I can’t thank enough my brother Max Spiker and author Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D. for giving my eyesight back (see my previous post).  It feels so incredible!  Each day, I feel spurs of joy when I start seeing something new.  A few nights ago, for the first time I saw a Big Dipper, and the sky filled with the brightest stars.  I see more and more stars now.  All without my glasses!  Even nights became brighter.  Now, I started to see smaller street signs, numbers on mail boxes, a menu board at Starbucks.  Each new seeing is a victory.  According to the eye chart, I went from 20/200 to 20/30 in two weeks.  Now into 2 and a half weeks, I read 20/25 line, and saw 4 letters in 20/20 line.  I left my eyeglasses and I did not put them on since I started this journey.  I even drove through a little fog and in the rain day and night without glasses.  Interestingly, rain made my vision even more clearer.

My vision is not constant yet, but I have longer and longer periods of great seeing.  One blink – I see everything absolutely clearly, another blink – it becomes a little blurry (but nothing like it used to be), a third blink – all clear again.  When outdoors and in the car, I see it better than being inside in the artificial light.  Sometimes, I see double or triple, but with adjusting blink it goes to normal again.  When that happens, I think it would be neat to capture what I see on the camera:  like a triple moon or a handsome double guy.  LOL!  It all depends on light, my mood, my thoughts, how I react to people’s conversations.  If a person is stressed out, I find myself putting blur blinds because I feel that person’s energy, and I do not like it.  If the person is excited and enthusiastic, my vision becomes really clear.  The same is with my thoughts.  If I get excited, the vision becomes really clear.  If I start to worry about something, the blur comes back.  The blur is not like used to be, though.  I used to see only fog.  Therefore, when I would get up, I would automatically put glasses on.  Not anymore.  When I wake up, in the first minutes, my vision becomes clearer and clearer (especially in the last few days, as at first it would take 15 minutes to half an hour for vision to clear).  Also, if I stress to see, it does not work.  If I relax and breathe, I see so much better.  Interestingly, the faces I start to see are so smooth.  Still have a hard time to see them in a distance, but I’m working on it.  Again, outside I see them so much better than inside in the low light.

This experience is unbelievable, and I am determined to have a perfect vision.  I can’t believe I do not need glasses and contacts anymore.  Without glasses, I feel as if somebody lit up my world.  It is not everything about my vision either.  The whole outlook changes.  I feel like I am peeling blur layers one at the time.

First layer of blur is fear.  Some people are afraid to try this.  How can anybody go out in the world when all they see is blur?  Self-doubt sets in.  “What ifs” will boggle the mind.  I dove into this experience straight without any doubt.  If author could do it, so can I.  Bravery, determination, and persistence came into my world.

Second layer of blur is self-constriction and staying in the known.  Some people think, “It is great for you, but I’ll wear my glasses anyway.  I just got my new prescription.”   Although it was unfamiliar to me, I had no doubt I’ll succeed.  I opened doors widely to a new possibility of seeing, and I am succeeding.  Freedom came into play.  If I just breathe and relax, I see better.  If I stretch, freely dance, I see better, too.  When I dance, I express myself more through freeing motions.  I feel music with all my senses.  I let it flow through every fiber of my body.

Third layer of blur is a “wall of protection” (that’s huge for me).  To be safe, we often do not take chances.  When people hurt us, we start not to trust anybody.  We build a wall.  It is all about our thoughts and emotions.  Early memories might flow in, the way we felt before we needed glasses:  What we did not want to see, could not see a way out, did not understand.  I used to be really shy.  I did not trust anybody, including myself.  So, it might be one of the reasons why I had difficulty to see faces.  Right now, I’m re-framing my mind and the faces I see are so soft.  They become more clearer each day.  All it takes is to be open.

Life is incredible and I love seeing it without constricting glasses, fears, and self-limiting beliefs.  I want to see more, experience more, touch and feel more.  My self-expression is wide open.  Anything is possible, even a miracle of seeing, if we persist and really believe.

