The Relationship Between Thoughts, Emotions and Eyesight

Today’s Q&A column features two questions about eyesight and vision. One question is from a young woman experiencing macular degeneration and the other is from a parent concerned about her child’s poor vision. It felt right to answer both questions with one answer. If you’d like to learn more about improving your vision, it’s critical to understand how thoughts and emotions relate to eyesight.

Q: I found you because of your story about macular degeneration and I really found it inspiring. I have the same problem in my left eye and it is getting worse. Because of my stress and panic, I could not have my last injection. And my doctor says it won’t help me for getting rid of this disease. Can you please send me links, where can i start?

Q: My daughter is three and half years old. She has a very low visual response since her birth. At the time of her birth even she did not use to respond light. We had consulted many doctors after birth, all docs said that she will be ok when she will grow old. When she was 8 months old, doctors did the test for eye and told us that she had pale optic nerve, and instructed us to give her good diet she will be all right with the passage of time.

At one and half year of age they did MRI of brain and said that there is not any abnormality in brain, everything is normal like a normal child. At about 2 year of age doctors again did the test of eye and came out with a result that now optic nerve became normal and has healthy pink colour, they gave us glasses after first test and told us that show colourful things to her so that her mind get some practice and her brain can learn how to see.

Now we are in China (Xian) and here also we consulted doctors they are also saying that inside eye, cornea, optic nerve everything is normal, they also gave us glasses and said that show her colourful objects etc.plz tell me in this case, Is there any cure ??

A: In my experience, I have found that seeing is not just a physical process, but it very much encompasses the mind, heart and spirit. I consider the following elements to be essential for amazing vision:

  1. Physical
  2. Energy
  3. Thoughts
  4. Emotions
  5. Spirit

5ElementsEyeLabels
Too often, the focus is solely upon the physical body, but it is the interplay of all five elements that influence how well we can see. This is why it is considered so difficult by many to improve one’s eyesight. It’s because when vision is severely impaired (e.g. severe nearsightedness/farsightedness, astigmatism, other eye diseases), there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. BTW, yes, I’m going to stuff this article with as many eye puns as eye can. See how many you can spot!

In general terms, the worse your eyesight, the more baggage you’ve got. And for those not familiar with the idiom of baggage, I’m referring to past emotional trauma, limiting beliefs and though patterns, fear, judgment, etc.

Of course, in the case of a young child, they don’t carry around the complexities that adults do. I believe there are two primary causes for vision problems in children.

  • Weak Yuan Qi
  • Sensitivity to the world around them, which most likely involves their parents

With regards to weak Yuan Qi, you can read more about this in an article I wrote on congenital heart defects. The gist of it is that a child with a birth defect was born with less Qi (life force energy) than the average healthy child. As far as I’m concerned, focusing on this is a moot point because the focus should be instead on strengthening the child’s Qi to help them develop as normally as possible.

I definitely have boatloads to write about the second point and I find I am gingerly stepping here because what this essentially boils down to is that we, as parents, influence the health of our children. This goes beyond the physical (e.g. activities, singing to babies, diet, exercise), but also encompasses the thoughts, emotions, energy and environment that surround our kids.

How a Parent’s Energy, Emotions, and Words Influence a Child’s Health

When our energy is fragmented and disconnected, when we are not healthy, when we stress, when we worry, etc., our children pick up on it. My son is so sensitive that it’s a huge trauma when he can’t break apart two pieces of Lego. Small things can throw off a child’s world and we may not even be aware of it.

When my son was about a year old, he pooped in his diapers five times in one day. By the fifth diaper change, I exclaimed with a big sigh, “Oh my god, you pooped again!” The entire next day, he failed to have a bowel movement. Then, I realized my exasperated remark that seemed fairly benign to me, had actually been internalized by my son to the point where it manifested in his body as constipation.

Once I realized this, I quickly explained how there was nothing wrong with him pooping, and that I was just surprised that he had gone so many times in one day. He went back to normal shortly after that.

Thus, you can see how small things can affect a child. In the case of vision, if a child’s parents are constantly worried and focused on the child not being able to see, the child will likely pick up on this negative energy. If doctors are always probing and examining, a child may start to wonder what is wrong with them.

