FIRST PRINCIPLES OF RELAXATION FOR BETTER VISION: MEMORY OR MENTAL

PICTURES

The secret of all relaxation lies in the mind; pleasant, happy memories bring relaxation. This was

vividly demonstrated by one of my pupils. She was in deepest sorrow at the death of her

husband to whom she had been most devoted. She told me that the only surcease she could get

from devastating grief was when she was reading the diary she had kept for years, reliving, in

memory, the happy days together before tragedy struck. These mental pictures of happy events

and companionship gave her the nerve ease and relaxation that enabled her to go on. Not only

sorrow but any tension or worry is released by interesting, happy memories. A musician would

enjoy reliving a very successful concert or mentally going over the score of his favorite concerto.

A typist might enjoy typing in memory a well-known verse or lyric, even a nursery rhyme. A

golfer would have fun repeating in memory his most successful round of golf. A seamstress

might enjoy recalling all the different kinds of fabrics and textures she could bring to mind as she

passed her fingers across them. She could also think of some she had worked up into beautiful

costumes. Memory pictures whenever you are nervous, tired or bored (all forms of tension), will

bring release. Do not underestimate the discovery that memory brings relaxation. In time of need,

try it, and always do it when you palm.

Suppose you are too tired or miserable to recall a happy memory. Then do something mechanical

in your memory instead. Draw some pictures! You are no artist? Pretend you have a large white

sheet of paper and a pencil. Draw in the upper corner of the paper a one inch square. Now, beside

that, draw the square standing on its corner. Next, draw an oblong, long top and base, short ends.

Repeat the oblong but this time standing it on end. How about a triangle in different positions?

Then a circle. Now it would be interesting to combine your pictures. Put a circle inside the square,

on the tip of your triangle, on the edge of your oblong, or inside it. Could you imagine the small

circle inside your oblong rolling from one short end down to the other and back? Not too thrilling,

all this? But if you will try it, you will get your reaction—and that is what you want.

Whenever possible, palm while indulging in memory.

I once had a despondent, neurotic ex-sheriff come to me for help. I tried to find some mental

pictures that would release his tension while he palmed. "You are from the desert, you must have

had a horse you loved," I suggested. "Yes," he answered, "but they shot it out from under me!"

"You have a family?" I pursued. "They are all dead," he answered miserably. "Many times you

must have ridden across the desert enjoying the sweep of the horizon and distant mountains."

"No, I was watching every shrub and hillock for an ambush." "But you have slept out under the

stars in the clear desert nights," I ventured. "Oh yes," he answered with enthusiasm, "I love the

stars and nowhere are they so beautiful as on the desert." He then told me about his favorite stars

and where they could be found at different times. When he had finished and had taken his hands

from his eyes, he was like a different person, eyes bright, face smoothed out and ready for his

lesson.

If you search, you too can find some happy memory that will relax you.

Try it!

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