See how it all started: Seeing Miracle

See my latest update here: Mind over Body

Miracles do happen when we believe in them.  They are occurring every day, if we open our eyes to see it.  Literally…

My incredible brother suggested that what if I would take my glasses off and see.  I thought, “Are you out of your mind? I am blind without them!”  Then he told me about this book Take Off Your Glasses and See.  That sounded intriguing,  so I went to Barnes & Noble.  I asked at the desk, “Where can I find “Take off Your Glasses and See?” The lady looked at me offensively and said, “I beg you pardon?” She was wearing glasses.   Giggling inside, I bought the book.

As I started reading it, I could not put it down.  It all made sense.  I took my glasses off and start seeing the world.  It is only sixth day, and I am already driving without glasses day and night.  Every day, I am seeing more and more.  It is incredible!  I am living a miracle!

I wore glasses for around 24 years.  I thought I was doomed to wear glasses for all my life.  At first I hated them.  Then I got used to them.  Then I got contact lenses, and I loved lenses more.  I had no idea that our vision can be improved or restored.  Many people go as far as to get Laser surgery, when our eyesight can be improved naturally!!!

It is not only about vision.  It is about our mind and body connection!  It is about when we put our “blur blinds” on, what we are not willing to see, what we are afraid to face, what we do not understand.  It is about traumas in our lives and how we react to them.  It is about our fears, our hidden feelings, about how we see the world.  Eyeglasses and lenses are only our visual crutches.  We can see through them better, but they do not help to see and deal with reality.  It is like living behind the glass that makes everything smaller (if we have nearsightedness).  It is like living in aquarium with bottled up feelings.

It takes a courage to take off glasses and to have an open mind.  Eyeglasses, especially when we wear them for a long time, becomes our security blanket.  We see what we know, and what we know gives us comfort.  It is pretty scary to be without glasses when all we see is blur.  It is like walking in the unknown.  The miraculous change occurs if we are brave enough to keep glasses off.  We start seeing more clearly.  We got to be patient though.  It depends on our mental and emotional state.  If we feel down for some reason or get scared, the blur might come back, and we might be tempted to put glasses back on again.  It all takes is to be present and feel the emotions that we are not willing to feel.  We got to be brave to see through it no matter what.  If we persist, we might start feeling things that are unfamiliar that we wanted to block it off all our lives.  We got to feel them, express them, see through them.

In my first try of driving, I put glasses on the tip of my nose, just in case.  I wanted to see how it is like, so I drove some seeing through glasses, and some through my blur.  The next morning, I did the same, but I found that glasses were just in my way, so I took them off and put them by my seat.  To my amazement, the vision got clearer and clearer.  Right now, I feel like a grade school student after learning how to read.  I read businesses signs everywhere.  I started seeing street signs, some even in small print.  It is amazing!  I still can not believe it!  Right now, I am training my eyes to see faces.  I see them on and off, blurry and in all detail.  I had a flash of great vision where I could see faces across the street.  It is work in progress.   I am persistent, though.  I’ll break through that barrier, too.

Another thing is when I see the real world and not hiding behind glasses and contact lenses, I have surges of joy when I start to see more and more.  My heart is filled with love and passion.  I want to touch, see, feel, experience everything.  I want to push my limits, be brave.  I am already brave.  If I can drive without glasses, I can do anything!  I do not have limits anymore.  Everything feels more beautiful, more fuller, more bigger, more closer.  I am facing uncomfort straight.  I see it eye to eye.  Today for the first time, I left glasses on my desk.  Before I carried them with me in hands, just in case, like a security blanket.  Yes, it felt uncomfortable at first, but I made it!!!

I can’t wait for each day to see more.  The whole new world is opening up before me where I am brave to see through anything. My vision went from 20/200 to 20/60 in 6 days.  I have flashes of vision where I can read 20/50 and even some 20/40 line.  I even started to see more stars at night when before if I would see one, I would be lucky.  Thank you, my brother, and Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D. (the author) for opening my eyes where I can live my life to the fullest.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  You are my heroes!

