Are You Visually Impaired?

The visually impaired and the blind who are unable to work are able to receive Social Security Disability benefits. There are two different benefit programs that are offered to the visually impaired and those who do not qualify for one are generally able to qualify for the other, and some people are even able to qualify for both programs.

The first program is called Social Security Disability Insurance or SSDI and this is based on the work history of the individual. In order to qualify for this program, the individual had to have earned a certain amount of what are referred to as work credits. The SSA will then figure up the amount of benefits the individual is eligible to receive based on those work credits.

The other program is called Social Security Income or SSI. This program is not based on work credits, but there are particular financial requirements that the individual must meet in order to qualify for this program. This program is a great option for those who do not have enough work credits to qualify for SSDI.

However, if you or someone you know is visually impaired and does not qualify for Social Security Disability benefits, it may be possible for them to work somewhere that will accommodate their disability. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are employment options for disabled people that will allow them to be self-sufficient and live as independently as possible.

Unfortunately, there are many forms of visual impairments that cannot be improved or reversed. However, there are many that can be improved and even prevented altogether by taking steps that will boost your eye health and vision and even ward off certain vision problems.

Whether or not you know that you could suffer from visual impairments in the future, you should do everything you can to ensure your eyes will stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible. There are many ways you can do this:

Eat eye healthy foods – Fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and fish are not only good foods to eat for your overall health, but they are also excellent for strengthening your eyesight.

Do eye exercises – to improve certain vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatisms, and even a combination of those eye problems. They are easy to do and only take a few minutes of each day to do in order to begin to have a positive effect on your eyesight.

Get regular eye exams – This is an important step to take. Having your eyes examined on a regular basis – every two years in most cases – is essential for making sure that there are no issues with your eyes or your vision, and if there are issues, they can be detected early on so they can be treated right away before any major damage or other issues arise.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Believe iin Eye Exercises

Believe in Eye Exercises

Albert Einstein once said: "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle."

Life is a miracle; even your breath is a miracle in itself. To live your life as if everything is a miracle, you need to believe it in the first place.

In life, everything has to do with your belief. If you believe you can do it, you will do it and can do it. Belief comes from your mind. Descartes, the famous French philosopher, rightly said: "I think, therefore I am." That is to say, everything is in your mind, and your mind comes from your thoughts that give you the reality. Therefore, if you think you can, you can; if you think you cannot, then you cannot. It's just that simple. 

My point is: if you believe that eye exercises can improve your vision, then they can. Your eyes are just like the rest of your body organs that deteriorate with misuse or lack of use. If you seldom walk, you will end up in a wheel chair sooner than later. If you don't exercise your eyes, your vision will deteriorate with age faster and sooner. If you don't let your eyes rest -- in particular, if you spend hours and hours in front of the computer screen or your i-pad, you will develop eyestrain that ultimately damages your vision.

In reality, do eye exercises work? Yes, definitely! But you may not see the immediate result -- just like lack of physical exercise may not let you see the result instantly. It's like the fable of the frog in a heated pot: the frog would not notice the heat being turned up until it is too late. Believe me, all eye exercise not only improve your vision but also prevent your vision from deteriorating due to age. Believe in eye exercises as if everything is a miracle.

My book: As IfEverything Is A Miracle provides guidelines on how to rethink the mind, renew the body, and reconnect the soul so that you may believe as if everything is a miracle.

The body perceives all sensations and experiences in the physical world. The mind interprets and registers them in the subconscious mind, which controls the conscious mind in its daily life choices and decisions, resulting in actions, non-actions, and reactions of the body in the physical world. The soul feeds the mind with spirituality that provides connection and interconnection with others through empathy and compassion, gratitude and generosity, as well as love and forgiveness. The body, the mind, and the soul—all play a pivotal role in wisdom in contemporary living. The essence of this wisdom is their “alignment” with one another for balance and harmony in the being of an individual.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

How I Overcame My Vision Problems

Many years ago, I was afflicted with myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune disease affecting the skeletal (voluntary) muscles of the body. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness, which affects my vision.

One of the main causes of myasthenia gravis is stress. I did not know how to relax myself.

According to the diagnosis, I had developed ocular symptoms: ptosis (drooping of eyelids) and diplopia (double vision) in my myasthenia gravis. Both of my eyelids drooped, as if my eyes were tired, and I could not open my eyes wide enough to see properly.

At first, I was prescribed pyridostigmine (mestinon) as the usual first-line treatment for my immune disorder.

After several months, my conditions did not improve. I was given another prescription, prednisone, a synthetic hormone commonly referred to as a “steroid,” for my myasthenia gravis. Prednisone acts as a long-term immunosuppressant to control the production of antibodies. Essentially, it serves to stabilize my so-called “overactive” immune system.

