She was 30 years old and a successcul lawyer in Manhattan. Her full strength prescription was -7.00 in both eyes, and she started wearing glasses at the age of 6.

I noticed she had difficulty seeing a swing, and her eyes were like stones in her head, not moving at all. She hardly ever blinked, and of course held her breath any time she tried to concentrate.

She could feel the strain in her eyes, and had an overall feeling of "holding back." I asked her to experience the strain in her eyes rather than block it out.

I asked her if she could let go of her eyes, and she said "I don't know." i told her to feel her eyes, and to answer from her eyes and not her reasoning mind. I could see she wanted to say, "no!" but was inhibited. After all the self help books and classes she had read, she thought the right answer was, "yes, I can let go" but her body told her "no! I can't let go!" She was afraid to trust her body over what she thought she should do. Her mind was as blurred by trying to hold two opinions at once as her eyes were from trying to see two points at once.

I told her the right answer was not what she thought it should be, but the clear answer her body told her. The correct answer could be either yes or no but not maybe.

She struggled to say no, but couldn't do it. I asked her if her name was Mary, knowing it was not. She said, "no!" I asked her if she was a doctor, she said, "no!" I asked her to shout "no!" at the top of her lungs, to do it a few times. She did.

I asked her if she could let go of her eye strain, and she yelled, "no!"

I asked if she'd be willing to let go of her eyes and she very firmly, confidently, yet calmly, said "no."

I asked her what she thought would happen in she did let go of her eyes. She smiled as if she were caught stealing a cookie and said, "I feel like if I let go of my eyes, they will fall out of the eye socket."

I asked: "That's how you feel. Do you think they will fall out?"

She shook her head and said, "no!"

I then asked her how much strain there was in her eyes and she said, "it's gone." A nice, smooth swing soon followed and she read a two-three lines down on the eye chart with her new found swinging skill.

If ever there was a wrong thought, it is: If I let go of my eyes, they will fall out. Many people with contact lenses believe if they let go of their eyes the lenses will fall out. Not true.

The terror. the terror. It's amazing to me how fear controls so much of human life. I mean, if you wanted to you could go all day being afraid of the sky falling down - or maybe just the roof in your living room.
I haven't experienced any thoughts of my eyes falling out, but it's an intriguing persepctive.

Robert, I really like these stories, & am hoping you put them in a book someday! When I first went to my behavioral optometrist in 2001 he pointed out that there was a lot of tension around my eyes. I think that's still true, as today when I did the chart I paid attention to my face. The familiar right temple soreness which I can sometimes release seems to be the outward edge of a soreness deep in the right back side of my skull, so I massaged that a lot today. Also, there seems to be some tension around my jaw, so I wiggled it gently back & forth a lot -- I've noticed a catch here if I'm really straining in the gym sometimes doing biceps or triceps, & have really tried to avoid it there but can't always.

If I let go of the tension around my eyes one irrational fear I just discovered is that something will sneak up on me. I seem to feel I have to be in a constant state of wariness, ready to defend myself or something. Guess I need to work on trust...
(also copying this to my blog)