The goal of my last tip was explaining the importance of increasing your vision span.\u00a0 I told you that the easiest way to widen your vision span is to stop looking at a single word at a time and instead start learning how to look at chunks of words.\u00a0 I explained that once you learn how to interpret word chunks your eyes don\u2019t have to make as many eye fixations.\u00a0 From there I went on to describe how fewer eye fixations can translate into faster reading speeds.<\/p>\n
What I didn\u2019t touch upon though was the role your peripheral vision plays in learning to speed read.\u00a0 Your peripheral vision is more than your vision span.\u00a0 It encompasses everything that your eyes can see outside their main area of focus.<\/p>\n
Some of you might have had a reason to develop your peripheral vision.\u00a0 But this is more likely another thing that most of us simply take for granted.\u00a0 Chances are your vision span isn\u2019t very wide and neither is your peripheral vision.<\/p>\n
And that makes sense.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been reading the same way all of your life, you haven\u2019t really had any reason to expand your peripheral vision.\u00a0 But all that\u2019s going to change now that you\u2019re taking steps to increase your reading speed.<\/p>\n
You see, widening your peripheral vision is an important part of developing speed reading skills.\u00a0 When you expand your peripheral vision, you\u2019ll be able to see more of the words that appear horizontally to the left and to the right of your central area of focus and also more of the words that appear above and below that central area of focus.<\/p>\n
How do you enhance your peripheral vision?<\/p>\n
The answer is simple:\u00a0 Exercise.<\/p>\n
All day long your eyes are busy receiving visual stimuli and continually focusing and refocusing on whatever it is they\u2019re looking at.\u00a0 Even as you\u2019re sitting there listening to me, your eyes are working hard and you probably don\u2019t even realize it.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s doing a lot of that work are the six muscles attached to each of your eyes.\u00a0 These muscles control all of the movements your eyes make including the movements that make your eyes look up, down, and all around.\u00a0 Eye muscles also help your eyes focus on near objects and objects far away.<\/p>\n
The only time you ever really notice your eye muscles is when your eyes feel strained.\u00a0 Those eye twitches, watery eyes, and burning sensations are some of the signs that your eye muscles are tired and need a break.<\/p>\n
Just like any other muscle in your body, exercise helps your eye muscles gain strength and flexibility.\u00a0 And just like other muscles, there are specially designed exercises that help build eye muscles strength and flexibility.<\/p>\n
Why should you care about exercising your eye muscles?<\/p>\n
Because the only way you\u2019ll be reaching and sustaining reading speeds of 700word per minute and more is by exercising them.\u00a0 The stronger your eye muscles are, the more work they can handle before tiring.\u00a0 And the more flexible they are, the wider you can stretch your peripheral vision.<\/p>\n
Follow along as I teach you a simple eye exercise designed to help build eye muscle flexibility:<\/p>\n
To start, sit or stand and focus your vision straight ahead.\u00a0 Next stretch each hand out to the side like you used to do when pretending you were an airplane.\u00a0 Stick each thumb up towards the sky and hold that pose.<\/p>\n
Now, keeping your head straight, move your eyes to the right until you can see your thumb.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t quite see it, just stretch your eyes as far to the right side as you can.\u00a0 Then glance to the left while making sure you keep your head still and facing straight ahead.\u00a0 Continue glancing right to left and left to right nine more times.\u00a0 Repeat the sequence of 10 glances to each side for a total of three sets.\u00a0 That\u2019s it!<\/p>\n
Video Version of Post
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