See my update here: Seeing Miracle Continues

See my latest update here: Mind over Body

“Paul Hartunian figured out how to make a fortune from selling pieces of the bridge.  This is a true story.  Hartunian was working as paramedic, looking for his lucky break.  One day he was watching a newscast of some work crews repairing parts of the Brooklyn Bridge – taking down old wooden beams and carting them away.  And this idea popped into his head.  He immediately called down to the construction site and asked the project manager if he could buy the old wood.  Of course, the manager thought the wood was worthless so he was happy to get rid of it.

Hartunian took the old beams of lumber and had them sliced into one-inch-square and 1/8-inch-thick pieces of wood and glued them onto an official certificate saying that the holder of the certificate had purchased the Brooklyn Bridge, or a piece thereof.  Then he did something quite remarkable.  He sent a press release to hundreds of media outlets that said, “New Jersey Man Sells the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95!” His phone rang off the hook!  Literally hundreds of media outlets called him on the phone and wanted to learn more.  He ended up selling thousands of these pieces for $14.95, plus a couple bucks for shipping and handling.  He turned those old, worthless beams into SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS.”

“Cindy Cashman took an old idea and added a twist to it and made a fortune in the information business.  Cindy was able to purchase a huge mansion on a lake in Texas, having made over a million dollars from marketing her specialty book, which she published with a partner.  You might have seen her book, Everything Men Know About Women, by Dr. Alan Francis (her pseudonym). But here’s the real amazing part: Cindy’s book is totally blank! There isn’t a single word printed on any of the 128 pages of this paperback! And yet women bought this book by the caseload. A hundred books at a time to give to their friends!  Cindy made enough to retire.”

The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.

What great idea lurking in your head? Follow it through.  You never know unless you try it!

In  1974 Sylvester Stallone was a broke, discouraged actor and screenwriter.  While attending a boxing match he became inspired by a “nobody” boxer who “went the distance” with the great Mohammed Ali.

He rushed home and in a three-day burst of creative output produced the first draft of the screenplay entitled Rocky.

Down to his last $106, Stallone submitted his screenplay to his agent.  A studio offered $20,000 with either Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds playing the lead character.  Stallone was excited by the offer but wanted to play the lead himself.  He offered to act for free.  He was told, “That’s not the way it works in Hollywood.”  Stallone turned down the offer though he desperately needed the money.

Then they offered him $80,000 on the condition that he wouldn’t play the lead.  He turned them down again.

They told him that Robert Redford was interested, in which case they’d pay him $200,000.  He turned them down once more.

They upped their offer to $300,000 for his script.  He told them that he didn’t want to go through his whole life wondering “what if?”

They offered him $330,000.  He told them that he’d rather not see the movie made if he couldn’t play the lead.

They finally agreed to let him play the lead.  He was paid $20,000 for the script plus $340 per week minimum actor’s scale.  After expenses, agent fees, and taxes, he netted about $6,000 instead of $330,000.

In 1976 Stallone was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor.  The movie Rocky won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing.  The Rocky series has since grossed almost $1 billion, making Sylvester Stallone an international movie star!

Follow your gut. Stick to your guns. – from book The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.

This video warms my heart and leaves me speechless.  What a gift to have, see it for yourself.  Click on Big Cat Whisperer below.

Big Cat Whisperer

Can you name a few?  It could be our family, friends and even strangers.  They are always there to help or some of them even will stop their lives and come unexpectedly for a rescue.

