Well in a sense that she was struggling to maintain herself in the lifestream all this time. She also learned and gained new spells and senses. But the forbidden technique seem to have left her actually blinded, but not really. You see she can now see everything through aether form, but at a cost of her own lifeforce. Matoya was truly concerned considering the spell she used was very dangerous. We can also assume that her powerful spells also use some hint of her LF too. Talk about commitment.