My general rule of thumb when it comes to listening to a doctor’s prognosis is this: If they tell you there’s no cure and you’re doomed for life, don’t listen.

If on the other hand, multiple doctors are telling you that your child is fine, her condition will improve and that she is developing normally, then EMBRACE this diagnosis. By focusing on the contrary and what she can’t see, you are telling her on a subconscious level that YOU don’t believe she will see normally. If her own parents do not believe, how can she have a chance to believe she can see?

Make a child’s world feel as safe and stable as possible. Fill it with lots and lots of unconditional love and acceptance. Believe in your heart that she is perfect. Tell her she is strong, healthy and that you believe in her.

Why Vision Deteriorates

While there may or may not be a genetic predisposition to poor vision, there is likely an emotional root that causes normal vision to deteriorate. This may be a past trauma from childhood. As I mentioned above, the slightest thing can completely turn my son’s world upside down. When he was two, he would be in complete frustration because he couldn’t slide a piece of paper in the crack between the couch cushions. It was a feeling of a lack of control over his environment.

Based on how such simple things can affect a child, you can imagine how truly upsetting a traumatic event could be for a child (e.g. pet dying, parents divorcing/fighting, loved one becomes ill, etc). Children stop seeing to protect themselves from seeing the upheaval or lack of stability in their lives.

As adults, when our vision declines, it’s time to face the music and see what it is in our lives that is making us so miserable that our eyesight starts deteriorating. Only then, can you start to truly turn it around.

In the case of macular degeneration, one loses the central focus, which is the ability to see directly in front of them. This suggests an emotional cause that is literally right before your eyes, but you’re doing your darndest to NOT see it.

I find this is usually related to two things:

  1. Something is really shitty in your life. I don’t usually swear, but this is the most appropriate word to convey what I mean. This shitty, craptastic, awful thing in your life is simultaneously coupled with a staunch refusal to admit that your life is not where you want it to be or a willingness to do something about it.
  2. You are really amazing, but you are not realizing your potential.

In the first case, some examples could include a close relationship that is not serving you or a career that you despise. You could be, do, or have so much more, but it’s not happening because you’re holding yourself back because of fear.

You see how complicated this vision thing gets?

Chinese Reflexology to See Better Naturally

Are there reflexology points to support healthy vision? Of course! You can read about locating and massaging the reflexology point for the eye in this article on How to Reverse Age-Related Vision Problems and Start Seeing Clearly Again. I also wrote about 5 Simple Habits to Improve Eyesight Naturally.

While the eye point is beneficial, I believe that in order for someone to make a significant shift in their vision, they have to change their life.

You can start by asking two questions:

  1. What do I not like about my life?
  2. What unrealized potential do I have that I am not pursuing?

Seeing significant shifts in your vision begins when you change what you don’t like and start creating what you do like.

Wishing You Amazing Health, Vitality and Amazing Vision,

Holly

4 thoughts on “The Relationship Between Thoughts, Emotions and Eyesight”

  1. Quite interesting. I know that sight involves a great deal of learning (we start with the wiring, but our brain has to learn how to use it), so it makes sense that multiple factors could affect how well we learn. And nutrition makes a lot of sense as well, as the system needs to be healthy. Chinese medicine holds so much that is completely outside the frame of reference for those of us brought up on Western medicine or even naturopathy.

    1. I love how you mention the importance of learning as it relates to sight. Have you heard of the study about the kittens who were kept in a box with only vertical stripes to see? They were unable to process visual stimuli normally. Hopefully, they’re not doing studies like that anymore.

  2. I agree, some of this is to do with diet. We’re having a game getting our middle child to eat something more than carrots, but we’re getting there with him, slowly! Of course, carrots are still on the plate, but now so is broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and to his delight, a pair of glasses 🙂

  3. Holly, thank you for taking 3 hours to write this article! I just find your content so fascinating and I love that you share a very integrated approach to healing our bodies.

    Have those who have gone through your vision program improve their vision?

Comments are closed.