Movement for Self-Healing Workshop: Lessons From a Former Blind Man
Filed Under: Flexibility/Mobility
Filed Under: Flexibility/Mobility
Meir Schneider PhD, LMT might be one of the most interesting people you have ever met. While the personal transformation of achieving enough sight to be granted a California driver’s license would be amazing for most people, it pales when compared to the number of lives that he has impacted.
When I saw a local ad promoting a program of eye exercises, massage, mobility, relaxation and visualization exercises, it caught my attention. Upon learning it was to be taught by a former blind man who had improved his vision naturally, after being born with cataracts, glaucoma and astigmatism, I was intrigued.
Schneider had five unsuccessful operations on his eyes before the age of 10, leaving his lenses almost completely destroyed. About the age of 16, someone introduced him to the Bates method of eye exercises.
He spent numerous hours working on improving his vision and after several months’ time, saw some improvement, which further motivated him to keep working on this. I’ll be honest, after spending a weekend with Meir it becomes clear that you CAN improve your vision naturally, but it takes a LOT of effort, time and discipline.
For 16 year old Meir the motivation was obvious – not only did he want to fit in but he had another strong desire to see – he wanted to look at girls, like most boys his age.
I’ll write more about his book at another time but will now focus on the workshop. One of the things we worked on was self-massage with a tennis ball, starting with the feet and working our way up the leg and hip, and then the back.
Nothing new for me, as a massage therapist I believe strongly in self-massage for injury prevention and maintenance of the soft tissues. We worked on various exercises for the feet, trying to strengthen the toes one at a time. We did simple exercises to strengthen the muscles on the front of the shins, along with ankle circles, both seated and lying face down.
At the same time that Schneider had been working on eye exercises in his youth, he was introduced to massage, yoga and breathing/visualization exercises – kind of a “perfect storm” of events that led him down the path of assisting others in their pursuit of health.
He believes as I do, that sitting for too long has a negative impact on posture and flexibility, advising that every 20 minutes you should stand up and grab an ankle, pulling your leg behind you and stretching your upper body toward the ceiling, tipping your neck back – without straining, of course.
One of the relaxation exercises we did was “palming,” which consists of sitting in a dark room with your eyes covered gently with the palms of your hands, with almost no pressure on the tissues surrounding your eyes. In addition to letting your eyes relax, this should be done with deep abdominal (diaphragm) breathing. You can also use visualization exercises at this time to further the overall relaxation process.
Excess tension can prohibit deep breathing. Meir believes that we need a balance between the subtle, mind-body exercise and vigorous training, such as resistance training. I couldn’t agree more.
We did various stretches and rotational movements on the floor. He thinks that most of us tend to focus on strengthening our already strong muscles and neglecting our weak points.
After finding out that I was an exercise trainer he mentioned that most people focus on shortening their abdominal wall with flexion exercises, which he feels is a negative. I put my focus on bracing, based on Stuart McGill’s work, which advises to contract the entire midsection, without pulling your stomach in or flexing it.
Most of the eye exercises were done outside. With our contacts and glasses removed, he had us look at the distance for about 7 minutes, to help “stretch” our eyes. Kind of similar to the concept of long toss in baseball. Most of us spend the majority of our time staring at computer screens and rarely stare at the horizon any longer, which used to be an important survival skill.
This particular exercise was done while waving our hands on either side of our heads to stimulate our peripheries. The people driving by must have thought we were crazy at some of the things we were doing but nobody in white coats came by to round us up, so it was all good.
Meir also believes in focusing our vision on details, something we don’t do much of. At the end of the workshop I took a walk along the Mississippi river and tried to focus on the distance and look at the details. I’ll admit, my vision seemed sharper after two days of the various exercises and using my contact lenses only sparingly throughout the weekend.
After spending this time with him and reading much of his book I believe that it is possible to improve your vision naturally but it doesn’t happen overnight or even in a few weeks. It takes a lot of discipline, time and effort and most of us aren’t interested in putting in the work.
Meir has been working with muscular dystrophy, MS, polio, arthritis and back pain patients for 40 years, using a combination of massage, breathing, visualization, mobility and strengthening exercises. He states that he has helped 300 people in wheelchairs get up and walk.
Lest you think that he is some kind of faith healer or charlatan, believe me, he is not – this isn’t like the movie character Fletch trying to remove a migraine demon. His work requires some time and requires the client to do their “homework”, in some cases taking a period of months to achieve results, not necessarily curing the person but making a big change in their ability to move and to minimize pain. This also requires an open mind and the right attitude.
While much of the exercise and flexibility work we did was very familiar to me, focusing on an entire weekend of the various elements definitely provided a synergistic effect and I was moving much easier afterwards, with a greater feeling of overall relaxation.
If you want more information on Meir Schneider and his San Francisco school/clinic go to School for Self-Healing.
Get moving!
Brian Morgan