The adverse side effects of prednisone for my myasthenia gravis included decreased resistance to infection, indigestion, hypertension, weight gain, swelling of the face, thinning of skin, predisposition to osteoporosis, and potential development of cataracts and glaucoma. The long list was not only depressing but also frightening. I was worried that I would have to take my medications for the rest of my life, not just for my myasthenia gravis but also for the many side effects related to the drugs, such as bone loss, weight gain, and high blood pressure, among others.

After almost two years on prednisone, my neurologist, seeing there was little improvement in my myasthenia gravis, switched me to azathioprine, a drug supposedly with fewer side effects. However, that medication did not seem to have any positive effect on my symptoms, let alone my double vision. Naturally, I became frustrated.

Now, when I look back at the whole episode, I would think that my illness might have been a blessing in disguise. Everything happens in one’s life with a divine purpose. In many ways, I was grateful that I had the illness—which has changed my life forever and for the better. I began to learn how to take care of my health, and I knew I had to do it on my own.

I made a decision to change drastically my diet, accompanied by a regular fast,  in an attempt to discontinue all my medications ultimately. The initial results were encouraging. Instead of gaining weight, I had lost more than fifteen pounds; instead of jacking up my blood pressure, I had made it plummet. I had won my initial battle against all the adverse side effects of medications for my myasthenia gravis. I knew that I had to do more—much more than that. My rude awakening finally came: there was no miracle cure for my myasthenia gravis; only my wholesome wellness would bring about recovery and natural self-healing.

Slowly and gradually, I discontinued all my medications. Finally, I did it! Now, I am 100 percent drug free!

To eliminate double vision, the doctor recommended wearing an eye-patch over my weaker eye. But I did not entertain the idea of wearing an eye-patch—looking like a pirate of the Caribbean Sea. Besides, wearing an eye-patch would not solve my problem of double vision. There is a Chinese saying: “Cut your toes to avoid the worms.” I thought that was precisely what the doctor recommended: getting around the problem instead of solving it. I also recalled that early on, when my muscles were weak and I asked him for recommended remedy, he told me not to use those weak muscles. I disagreed with the doctor; instead, I exercised my weaker muscles until they became much stronger.

That was how I began my journey of self-healing.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Eye Palming to Relax the Eye

Eye Palming to Relax the Eye

This unique eye-relaxation exercise uses your healing hands to direct energy to your eyes, as well as to rest your optic nerve and relax your entire nervous system.

Unlike sleep, which is unconscious and passive relaxation, palming is conscious and active relaxation. Therefore, palming is one of the best exercises for eye relaxation.

Practice palming at least for 10 to 30 minutes per session for three or more sessions daily to completely relax your eyes. Even at work, you can palm your eyes for 2 minutes, if possible, to relieve your eyestrain from the computer.

Sit comfortably with your elbows resting on a table in front of you—preferably in a darkened room, such as a bathroom without any window.

Rub your palms together to generate some warmth.

Place your palms over your eyes, without touching them, while resting them on the boney ridge surrounding your eyes with the heels of your hands on your cheekbones. Your eyes should be gently

Relax your mind, and breathe deeply through your nose, not your mouth. The slower your breathing is, the more relaxed your mind becomes.

Feel your abdomen and back expand and contract as you inhale and exhale, respectively.

Visualize complete darkness to relax your mind.

Feel your neck and shoulders expand and contract as your deep and slow breathing continues.

Visualize every part of your body—hands, fingers, toes, knees, and thighs—expand and contract with your inhalation and exhalation.

 

Practice eye palming whenever you feel fatigue in your eyes. It is impossible to palm for too long or for too much; some palm for hours to reap the benefits of both relaxation and meditation. If you feel any resistance to palming, it may probably be due to your subconscious resistance to relaxation. If you become more relaxed, you will see complete blackness. However, it is all right if you do not see complete blackness; just continue with your daily palming exercise.

Remember, we are living in a stressful world, and many of us simply cannot relax, even if we very much would like to. Attesting to the inability to relax, many of us easily and often stare without blinking—and, worse, without being aware of it. As a result, our vision slowly and gradually deteriorates over the years. 

Do not let a day pass by without palming your eyes.

The “8” eye exercise

Do the following “8” eye exercise as often as required to relax your eye muscles as well to increase their flexibility.

Sit comfortably in a relaxed posture.

Consciously breathe in and breathe out through your nose until you attain a natural rhythm.

Imagine the figure “8” in the distance.

Let your eyes trace along the imaginary figure without moving your head.

First, trace it in one direction, and then in the opposite direction.

You can modify the exercise by imagining other alphabets and figures. The objective of this exercise, in addition to promoting relaxation and flexibility, is to train your eyes to consciously shift when focusing on an object in the distance.

The Taoist squeeze-and-open eye exercise

This ancient Chinese exercise developed by Taoist monks thousands of years ago increases blood circulation to the eyes, prevents watery eyes, and alkalizes the eyes to detoxify the liver. It removes eyestrain and soothes eye-muscle tension.

Inhale slowly, while squeezing your eyes tightly for 10 seconds.

Then, slowly exhale your breath, making the sh-h-h-h-h sound, while opening your eyes wide.

Repeat as many times and as often as required to cleanse the eyes and the liver.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Your Liver and Your Vision

The liver is an important body organ that plays a pivotal part in your vision health. The liver serves several important functions in your body that may directly or indirectly affect your vision health:

Carbohydrate metabolism

The liver turns glucose (blood sugar) into glycogen (energy) for storage in your liver. 

Your glycogen controls the amount of glucose released into your bloodstream, thereby maintaining your blood sugar level. A healthy blood sugar level prevents the development of diabetes, which often impairs vision.

In addition, a healthy liver regulates your food carbohydrate metabolism, which plays an important role in weight control—another contributing factor to diabetes.

Fat metabolism

The liver is a fat-burning organ: it not only burns fat but also pumps excess fat our of your body system. Your liver controls your body weight. Too much fat in the abdominal area may impair your fat metabolism, turning your liver into a “fatty liver,” which then becomes a fat-storing organ. A “fatty liver” is an obstacle to any attempt at weight loss, which begins at the liver.

If you are obese, you have a much higher risk of losing your eyesight, according to the Royal Institute for the Blind. For example, too much body fat is one of the causes of diabetes; too much fat may cause oxidative damage to the eye in the form of macular degeneration.

Dietary cholesterol and toxin removal

A healthy liver detoxifies your body by filtering out excess waste products and toxins in your body through the bile into the gut. For example, it deactivates alcohol, hormonesand medicinal drugs for better assimilation. Alcohol and certain pharmaceutical drugs have been implicated in vision loss.

Always eat a high-fiber diet to facilitate elimination in order to prevent these toxic waste products from re-circulating back to your liver. Chronic constipation may damage your liver, and thus your eyes.

Storage for nutrients

The liver stores glycogen, vitamins A and D, the B complex vitamins, iron and copper, which are important nutrients for healthy eyes.

Apart from the brain, the liver is the most important body organ that affects your vision. A healthy liver holds the key to healthy vision.

Your Golden Years and Santa Claus explains why it is important to prevent your vision loss for happy and successful aging in the golden years. Learn to think like Santa Claus in order to overcome memory loss and other mental problems as you continue to age, as well as to change your perspectives of health, money, and spiritual issues encountered in your golden years.

Stephen Lau

Copyright © Stephen Lau

Don't Over-Stress Yourself

CONTROL AND OVER-DOING

Controlling external events is futility because control is but an illusion based on expected results projected by the thinking mind into the future. Concentration on controlling makes it difficult to concentrate on doing the right things to make you live longer.

The TAO, which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the ancient sage from China, looks upon the world as something to be accepted, and that involves invoking the profound but paradoxical wisdom of “action through inaction”—which is action based on acceptance of nature or the natural turn of events in life.

“Whenever we try to control,

we separate ourselves from our true nature.

Man proposes; the Creator disposes.

Life is sacred: it flows exactly as it should.

Trusting in the Creator, we return to our breathing,

natural and spontaneous, without conscious control.

In the same manner:

sometimes we have more,

sometimes we have less;

sometimes we exert ourselves,

sometimes we pull back;

sometimes we succeed,

sometimes we fail.

Trusting in the Creator, we see the comings and goings of things,

but without straining and striving to control them.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 29)

According to the TAO, everything in life must follow a natural cycle, whether we like it or not, and that we must be patient because nothing is within our control, especially our destinies.

”That which shrinks
must first expand.
That which fails,
must first be strong.
That which is cast down
must first be raised.
Before receiving, there must be giving.
This is called perception of the nature of things.
Soft and weak overcome hard and strong.”
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 36)

Spontaneity is the essence of the natural cycle. What goes up must eventually come down; life begets death; day is followed by night—just like the cycle of the four seasons.

"Allowing things to come and go,

following their natural laws,

we gain everything.

Straining and striving,

we lose everything."

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 48)

Intuition of spontaneity is an understanding of the impermanence of all things: nothing lasts no matter how we strive to keep the impermanent permanent, and everything remains only with that very present moment.

"Strong winds come and go.

So do torrential rains.

Even heaven and earth cannot make them last forever."

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te  Ching, chapter 23)

The bottom line: do what needs to be done, but without over-doing, which causes stress in everyday life and living.