I got a flat tire the other night.  I put my “blinkers” on.  In about 15 minutes to half an hour many cars passed, but nobody stopped.  Even a cop car slowed down but did not stop to help.  I thought, “Fine, I’ll try to change it myself.”  I put “jack” under the car by feeling the “spot” with my fingers, and I started to lift it.  Unfortunately, I was not strong enough to lift a car.  All of the sudden, three young men (18 to early 20s) stopped and offered to help.  They changed my tire in great teamwork.  One was holding a cellphone as a flashlight, while I and other guy showed drivers to slow down.  The side street was dark.  To our surprise, one driver even sped up not paying any attention.  A man at neighboring house where I stopped, closed curtains and peeked through the window, as my “heroes” finished changing the tire.  They were such a young gentlemen, and I felt so blessed.  I thanked them for their help and we parted our ways.  I felt so grateful.

There are a few heroes that walk amongst us.  It’s a part of their nature to help someone in need.  While many people are oblivious to their surroundings, there are those who will do everything to help.  As I was going home, I wished so hard that something really good would happen to these three young men, my heroes.  The world is such a better place because of them.

We usually make excuses to sabotage ourselves.  We think we are too young or too old to do anything.  When we are the kids, we can’t wait to grow up, so we would be allowed to do something we wish.  We can’t wait for that freedom.

Yet, when we grow up we completely forget what we were after.  We get overwhelmed by everyday responsibilities, and at times we even forget who we really are.  We do everything to pay the bills, take care of partner, kids, parents.  We bury our dreams deep and we do not even have time to look at them.

Time flies so fast.  We get in older years, and now we regret of not taking chances.  We make now excuse that we are too old.  We wasted our time.  What we do not realize is that age does not really matter.  We can achieve anything we wish regardless.  All we have to do is to act on our dreams.  Dreaming alone does not do anything.  We got to back it up with actions.

Here are some inspiring videos from Britain’s Got Talent that shows that anything is possible, no matter how young or old you are:

Six year old angel that moved the world with her singing

80 year old singing sensation

Circumstances…  What are they, anyway?  Do they define who we are?  Do they define our destiny?  Do they control where and what we want to be?  Or, they are just excuses in our mind not to do things we want to do?

There might be infinite circumstances (illness, financial problems, dysfunctional family, bad relationships, unfair work environment, difficult childhood, etc., etc.) that seemingly we cannot control.  We go about life blaming our circumstances that we cannot achieve things we want to achieve.

We do not realize that all this is just voluntary blocks we put on our dreams.  They are just excuses.  It is so easy to blame our life’s circumstances.  It seems so reasonable.

We all have our minds, right?  So, why we let circumstances to control us instead we control our circumstances?

A few examples of people who despite very difficult times, achieved unbelievable are:  Christopher Reeve, Oprah Winfrey, Coco Chanel, Ed Roberts, Chris Gardner.

All our lives somebody tries to confine us.  “You cannot do this, you cannot do that,” “You are not good enough,” “You are not smart enough,” “You are not pretty enough.”  Others try to mold us according to their own expectations and beliefs.

How do we react to that?  Do we start to believe in it?  Do we give in into the confinement?  Do we try to fit into other people’s mold?  Do we lose sense of who we really are by pleasing others?  Do we lose our self-esteem in the process?

Or, do we become trouble-makers and stand our ground, and not let others to put us down and tell us what we can and cannot do?  Do we keep a strong sense of who we are and do not let others to put handcuffs on us?  We do as we please.  We do not care what others think.  If there is no way, do we find the way?

People who misbehave, stand for their beliefs and refuse to be confined most of the time are the winners.  They not only stand their ground, but they make a big difference in other lives.  Great examples are:

Rosa Parks in 1955 refused illegally to give her seat to a white person.  It sparked a civil rights movement.

Gandhi, despite strong opposition, gained autonomy for India from Great Britain without violence.

Although it sounded ridiculous at the time, Walt Disney built the “happiest place on earth” in the middle of orange groves.

Ed Roberts, paralyzed from the neck down, instead of concentrating on his own pain, improved quality of life for the disabled, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and became director of the California State Department of Rehabilitation.

So, should we give in to other people’s confinement or should we be trouble-makers and stand our ground and make a difference not only in our lives, but in lives of others?

(Examples are taken from Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins)