I still remember the exact day my vision “popped.”
I was at a vision therapy conference, sitting in a lecture where the concept of space kept coming up. People were talking about being able to see the space between objects. Everyone seemed to understand what that meant, except me. I measured totally normal on all stereo tests, so this wasn’t about my two eyes not working together. But when people kept describing how they could see space, I was lost.
During a break, I finally admitted to a few colleagues that I didn’t really get it. They started coaching me.
“Look at the trees.”
“Can you see the space between the trees?”
“Now look at the mountains behind them, and the building on the mountain. Can you see the tree in front and the space between all of it?”
For twenty minutes, they guided me like that, patient and encouraging. But nothing changed. I still thought everyone was a little crazy.
Reflection
Then I went back inside. Before heading into the next session, I stopped by the bathroom. When I looked down to wash my hands, I froze. The sink looked so deep. I had been in that same bathroom probably a hundred times over the past two years and never once had I seen it like that. Something was different.
When I got back to the lecture, I started playing with it. I shifted my awareness between when the world looked “popped” and when it looked flat. And I noticed something fascinating.
When the world had more depth, my eyes felt relaxed. My cheeks softened. My whole body felt calmer.
When things flattened again, my cheeks tensed, my eyes tightened, and I could feel the effort.
After the lecture, I grabbed an Uber to the airport and the world outside looked stunning. The colors were more vibrant. The palm trees popped out against the sky like I had never seen before. Everything had space and aliveness.
That was the day I realized how much of my vision had been two-dimensional. It wasn’t that my eyes couldn’t see depth, it was that my experience of depth had been missing.
Seeing in 3D isn’t just a visual skill. It’s a way of being in the world. Since that day, everything has felt a little more alive, more connected, and more spacious.
Pay attention to what your vision is telling you. It’s always reflecting something deeper.
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Dr. Tiffany Martinez, OD
Eyes of NM Family Optometry
