prescription for glasses has to be constantly adjusted, it may be time to ask ourselves whether this downward spiral of deterioration of our most important sensory organs really has to be accepted unalterably.

Whenever there's a steady decline in performance in the body, we have to realize that it's the lack of muscle activity in other areas that first causes the muscles to slacken and possibly even break down. Couldn't this also be true as for our eyes, since our eyeballs are also controlled by muscles?

Man as an "eye animal" is well advised to reflect on the natural tasks of his eyes. For good vision, we need the ability to switch our eyes in a flash from an object in the distance to an object very close by. And the eye muscles should take over this task. If they remain untrained for too long, they can no longer function optimally.

Everyone can try out for themselves how good it is for their vision and eyes to take a break in the open air after a few hours of working at a computer screen under artificial light and let their eyes wander far into the distance.

This is not only important for the general well-being, but also does a lot of good for the eyes. Variety and balance in everything we do is an important key to our health, and it's worth simply trying this key in every lock.