May 2026 Newsletter

Hello, and a magical May to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about how we know we're making progress. Enjoy!

When I first started going without my thick glasses for brief periods over 20 years ago, just to do simple safe things like taking a walk in my neighborhood, it felt like starting on the proverbial journey of a thousand miles. Was this small first step really doing any good? The eye chart didn't seem any clearer, and I still needed glasses for most tasks. I told myself, not quite believing it, that I was making progress, since I had never done anything without my glasses before except sleep and take a shower.

It was difficult for me to see myself as handicapped back then, since I was fit and capable in most other ways, with the glaring exception of my defective eyesight. Once I discovered it was possible to improve my vision, at least theoretically since others had done so, I wanted to make progress as fast as possible. My goal was to move what I viewed as a major personal flaw firmly into the past.

Once I believed I could improve my eyesight, I wanted to race ahead and make progress which left no doubt the process was working. With my high myopia, I could read without glasses or contacts if I held the book close, but anything farther away than a few feet was extremely blurry. I felt limited and insecure when depending only on my naked eyes, and realized improving my visual confidence would be a big part of this. As I did more without glasses, when running in the early morning before work, I made sure to greet the blurry vertical shapes at the ends of driveways, just in case they were other people and not mailboxes.

As my vision slowly improved, though it could vary wildly, my personal confidence increased too. Although I'd been an excellent student in the classroom, I'd often felt uncomfortable interacting with others who weren't teachers. I preferred reading a book over talking with most people. It dawned on me that reaching out into the distance with my visual system felt similar to reaching out my personality to interact with others. I was starting to want to connect to the environment around me, whether this was humanity or Nature, rather than needing to push myself to reach out. A positive response, be it clearer sight, or a smile, or birdsong, or sunshine on my face, led me to want to do more of this.

Setting strict eye-chart-measurable progress aside, my increase in visual confidence and a calmer mood would certainly count as progress, after being so anxious and self-doubting when I was younger. Another indication of progress was the major decrease in worrying about every little thing. Concerning my eyes, my periods of eyestrain were nearly gone, a reflection of the habit of taking breaks when needed instead of continuing to push my hard-working visual system to exhaustion. Improvements in visual skills other than acuity, like seeing deeper depth or richer colors or greater peripheral awareness were indications of progress too.

Even if your vision seems fine, it's likely it could be even better, whether after dark, or when reading small print, or in reduced eyestrain, or in using both eyes together. The good news is that there will always be something else to improve about your vision, more learning and growth ahead, more avenues to explore. Appreciate the progress you've already made, making sure to thank your visual system for getting you this far, then look forward to the eyesight adventures in your future. Can you spot something new today your eyes never saw before, or never saw so clearly? That's progress right there -- celebrate it!

To read about looking for signs of progress back when I was much newer at vision improvement, click here.

Have you wondered if my work could help you?
I'm now offering complimentary Discovery Session consultations of 20 minutes or so, for us to discuss what you're looking for in a coach, and to see whether you and I feel like a fit to work together formally. To schedule your Discovery Session, click here.

Do you want your own copy of future newsletters?
If a friend forwarded this to you, or you're reading it from Facebook or LinkedIn, this is a hit-or-miss method of receiving it, and you might not see it next time. If you'd like to be on my distribution list, you can join here. You can un-subscribe at any time. Thank you!

Please send me your questions and comments
Let me know what you've wondered about concerning energy medicine or vision or dreams. I'll be glad to write a short article addressing that topic. Thank you to those who have sent me questions, or see a question you asked me in a private session written about here. You're helping many other people! Enjoy the start of this merry merry month of May. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!