THE TAO OF LIVING LONGER

THE COMPLETE TAO TE CHING IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Stephen Lau                             

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Aging and Vision

Change in vision is an obvious sign of aging. Decades of slow and subtle changes in vision have resulted in gradual loss of vision.

Hardening of the lens is the most obvious sign of vision deterioration. You begin to experience difficulty in seeing clearly objects within 2 feet. This usually occurs when one is over 40 years old. As you continue to age, the lens stiffens, making the eye hard to focus on objects that are too close. You may ignore the problem; however, ultimately, wearing reading glasses is inevitable to overcome presbyopia, which is stiffening of the lens. Eye exercise is important to delay the condition or to prevent it from worsening. If you exercise your body, you should also exercise your eyes to give them flexibility, which is the solution to hardening of the lens. If conditions continue to get worse, you might even have to take off your reading glasses when you read.

Another major change in vision due to aging is the inability to see in dim light. Vision is possible only when light passes through the lens to the retina at the back of the eye. Through years of wear and tear, your lens becomes denser and less sensitive. This insensitivity reduces the amount of light getting to the retina. To illustrate, on average, a 60-year-old person needs 3 times more light to read than a young adult. This explains why you may react more slowly to changes in light. In addition, if you have developed cataract, which is a cloudy condition of the eye, you may have increasing sensitivity to glare when driving at night.

Perception of colors is also another change as you continue to age. The explanation is that your lens tends to become yellowish somewhat. You may have problem reading black letters against a blue background or, reading blue letters.

Other vision-related problems include floaters, which are tiny solidified fluids within the eye, and dry eyes due to decline in tear-production cells.

Vision changes are inevitable as aging continues. To alleviate vision problems, eat a healthy diet that supplies nutrients to the eyes. For example, you can use diet to overcome macular degeneration. Albert Einstein once said: "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." Believe in a miracle cure, even for macular degeneration. In addition, do simple eye exercises that can be performed any time throughout the day. Of course, don’t spend too much time in front of the computer. Stress also plays a pivotal role in damaging the eyes. In short, you need a holistic approach to vision health. Finally, don’t wear your eyeglasses or contact lens all the time: they precondition your vision; your eyes should have flexibility in close as well as faraway vision.  

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Vision Problems in the Golden Years

As you get into your golden years (that is 65 and beyond)), you will have noticed the deterioration of your vision. As a matter of fact, vision loss begins as early as in the 30s, and its deterioration accelerates in the 40s and 50s. Now, if you are already in your golden years, you might have much impaired vision, especially they could have been aggravated by your decline in health, such as getting diabetes. Getting older will take its toll on your body in many ways and your eyesight is just one thing that will start to deteriorate with age.

Some of the obvious signs and symptoms of vision deterioration are: difficulty in focusing (slower and less accurate)—a condition known as presbyopia, which is caused by the hardening of the eyes’ lenses; difficulty in seeing either long or short distances--conditions known as either nearsightedness or farsightedness.

Presbyopia will result in difficulty to read or doing work that requires accurate focus; nearsightedness or farsightedness may require you to wear bifocals or different eyeglasses.

Other problematic issues with vision loss include an increased risk of age-related eye diseases, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts. These problems can lead to severe eyesight issues if they are not taken care of immediately.

In your golden years, take extra care of your vision health and eyesight issues to reduce the risk of blindness further down the road. Check your health, especially your eye health, on a regular basis. This may play a pivotal role in preventing further deterioration or even blindness. Prevention is always better than a cure.

Make sure that you have eye tests done at least twice a year and if you start to notice a decline in your ability to focus or see clearly.

To correct your vision problem, many eye doctors and opticians are quick to prescribe corrective lenses or even talk about the possibility of having surgery to fix any vision problem.  The advice here is think carefully before you make a decision.

Consider the use of eye exercises to help correct nearsightedness, farsightedness or presbyopia. Eye exercises are easy and simple to do and you can even do them in your own home. A few exercises each day can really help to improve your vision significantly. However, it is important to be consistent and persevering in your eye exercise regimen (this applies to any physical exercise as well). Curing your vision loss is not an overnight endeavor.

Most vision problems, whether nearsightedness, farsightedness, or presbyopia, have to do with eye stress and strain affecting the shape of the eyes, and hence their capability to focus correctly. Of course, the eyes cannot be relaxed if the body and mind are not.

If you are in your golden years, it is important to have a holistic approach to your health and wellness, which is the wisdom in happy and successful aging.

Your Golden Years and Santa Claus shows you the wisdom in happy and successful aging in the golden years. It is a holistic and comprehensive approach to dealing with vision loss and other health issues, as well as changes and challenges, encountered late in life.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau