All My Relations

HORSE SENSE - Equine Assisted Learning and Psychotherapy

2012-02-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

“A Native American fisherman paddles his kayak into an unknown bay. As he walks, exploring into this untouched new territory, he hears uproarious laughter and cautiously follows the sound until it leads him to the mouth of a cave. After carefully creeping through a great cavern, he sees animals of all varieties, large and small, gathered around a great fire playing a game that makes them laugh from the depths of their different souls. The game is “shape shifting”
and they are embodying the postures of different forms, then changing into those forms. The fisherman is in awe as the animals turn into human form, and the human turns into animal forms.”
--Native American Legend recounted in Ecstatic Body Postures by Belinda Gore, PhD

Symbolic pictograms and cave drawings of horses date back into prehistory. Horses have contributed to the growth of civilization in many rich and diverse ways including providing transportation, fighting in battle, cultivating the land, and serving as key players in various sports such as jousting, polo, hunting, and racing. Images of horses appear often in art. Many towns and cities have statues of a man on a horse, usually a military or political leader. And let’s not forget our American heritage of cowboys and rodeo riders from the wild west! There is usually a “macho” element present whenever the image of a “man on a horse” appears. On another more subtle level, “the man on a horse” is frequently used to communicate a message about the superiority of humans over animals, of the rational mind over the intuitive mind. Over the last several hundred years, this mindset has carried over into almost all aspects of the horse world, including horse training and horseback riding. Our language tells the tale as we speak of “breaking” a new horse, and novice riders are encouraged be vigilant about “showing the horse who is boss.”

A little more than fifty years ago, a completely new vision for the work of horses appeared—new to us, but actually in great harmony with ancient times and with the mindset of indigenous people in all ages. It began with the emergence of therapeutic riding in Europe as a form of physical therapy for children with disabilities in the early 1950’s. What emerged from this work was the observation that something remarkable and unexpected was occurring between horses and riders that went far beyond the physical dimension. In short, the horses consistently demonstrated an uncanny ability to empathize with the emotions, needs, and intentions of the riders; bring them to the surface; and often actively participate in bringing them to resolution.

The Story of Josh
Linda Kohanov describes one such example in her book The Tao of Equus. Josh was a boy who had been blind from birth. At his first therapeutic riding session, Josh was introduced to an Arabian gelding named Dundee. With assistance he rode Dundee in the round pen, a large circular arena surrounded by a fence. After the session was over, Josh asked if he could explore the ring by himself because he had never had the experience of moving around in a new environment without his cane. Dundee, who had never encountered a blind person before, observed Josh’s tentative steps, then walked directly to his side, putting his withers in the same position a sighted guide would have taken. Each time Josh lost his footing, Dundee moved in close to the boy, offering his body as a support. Eventually together they walked, jogged, eventually ran, and even did figure eights around the ring!

Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA)
The scope of equine work began to expand to include the whole person. In 1999, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) was founded. Teams pairing a mental health professional and equine specialist began to offer Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) programs to a variety of populations, including school children, corporations, mental health professionals, substance abuse programs, persons suffering from trauma, stress, abuse, depression, or anxiety, as well as the general public. In the workshops, the team would set up experiential learning environments in which participants could engage in nonverbal communication with the horses and work through problems to find their own solutions. All workshop activities took place on the ground.

In EAGALA workshops the horses are equal participants in the work. In fact Maureen Fredrickson, a leader and pioneer in the field of equine therapy, says that what actually makes the programs so effective is the fact that the horses are allowed to take the initiative. The philosophy undergirding these programs emphasizes the shared commonalities of horses and humans, and embodies the joyful spirit of the Native American legend in which the creatures, animal and human, playfully shape shift into one another.

Unlike the old style top down domination paradigm of relating to horses as inferior beings that must be forced into submission, EAGALA programs incorporate effective and gentle methods based on the silent communication language horses use with one another, and the establishment of a bond of communication and trust. In this system the goal is not obedience, compliance, or achieving any abstract objective, but instead the goal is to honor the empathic connection between humans and horses, be open to what is currently present but unknown, create a safe place to take risks, access body wisdom, experience authentic emotions, employ creativity, as well as get in touch with instincts, and intuition.

Why Horses?
Many times people ask, why horses? Why not other animals? Horses have many characteristics that make them especially amenable to working with humans. Some key ones are listed below:

Horses are large and powerful animals, and naturally intimidating to many people. By working with horses, we have the opportunity to experience and confront our fears directly in real time in a situation that is structured and supportive. There can be a huge burst of confidence from overcoming such a big fear that can make real life situations seem smaller and less threatening by comparison.

Horses are prey animals and their primary defense is to flee. Their safety depends on being acutely aware of the body language and posture, as well as the feelings and intentions of any and all living creatures in their environment. They have a very wide field of vision and can track and follow the presence and movements of a person or animal at a surprisingly great distance. Consequently, horses are highly sensitive to the unspoken intentions of all who approach them and they are keenly aware of predators (e.g. human beings) and are appropriately wary. They are “four legged authenticity meters.” A person whose body language does not match his or her internal emotional state registers as a threat to the horse. Consequently horses can give immediate feedback to us letting us know when there is something bubbling in our “gut” that we are not acknowledging. Some horses will mirror back the disowned emotion, others will simply choose avoidance.

Another highly important characteristic of horses is that they are herd animals, and they feel safest and most content when they are with other living creatures—be they horse, goat, or human. By nature, the horse wants to be with us, and will choose to do so if our intentions are clear, and there is no division between what we pretend to be and who we are. When a horse freely chooses to be with us, there is a quality of unconditional love and acceptance that is given with no strings attached, and which can never be denied or questioned because horses cannot not be other than fully authentic. Like a horse, this energy is big, bigger almost than we can imagine, and when it flows in to fill the empty and broken places within that are waiting to be healed, the joy is almost indescribable.

Kate Solisti-Mattelon, who is an animal communicator, summarizes in a nutshell the unique gifts of horses in her book Conversations with Horse: “All living beings have an energy field…When the horse looks at you, he not only sees your physical body, but he also perceives and reads your energy field, which surrounds your physical body….and contains a blueprint of your emotional, mental, and physical balance and wellbeing.” To be seen, to be known, to be loved…this is a preprogrammed need in each one of us, and most of us have a lack in our own experience somewhere that causes us pain or prevents us from truly being freely who we are. It is this place within that equine work can heal.

The Power of Working with Horses for Personal Growth: My Introductory Workshop
Since I still have a picture of my teenage grandmother on her pony, with a shotgun in one hand and her reins in the other…and I was born in the year of the Horse (at least according to my Chinese restaurant placemats)…and my favorite childhood fantasy was that someday when I grew up I would operate a ranch for sick horses that nobody wanted and nurse them back to health, I was very excited about signing up for an introductory workshop in equine therapy!

Also, as a long time practitioner of both Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung), I was very curious about what it would be like to engage the horses from the energetic perspective of qi (chi). Ancient tradition has it that the first Tai Chi masters learned their skills from the animals and there are many Tai Chi and Qigong forms that utilize animal movements, the Five Animal Frolic being the most well known. The Horse Stance is the fundamental stance taught and used by all Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners, and some variation of movements such as Parting the Wild Horses Mane and High Pat on the Horse appear in most forms.

Meeting the Horses
At the workshop, our morning task was to observe the horses, stay outside the fence, and refrain from initiating any interactions with the horses. I watched them as they grazed, interacted with one another, and surveyed their human observers, their ears shifting like antennae, registering the current flow of their attention. A huge brown Saddlebred with a sore eye spotted me standing at the fence, and leaning out, turned his sore eye towards me, waiting for a healing touch. I was particularly drawn to the white stallion that ignored all of us. He was beautiful! Snow white with a faint dappling of grey—he was a king and he knew it.

Learning about the Horses
Over lunch we listened to stories about the horses we had just met. They came alive in a different way as we learned their names, their breeds, and their histories. I learned that the name of the white horse was Siaga, that he was a registered Arabian, and a champion show horse. He fully embodied the qualities that make this breed so prized--grace, intelligence, beauty, speed, and endurance. But also, true to his bloodline, he was hot blooded, temperamental, and strong willed—pristine under the saddle, but woe to anyone who tried to force him against his will on the ground! Nervous chatter covered up my anxiety about the afternoon when each of us would enter the ring alone to be with a horse of our choosing. I was tempted to choose the big gentle horse who had trusted me with his wounded eye, but instead, with some misgivings, I chose Siaga.

Encountering Siaga in the Ring
Our facilitator gave us our instructions for the afternoon session. Once we entered the ring, we would initiate a nonverbal communication called Advance and Retreat. It was very simple. The horse would be waiting on the opposite side of the ring, attending to his “horse business” whatever that might be. We were to slowly advance toward our horse until his body language changed to show that he had noticed us. Then we were to stop and wait until he relaxed. When this happened, we were to begin slowly advancing again, repeating this process as many times as necessary. The hope was that at some point our horse would judge us as safe, initiate a contact with us, and choose to be with us!

My anxiety was somewhat eased as I observed two of my colleagues peacefully and successfully complete the exercise. Now it was my turn. I saw Siaga standing at the opposite end of the arena. My heart pounded as I bent down and climbed between the fence rails to enter the ring. As I was standing up, I saw him break from a dead stop into a full gallop heading directly towards me. Wait a minute, I said to myself. This is not the way it is supposed to be. He’s supposed to wait down there while I approach him slowly! No time for more thoughts. Now he was within a few feet of me still going full tilt. Would he run me down? Suddenly he wheeled, turning his rear end towards me, dropped a huge poop directly in front of me, and galloped back to the opposite end of the ring, then turned to watch me.

No worries about him ignoring me now, I said to myself again. Then I started to laugh. Bent over double laughing. I could not stop. As my diaphragm pumped up and down, I felt layers of tension leave my body. I stood back up and gazed at him waiting at the far end of the ring. I felt a flipflopping sensation in my chest, in the area of my heart. Clear as day, I heard the words coming from my heart…I love you Siega…you are beautiful.

Back to the business at hand. I might as well forget the Advance Retreat thing as it was clear by now that Siaga was not going to follow the rules. Our roles were reversed, and he would have the initiative, not me! He began to walk in circles around me, spiraling in closer each time. As he came within two or three feet of me, I slowly turned my right palm up and extended it ever so slightly in his direction. He moved in, then shied away. A memory surfaced. My 10 week old lab puppy meeting a huge black Newfoundland. Puppy terrified, shaking, whimpering with fear. Giant Newfoundland lowering himself slowly to the ground, making himself smaller and smaller. Slowly, I sank to the ground into a deep squat, my extended palm out.

Siega moved closer. Waves of connection started to flow between my hand and his nose. The connection became stronger. Slowly I stood up. He stayed…we stayed, not touching, but connected. I moved my hand toward him. He immediately backed up.

I heard the voice again. Pull your palm backwards towards yourself. I did. This time Siaga moved toward me! And then it began. Wherever I moved, he followed. By this time the directions did not matter—forwards backwards, around and around in circles, never touching, but joined by the wave field between us as we moved as one in perfect harmony around the ring, like a pair of Viennese dancers in a ballroom.

At last the dance wound down into stillness, and we stood there gazing, eye to eye. It is difficult to describe what happened next. His eye was huge, deep brown, and very soft, concentric rings around a deep black center. The center “opened”, and his eye became transparent like a reflecting pool. I dived into its depths finding myself in a place both timeless and ancient. A flood of images appeared. I felt the presence of the horse tribe. I recognized that Siaga was a master, that he, as surely as the Tai Chi masters I have studied with, was a master…the Horse Master, keeper of the ancient wisdom ways of the horse.

We danced a final dance around the ring. Returning to the fence where I had entered, I climbed out. I turned to thank him. And he bowed to me. And I bowed to him.

Special Thanks
Special thanks to Dr. Doreen Hughes for her Equine Energy program that gave me the opportunity to meet Siaga; to Cathy Hughes, Siaga’s owner and “beloved human” for sharing him; and to Barbara Collie for the photographs of Siaga. And especially, thanks to Siega!

By professional training I am a teacher and a counselor. I have taught and counseled many men, women, and children, and received counsel from the same to good effect. But on this one occasion when I was most deeply understood and touched, the counselor was a beautiful equine spirit named Siega. Siaga died on August 31, 2011 and I offer this article as a tribute to him who will always live in me as the Horse Master.

For information about local EAGALA programs, please contact Doreen Hughes, MD, an EAGALA certified facilitator at www.hughesequineenergy.com or call 336-724-0101. Dr. Hughes offers both equine assisted psychotherapy and equine assisted learning programs which can be tailored to individuals and groups. Dr Hughes is in private psychiatry practice in Winston-Salem and her equine sessions are conducted at Riverwood Therapeutic Riding Center in Tobaccoville in collaboration with Laura Pallavicini, Equine Specialist. See www.riverwoodtrc.org for more information. For more information about EAGALA, go to www.eagala.org

HEART TO HEART

2012-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

A Guide to Heartful Communication Using the Enneagram and Meditation

“Surely there is a window from heart to heart;
They are not separate and far from each other.
Two earthenware lamps are not joined,
But their light is mingled as it moves.”
--Rumi

When our relationships are good, life is good! One of life’s most enduring joys is a good “heart to heart” talk with a friend, lover, parent, child, coworker, or sometimes even with a perfect stranger. On the other hand, one of the things that can cause us the most pain is when communication with a beloved other, family member or colleague breaks down. Have you ever lamented…I just can’t seem to get through to him...or said to yourself No matter what I say she takes it the wrong way? For most of us there is someone in our lives with whom communication is difficult. We want to have a “heart to heart” talk, but don’t know how to make it happen. Instead, we talk “at” one another. Our attempts to communicate have an unhappily predictable outcome in which I say something…then the other person says something back…and then I think to myself, oh no, here we go again! But then I say the same thing for the umpteenth time anyway, hoping against hope, maybe this time will be different! But we go round and round again and there is no connection, no understanding, and no resolution.
From our own experience, we know that positive communications leave us feeling uplifted, relaxed, and energized, but after a negative encounter we are likely to feel down, stressed, and drained. Research data now shows that the communication exchanges we have with others actually have an immediate effect on our blood pressure, heart rate, and immune system. In short, good communication makes us healthier, and bad communication makes us sick!

Heart Resonance and Mirror Neurons

Doc Childre, founder of HeartMath, explains what happens with the hearts when two people sincerely and openly communicate with one another. When two people engage in positive dialogue, their hearts are literally “on the same wave length.” The heart’s powerful electromagnetic field, measureable up to eight to ten feet away, sends out wavelike vibrational information that is detectable not only in the heart of the receiver, but also in their brain!

In his book The Mindful Brain, Neurologist Daniel Siegel explains the role of mirror neurons and what happens in the brain during a “heart to heart” talk. Mirror neurons, located in the prefrontal cortex—the same part of the brain that is stimulated and strengthened by meditation-- give us the capacity to recreate within ourselves a full sensory representation of what is happening in other people’s brains and bodies! When we have a “heart to heart” communication with another, it is literally as though we briefly become one with each other.

When we engage in communication that is stressful, frustrating, or emotionally upsetting, these amazing heart and brain connections do not occur and the separation we feel is literal, not just emotional. The major causative factor is our own fear response. Fear blocks the ability of the heart to bring the body into the state of coherence necessary to make the heart connection with another; also, when we are in a state of fear, it is the amygdala, not our prefrontal lobes, that runs the show, preparing us to fight, freeze, or run away from a perceived enemy.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way! In this article I am going to describe three steps you can take to “open the window” of communication with your significant other. And the good news is that it only takes one person in a dyad to make this shift, because our hearts and brains are hard wired for relationship and connectivity. The three steps are listed below:

Identify the Enneagram type of your significant other so that you can understand the fear driving his or her behavior and see the world from his or her perspective, allowing you to better understand and accept them.
• Use the Enneagram Do’s and Don’ts as a guide to help you respond positively to the unspoken needs of your significant other and avoid triggering their fears and defense mechanisms.
• Practice a Compassionate Communication Meditation to strengthen your heart’s ability to bring you into coherence and stimulate your brain’s prefrontal lobes to strengthen your mirror neuron response and reduce your fear and other negative emotions.

Identify Your Significant Other’s Enneagram Type

The Enneagram, which is a blend of ancient wisdom and modern psychology, describes nine different personality types. These nine types are arranged in a diagram around the perimeter of a circle, which stands for the whole of reality as it is. None of the nine types can see the whole of reality, but each looks at a part of it through the lens of their type’s worst fear. Each type uses their own set of strategies to reduce their fear and keep themselves safe and comfortable in the face of life’s challenges.

To begin this journey of deepening your understanding of your significant other, I invite you now to look at the Enneagram Diagram (developed by Don Riso and Russ Hudson at www.enneagraminstitute.com and use it as a map to help you find your way. Follow the steps below:

Look at each of the cartoon characters positioned around the diagram. Do any of them remind you or your significant other?
• Next read the Enneagram type descriptors, which include the worst fear of each type and both positive and negative attributes. Do you recognize any of these qualities in your significant other? (Descriptors are selected from the Wagner Enneagram Personality Styles Scale WEPSS developed by Jerome Wagner, PhD. For more information see www.enneagramspectrum.com)

As you reflect on the different Enneagram types, allow memories or associations come to you regarding the words, habits, or attitudes of your significant other. To give you a famous person example of how you might do this, I recently read a news article about the Duke basketball team. When the article was written, the team had a 12-2 winning record as well as a top 10 spot in the national rankings. Nevertheless, Coach Krzyzewski’s stated that his attention was not on these wins, but on the fact that his team had lost its last game. The reporter quoted him as saying, “I’m never completely satisfied with anything about my team. I think we are playing well, and we can play better.” With all due respect to Coach K, I would say that he sounds like an Enneagram Type One (The Reformer)! Why? Because despite the all the wonderful things about his team, the focus of his attention is still on what is wrong, i.e. the lost game. The team is good, but he would like for them to be perfect!

Don’t worry if you end up with one type on your list--this is ok! The important thing is to try on new perspectives so that you can get out of the negative communication rut where you are stuck. Remember also that much more information on the Enneagram is readily available on the internet, and there are some excellent typing instruments, many of which are free. There is also a wonderful book called The Enneagram Made Easy by Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele. It offers an excellent overview of the Enneagram, with funny illustrations that show the different types and what they are saying to themselves in different situations.

Now that you have looked at your significant other from the perspective of the Enneagram, did you have any aha’s? Do you now understand something about him or her that puzzled you before? Do you feel any more compassionate? One of the things many people find helpful about the Enneagram is that now they take things their significant others do less personally. For example, the next time you spend the whole day painting, and your significant other comes in and only notices that there is a small smudge on the closet ceiling, you can say to yourself, “This not about me-- it’s just that he or she is an Enneagram One!”

Use the Enneagram Do’s and Don’ts as a Guide

Now that you have an idea about your significant other’s Enneagram type, it is time to look at the Enneagram Do’s and Don’ts Guide.

First look at the Don’ts list. This is where you look for those words and actions that may be blocking your communication by triggering fears and defense mechanisms. Are there any behaviors listed there that describe some of your actions or words?
Now look at the Do’s list. Here is where you look for ways you can help your significant other feel safe and open up to “heart to heart” communication with you. Do any of these appeal to you or feel doable?

Reflect on how you can eliminate some of the habits of your old style of communicating, and add something new. Research has shown that people need to hear five compliments before they can listen nondefensively to a criticism. One change you can immediately implement for all of the types is to watch for opportunities to offer sincere compliments as often as you can.

Practice of Compassionate Communication Meditation

Meditation is good for your brain, your spiritual life, as well as your peace of mind, but it is a surprise to most people that it can also be used to rapidly establish intimacy with others! There is a technique called Compassionate Communication which includes a meditation component along with other communication exercises and practices. This system was developed by Mark Robert Waldman and Dr. Andrew Newberg MD, coauthors of How God Changes Your Brain, and is being widely used now with couples, groups of people with opposing perspectives, churches, university counseling centers, and conflict resolution groups. Preliminary research data on this practice suggest that anyone can strengthen his or her neurological capacity to feel compassion towards others. The unique thing about this meditation program is that it combines meditation with real time communication as couples actively engage in dialogue. From a neurological perspective, this practice, similar to other meditation techniques, stimulates the anterior cingulate, which generates and regulates compassion and is the same part of the brain that is associated with social awareness, romantic love, the ability to recognize the feeling states of others, and a decreased propensity to express anger and react with fear.

The meditation sequence described below is something that can be practiced by yourself but includes an imaginary dialogue with your significant other. Many people report that they notice a reduction in stress and improvement in communication with their significant other after regularly practicing this meditation. Remember that it is only necessary to have one person committed to positive change in communication!

Find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably and be uninterrupted for 10 or 15 minutes.
• Sit down, keeping your back straight and your feet uncrossed on the floor. Focus on the rhythm of your breath, allowing your breath to sink deeper and deeper into your abdomen, and progressively relax the muscles in your face, neck, arms, hands, shoulders, back, legs, and feet. Then scan your whole body for tension and take a deep breath, letting the tension go.
• Visualize your significant other sitting across from you smiling. You smile back. Stay aware of your breathing as you hold a compassionate image or a loving thought in mind. Think about something you like about him or her, or recall a pleasurable or peaceful memory.
• Imagine having an intimate conversation with your significant other, between your best self and theirs. Say everything you want to say, whatever is on your heart. Listen for his or her response. Continue the dialogue until you reach a natural stopping point.
• Express your gratitude for this time together. Smile into your own heart, take a deep breath, and open your eyes when you are ready.

Remember that changes in relationships, like changes in the seasons, tend to take place slowly, growing over time. Remember that your desire for change is enough! Try to reflect daily on your significant other’s Enneagram type, your Do’s and Don’ts list. It is impossible to perceive the world from a perspective other than your own without a daily practice and regular reminders to let go of your own lens of perception, and look through someone else’s eyes. Try to practice the Compassionate Communication meditation daily if possible. Even 10 or 15 minutes, if consistent, will help. What many people discover is that while they began these practices for the sake of improving a relationship, they often continue because of the many benefits they reap for themselves, such as feeling more compassionate, peaceful, positive, and calm. May your heartful communications and “heart to heart” talks be abundant!

ENNEAGRAM DIAGRAM AND 9 PERSONALITY TYPES

Type 1 THE REFORMER fears “being bad” so is serious, responsible, uptight, overly critical
Type 2 THE HELPER fears not being loved so is helpful, compassionate, rescuing, manipulative
Type 3 THE ACHIEVER fears being worthless so is goal-oriented, successful, workaholic, self-promoting
Type 4 THE INDIVIDUALIST fears having no identity so is intense, questing, dramatic, clinging
Type 5 THE INVESTIGATOR fears being incapable so is observant, analytical, uncommunicative, reclusive
Type 6 THE LOYALIST fears being without support and guidance so is cautious, loyal, dogmatic, suspicious, indecisive
Type 7 THE ENTHUSIAST fears being deprived and trapped in pain so is fun loving, visionary, impulsive, scattered
Type 8 THE CHALLENGER fears being violated so is forceful, fearless, intimidating, domineering
Type 9 THE PEACEMAKER fears separation so is peaceful, patient, overly adaptable, stubborn

ENNEAGRAM DO’S AND DON’TS GUIDE

CLICK HERE TO TAKE AN ONLINE ENNEAGRAM QUIZ TO HELP DETERMINE YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE

AFTER THE QUIZ USE YOUR BROWSERS BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO SANDYSEEBER.COM

LETTING GO

2012-01-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

Life Lessons from “my” Lost Umbrella

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
--Rumi

Losing things—our car keys, purse, money in the stock market, a job, a friendship, a loved one—is a fundamental part of life. It is never a fun experience. In fact it is always painful, either a lot or a little. Yet over time great wisdom teachers seem to agree on one thing—losing is mysteriously and inextricably intertwined with finding! For example, Jesus says that if you want to find your life, you must lose it. How can this be? According to our everyday way of thinking, this makes no sense.

Eckart Tolle in his book A New Earth explains that we actually have two selves--the ego and the true self. The ego is the part of us that perceives the world from a place of judgment and fear. Our true self feels its interconnectedness with all things and discovers within itself an unending source of peace, joy, love, and trust. From the perspective of the ego, we never have enough—which really means I am not enough. In an attempt to solve this problem, the ego seeks to acquire things which it sees as extensions of “me.” When my ego is in charge, it is especially painful to lose something of “mine” because at this level it feels like I have lost a part of myself. Yet conversely and mysteriously, if I truly accept a loss, I discover a deeper self that can never be diminished, a radiant “I Am” of infinite depth and value.

“The Gods Must Be Crazy” is a wonderful British comedy that illustrates this truth. Xi, the main character, is a young bushman from a remote aboriginal tribe in the Australian outback. The tribe has never been exposed to modern civilization, and their community life is simple but happy and peaceable. There is no such thing as “individuality” in the tribe. Everyone is part of one community, and all the possessions of the tribe—food, shelter, tools—belong to everyone equally. Whoever needs them uses them. One day Xi is out hunting and a small airplane flies overhead. An empty coke bottle falls out of the plane and lands directly in front of him. Never having seen an airplane before, he decides that the coke bottle must be a gift from the gods. He races back to his tribe, bringing the coke bottle with him. At first the tribe is full of wonder, awe, and happiness. This gift must surely mean a special blessing from the gods! Yet soon things begin happening that have never happened before in the tribe. Everyone wants this new sacred object for themselves. Tension, anger, and eventually fighting break out over who will ultimately possess the coke bottle! Xi decides that the coke bottle is not sacred after all, but is actually an evil thing, and that he must “let go” of it and return it to the gods. Releasing the bottle is not as easy as finding it, and the rest of the movie describes his long journey and eventual return to his tribe.

Xi’s journey is a metaphor for our own developmental journey. As babies we begin life believing that we are one with everything. This includes mom, dad, sister, brother, toys, and even strangers! They are all part of me. Then one day I use the word “I” and begin to see myself as a separate from the world around me. If someone takes my toy away from “me,” I feel the loss acutely, protest vigorously, and shout out “mine!” The journey of the ego has begun. Feelings of fear and insecurity arise. It is not that the ego is bad—in fact it is very necessary. The problem is that it has fallen asleep to what a small part it is of a much bigger self. And so, my lifelong challenge becomes how to become the best “small self” I can be and still stay in touch with my “bigger self” that is infinite, free, joyful, and interconnected with all life.

This is where loss comes in. Most of the time we do not even realize that we have projected our “little me” onto an object, person, skill, or idea until we lose it. That is why many people throughout history speak or write about how extreme losses are blessings in disguise. Any loss, small or large, shakes up our total identification with the ego, and opens us to the possibility of waking up to our larger self. We begin to see with the “eyes behind our eyes” and notice that underneath whatever we are experiencing or thinking, there is another deeper, bigger part of ourselves that is always there and that is always for us. When we connect to this bigger self, our fears dissipate. We know that we are never alone, and that we are always held in compassion and love.

If attaching to things puts us in an ego prison, then letting go opens the door to our freedom. So the great question becomes, how do we let go? From our own experience, we know that no matter what the attachment is—the loss of a dream, a cherished possession, trust in a friend, an expected outcome, our youthful appearance, or our health—trying to let go only seems to deepen the attachment. It is like punching the tar baby. The harder we work to free ourselves, the more stuck we get!

Meditation is a time honored practice for cultivating the art of letting go. Meditation does not help us by building up our spiritual “muscles” so that we can overcome attachments by means of our own strength and “power out” unwanted thoughts. Instead meditation works by bypassing the ego, our “doing” self, so that we can have a direct experience of our “being” without any story or commentary based on the past. Like the outgrown bark of a tree that falls onto the ground, the ego simply falls away, and we know from the inside who we truly are in the present moment. When we stop trying to “find ourselves” through identification in the outer world, attachments drop off on their own without any effort on our part. We experience through direct knowing that we do not need what has been lost to be ok, and that what we really need and desire is already here.

Mental health professionals have become increasingly interested in mindful awareness practices over the last twenty plus years. They noticed that people who were willing to participate in some form of mindful practice on a daily basis were more resilient in dealing with losses of varying kinds. This kind of daily practice seemed to reduce the emotional and physical pain associated with the reactivity of the ego; increase their capacity to “let go” in the face of life crises; and enhance the experience of peace in mind and body. The most frequently cited method of mindfulness training is the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MSBR) program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This program which began in 1979 is now being taught in over 2,500 MBSR programs around the world.

While all meditation practices involve letting go, there is one practice called Centering Prayer-- which psychotherapist PG Blanton calls “the other mindful practice” -- for which letting go is the primary and only activity. Popularized by Father Thomas Keating, Centering Prayer does not involve focusing on the breath, repeating a mantra, guided imagery, or any other kind of mental activity. Psychologist Joan Borysenko, author of New York Times best seller Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, describes Centering Prayer as a form of meditation which focuses on a conscious letting go of the small mind and its continuous self-centered fantasies.
The basic instructions for Centering Prayer are very simple: “if you catch yourself thinking, let the thought go.” Keating describes thoughts as being like boats floating along the surface of a great river. As we enter silence, immediately we notice the flood of thoughts inside—for example, planning what we will do next, remembering something we have forgotten, or dwelling on some problem, loss, or hurt. As we begin the practice of silence, we notice that we hop on one boat after the other. In Centering Prayer, we do not try to stop anything. Instead, when we catch ourselves thinking, we simply let go of the thought, return to the silence, and relax deeply into the river itself, which is the infinite source of life and our own true identity. In order to help us with this transition, teachers of Centering Prayer suggest that we choose a sacred word to whisper gently inside until we feel ourselves enter the silence again. At this point, the word drops off.

In December I attended my very first seven day silent meditation retreat, advertised as an Advanced Centering Prayer Intensive. When I excitedly announced my news to others, I was taken aback by the reactions I got. People said things like Really? No talking at all? Usually followed by You are really brave…I don’t think I could do that… or that takes courage! In hindsight I realized that these people were really on to something which could be translated roughly as—you’d better watch out! Nevertheless, I did not really get it, and continued to anticipate what a nice rest I would have before beginning the busy holiday season. I did not suspect that I was about to receive a lesson on this very “lost and found” paradox we have been talking about!

The weather during the first days of the retreat consisted of a combination of heavy rain, high winds, snow, and temperatures below freezing. Trying to stay dry and warm was a major challenge. Having neglected to bring the proper clothing, I was extremely grateful that at least I had remembered to bring my umbrella. On the second evening when I arrived at the evening meditation, I carefully laid my umbrella down on the wooden deck surrounding the meditation room, mentally marking the spot so that I could locate it in the dark when I left. After the “sit” was over, I was the last person to leave the meditation room for the walk down the hill to dinner. When I stepped out onto the deck to retrieve my umbrella, it was gone! Oh no! I thought. Where could it be? Could someone have taken it by mistake? When I arrived at the dining hall, I silently searched through all the hanging coats, hats, and umbrellas, but mine was not there. Was it really possible that someone had arrived at the evening meditation without an umbrella and left with one…MINE? What kind of person would do this? Umbrella-less, I began the cold, wet, walk back to the lodge. I located a sticky note and wrote in big, bold letters LOST UMBRELLA and my name and posted it on the community bulletin board. Surely someone will contact me now I thought.

The next morning I checked the board. No response. My theory of the accidental “borrowing” of the umbrella was rapidly losing water. When I arrived for the first sit, I repeated my search of the deck and room for my umbrella with no luck. The sit began. The first “boat” that floated by was I want my umbrella! This was quickly followed by, Someone in this room must have it. Now who is it? Surreptitiously I opened my eyes and scanned the circle, looking for some sign of guilt. One by one I looked at them—could she have done it? Could he have done it?

Suddenly I became aware that I was thinking. I repeated my sacred word a few times and went back into silence. Less than one minute later, the whole process repeated itself! This whole sequence reoccurred several times. Eventually at some point I became aware that something else was there in the silence. There was my constant yammering about my lost umbrella, but there was something else too. I began to realize that this other presence was communicating with me. Are you ok now? I felt the compassion of this question and this presence. Yes I said. Once again I hopped on a boat and began to think. Well if I’m really ok—it actually had stopped raining—why was I upset? Suddenly I realized that I was upset mainly because the umbrella was MINE. If someone else’s umbrella has been taken, I would have been concerned but not derailed. The aha came. If I am this attached to my umbrella, how many other things am I also attached to?

Ah, I am thinking again! I returned to my sacred word and to silence. There again was the presence. This time the thought that came was Maybe someone robbed me of my umbrella, but I have robbed myself of the better portion of a full day! At this point, my body and my mind let go. I was filled with a sense of peace and freedom. I relaxed and reentered the interior silence, experiencing a most exquisite sense of calm and rest for the remainder of the sit.

When the sit was over, we all began a slow meditative walk in a circle around the room. Just before I was about to return to my seat, something moving on the deck outside caught my eye. There, completely invisible from on the deck, the other side of the deck, or anywhere else in the room except where I was standing, was my umbrella! There it sat--right before my eyes but so far under the built in bench on the deck that it was hidden. It was tilted crazily at a rakish angle, its collapsible handle partly open and its spokes flapping wildly in the wind. I stared in disbelief. My inner dialogue of suspicion, intrigue, umbrella theft—the silent blaming of my meditation partners and internal investigations to identify the guilty party—came to mind. Stifling the sound as best I could—with my diaphragm flapping up and down like a sheet in the wind—I began to laugh. How ridiculous it all seemed now! I looked again at my umbrella. It seemed to be laughing too. Not a mean or unkind laugh, but more of a jovial warm laugh, as over a good joke between friends.

The next round of meditation began. Now it was all so clear. I could not get my umbrella back until I let go of it. As a result of losing it, something had opened up in my inner world. I knew for sure that umbrella was not “me!” I knew that there were a lot of other things “out there” that were not me either. And I knew that I could let go of them too. Despite the chilly weather outside, I felt warm and toasty inside. And after the sit when I went back to my room and I laughed out loud, doubled over laughed out loud. To be honest, I guffawed. Over the course of the week, every time I remembered “the umbrella incident” the laughter started up all over again. Sometimes I wondered what my meditation partners might be thinking if they heard me laughing so uncontrollably all by myself in my room. Will they think I am crazy? But then I knew that it didn’t matter, and I laughed and laughed again.

Centering Prayer Practice
Now would you like to try practice of Centering Prayer for yourself? Remember pretty much the sum total of the practice of Centering Prayer is “if you catch yourself thinking, let the thought go.”

First of all, identify a place that feels peaceful to you. If there are other people around, let them know that you would like to be uninterrupted for about 20 minutes. Sit in a chair that is comfortable for you (or on a cushion on the floor if you prefer). Uncross your legs and place both feet on the floor (if your feet don’t reach the floor, try resting them on a pillow or a low stool). While you are sitting, try to keep your back straight. It is also nice to light a candle if you have one.
• Now take a minute or two to settle into your physical space and clarify your intention for this meditation time. Because Centering Prayer is primarily a receptive practice without an “ego” agenda, it is good for your intention to include some kind of willingness to be open and receive during your session. It is definitely best to avoid any kind of intention that includes goal setting, intercessory prayer, or anything that is tied to a specific outcome. To quote Father Keating, this is a time to take a short vacation from yourself!
• Your next step is to choose a sacred word. You will only use your sacred word at the beginning of your session, and for a minute or two each time you catch yourself thinking as an aid to help you transition back into the quiet receptivity of open listening. There are no rules for the choice of a word, except to keep it short—one word with only one or two syllables is best. Also, I recommend that you choose a word that has an inspirational effect on you or “lights you up” on the inside. The words below may give you some ideas for choosing your word, but this is not an exhaustive list by any means. Let your own intuition be your guide.

- Relationships: beloved, friend, mother, father, creator
  ⁃ Religious: Jesus, Jehovah, Buddha, Allah, Mary

Now sit quietly for 20 minutes (or if this is too long, shorten the time period to meet your needs). Begin by slowly and softly saying your sacred word for a minute or two, then let yourself drop off into silence. Any time you catch yourself thinking, let the thought go. Use the sacred word for another minute or two until you relax into the silence again. Expect to catch yourself thinking many times! Your meditation session is not “better” if you catch yourself thinking fewer times. This is a very non-judgmental practice. Centering Prayer operates in the spirit of the old saying, “99% of success is showing up.” If you sat for 20 minutes (or whatever time period you have chosen), you are a success!

Try doing Centering Prayer once a day for two weeks and see what happens. Remember that the fruits of Centering Prayer are found mostly in your everyday life, and not so much during the meditation time itself. The regularity of your practice is growing your capacity to “let go.” Notice if you are less reactive in stressful situations, or if things that ordinarily “get your goat’ just pass you by.

Enjoy your practice!

EMBRACING LIFE AS IT IS

2011-12-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome, I say, opening the door, inviting you to come in.
In a word and a gesture, I say much more… Come in… I’m glad to see you… you belong here….
your needs are important…I offer you what I have…I accept you as you are…you are in the right place….

Welcoming! How we all long for and enjoy this experience. December more than any other month brings us into a direct encounter with welcoming traditions of hospitality that are both ancient and universal. Through rituals of gift giving, special dinners, reaching out to the poor, and festive gatherings of family, friends, and sometimes even strangers, we welcome one another into our homes and our lives.   Unlike past generations, in our modern times we usually live apart, with few multi-generational homes and many single persons living alone. Yet in this month of December, as the hours of darkness become longer, the urge to extend hospitality grows stronger. We call it “the holiday spirit.” Who knows? Maybe on some deep cellular level we remember our ancestors coming together in their dark caves, telling stories, singing, eating and drinking together, and taking comfort and pleasure from the warmth and light of the fire and friendly companionship!

Yet the “welcoming” month of December is also a time associated with high levels of stress for many people. Part of this is the sheer busyness of shopping, decorating, attending events, cooking, and cleaning, yet much of it is directly connected to the intensified level of social interactions we have with coworkers, neighbors, committee members, store clerks, and family members. People we usually speak to on the phone, email, work beside, or wave to as we drive by are now in our space, and sometimes, in our face. How many of us have arrived at a holiday celebration with members of our family of origin as mature, confident adults, only to have our inner two year old suddenly and magically appear at the dinner table?   In the blink of an eye, we are back in our “old stuff.”   Everywhere we hear that this is a time to be happy, but at times it appears that everyone else is having a jolly time, and that we somehow have missed the holiday boat!

Where is this stress coming from and what can we do about it? The first thing to realize is that stress is not caused by anyone or anything. Stress comes from inside of us. One way to explain it is that we feel stressed when we stop welcoming life as it comes to us, and begin to stiffen, resist, and brace against what is happening around us. An event in our outside world triggers something inside, and suddenly we feel helpless and fearful. In other words, we get our “buttons pushed.”

When we were very young, probably between two and four years old, we all had to come to terms with three fundamental issues of human life: having power/control over our environment; gaining esteem/affection from our caregivers and friends; and security/survival in a world that is at times dangerous. We all developed strategies for keeping ourselves safe in each of these areas, although one of them was likely to be more prominent or consistently problematic for us. These strategies become “hidden agendas” to the extent that we are not conscious of their presence. Operating just below the level of our awareness, they begin to “run the show” of our inner lives. Unless or until they are brought to consciousness, they continue to hold us captive after we become adults. Thomas Keating, Benedictine monk, author, and teacher, calls them “emotional programs for happiness.”

Although the programs themselves are unconscious, what we are conscious of is that we have strong feelings about things we like and don’t like, things we want to happen, and things that seem catastrophic to us, or in other words, attachments and aversions. Attachments relate to what we believe that we must have to be safe, comfortable, and happy. They can be actual “’things” such as a new car but they just as often show up as ideas such as “everyone in the family must get along,” or values such as “being on time.” On the other hand, aversions are events, things, or people that “push your buttons.” For example, if I identify with a power/control program, then I might have an attachment to being in charge and have an aversion to following the ideas or plans of others. If I identify with a security/survival program then I might find that I tend to be extremely vigilant about safety issues of various kinds such as theft prevention, protection of assets, or cleanliness, and have an aversion to trusting others or relaxing and going with the flow. If I identify with an affection/esteem program, then I might find myself going out of my way to please others, and be averse to setting boundaries or doing anything that might result in making others upset with me.

Holiday time, with its richness in social interactions, is often a time when everyone is more likely to have some of their buttons pushed and automatically launch these emotional programs for happiness. A sure sign that this is occurring for me is when I begin to feel stressful and painful emotions. A distressing emotion affects all levels of our being at once—we have negative thoughts, bodily tensions, and changes in our energy levels. If we do not bring the emotion to consciousness, the physiology of primitive body responses takes over, and we find ourselves running our old familiar emotional programs—saying and doing the same old things that don’t work and experiencing the habitual energetic consequences—being so revved up we can’t sleep, being so exhausted we can’t move, getting a headache, upset stomach, having trouble breathing, catching a cold, or having a flare up of back pain, neck pain, or joint pain. Here is an example of how an automatic emotional response works:

You are having a perfectly good day, busy, but on task, and getting things done. The phone rings. Your friend on the line mentions what a nice time she had at a party last night. You know the hostess well, and you weren’t invited.   You feel a sinking sensation in your chest, and a tightening in your stomach. Pretending to listen, your inner chatter begins. “Why didn’t she invite me? Have I done something to offend her? Did I say something wrong? What is wrong with me anyway? I always seem to screw things up. I can’t remember the last time someone invited me out. Everyone else but me is having a good time. And, after all I’ve done for her, and now this is the way she treats me!” Suddenly, your energy drops. You don’t feel like talking anymore. You tell your friend that you have to go now, and hang up. You don’t feel like finishing your to-do list either. Instead you sit down and go over and over the situation in your mind, feeling worse each time.

In the grand scheme of things, the event described above is a small happening. Actually, nothing has happened except in your own inner world! Yet little events like this one can easily put a damper on a whole day, or even a couple of days. Unless they are brought to consciousness, emotions such as the ones coming up around this trigger incident, run a pre-programmed course that make us unhappy. In the incident described above, the program for esteem/affection got triggered. This program continually scans the environment for possible losses of the affection or esteem of others. It interpreted this situation as a rejection, and feelings of sadness, envy, and anger came up, accompanied by painful thoughts and loss of energy. Notice that I said that “it” not “you” was running this emotional program! This is the good news. The emotional program is not the “real” you, but only an egoic program developed by the “small self.” Who you really are is a much bigger self. It is by getting in touch with this bigger self that you truly are that you can experience peace and equanimity regardless of what happens on the outside.

Welcome Practice
So what can you do if you are going along your merry way and suddenly you are “ambushed” by one of your emotional programs for happiness? The instinctual response to “fight back” will only get you into more trouble! Trying to get rid of an emotion will only lead to frustration. Eckhart Tolle reminds us that “whatever we resist, persists.” In fact, resistance actually strengthens whatever you are trying to overcome. Condemning yourself for having the emotion doesn’t work either. It is so easy to fall into self-criticism—saying to yourself, “I can’t believe I’m doing this again” and so on. Carl Jung, great psychiatrist and master of the unconscious that he is, says, “We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” Byron Katie says that we are called to “love what is” and that whatever is happening is happening “for us.” And so the first thing step to emotional freedom is to accept what is happening now.

Between the time of the triggering event and the full scale launching of your emotional program for happiness, there is a small opening, a window of opportunity. In this window of opportunity is your chance to make a free choice. In the ancient language on this topic, this is called “waking up.” When we are run our emotional program, and tell ourselves a story about what it means, we have fallen asleep to ourselves, to what is really happening, and to the present moment itself. Once we realize that we have mistaken this program for what is truly real and identified with it, then there is the possibility of change.

When we welcome life as it is, it helps us to dis-identify with our egoic programs for happiness, get out of our own way, and make a shift from the “small self” to the “big self.” Doing this is both simple and difficult. To be successful, we need to find a way to come into the present moment, embrace what is happening in the present moment, and then let go of our attachments, aversions, and stories from the past and future that are getting in the way of our present happiness. There is a meditation practice for everyday life that helps us to do all of these things. It is called the Welcome Practice. Are you ready to try it? There are only three simple steps

1) Listen to your body
What are the sensations happening in your body right now? If fear is present, what is the sensation of fear? Is your mouth dry? Is your breathing shallow? If you are angry, notice how anger manifests in you. Is your heart pumping fast? Do you fee flushed and agitated? Are you worried? How are you experiencing the sensation of worry? Where in your body do you feel tense and tight? Do you have butterflies in your stomach? If sadness is present, do you have a sinking feeling in your chest? Does your heart ache?
This step is all about sensation, and not about thinking.   It is very important in this phase of the process especially to avoid any temptation to psychoanalyze yourself or the emotion you are experiencing. Analyzing yourself only sinks you deeper into the grip of whatever emotion happens to be running wild in you at the moment. It brings you out of your body, into your head, and dissociates you from simply being present.

Focus your awareness as completely as you can on the sensations you experience in your body. It is easy to want to rush through this part. The painful emotion is like a splinter in your finger. It seems very counterintuitive to focus the pain when all you want to do is take it out! You will feel tempted to rush on to the next step. Discipline yourself to take a generous amount of time in this phase. If you rush into the next two phases without being fully grounded in your body, the practice will be less effective.

2) Welcome
Now that you have attended to the discomforts of what is happening in your body, it is time to do the next counterintuitive thing—welcome the emotion! Simply say to yourself with kindness, “Welcome fear” (or whatever the emotion is)…“Welcome fear”…
Keeping up this gentle litany of welcoming for as long as it feels right to do so. If you are experiencing physical pain, you would do the same, gently repeating “Welcome pain,”

Common sense will try to tell you that the emotion is the problem and that you are
crazy to welcome it! But the truth is that by creating an inner atmosphere of hospitality--embracing the emotion you have been defending yourself against, or running from--you are actually disarming it, removing its power to hurt you, or to kick you out of the present moment.

Don’t give in to the temptation and walk away. Try this new thing, and watch for what happens. But remember that what you are welcoming is the emotion—the physical and psychological content of the moment. You are not welcoming causative factors, or condoning untenable actions or events. For example, if your car is stolen, you are not welcoming burglary, but rather the emotions you feel as a result of having your car stolen. So you would not be saying, “Welcome stealing” but rather “Welcome anger” or whatever other emotion you might be feeling.

3) Let go
Do not rush to this step too soon. Most of the heavy lifting of this process occurs in the first two steps. Give yourself plenty of time to go back and forth between steps one and two as many times as needed. Wait until you begin to feel a physiological shifting before you try to let go. Also, remember that you are only letting go for this moment, not for all time.

When you are ready to let go, you can make up your own short statement of letting go, such as “I let go of fear” or “I release worry now,” or you can use a litany developed by the creator of the Welcome Practice, Mary Mrozowski. It goes something like this:

I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for esteem and affection.
I let go of my desire for security and approval.
I let go of my desire to change the situation.

And so now you know the Welcome Practice! If something happens to push your buttons this holiday season, I hope you will try it. With the Welcome Practice, the real proof is in the pudding. The only way to experience its remarkable power to set you free from your “small self” and align you with your “big self" is to try it when you are in need.

While this practice is a relative newcomer, having only been practiced for less than twenty years, recognition of the transformative power of welcoming is very old. I would like to close by sharing this poem with you which was written by a Muslim poet named Rumi, who was born in Afghanistan in the thirteenth century.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house,
every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.
---Rumi

The Welcome Practice in the article is my own slightly modified version of a practice originally created by Mary Mrozowski a close friend and associate of Fr. Thomas Keating, I would like to give special thanks to Mary for brilliantly developing this practice, to Cynthia Bourgeault for writing and teaching about it so profoundly in her books and in person, and to Contemplative Outreach for its fine educational materials about the Welcome Practice. If you would like more information about the Welcome Practice you can go to www.contemplativeoutreach.org

HOPE, MEANING, AND CONNECTION

2011-10-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

“The Glory of God is a human being fully alive”
--Saint Irenaeus

What are the fundamental needs of human life? And what does it really mean to be alive? Many times we think in terms of food and shelter. Yet history is full of stories of men and women who survived prolonged periods of deprivation without these basic elements. And we likely all know people who have abundant food and luxurious shelter who do not seem to be fully alive. It appears that there are at least two things going on at the same time—one is visible, tangible, and exterior; the other is interior, hidden, and invisible to the physical eye.
Another way to express this truth is that all of us live an outer life and an inner life, and ultimately it is the inner life that is primary. For example, there are two teachers who work at the same school, make the same pay, and live in the same neighborhood. Yet one drags to work, yells at the kids, and is drained at the end of the day. The other wakes up excited each morning, delights in the kids, and goes home tired but with a deep sense of the satisfaction of having accomplished something important that day. What is the difference? One way to look at it is to say that in their inner world they have differing capacities to draw on hope, meaning, and connection.

Hope
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these qualities. What do we mean by hope? Sometimes we think of hope as being mostly future oriented, trusting in difficult times that better days will come. This orientation to the future is part of hope, yet perhaps its greatest power lies in the uplifting of spirit that it brings in the present moment. The following is an excerpt from a poem scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany by a Jew hiding from Nazi persecution:

“I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining
And I believe in love
even when there's no one there
But I believe in God
even when he is silent
I believe through any trial
there is always a way.”

Hope is contagious and timeless, reaching beyond culture, geography, and gender. Many people today report that after reading this poem, they felt more hopeful about their own life circumstances. According to many biopsychosocial researchers, people who are “high in hope” actively problem solve when their life goals are challenged, and use strategies such as acceptance, reframing (meaning making), and humor to cope with their difficulties. As a result, they experience a richer quality of life.

Meaning
So now let’s explore meaning and what it actually means to “make meaning.” Today many researchers on the issue of chronic pain are concluding that pain and suffering are not interchangeable terms. It is not pain itself, but how individuals interpret their pain, that determines whether the pain is experienced as suffering. According to Victor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and concentration camp survivor, what made the difference between life and death for him and for many others who survived the death camps was the ability to make personal meaning even in the midst of painful conditions. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes:

“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”

---Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl

Neuropsychologists tell us that our brains are pre-programmed to seek and make meaning. The right brain receives a stream of information from the environment, while the left brain works to build a meaningful and orderly world out of the right brain’s felt meaning of a situation. While science has given us a pretty clear understanding of the linear, logical left brain’s role in meaning making, the right brain has been mostly overlooked in this regard. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard trained brain scientist, had a massive stroke that affected the left hemisphere of her brain. In her book, My Stroke of Insight, she describes how this debilitating stroke gave her a life changing revelation regarding the remarkable power of the right brain to make meaning. During a period of time when her left brain was completely shut down—and she could not walk, talk, read, or recall any of life events beyond four hours—her right brain was completely functional. As a result, she experienced a sense of complete wellbeing, happiness, and deep peace in the midst of these tragic circumstances. Fully recovered today, she travels worldwide to share her experience and her message that inner peace can be available to anyone.

Connection
Isolation is a major issue for many people today. This isolation occurs on many levels. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010 there were 99.6 million single households over the age of 18, representing over 44% of the adult population. Even traditional families with husband, wife, and children are often separated by geographical distance from grandparents and extended family members. By and large, we no longer automatically feel that we are born into and supported by a natural community. On another level, the pace and stress of our modern lifestyle, and pressures to succeed, make money, and be accepted often result in the outer life taking precedence over the inner life, with the result that we even feel cut off from ourselves. On yet another level, our post-industrial revolution mindset has predisposed us to elevate and isolate human intelligence, and to believe that we live in an essentially “dead” and unintelligent universe, made up mostly of inert matter and empty space.

This kind of isolation was unheard of in earlier times when people by and large lived in communities that depended on one another for survival, in a lifestyle that unfolded at a slower pace, and who saw themselves as a dynamic part of a greater whole in a universe that was alive, intelligent, and responsive. Saint Francis beautifully captures this sense of connection and relatedness in his poem, Canticle of the Sun. With gratitude he addresses each element personally and appreciates the special gifts of each—Brother Sun, Sister Moon and Stars, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Mother Earth, and even Sister Death.

According to Einstein, the most important question a person can ask is “Is the universe a friendly place?” New scientific understandings based on the study of the subatomic world of quantum physics show us that our created world is not only intelligent but operates on the principle of relatedness. When we affirm that “the universe is a friendly place,” the quality of our life improves. We are more likely to embrace connectedness at all levels and value ourselves; nurture our relationships; develop caring communities; lovingly respect and enjoy nature; and resolve conflicts peacefully recognizing that in harming others we harm ourselves.

Clearly, the degree to which we personally embrace these qualities of hope, meaning, and connection has a great deal to do with the quality and happiness of our lives, as well as with our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. In many ways, these are the qualities that make us human. If this is true, then it behooves us to take some time to reflect on our lives, and ask: To what extent do I embody hope, meaning, and connection in my life?

Self Assessment
One simple way to assess yourself is to use a scale from 0-10 and rate where you believe yourself to be along this scale in regard to each of these three qualities. To begin, pick a specific, current situation that is presenting particular challenges and difficulties for you right now. Where do you see yourself along these continuums? Keeping the situation in mind, circle the number where you see yourself in each category. You may even want to give yourself two scores—one for when you are stressed, overwhelmed, and on automatic pilot, and one for when you are able to stop, reflect, and set your intention to be fully present and conscious.

HOPE

LOW --------------------------------------------------------------------- HIGH
0 ----- 1 ----- 2 ----- 3 ----- 4 ----- 5 ----- 6 ----- 7 ----- 8 ----- 9 ----- 10

MEANING

LOW-----------------------------------------------------------------------HIGH
0 ----- 1 ----- 2 ----- 3 ----- 4 ----- 5 ----- 6 ----- 7 ----- 8 ----- 9 ----- 10

CONNECTEDNESS

LOW-----------------------------------------------------------------------HIGH
0 ----- 1 ----- 2 ----- 3 ----- 4 ----- 5 ----- 6 ----- 7 ----- 8 ----- 9 ----- 10

If you are like most people, you rated yourself higher in some areas, and lower in others, and you also found a difference between your automatic responses and your conscious ones. If you scored yourself low in some of these qualities, what can you do? We can’t go shopping for them, or go to a doctor and get a prescription! Because these qualities—hope, meaning, and connection—are fairly abstract, it may seem difficult to know where to begin.

Your Body is the Gateway to Your Mind
One thing that can help is to recognize that these qualities, in addition to being lofty ideals, are actually embodied energies. In Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine, there is no such thing as something being either spiritual or physical. Everything is seen as part of a single continuum to which there is both seen and unseen aspect. Because we as human beings live in bodies, it is often easier for us to understand, access, and experience something in our bodies first. Many ancient wisdom traditions agree that the body is actually the gateway to your mind.

Your mind is like the ocean and your body is like the beach.
If you want to go to the ocean, you’d better go to the beach.
---Sufi Saying

The good news is that, without realizing it, we are either opening or closing the door to these energies every day with the physical movements we make with our bodies. By becoming more conscious of these movements, and setting our intention to cultivate these qualities, like flowers in a well tended garden, they begin to grow and flourish in us. Let us begin by noticing how each of these qualities may or be expressed in and through our bodies.

Hope
Most people experience hope physically as an upward and outward movement. Archetypal stories and images of hope often center around “mountain top experiences.” To find hope for his people, Moses had to climb a mountain to receive the ten commandments. In his final speech calling our country to the hope of equality among all people, Martin Luther King said “I’ve been to the mountaintop!” In our everyday language, we often say that hope “rises.” In our bodies, when we slouch, slump downward, or make a habit of keeping our gaze lowered, we block the experience of hope. On the other hand, any rising movement that we make, whether it is simply to stand taller, raising our eyes upwards toward the sky, or especially lifting our hands or arms above our head, sends a message of hope out to every cell in our body-mind.

Meaning
Most people will describe their body experience of finding meaning as a downward and inward movement. Archetypal stories and images around meaning often center around some kind of journey of descent, often fraught with life threatening challenges and perils of various kinds. In the Bible we have the story of the buried treasure in the field for which we are required give up everything. Dante in The Divine Comedy must first descend into hell to learn some important lessons before he is able to ascend into paradise. Carl Jung wrote that all mythology around descending into the underworld is a metaphor of the journey downward and inward that we must make in order to find our true purpose in life and our eternal self. In our everyday language we say that we need to get “down to the bottom” of things to truly understand them. In our bodies, when we live our lives always trying to “be up” for challenges, or to get the “upper hand” and focus our awareness primarily on the upper part of our bodies and in our heads, we block the experience of discovering meaning in our bodies. On the other hand, whenever we drop our attention into our lower bodies and down into our feet and the earth below, shift our gaze from the outer world to the inner, or drop our fingertips toward the ground, we are opening the inner senses of the body and inviting the experience of making meaning.

Connection
The body experience of connection tends to more subtle than our body experience of hope and meaning, yet if we attend to it, it is quite tangible. Most people experience connection physically as including some awareness of a “felt center” or inner core that connects with a matching/mirroring inner core of a person or thing in the outer world. Energy aware people describe these connections as “threads” that weave a tapestry of connection around our bodies taking the shape of a circle. When we have abundant connections between our inner core, others, and nature, we feel supported by this circle in our life and in our world. Most indigenous people developed stories and mythology around the importance of the circle and the center including the ancient people of China who actually developed physical qigong practices to foster personal a experience of these qualities. The quote below is from Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.

“In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred hoopof the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the peopleflourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peaceand light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the northwith its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. Thisknowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.”

In our everyday language, we often say that we need to feel “centered” when chaos strikes and we call upon our “circle of friends,” or our “inner circle” for help. In our bodies, when we lose our experience of living, speaking, and acting from a “felt inner center,” or when we become overly focused on looking at our life from only one direction (usually front and forward), we block the experience of connection in our bodies. On the other hand, when we physically touch or inwardly move into a place that feels like our core, or feed our senses with perspectives from multiple directions, we open to the messages that are coming to us from the inherent “relatedness” within the subatomic reality of each cell in our body.

So now I invite you to try a practice using breath, mind focus, and simple movements to help grow hope, meaning, and connection in your life!

Standing Like a Tree Meditation to the Four Directions
Standing Like a Tree is a classic Tai Chi practice. Many thousands of years ago people noticed that trees lived much longer than people and began to study the ways of trees. They noticed that trees draw energy from their deep roots descending deep into the earth and energy from the sky through their tall branches stretching upwards into the sky. The solid trunk of the tree holds the core life energy of the tree and the connection between above and below.
To begin, find a quiet, comfortable place for your practice. You don’t need much room, but the energy of the practice will be enhanced if you practice outside or, if the weather does not permit this, at least in a room with a window where you can see outside. Start by facing south, or if you are inside, toward your favorite window.

Stand
Begin by standing with your feet approximately shoulder width apart, and your knees slightly bent. Imagine yourself to be your favorite kind of tree in a beautiful place. Imagine that your body from the waist down is beneath the earth, and that your legs and feet are sending powerful and plentiful deep roots into the ground to gather strength, stability, and nourishment. Imagine that your upper body and arms are light, flexible branches stretching up to the sky, gathering life giving light from the sun, releasing oxygen waste for carbon dioxide. Imagine that the trunk of your body is your core, which also functions as an antenna, holding a connection for you between earth and sky. Imagine that there is a elevator inside of you that you can ride down into your deepest roots and up to the highest branch of your being.

Elevator Breath
With your arms hanging naturally at your sides, and your head, heart, and belly in alignment, bring your awareness inside and imagine a column or channel in the center of your body that opens out into the sky above your head and down into the earth below your feet. In Tai Chi, this column is sometimes called your “Tai Chi pole.” Other names include “Central Equilibrium” or “Core Channel.” This breathing practice focuses on opening the densest portion of the channel which is between the upper chest and the base of the torso. Repeat three times.
• Inhale and ride the elevator down this core channel to your heels. Feel the weight of your body shift onto your heels.
• Exhale and shift the weight of your body onto the balls of your feet and ride the elevator back up the core channel to your upper chest.

Sound and Movement
After you get the feel of moving the breath up and down in the core channel, you can strengthen the practice by adding sound and movement. Repeat three times.
• As you inhale, make a sound as though you are sucking up air through a straw….chuuuuuu…and at the same time allow your hands to float up to your chest.
• As you exhale, breathing out through your mouth, make the sound haaaaaaa…and at the same time let your hands lightly float down to the belly.

Return to your Center
Press your palms together over your heart. Breathe back and forth between your belly button and the point opposite your belly button on your spine (approximately between L-4 and L-5 on your lumbar spine). Take three breaths.

Rotate through the Four Directions
If you have time, repeat this practice in each direction. For example, if you began in the south, turn to the west, north, and finally to the east. If you don’t have time, begin your next practice facing a new direction.

Washing the Organs: A Finishing Practice
With your hands at your sides, bring them up over your head and all the way down the front and center of your body, palms facing the ground. Repeat three times.

Regular practice is the key to making changes. It is better to practice for 5 minutes every day than for 30 minutes once a week. See if you can practice every day for two weeks. Whenever you feel like doing it, go back and reconnect with your problem situation and assess the amount of hope, meaning, and connection available to you now. Remember that often the most profound effect of your practice occurs outside of your practice time. For example, you may notice that you are walking down the street and notice that you feel more hopeful for no special reason; receive a helpful insight while you are washing the dishes; or after dinner that you want to go outside and look at the sunlight sparkling on the wet leaves after the rain. Enjoy your practice and remember that it takes time for your body to change your mind!

I would like to give special thanks to my Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold for partnering with me in presenting our Tai Chi retreat on Hope, Meaning, and Connection and for creating space, support, and inspiration for developing some of the ideas and practices in this article.

EFFORTLESS VITALITY

2011-10-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

“The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to”
--Tao Te Ching

Vitality—everyone wants it! Vitality is a radiant word with a broad spectrum of meanings. If we have vitality, we have the energy we need to do our work and enjoy our play. We have strength to fight off germs, stand up for ourselves, and face up to what life presents to us. We have resilience to bounce back when things don’t go the way we’d hoped, or when we experience the loss of a job, or a loved one, or a treasured possession. We have flexibility and the capacity to respond adaptively, effectively and appropriately to changes in our environment, relationships, or physical capacities. We have reserves to carry us through the barren times when the money, or the emotional support, or what gives our life meaning is hard to come by. We have health as we age, and basic trust in life.

Vitality, in other words, is a tall order! Since we live in a culture of “doing,” there are an abundance of “self help” books, TV and internet ads, and magazine articles telling us how we can become more vital. True to our American heritage of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, most of these try to talk us into believing that it is all up to us. The message is that acquiring vitality is under our control and if we just do enough, and do it the right way, we will be successful. Dutifully some of us work out at the gym, lift weights, take vitamins and supplements, eat more vegetables, cut down on fats and sugars in our diets, and take prescription drugs—and the rest of us feel guilty because we don’t! What gets overlooked is that there is more to vitality than what we can achieve by our own efforts; and, if we use striving as our only and primary methodology, we will actually wear ourselves out and lose energy.

Doing Versus Being: The Way of Water
Is there another way? As westerners, it is hard for us to imagine it. Throughout history, many ancient cultures around the world have explored this issue of how to cultivate vitality. Most did not see vitality as something they could “do” but more something they could “receive.” They looked to the larger world of nature for help. They noticed a strong correlation between the element of water and the power of the life force. The fresh, new green leaves of spring were moist, juicy, and high in vitality; while in contrast, autumn leaves were dry, brittle, and lifeless. People could live for sometimes weeks without food, but only a few days without water. Hmmmm, they thought---if we could just find a way to bring this water into ourselves, we would have vitality.

Water as Teacher
They studied the properties of water to learn how to live a vital lifestyle. They saw that water accepts everything and resists nothing. It expends no effort, yet its power is unstoppable. Being formless, water is infinitely flexible, able to take the shape of any container. Because water is clear and colorless, it allows us to see through it deep down into the bottom of things. Life is abundant in and around water. Waterways form networks of communication between towns. Port cities grow larger than their neighbors as the water draws a great diversity and plentitude of both people and goods for trade. When we immerse our bodies in water, they become very light, buoyant, and relaxed. People go to lakes, rivers, creeks, and ocean beaches to release their cares and gain peace of mind. Water’s sound—whether it is the happy sound of a mountain creek, the pulsing rhythm of the ocean, or the pounding of raindrops on a roof—has a strong effect on people’s emotions. There is an otherworldly quality to water. Reflecting the light of the sun, water becomes luminous. As we gaze into its depths, the world as we know it is turns upside down. In creation stories, mythology and folklore, water was often viewed as the opening between one world and another. Tibetan monks empty their prayer mandalas into the nearest creek or river, knowing that all water is connected--even the water in our bodies-- and that the flowing water will carry their prayers around the world. In summary, what ancient people learned from water is that a lifestyle that nurtures vitality is characterized by qualities such as acceptance, flexibility, openness, relaxation, playfulness, creativity, meditation, and interconnectedness with the larger community.

Tai Chi: An Ancient Water Practice
In China martial artists, medical qigong teachers, acupuncturists, and monks all developed energetic practices for connecting with the element of water to increase their power, longevity, and health. According to Chinese medicine, the actual root cause of the symptoms we attribute to old age is the depletion of the water energy in the body, not the passing of years. Compare the vitality of newborn babies who are 99% water to people in middle age who are 75% water or less—the correlation is clear. Tai Chi and Qigong are considered anti-aging, or longevity practices, because through daily practice, the practitioner learns to replenish the water element in their own bodies by drawing on the larger reservoir of water energy in nature and bringing it into their bodies. These practices are also designed to free up the water energy that is already present in the body but in an unusable state due to tension and blocks in the flow of qi. In Chinese medicine, congested water energy is considered to be “frozen,” thereby losing its fluid properties. Fear is the emotion that immobilizes the water energy within our bodies, a wisdom our language captures when we say that someone is “frozen by fear.” Tai Chi students are often reminded to expend less effort, not more, because trying too hard blocks the flow of qi. In Chinese, the desired Tai Chi state is called sung—which means to be relaxed without collapsing, energized without tensing.

The Importance of Water in Our Bodies: A Scientific Perspective
While the “proof is in the pudding” that Tai Chi and Qigong practices increase the water energy in the body and reduce, slow, or eliminate many symptoms associated with aging, there has not been a clear scientific understanding about how these changes actually occur. Recently there have been some exciting new understandings regarding the fluidity of the body from within the scientific community. In his book, Energy Medicine—The Scientific Basis, Dr. James Oschman states that the “living matrix” of the body—a continuous connective tissue fabric that enfolds all of the great systems of the body, including the circulatory system, nervous system, musculoskeletal system, the digestive tract, plus various organs and glands and the cytoskeletons of all the cells—is actually made up of liquid crystals! It is this watery living crystalline matrix that serves as the body’s prime communication network, carrying bioelectronic signals between every part of the body and every other part. When a person moves, the movements change the molecular antennas of the connective tissue, thereby changing its resonant frequencies. Ancient ritual movements such as those performed in Tai Chi generate and organize these molecular antenna changes in a harmonious way, thereby affecting the resonant frequency of the whole body, and bringing the whole body into a state of flow, coherence, and relaxation.

Continuum: A Modern Water Practice
Less than fifty years ago, a brand new practice for cultivating fluidity appeared on the scene. Emilie Conrad, a twentieth century movement pioneer, developed a remarkable, innovative, and powerful somatic system called Continuum. In her book, Life on Land, she explains that Continuum is based on the assumption that all fluids--whether in the cell, the body, or the planet--function as a resonant intelligent whole and can never be separated. Furthermore, she explains that just as we have an intelligent liquid crystalline matrix within our bodies, there is a much larger fluid matrix enfolding the universe itself, and that these fluid systems interpenetrate, communicate, mutualize and inform one another. Continuum practices assist us to engage our own internal fluid system and to experience how we are linked through this fluid system to the larger world of nature and to one another. In a play on the words of Oscar Ichazo, founder of the Arica Institute, who said “All search for consciousness is mother loss;” Emilie says that we are all suffering from “matrix loss.” When we lose contact with our fluid system, which serves as a kind of umbilical cord connecting us to the “ocean within”--the creative source of life itself-- we lose our vitality, our flexibility, our creativity, our resilience, our reserves, our ability to heal, and our sense of belonging.

Perhaps the most profound evidence of the effectiveness of Continuum can be seen in both Emilie’s work with spinal cord injuries, and in her own amazingly vital presence. Currently In her mid-seventies, she has the appearance and the daily schedule of a much younger person. She travels worldwide presenting her work, which is in a continually unfolding process of creation and innovation--dropping with ease to the floor to demonstrate a practice, sustaining her energy over a five day intensive, often teaching more than 6-8 hours per day; and communicating clearly through her own grounded presence her joy in teaching, quick sense of humor, artfully mixed with generous doses of her compassion and well honed wisdom.

In 1974, Emilie developed a protocol for helping those who were paralyzed from spinal cord injuries regain their capacity for voluntary movement. Due to the extent of their neurological damage, her subjects were individuals for whom conventional medicine had nothing to offer. Emilie’s work with these injuries was based on the assumption that the fluid system of the body, due to its more primordial nature, can actually override the nervous system. She modeled her protocol on embryogenesis, i.e. imitating the way the fetus develops in the womb. Her goal was not so much to regenerate what was lost, but rather to engage the fluid system in creating new neural systems to take over voluntary movement and restore function. Her extraordinary success has been recorded and is available on DVD. It was actually hearing about this aspect of Emilie’s work that initially led to my personal interest in Continuum. After suffering severe pain and immobility for over two years from spinal nerve damage, I began to study Continuum which played a key role in my own recovery process. If you are interested in more information on this topic, or Continuum in general, please visit their site.

In summary, the practice of Continuum is a way of cultivating vitality that focuses on being rather than doing. There are no fixed patterns or postures in Continuum. It is not a “top down” approach with a goal to manage, master, control, or shape the body into a pre-existing mold. On the contrary, Continuum is more an inquiry than a program, asking the body…How do you want to move?... Is there something I need to know? …Tell me what you need….

How Continuum Addresses Biological Events: Forward to Lateral and Gel to Sol
According to the research conducted by Dr. Valerie Hunt, Profession Emeritus of Neuroscience at UCLA, the overwhelming majority of our population is overly programmed to hold their bodies in a position of readiness for forward movement. Our culture repeatedly tells us that we should “move forward” and penalizes us if we don’t. Biologically, our bodies associate the position of readiness to move forward and backwards with the fight or flight response. Our bodies assume this orientation for survival, whether it be for “chopping wood and carrying water” or defending ourselves from attack. Continuum balances this tendency by using lateralizing sounds and movements designed help the body relax into a side to side motion thereby stimulating the relaxation response. As an example, think of how you might rock or cradle a crying baby in your arms.

Another biological event which Continuum addresses occurs on the cellular level. It is normal for cell walls to shift back and forth between a more solid, formed, gelatinous state (gel) to a more formless, watery, liquefied state (sol). The gel state is associated with the inhale phase of the breath, while the sol phase is associated with the exhale phase. It is in the sol state that the cell receives nourishment and releases toxins. When we feel stressed we over inhale and under exhale, causing our cell walls to stiffen and the liquid crystalline matrix connective tissue to literally lock down. As a result, the constricted cells starve from lack of water and nourishment, and become polluted with toxins that cannot be released—a condition ultimately leading to pain, stiffness, and disease. When the cell is imprisoned in this isolated state, it spends all of its energy on survival, with no opportunity for restoration. However, when the healthy exchange of gel and sol states is restored, and the cells receive the nourishment and cleansing they need, there is an additional benefit. When the sol returns to gel, it does not duplicate its original structure, but creates a new structure perfectly adapted to the needs of the present moment! Continuum utilizes sounds that soften the gel and restores the regenerative gel/sol pulsation movement to the cells.

A Continuum Practice To Support the Lymph System
So are you ready to try a Continuum practice on your own? The practice we will do together is designed to help the lymph system clear toxins from the body. Due to our sedentary modern lifestyle, the lymph system, which depends on movement to do its job, can use this kind of help every day.

Try to set aside a minimum of 20 minutes to try this practice, ideally in a place where you can lie down or sit undisturbed. In your practice you will use:
• Sounds—audible breathing to send wave like vibrations into your body tissue
• Gentle self- touch to guide the sound vibrations into specific areas of your body
• Mindful attention to track the sound-touch-movement of the practice
Choose either a seated or lying down body posture, whichever feels most comfortable to you. To get started, follow the steps below:

1) Take a Baseline
Before beginning your practice, notice as many things as you can about your body as you can, e.g. breathing pattern tension, pain, constriction, or any sensation that attracts your attention.

2) Follow a Simple Sound-Touch Sequence
Different sounds affect the body tissue in different ways. In this sequence you will use the sounds “ E” and ”O,” accompanied by gentle self-touch as indicated. Make the sound on the exhale phase of your breath, and direct it inside, not out into the environment as you do when you are speaking or singing. Keep the sound going until you complete your exhale. It will sound something like Eeeeeeeee or Oooooooo. Since water carries sound more effectively than any other element, you are using sound waves to initiate wave motion in the cells. As you follow the sequence, also offer your mindful awareness to your body. If you become tired of making the sounds at any point, just rest, be mindful, and wait until you are ready to begin again.

• E sounds lateralize and spread the tissue, cueing the body to relax. Let your lips smile as you make the E sound and feel the sound vibrating in the back of your throat. Take three breaths, sounding the E on each exhale, while you slowly wave your right foot from side to side. Repeat on the other side.

• O sounds create a tubular shape, helping the cells to expand, elongate and decompress. Let your cheeks puff out as you send the O sound inside to the following parts of your body. Gently touch each part if you can. Take 2-3 breaths at each location, depending on the time you have available.
➢ Bottoms of your feet (behind the ball)
➢ Backs of the Knees (fingertips under the knee)
➢ Groin area on left and right sides (fingertips face each other on the belly)
➢ Below both collarbones (fingertips line up under the collarbone)
➢ Both sides of the neck (fingertips face the back)
➢ Around both ears ((little finger and ring finger in front of the ears; thumb and remaining fingers behind the ears)

3) Go Into Open Attention
Open Attention is the most important part of your practice! Unlike a typical western exercise program, where the most important part is what you do—how long, how many repetitions, how fast—in Continuum the focus is on what you receive. You don’t need to make anything happen because the intelligent fluid system of the body already knows exactly what needs to happen and how to do it. You have offered the gift of sound to your body; in this quiet time, you listen for the response from your body. It is a dialogue, like talking on the telephone. First you talk, and then you listen. It is this give and take that builds your relationship with your body.

4) Repeat Sequence: Layering
Repeat the entire sequence three times if you have time. The first round creates an opening in the locked tissue. The second round continues the softening, dissolving, exchange process at a deeper level. The third round is where the regenerative activity really begins. Rigid holding patterns begin to dissolve and the healing wave patterns become more complex, resonant, mobile.

5) Closing
End your practice by taking a couple of deep breaths and quietly resting, enjoying the state of your body, mind, and emotions. Express gratitude in any way that seems right to you.

Try to practice every day for a week and note any changes in your body, mind, and emotions. Many people are surprised at how powerful this “effortless” practice is. Enjoy complementing the vitality you gain from doing with the gentle being of a water practice!

BREATHE EASY: Awareness is the Key

2011-08-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

“Fear is excitement without the breath”
--Fritz Perls

“For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth”
--Sanskrit Proverb

Breathing…our life line! We can survive weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without breathing. In many cultures, breathing is considered the essence of being. The word for breath in many cultures is often the same as words for spirit or the life force—prana in Sanskrit, ruach in Hebrew, spirtus in Latin, chi in Chinese. Cultures throughout history have acknowledged the role of breath in connecting the conscious and unconscious parts of ourselves; regulating the autonomic nervous system; and joining us to the nature and to other people. Remarkably, leaders in the domains of both spirituality and science agree about the centrality of breathing to the health of body and mind. Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master, author, and teacher of mindful breathing says, “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts”.
Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, a physician and pioneer in the field of Integrative Medicine, says that “If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. From my own experience and from working with patients, I have come to believe that proper breathing is the master key to good health.”

In this article we will explore the power of the breath; some common problems associated with breathing; and some breathing practices you can try at home that can be used to achieve a calm, peaceful, and healing state.

Power of the Breath
Fortunately for us, since it is a matter of our survival, we don’t have to remember to breathe. Breathing is not even something we “do.” Breath comes to us, a tangible embodiment of the life force or qi. Breath both nourishes and purifies us, bringing life giving oxygen to our tissues, and removing carbon dioxide waste from our system. Breath protects us by masterfully conducting a grand internal symphony of hormonal, biochemical, and bioelectric interactions that keep us alert when there is danger, and relaxed if we are safe. If “danger” is perceived, fast, shallow chest breathing stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. Our heart races; blood pressure rises; bowels and bladder prepare to evacuate. Circulation to the digestive organs decreases, while blood flow to our lower and upper limbs increases, preparing us to fight, flight, or freeze to defend ourselves. If “safety” is perceived, deep, slow breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, sending a signal to the body that all is well. Our heart rate slows down, and our blood pressure drops. Circulation to the digestive organs increases, and we feel centered, relaxed, and calm, ready for a fine meal and good times with family and friends.

In addition to its primary function of gas exchange, breathing also promotes blood flow to the organs; the delivery of nutrition to the cells; elimination of waster by stimulating peristalsis; and detoxification ( 60% of the lymph nodes in the body are located just beneath the diaphragm). These functions are primarily related to the up and down movements of the diaphragm, sometimes called the “spiritual muscle,” which is strategically situated between the heart and lungs above, and the stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, kidneys, bladder, and small and large intestines below.

Breath also reminds us that we are not alone and of our interconnectedness with nature and with others. For example, breathing demonstrates that we are in a mutually interdependent relationship with the trees on our planet. They breathe out the oxygen we need, while we breathe out the carbon dioxide they need. As we gather in a room with family, friends, or coworkers, we are literally “breathing together.” The air that was in me a few minutes ago is in my neighbor now, and vice versa!

Common Breathing Problems
The artistry and wisdom of the breathing system is beyond compare. There is only one problem. The complexities of modern life and the human condition often result in the breath sending out an incorrect message to the body, e.g. a “Danger! Alert! All systems full speed ahead!” message in a situation that does not truly represent a threat, or at least not the kind of threat requiring a full fledged “fight or flight” response. For example, in real life we may feel nervous walking into an important job interview. However, our body may interpret this feeling to mean that we are being ambushed by a hungry tiger! Consequently, to our dismay, at a time when we most need to be clear thinking and calm, we feel agitated and inarticulate as our blood flow speeds away from our brain and pumps vigorously into our extremities.

In a review of the literature on emotions and respiration published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology (“Emotions and respiratory patterns: review and critical analysis,” 1994), authors Boiten, Frijda, and Wientjes identified four breathing patterns related to specific kinds of emotional states:

Fast and deep: excitement gearing up for battle/action
Fast and shallow: anxiety and stress
Slow and shallow: sadness, depression, and grief
Slow and deep: relaxed and peaceful

Painful emotional states were all associated with restricted breathing, holding the breath, and thoracic, or chest breathing, as opposed to abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing. In chest breathing, constriction of the chest tissue leads to high, rapid, shallow breathing with very little diaphragmatic involvement or movement. Air exchange occurs at the top of the lungs, instead of in the lower lobes where the capillary supply is richest and air flow the greatest. As a result, the whole breathing system becomes inefficient, resulting in less expansion of the lungs, less removal of carbon dioxide and oxygen transfer to the blood, poor delivery of nutrition to the tissues, and the loss of detoxification benefits and enhanced blood flow to the organs. Some of the consequences of prolonged chest breathing are inflammation, muscle and joint pain, and general malaise, as well as increased susceptibility to various kinds of illness and disease.

Chest breathing is the predominant breathing pattern in our culture. Even though all babies and most very young children breathe abdominally, data from recent pediatric assessments shows that the majority of children have become chest breathers by the age of eight. Some of the contributing factors are chronic stress, sedentary lifestyles, and the widespread belief that we should all have flat, hard bellies. Both hyperventilation and asthma, both of which involve over-inhaling and under-exhaling, are common respiratory problems in our culture, and both are associated with chest breathing.

So how can we learn to breathe in a way than supports our overall health, peace of mind, and wellbeing? The good news is that there are many conscious breathing practices, both ancient and modern, that can significantly reduce the problems described above and help us achieve healthy breathing habits. According to a research study on the effects of yoga on bronchial asthma (Nagarathna & Nagendra, British Medical Journal, 1985), after only two weeks of practice, participants were able to significantly reduce the number of weekly attacks, prescription drug use, and peak flow scores.

Now we will take a look at the basic components of healthy breathing, then we will take a look at two breathing practices, one “quick fix” and one longer one, to help you achieve a relaxed, peaceful state through breathing.

Components of Healthy Breathing: The Four Stages of Breath

“Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.”
--Krishnamacharya

A full healthy breath incorporates all four of the stages described below, and engages the diaphragm as well as the chest. See the chart below for illustration and details regarding both the physical structure and the psychological meaning associated with the four stages of a full breath: 1-inhale, 2-Pause, 3-Exhale, and 4-Pause. Since breath, emotions, actions, and spirituality are inseparable, mindfully completing each of the four stages of breath forms a foundation for a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

BREATHING PRACTICES
The way we breathe is a metaphor for the way we live our life. Focusing on our breath gets us directly in touch with the life force that is moving through us all the time. Breath reminds us that there is something other than “us” is here; and--despite our ego’s best efforts to convince us otherwise--it’s not all up to us! Even while we are “doing things” there is something here that is “doing us” that we can trust and relax into. We can’t make breath happen, we can only respond to the breath that comes to us. The less effort we expend, the fuller our breath becomes and the more present we become. Eckhart Tolle, in his book The New Earth, says “Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can…It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body's ability to heal itself.”

Conscious Deep Yawning
It is surprising to most people that conscious, intentional yawning can reduce stress and induce relaxation in minute or two! Yawning stimulates the precuneous area of the brain, an area associated with consciousness, self-reflection, and memory retrieval. According to Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of How God Changes Your Brain, yawning is the fifth best way to exercise your brain, as it quickly and easily brings you into a state of awareness, alertness, and bodily relaxation. It can be an excellent “warm up” for a meditation or simply a “quick fix if you need to calm down and don’t have time for a longer practice.

You can try it now!

Find a quiet, comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed. Sitting, standing, or lying down are all fine.
Begin by inhaling deeply with your mouth wide open. As you exhale, make a long, sighing sound. Don’t worry if you don’t feel like yawning. Attempt a series of yawns anyway, with a brief pause between each one.
With an attitude of gentle curiosity, pay attention to what happens in your mouth, throat, chest, and belly. Don’t be surprised if your eyes start to water.
Yawn twelve to fifteen times, with pausing for a few seconds between each one. This practice can be completed in two minutes.

After you complete your yawning practice, notice whether or not you feel more relaxed in whatever activity you may be engaged it--working out, balancing your checkbook, engaging a person you have a conflict with, long distance driving, or any other daily life activity.

Conscious Breathing Practice
The next two breathing practices may be done together, or individually. The first practice is almost completely receptive and focuses mostly on awareness. Five to ten minutes is a good beginning practice time for this exercise.

Part I: Awareness

Find a comfortable place to sit down, lie down, or stand.
Close your eyes and be present, noticing your breathing.
Don’t try to change anything about your breath, just notice the sensations you feel and be curious. What is the pace of your breathing. Is it fast or slow? Keep breathing and keep noticing, and be curious about anything that changes.
Where in your body do you feel the touch and movement of your breath? Keep breathing and keep noticing, and see what changes.
Notice if there is any part of your body that draws your attention. If so, breathe into this part. Smile to this part. See if the part responds. Keep breathing and keep up the connection as long as you want to.
Bring your hands together over your belly button and conclude this part of the practice with a long, deep breath.

The second practice involves synchronizing simple Tai Chi hand movements with the four stages of breath described earlier. This practice may be done sitting or standing, whichever is most comfortable for you.

Part 2: Tai Chi Breathing Practice for the Four Stages of Breath

Cross your hands over your belly button and hold them there while you take a deep breath.
Let your hands float out in front of your belly, palms facing one another as though you were holding a ball between them.
As you inhale, expand the ball with your hands, letting them stretch out and apart from one another, while still noticing the connection between them. .
When you reach the end of your inhale, hold your hands still in the “out” position long enough to say to yourself “pause.” Wait for the urge to exhale to come before you begin exhaling.
As you exhale, move your hands inwards toward one another, compressing the ball between your palms, in front of your belly button.
When you reach the end of your exhale, hold your hands still in the “in” position long enough to say the word “pause” to yourself. Wait for the urge to inhale before you begin inhaling.
Continue doing this practice for a maximum of five minutes, stopping sooner if you become dizzy, lightheaded, or otherwise uncomfortable.
To conclude your practice, bring your hands back to your belly button and circle them around the belly button a few times. Remain in silence and stillness for another minute or two, listening to, feeling, and noticing your inner body.

You can gradually increase the length of time of these practices as you become more comfortable doing them. Remember that your breathing mirrors your life! Next time you undertake a project, try using the template of the four part breath and apply it to your project. For example, if you are baking a cake to give to a friend, after you pop the cake in the over, pause and “take in” the experience—the smell in the kitchen, the warmth of the oven, the feeling of satisfaction, and any thoughts going through your mind. Once you have dropped off the cake, pause again and let go of any attachments, expectations, or judgments you may have about the cake or the reception the cake gets. Spend a moment in spacious stillness and quiet before resuming your activities for the day.

May your breathing grow slower, deeper, and easier!

MEDITATION — It’s Not Just In Your Head

2011-07-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

"Meditation is not about forcing our mind to be quiet; rather it's a process to rediscover the quietness that is ever-present. Behind the screen of our internal dialogue is the silence of pure awareness-a silence that is not disturbed by thoughts of the past or concerns of the future."

--Dr. Deepak Chopra.

Meditation has become mainstream! In May 2011 ABC World news did a special report on the benefits of meditation with a focus on meditation studies done by prestigious institutions like Harvard University. According to this report, health care providers are increasingly suggesting that their patients look to meditation and other integrative techniques to improve their health.
Britta Holzel, a researcher at Harvard, found in a recent study involving novice meditators that after just eight weeks of meditation, the areas of the brain associated with compassion and self-awareness got bigger, and the part associated with stress got smaller. Dr. Holzel says, “It's fascinating to see how our brains can change in structure by learning a new skill. Meditation is the act of learning a new perspective -- of the world and of yourself, and of being more aware of experiences in the present moment."

Increasing numbers of people are seeking the kind of change in perspective offered by meditation. As our hunter-gatherer bodies struggle daily to adapt to the modern lifestyle, in which busyness is epidemic, multitasking is a way of life, and electronic noise bombards our senses, we long for a time of peace and quiet so that we can remember who we are, why we are here, what is truly important, and the meaning of what we are doing. However, for the beginning meditator, the cure can quickly become part of the problem. The problem is that when we become still, what becomes immediately apparent is that there is another whole world of noise inside of us. The things we have been suppressing all along with our busyness now all come to the surface…body aches….painful thoughts and memories…negative emotions…unsolved problems…worries about the future…and the voice inside telling us “this is a waste of time” or “you are not doing this right.” In Pogo’s famous words, “I have met the enemy, and them is us.”

Ah, the dilemma! What now? Stressed if I don’t meditate and stressed if I do! Caught between this frying pan and fire, many people give up on meditation. If you can relate to any of these problems, I have good news for you. If you can lie down, sit, stand, or walk, then you can meditate! Read on….

Your problem might be that your definition of meditation is too narrow. Many people have a fixed picture in their minds of what meditation is, how you do it, where you do it, and what posture your body should be in while you are doing it. Often this picture is far removed from your concept of normal life, and outside the comfort zone of your natural abilities and inclinations. But what if meditative moments are already a part of your life even though you are not conscious of them? Dr. Milton Erickson, founder of modern hypnotherapy, tells us that the hypnotic state is not a special or abnormal condition, but that it is a normal part of everyone’s daily life experience and that we go into and out of hypnotic states many times a day. Dr Deepak Chopra tells us that meditation is not about forcing the mind to be quiet, but about rediscovering the quietness, the pure awareness that is always present beneath the stream of internal dialogue. Is it possible that meditation is not just a “special state for experts” but that it is a completely natural part of being human? And that the flow of postures and movements we engage in every day are gently shifting us into and out of meditative states?

Meditation is often thought of as mostly a mental process. The key to opening the door to meditation for anyone is to shift the beginning point for meditation to the body. Ancient Chinese people, a highly pragmatic group by nature, noticed that people laid down, sat down, stood, and walked. Since meditation was highly valued in their culture, they developed meditative practices for each of these postures; they also recognized that each posture induced a different type of meditative outcome. In the late 1970’s, Felicitas Goodman, PhD, professor of anthropology and linguistics, began what would become a lifelong study of the unique psychophysiological changes induced by holding specific ancient postures. She observed the remarkable similarity of ritual postures across all major continents as illustrated in the cave paintings, petroglyphs, and art objects of primitive people. As part of her research she asked thousands of her students, mostly Europeans and Americans with no prior training in meditation, to hold various postures and note their experiences. Her findings indicated that each posture mediated a characteristic and distinctly different experience.

Both ancient wisdom and modern science suggest that posture itself is a form of meditation and that as we change our posture, we shift our internal state. As adults we do not pay much attention to the many times we shift from one of these postures to the other throughout the day; however, with our babies we delight ourselves by paying very careful attention to their struggles to learn and acquire new postures. Rolling over, sitting up, standing, and walking are milestones to be acknowledged and celebrated. We get out our cameras and take videos to record these precious moments. We smile, laugh, and clap to for each of these accomplishments because at some deep level we know that these changes in physical orientation to the world around us are accompanied by profound changes of perception and leaps of consciousness.

There are many things we already understand about the language of posture. After all, for all of us, posture was our first language. Intuitively we know that each posture opens us to a different quality of perception, and enables us to relate in a different way to the people and events around us.

LYING DOWN
We lie down to heal, make love, rest, rejuvenate, and restore our energy. Lying down speaks the language of surrender, vulnerability, trust, openness, and receiving. If I am willing to lie down with or in the presence of another, I feel safe. On the other hand, if I feel threatened, I am likely to say, “I’m not going to take this lying down!” and shift to a more vertical posture.

SITTING
Sitting is the traditional posture used for learning. In school, the students sit at their desks. When we sit, we think, accumulating and gathering knowledge which we hope to apply in our daily life. With others, we sit to talk, share a meal, socialize, plan, and collaborate. We “sit in judgment” to weigh the scales of good and bad in a situation. Sitting can also be associated with power, such as “sitting at the head of the table” or remaining sitting while others are expected to remain standing.

STANDING
Standing is a posture we associate with courage, strength, and self confidence. We “stand tall” when we are challenged. If someone attacks us, we”stand up for ourselves” or “take a stand” to let others know that we are solid and cannot be pushed around. At sporting events, we stand to send our personal power and energy to support our team, especially when they are under duress. Standing can also be a way of showing respect and honoring others, such as standing at attention, or giving a standing ovation to show our appreciation of a fine performance.

WALKING
Walking introduces the radical new element of change. We are able to move through space from here to there. Our ability to walk allows us to venture away from home base, to leave what is familiar to us, and explore new territory. Freedom, creativity, and adventure are all qualities afforded to us by our ability to walk. It is the opposite of stuckness. We can protect ourselves by walking away from danger or discomfort. Through walking we set a direction and define our path. When we “walk the talk” we give meaning and embodiment to the values we hold. This meaningful aspect of walking can be accentuated by walking with others for a common cause, thus we have the popularity of “walkathon’s.”

While we “know” all these things at a subconscious level, it may never have occurred to us that we can intentionally and consciously use a change of posture to acquire an energy that we need for our life in the moment. We can and do receive help from these postures daily without even realizing it, but it is when we bring our focus, intention, and conscious participation into plaly that these postures become meditation and we receive their full benefits. There is a ancient story that the Buddha was once asked, “What do you and your disciples practice?” He replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats.” The Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know that we are eating.” It is the mindful awareness that we bring to the postures of everyday life that allows us to be in touch with the “quietness that is ever present within.”

SELECTING A PRACTICE:
So let’s come back to the issue of how to find a meditation practice that is natural and right for you. Much of the language about meditation as a healthful practice is about reducing stress. Yet the word “stress” is a catchall term that can refer to anything from an unreasonable boss to a stomachache! If we define stress to mean that the demands of my life have exceeded my resources, then getting in touch with what you need now to help you deal with stress can be useful. Some helpful questions to ask yourself might be: what resources do I need now? Which meditation practice can help me to access these resources? Now let’s try a meditation posture!

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL OF THE POSTURES:

Select a time and place for your meditation. Begin with five minutes once a day, adding time as you can.
Select a posture for meditation based on what you need. Below I have listed the qualities that can be cultivated in the various postures, along with a brief description of how to assume the posture.
Set an intention for your meditation. Once you have set your intention, let it go and shift your attention to focusing on your breath, and on being present in your body as you hold the posture. Bring your attention to the sensations in your body. Feel your body from the inside as you hold the posture.
As you breathe in, focus on the freshness coming into and penetrating each cell of your body. As you breathe out, focus on emptying toxins and releasing tension from each cell, muscle, joint, and bone.

LYING DOWN MEDITATION
Healing, rest, recuperation, nurturance, trust, letting go, heartfulness

Posture: Lie down on your back. If possible, lie down on the ground. Be comfortable and use pillows if necessary to provide support. Lie down and know that you are lying down.

SITTING MEDITATION
Wisdom, discernment, objectivity, big picture, release judgments

Posture: Sit on a chair with legs uncrossed and both feet on the floor. Keep your back straight, Sit and know that you are sitting.

STANDING MEDITATION
Strength, presence, power, confidence, groundedness, alignment

Posture: Stand with feet shoulder width apart, letting your knees relax and your tailbone drop towards the ground. Feel the crown of your head stretching upwards toward the sky, and your chin drop slightly inwards toward your chest. Stand and know that you are standing.

WALKING MEDITATION
Vision, creativity, freedom, solve a problem, begin something new
Posture: Walk at a comfortable pace in a place you find pleasing and appealing. Let your arms swing naturally as you move. Let your gaze be level with the horizon. Walk and know that you are walking.
To close your time of meditation, internally scan your body from head to toe, taking note of any changes. Remember your intention and express gratitude that this quality is even now growing in you. Continue regular practice for four weeks. At this point reflect on the process of your meditation and also on how your life is going. Note any differences, changes, and/or surprises. Remember that for many people the greatest effect of a meditation practice shows up in their everyday life rather than during the time of meditation itself. If you already have a meditation practice, you may want to experiment with bringing some of these postures into it and explore the effect. Enjoy your heightened awareness of power of posture and see if you can “catch yourself” using it spontaneously as part of your daily activities!

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified EDXTM and Body Mind Psychotherapy Practitioner, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

HAPPINESS: is an inside job

2011-07-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

“The purpose of life is happiness”
Dalai Lama

Happiness is a taboo topic. Even though we frequently wish others happiness, most of us are ambivalent about it. On the one hand, we want to be happy, but usually link it to a future change of state. We think we will be happy when we make the right amount of money, meet the right person, get promoted, pay off our debts, get well, complete our education, or the children grow up-- and so the list goes on. On the other hand, even admitting that we want to be happy makes us feel guilty. Our cultural work ethic looks down on the desire for happiness as superficial and selfish.
Then there is the undeniable fact that pain and suffering are inescapable parts of the human condition. Nevertheless, some great leaders of our time are shedding new light on the topic of happiness. Scientist Candace Pert as part of her groundbreaking work in uncovering the biology of emotions says in her book Molecules of Emotion that we are “wired for joy.” The Dalai Lama says that the very purpose of our life is happiness. If we decide to take their words seriously and believe that it is our true nature to be happy, and moreover that it is this very happiness that gives our life meaning, how then can we find and experience this happiness now—and not at some always receding future point?

According to the 10th anniversary issue of The Art of Happiness--written by the Dalai lama in collaboration with psychiatrist Howard C Cutler, MD--leading a happy life begins by understanding that happiness is determined more by our state of mind than by conditions, circumstances, or events (at least after basic survival needs are met); and that a sustained state of happiness can be experienced by systematically training the mind and heart. In other words, happiness depends on a shift in perception, and the ability to make this shift depends on having a daily practice that permits us to transform our consciousness and reshape our attitudes and outlook.

Recent scientific studies demonstrate clearly the amazing neuroplasticity of the brain, i.e. its ability to change its structure and function in response to internal stimuli. Research studies using Tibetan monks as subjects clearly demonstrate that it is possible through meditation to “train” and reshape the mind just as an athlete can work and train to reshape the body. Brain scans of the monks practicing a “compassion meditation” showed a dramatic increase in high-frequency gamma waves during this meditation as compared to a slight increase in gamma activity for novice meditators. Functional magnetic resonance imaging pinpointed regions of the brain that were active during this meditation. Activity in the left prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of positive emotions such as happiness, dwarfed activity in the right prefrontal area, where negative emotions, depression, rage, and anxiety are located.

Given that happiness depends on changing our perspective, and that for those--such as the monks described above--who are willing to adopt a daily practice to sustain this change of perception, the next question for ourselves becomes one of identifying specifically which of our daily habits of perception are blocking our ability to experience happiness? We are called to examine our inner life-- the thinking, feeling, and behavioral habits—and ask the question: indeed it is true that I am wired for joy, and that happiness is my life purpose, what is it that stands between me and joy and happiness?

Tai Chi and Qigong give us a body-mind perspective on this question. According to Chinese medicine, we have three brains, not one! We have a head brain, a heart brain, and a belly brain—three centers of consciousness. When these three centers are aligned and connected with one another, the state of happiness naturally occurs. When asked where in their bodies do they feel happiness, most people will point to their heart. However, according to Tai Chi and Qigong, the heart alone cannot sustain happiness. We can only have a happy heart if our heart center is connected to the belly center, which is grounded in the earth, and to the head center, which draws down the infinite energies of the universe from heaven. In other words, the key to happiness lies in the alignment of these three centers.

In a state of alignment, the head center is in a state of acceptance of life as it is, which invokes a state of peace. The heart center is connected to a sense of purpose, which invokes a state of joy. And the belly center experiences a state of safety, which invokes a state of trust.

If there are blocks in any of these three centers of consciousness, then the alignment of the centers is lost, and the natural flow of the life force energy, or chi, breaks down, and the door to happiness closes.

Since the nature of the head center is to be aligned with reality and the flow of the universe as it is, when we resist reality as it is, and judge ourselves, others, or events, the head center becomes disconnected from the flow of the chi in the universe. Since the nature of the heart center is to express our life purpose through our true self, when we try to please others and hide behind the adapted or false self, then we lose our connection to ourselves and what gives our life meaning. Since the nature of the belly center is to ground the body in the present moment to create safety, when we misuse, abuse, or disassociate from our body, we lose our connection to the stability and security of the earth.

It is very typical to have one or two centers which are more or less open, and one center which is mostly closed. To identify which centers may be blocking your happiness, reflect on an incident which upset you, and take note of your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The following questions may help you:

HEAD: Am I accepting life as it is, or judging myself, someone else, or the situation?
HEART: Am I following the guidance of my true self, or forcing myself to conform to the “rules” or striving to meet someone else's expectations?
BELLY: Am I fully present and centered in my body or caught up in remembering the past, being anxious about the future, or dissociating by daydreaming or just “going away” from the moment?

Your answers to these questions can help you determine which centers are blocked. The following Tai Chi practice can help you open, balance, and connect all of your centers, and open the door to the “happiness that passes understanding” in any situation!

ALIGN THE THREE CENTERS TAI CHI PRACTICE:

Virtually every Tai Chi or Qigong form begins with a practice for aligning and opening the three centers. Below is a basic practice such practice.

Opening

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, with knees and shoulders relaxed, sacrum pointing toward the ground, and head lifting to the sky

Open the Belly Center

Hold both hands in front of your belly button as though you were holding a ball.
As you breathe in, expand the ball out to your sides. As you breathe out, compress the ball and bring in back in towards your belly center.
Repeat nine times, slowing down your breath as much as you can.

Open the Heart Center

Hold both hands in front of your heart, as though you were holding a ball.
As you breathe in, expand the ball out to your sides. As you breathe in, compress the ball and bring in back in towards your heart center.
Repeat nine times, slowing down your breath as much as you can.

Open the Head Center

Hold both hands in front of your forehead, as though you were holding a ball.
As you breathe in, expand the ball out to your sides. As you breathe in, compress the ball and bring in back in towards your head center.
Repeat nine times, slowing down your breath as much as you can.

Closing

Bring your hands down your centerline to the belly button.
Stand for a moment and shift your attention inside your body. Use your inner eye and senses to see and feel your three centers.
Smile to your three centers and circle your hands nine times around your belly button.
Relax and let your hands drop away from your belly button area and fall naturally to your sides.

Your answers to these questions can help you determine which centers are blocked. The following Tai Chi practice can help you open, balance, and connect all of your centers, and open the door to the “happiness that passes understanding” in any situation!

Begin with 5-15 minutes each day to help open, connect, balance and align your three centers. Use this mind-body practice as your part of your “happiness” training!

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

FIND INNER PEACE By Questioning Your Thoughts

2011-07-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Epictetus

Thoughts are passing through our minds at every moment of our day, whether we notice them or not. It is like there is a multi-band radio station playing inside our heads all the time. Various internal and external events trigger them, causing us to bounce from station to station. Gifted Irish novelist James Joyce in his book Ulysses was among the first to capture this inner chaos in literature as he guides the reader into the mind of his protagonist, showing us that it is not neatly organized into structured sentences and sequential, logical thoughts, but is rather a punctuationless formless flow of constantly changing words and images, which seem at times to take on a direction and meaning, and at others to be totally meaningless.

Take a moment to listen to the station inside you. It may go something like this. You wake up and realize that you have pushed the snooze button one time too many and the thoughts begin…oh my gosh I’m going to be late all my good clothes are dirty I wonder if everyone is going to dress up for the retirement party today maybe I’ll just call in sick (jumping out bed and tripping over the shoes you left there the night before) *#*%ah!**!# I should have picked up the house last night too tired that job is killing me (on the way to the bathroom you see a family photo on your dresser and remember the argument you had with your brother yesterday) is he ever going to grow up (no toothpaste) what else is going to go wrong now guess I’ll have to stop at the store too on my way in….and so on!

If you pay close attention you will notice that there are feelings connected to each thought…panic about being late, anger that you stubbed your toe, frustration about your job, sadness about your brother, and stress as you think about adding one more thing on your way to work. And so on it goes every day! Thoughts and feelings tumbling over and over inside you. What might you notice if you spent a whole day listening to yourself? Research shows that the average person spends only about 20% of their waking day in a peaceful, happy state, with the other 80% consisting of thoughts and feelings that are stressful in one way or another.

How can we move from stressful thoughts to inner peace? Every spiritual tradition holds forth the possibility of attaining a state of unshakeable inner peace and joy. The Buddhists call it enlightenment. Jesus talks about “peace that passes understanding.” Lao Tzu reminds us to “live in harmony with the Tao.” To reach this state, we know what we are supposed to do—let go, forgive, forget, trust, give up control, and be present. We just don’t know how to do it!

What we need is a bridge, a practice that helps us to move from where we are to where we want to be. There are a number of new approaches to help with this problem. Dr. Albert Ellis who developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) was a pioneer in this area; Dr. Wayne Dyer has recently published a book called Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be as effective in reducing symptoms of depression as medication. Well respected writer and teacher Byron Katie has developed a method for questioning thoughts called Inquiry, or “The Work” which consists of four questions and the turnarounds (a way of exploring the opposite of what you believe). The questions and the turnarounds are designed to help distinguish between thoughts about reality and reality itself. What all of these approaches have in common is the belief that when we question our thoughts, and find out that they are not true, they lose their power over us.

Enough discussion! It is time to for you to try inquiry for yourself. First, you need to formulate a judgment about someone—a family member, friend, coworker, neighbor, or the perhaps the driver who almost cut your off. I will guide you through four questions and turnarounds, offering my own answers as a guide. If possible, write down your judgment and your answers as you follow along.

Preliminary Step: JUDGE YOUR NEIGHBOR
Situation that gave rise to my Judgment: My husband and I were guests at a local church worship service. The music leader of the service was doing his best, but it was soon clear that the music as going to be off key, and painfully draggy. I soon realized that my husband—who is himself a talented musician, singer, and music leader with a vigorous and powerful voice—was singing the correct notes at a livelier pace than the music leader. I soon felt overwhelmed by the asynchronous effect of congregation, music leader, and my husband singing in multiple rhythms and pitches. Realizing that I was caught up a judgment, I began the process of Inquiry in the midst of the event.

Judgment: My husband should follow the music leader.
QUESTION 1: Is it true?
Answer: Yes! Of course it is true. It’s the only polite thing to do.

QUESTION 2: Can you know that it is absolutely true?
Answer: Maybe not absolutely, but mostly true.
I can feel a change in myself with this second question and note that I no longer just in my head, but now my heart is getting involved.

QUESTION 3: How do you react when you believe that thought?
Answer: I felt embarrassed. What must the people be thinking? Stressed—what notes and pace should I sing? Also irritated, and began planning what I would say to my husband on the way home. I lost track of the service completely.

QUESTION 4: Who would you be without the thought?
Answer: I would feel peaceful and free. I would sing and enjoy myself. I would appreciate my husband’s beautiful singing voice.

TURNAROUNDS (see the diagram below)
The turnarounds allow you to look at a stressful thought from different perspectives. In this diagram, the circle stands for Greater Reality and the four directions of the compass represent the initial judgment plus three ways of turning the judgment around. If you imagine yourself in the center of the circle, it is easy to see that if you only looked at life from one of these four perspectives, you would miss three-fourths of Greater Reality. The turnarounds connect the two axes of the circle that cross in the center. The judgment and the first turnaround (Turnaround to the Opposite) on the South-North axis represent looking outwards at “OTHER.” The second and third turnaround (Other and Self Turnarounds) located on the West-East axis represent looking inwards at “SELF.”

As you progress through the turnarounds, it is good to remind yourself not to answer the questions from your intellect alone. The questions are intended to be like a diving board assisting you to explore your thoughts at a deep level. Asking the questions is a form of meditation. There are no right or wrong answers, only an opportunity to be in better touch with Greater Reality and to see the mechanisms of thought that keep you trapped in My Reality.

TURNAROUND TO THE OPPOSITE: My husband should not follow the music leader.

Meditation/Reflection: I realize that it would be uncomfortable for him to go along with something that he knows is musically “off,” especially since music is so important to him. Also one of my husband’s finer qualities is not compromising his integrity to “fit in” with a group or to be “approved of” by others.

TURNAROUND TO THE OTHER: I should follow the music leader and harmonize at all costs.

Meditation/Reflection: By this time the inquiry has begun to surface some deeper awareness. I realize that I focus too much on the needs of others and not enough on my own. I began to see that my irritation with my husband relates to me wanting him to be limited in the same ways I limit myself.

TURNAROUND TO THE SELF: I should follow myself and be in harmony with myself.

Meditation/Reflection: At this point I land in my own center (see the diagram), holding the perspectives of all the directions, not just My Reality (the Judgment). I feel at peace with the situation, and grateful for the reminder to stay true to myself.

It is good to close the practice of Inquiry by expressing gratitude to all in your life who push your buttons so that you can be reminded to the lessons you need, and to return to your True Self.

CLOSING PRACTICE OF GRATITUDE: Thank you (to my husband) for teaching me that I need to follow my own guidance and be in harmony with myself.

There is an amusing follow-up to this incident. After having worked my way into a peaceful state of mind using Inquiry, on the way out of church we ran into a mutual friend. Her first comment was how much she had enjoyed hearing my husband sing during church. It was a good reminder about how limited my initial judgment was, and how distorted looking at life from My Reality can be.

I hope that you enjoyed questioning your thoughts along with me, and that you got a taste of how this practice can contribute to your inner peace!

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified EDXTM and Body Mind Psychotherapy Practitioner, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

KNOW YOURSELF: Will the real me please stand up?

2011-07-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

“There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun....”

Thomas Merton, Confessions of a Guilty Bystander”

Who am I? For thousands of years, people have been asking themselves this question. There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer. Once you go beyond identifying yourself as having a particular name, being from a certain place, being male or female, and having a role or career in life, the issue of who you are becomes infinitely complex. Within each person there seems to be a “small self”—a busy, anxious little separate “I” preoccupied with its own goals, fears, desires, and issues,; and a “big self” –the “I” that sees itself as a part of everyone and everything, and is a deep well of peace, wisdom, joy, and compassion.
From ancient times up into the present, people have written about their struggles around this issue of identity, often with a great deal of frustration, pain, and confusion. Over 1500 years ago, in the book of Romans, Paul writes:

“For what I do is not the good I want to do;
no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing”

And how many of us could say the same! There seems to be “more than one of me.” Which is the real one?

The Enneagram is a tool that has helped many people begin to unravel this mystery. The word Enneagram (pronounced ANY-a-gram), comes from the Greek words “ennea” meaning nine, and “grammos” meaning figure, literally translated as “ a nine-pointed figure.” Each of the nine points represents a personality type, a particular body-mind perspective on life—a way of thinking, feeling, and acting in the world.

Each personality type represents a lens through which we look out at the world. All nine types together represent the human psyche in its natural state of wholeness, or “big self”—sometimes called our true nature, or the essential self. While the qualities of all of the nine types exist within us in their potential form, our basic Enneagram personality type is the one in which our little separate “small self” gets stuck. Whatever our type might be, the process is the same. We latch on to a part of ourselves, and mistake it for the whole. We play our strong suit all the time, regardless of circumstances, suffering the same consequences. For example, if your “small self” got stuck in Enneagram TYPE 2—The Helper—then helping others is the primary motivating force shaping your identity. It is easy for you to give, but hard to receive, easy to see the needs of others, but hard to see your own. You have a tendency to over commit and spread yourself too thin. You find yourself feeling guilty if you can’t meet someone’s need, or angry if those you have worked so hard to help don’t show enough appreciation.

The problem is that we know there is something wrong but we don’t know what it is or how to change it. We feel like a hamster on the proverbial wheel, making the same mistakes, thinking the same thoughts, and feeling the same emotional pain over and over. Today many businesses, psychotherapists, and pastors are introducing people to the Enneagram because it directly addresses this problem. Working with the Enneagram can help us see how the “small self” traps us in old patterns by narrowing our focus of attention and blinding us to the beauty and power of who we truly are. Once the Enneagram has helped us to wake up to the hidden agendas, fears, and motivating forces operating beneath the surface of all the personality types, then, with time, persistence, and great effort, it is possible to turn off our habitual responses and make new and conscious choices. The Enneagram also lays down a path of growth and development unique to each type showing us the way back home to our “big self.”

WHAT IS MY TYPE?

In the Enneagram, the nine types are divided up into three centers of intelligence—the head, heart, and the belly. While most people identify their Enneagram type by a process of testing, observing themselves, and interacting with others, a simple way to begin answering this question is ask yourself, in which of the Enneagram’s three centers do I feel most at home? Below is a brief description of the three centers which includes the energy source for each center, a list of the types associated with each center, and a phrase for each type describing its primary motivation.

Belly Center types filter the world through kinesthetic intelligence and gut instinct. They have their feet planted firmly on the earth, and are very good at setting boundaries and defending personal space.

Heart Center types perceive the world through the filter of emotional intelligence. They are highly attuned to the mood and feeling state of others.

Head center types filter the world through mental faculties. They are very good at analyzing, envisioning, imagining, and planning.

Did you feel more at home in one center than another? No matter what your answer is, in order to access the ‘big self,” we need to have all three centers online and fully functioning. It is when we put “all of our eggs in one basket” that we run into problems. Using Tai Chi and Qigong moving meditation practices can be very helpful in connecting bringing all three centers on board for all of the types. Below is a practice you may want to try to connect your head, heart, and belly centers. It is a good practice to do regardless of your enneagram type.

OPENING THE CORE CHANNEL WITH BREATH, MOVEMENT, AND SOUND

Find a quiet place outside in nature or in a favorite room of your home or office. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, allowing your knees to relax, your sacrum to sink towards the ground, and your crown elevate towards the sky.

If you have time, repeat this whole process three times, stopping after each practice for a brief period of looking, listening, and feeling within. If you like, you can add sound to this practice. On this inhale use a chuuuhhh sound as though you were sucking air up through a straw. On the exhale, use a haaaaa sound.

This meditation, if practiced often, will help you to shift from your “small self” to your “big self”, which is always “shining like the sun.”

For more info on the Enneagram, the nine types, how the Enneagram personality system works, or a test to determine your own type, go to www.enneagraminstitute.com

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR ORGANS: Improving your health with Tai Chi

2011-07-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Medical research tells us that a person’s social support system may be a more important factor in their health and resiliency than their family history, diet, medications, or exercise patterns. Bert Uchino, in his book Social Support and Physical Health: Understanding the Health Consequences of Relationships, writes that not only do our relationships protect us from a multitude of mental health problems, but the absence of these relationships can increase our risk of acquiring a life-threatening illness and reduce our capacity to recover from injury, trauma, or disease.

Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine take this issue of the importance of relationships one step further by pointing out that it’s not just our “outer relationships” with family, coworkers, and friends that are important to our health, but rather primarily the “inner relationships” we have with our five major internal organs: the lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, and spleen. Since most of us follow the “squeaky wheel” principle in regard our organs—and don’t think about them unless something begins to hurt or we get a diagnosis that frightens us—how then do we begin to develop a relationship with our organs?

We begin by listening to the voices in our head! According to Chinese Medicine, these voices are the organs speaking to you. Just as each organ plays a unique and essential role in keeping the body healthy and functioning, each organ also possesses a distinctive intelligence. If you attend to your organs, they can become like good friends that can provide instant “real-time” guidance on practical every day issues ranging from whether to have cereal or eggs for breakfast, to prescribing precisely what you need to improve your “outer” relationships, or to feel centered, calm, peaceful, and energized for the tasks of your day.

If you ignore your organs you are likely to shift into whatever your own favorite “brand” of feeling distressed is. This type of distress is a “package deal” that affects your emotions, thoughts, and body experience. Emotionally, you may feel sad, or angry, guilty, fearful, or anxious. In your head you may feel overwhelmed, confused, unfocused, or stuck. Physically, you may feel tired, or conversely, like you are going to explode. Or you may get a headache, or feel pain in a vulnerable area of your body. All of these body-mind symptoms can be an indication that you are not listening to your organs.

Western scientific research ups the ante on the need to pay attention to our organs and the emotions associated with them. The results of many current studies strongly suggest that there may well be a correlation between habitual emotional patterns and specific illnesses. A 2003 study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is an example of such a study. The results indicated that young adults who scored high on measures of impatience and hostility–two hallmarks of the “type A” behavior pattern–significantly increased their long-term risk of developing high blood pressure, with the risk becoming greater as the intensity of the behaviors increased.

The practice of Tai Chi can help you to connect with, understand, and attune to your organs, listen to their messages, and break long-term emotional patterns. The first step is to get to know your organs better. The second step is to nurture your organs by “emptying” them on a regular basis of the negative emotional residue that naturally accumulates over the course of a day. The third step is to actively receive, invite, and cultivate the positive qualities that reside in your organs as a resource.

Step 1: Getting to Know Your Organs
According to Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine, each organ is associated with season of the year, a negative emotion and a virtue. The season of the year demonstrates the kind of energy held by the organ. The negative emotion illustrates what happens when the organ becomes energetically congested, rigid, or contracted. The virtue expresses the quality of the organ in its natural and balanced state, its true nature, which can never be lost, but only covered up in the way that gray clouds sometimes obscure the sun.

The lungs are associated with the season of fall—a time of endings and losses. The growing season is over, the birds leave to fly south, and the trees push the leaves off their branches. The negative emotion that gets stuck in the lungs is sadness, or grief. Yet when sadness and grief are released, the virtue of strength emerges.

The kidneys are associated with the season of winter—a time of stillness, darkness, and dormancy. Animals hibernate and plants send their energy down into their roots where it cannot be seen. The negative emotion that gets stuck in the kidneys is fear. Yet when fear is released, the virtue of wisdom emerges.

The liver is associated with the season of spring—a time of new beginnings, increasing light, and warmth. New sprouts rise from the ground, the world begins to fill with color, and baby animals make their appearance. The negative emotion that gets stuck in the liver is anger. Yet when anger is released, the virtue of kindness appears.

The heart is associated with the season of summer—a time when nature pulls out all stops. Life proliferates, the seeds that sprouted in the spring now come to maturity, fruit ripens, and abundance abounds . The negative emotion associated with the season of summer is self-criticism, or blame. Yet when self-criticism and blame is released, the virtue of acceptance and love emerges.

The spleen is associated with the season of Indian summer—a time of transition, change, and unpredictability. Nature puts on the brakes. The frenzied activity of summer subsides, then temporarily picks back up again. The weather changes from hot to cool, then back again to hot. The negative emotion associated with the season of Indian summer is worry, or anxiety. Yet when worry and anxiety are released, trust appears.

Steps 2 & 3: Tai Chi Practices to Release Negative Emotions and Cultivate Virtues

The Six Healing Sounds and the Inner Smile are two of the most ancient of the Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) practices still available today. Many Tai Chi masters have taught that the six healing sounds alone, if done long enough and faithfully, will bring the practitioner to the highest level of health, energy cultivation, and power. Doing these sounds in the evening before going to bed promotes deep and restful sleep because if we release our leftover emotions of the day through the sounds, then we no longer need to process them in our sleep and dream state. The Inner Smile is one of the first practices taught to the Tai Chi beginner, yet is continues to be of high value to the master. We all know the good feeling we have when someone smiles warmly at us. In this case, we simply smile inside, directing our smile to each organ, along with our appreciation for the way the organ serves and supports us. It may help you to “get into” your smiling if you focus your attention on a memory, relationship, or experience that uplifts you, brings joy, or evokes tenderness.

The sounds may be subvocal or toned. For most people, subvocal sounds tend to resonate more on the inside of your body, whereas toned sounds tend to be more external. Try both and find out which you prefer at any given time. If you have time, try to take three complete breaths to release the negative emotions from the organs, and one complete breath to smile into the organ. And now, let’s begin!

• Lungs
- Lightly place your hands over your lungs (on the right and left sides of your chest).
- Inhale into your lungs, then breathe out the lung sound: ssssss. Release sadness on each exhale.
- Smile into your lungs, open yourself to receive strength.

• Kidneys
- Lightly place your hands over your kidneys (on either side of your spine at the level of your waist).
- Inhale into your kidneys, then breathe out using the kidney sound: chuuuu. Release fear on each exhale.
- Smile into your kidneys and open yourself to receiving wisdom.

• Liver
- Lightly place your hands over your liver (right rib cage).
- Inhale into your liver, then breathe out using the liver sound: shhhh. Release anger on each exhale.
- Smile into your liver and open yourself to receiving kindness.

• Heart
- Lightly place your hands over your heart (center of chest).
- Inhale into your heart, then breathe out using the heart sound: Haaaaa . Release self-criticism on each exhale.
- Smile into your heart and open yourself to receiving love and acceptance.

• Spleen
- Lightly place your hands over your spleen (left rib cage).
- Inhale into your spleen, then breathe out using the spleen sound: Hooooo. Release worry on each exhale. Smile into your spleen and open yourself to receiving trust.

• Finish your practice by inhaling while you stretch your hands out to your sides and then up above your head, then exhaling with the sound Heeeee as you move your hands down the front of your body along the center line. Then smile and send gratitude to all of your organs.

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. Sandy is in private practice and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

ONE STEP AT A TIME: Improving Balance and Preventing Falls with Tai Chi and Qigong

2011-07-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

“The Sage breathes from her heels…”
Tao Te Ching,

Have you ever worried about someone you love or yourself losing your balance and falling? Then you are not alone! Whatever your age, falling can have serious consequences, but especially if you are age 65 or older, the consequences of falling can actually be fatal or at least life threatening. In 2009, 18,000 older adults died from injuries received from falls, and 2.2 million were treated for nonfatal fall injuries in emergency departments.

Potential negative consequences from falls go way beyond the specific fall-related injury. There is often a prolonged recuperation period from the fall during which normal activity levels are restricted. Since movement and exercise are so vital to sustaining healthy functioning of bodily systems, such a lengthy period of enforced inactivity can contribute to other health problems such as loss of bone and muscle mass, heart disease, and obesity. Additionally, there can be psychological and social effects of falling. The injured person is often deprived of participating in enjoyable hobbies and social activities, resulting in an increased risk of the emotional pain associated with loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Also, after a fall, many people lose confidence in their ability to perform normal daily tasks and develop a fear of falling that leads them to become more sedentary. The result is a catch 22 situation in which the fear of falling leads to inactivity, which leads to the weakening of lower body extremities, which in turn leads to an increased risk of falling!

What can be done to turn this situation around? Fall prevention is now a major public health issue. Much research has been done over the last ten years to investigate effective treatment interventions for improving balance and increasing confidence in older adults. Many research studies indicate that Tai Chi may be the best intervention for improving balance and reducing falls. One of the most well-known studies on the effects of Tai Chi on balance was conducted at Emory University under the direction of Dr. Stephen Wolfe. After practicing special Tai Chi moves adapted for seniors, this study reports that participants’ risk of multiple falls was reduced by 47.5%. Furthermore, at the conclusion of the study, only 8% of the Tai Chi group said that they feared falling, compared with 23% before the Tai Chi training. According to Dr. Wolfe, "The Tai Chi group seemed to have more confidence…and an increased sense of being able to do all that they would like to do." The study concludes: "Our data suggests that Tai Chi can influence older individuals functioning and well-being significantly and provides some appreciation why this exercise form has been practiced by older Chinese for more than three centuries."

In this article I will describe some common conditions and habits that can increase your risk of falling and introduce a “self help” Tai Chi Walking Practice that you can practice on your own to improve your balance.

Factors That Increase the Risk of Falling:

• First, it is important to remember that any type of fall is more likely to occur when you are in a hurry, tired, in unfamiliar or dimly lit surroundings, or distracted.

• The two most common type of falls to watch out for when you taking a walk or going about your daily activities are tripping and slipping.

- Tripping occurs when there is a loss of footing, i.e. the sole of your shoe loses full contact with the ground. Common causes of tripping include clutter on the floor, a rock on the ground, a hidden electrical cord, or a change in the evenness of the surface you are walking on.
- Slipping occurs when there is a loss of traction causing your feet to move out from under you when you are walking on a slippery or slick surface.

• Our level of conditioning, bodily tension, and flexibility affects our ability to recover our balance once our stability is challenged. Many older people have weakness in their legs, stiff ankle joints, and tension in their feet. Strong legs, flexible ankles, and relaxed feet can be a key factor in maintaining balance under stressful conditions.

• There are also certain styles or habits of walking that compromise our stability. Some of these are listed and described below:

- Falling Forward: In this type of walking there is no clear shifting of the weight from foot to foot, and therefore no grounded stepping into a weighted foot. When we are walking like this, we are often moving at a fast pace externally at the same time our thoughts are racing internally.
- Leading With the Toe: Young people naturally walk by stepping out and forward with the heel landing first on the ground. Many older people have a walking style that involves stepping out and forward with the toe landing first on the ground, creating a shuffling gait.
- Leaning Forward: Many older people “lead with their heads” while as they walk. If their balance is unexpectedly challenged, the angle of their bodies is already in a forward trajectory, making it harder for them to return easily to a vertical posture.

How Tai Chi Helps
Attendance and participation in a Tai Chi class can help correct most if not all of the problematic factors listed above. Some of the benefits of regular Tai Chi practice are listed below:

• Increases awareness of and relaxes tension in the feet
• Strengthens legs and improves ankle flexibility
• Enhances the ability to consciously shift weight from foot to foot
• Develops the habit of grounded stepping
• Reduces postural sway by optimizing proprioception--the ability to sense movement and spatial orientation from stimuli within the body--a key element in the balancing process
• Improves posture while standing and walking
• Cultivates mindfulness and a greater internal awareness of the body and movement in general

Self Help Protocol for Tai Chi Walking
Tai Chi Walking is one of the safest and most effective practices for improving balance. It is fun, easy to learn, and provides a correction for common walking errors that increase the likelihood of falls.
Tai Chi walking is based on two fundamental principles, quoted from the Tai Chi Classics:

• Mindfulness
“The yi (mind) and chi (breath) are king, and the bones and muscles are the court.”

Tai Chi walking is a form of moving meditation. The mind and the body work together. When you are walking, you are keeping your attention focused on the sensations and movements of walking. Be curious and attentive!

• Moving from the feet
“The motion is rooted in the feet and released through the legs”

Tai Chi walking produces a style of walking that is grounded and stable because the source of the walking movement originates in the feet, then comes up through the ankles and legs as the weight is shifted slowly and carefully from one foot to the other.

Below is protocol for Tai Chi Walking that will help you assess your balance; strengthen your feet, legs, and ankles; and develop a mindful, grounded style of walking. Find a place outside or in your home that seems peaceful and uncluttered to you to practice your Tai Chi walking. If you are inside, you may want to put on some music you enjoy, or some nature sounds, or you may prefer to do these practices in silence. Be sure to wear good walking shoes that that are stable from side to side and well cushioned. Allow your arms to swing naturally with your walking movement and breathe in a relaxed manner.

Balance Assessment:

This self-assessment involves standing for brief periods of time on one leg, so be sure to have a chair at hand in case you need it for balance.

Begin by standing with your weight evenly distributed between both feet. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees slightly creased.
Weight your left foot, and lift the heel of your right foot up so that the ball of your foot is barely touching the ground.
Lift your right toe gently off of the ground, placing all your weight on your left side as you stand on your left leg.
Count to 10 and see how high you can get before you lose your balance.
Repeat this sequence on your other side.
Make note of which leg seems to be stronger, and how high you were able to count while standing on each leg.

Warm Ups for Walking

• Waking up the Feet
Stand with your weight evenly distributed and your feet shoulder width apart. Imagine that you are at the beach standing in warm, damp sand. Squinch up your feet and toes several times as though you were trying to make an impression of your feet in the sand complete with toe markers!

• Rotating the Ankles
Weight your left foot and rotate your right ankle in a circle 9 times. Repeat in the opposite direction. Repeat the whole process on your other side.

• Strengthening the Legs
Weight your left foot. Place your right toe lightly on the ground in front of you. Move your right toe in a crescent moon shape from front to back and back to front 9 times. If you feel stable, lift your right toe up a few inches off the ground and repeat the movement a few times, seeing if you can hold your balance. Repeat on the opposite side.

Three Tai Chi Walking Practices:

1 First Practice: Stalk Like a Tiger

Stand with both feet equally weighted and shoulder width apart
Shift all your weight onto your right leg
Step out with your left foot, heel first, then roll the whole foot down until it rests on the floor but do not put any weight on this foot yet
Now lift the left foot an inch or two off the floor, checking to see that this foot is not weighted
Slowly shift weight completely into the left foot.
When the left foot is fully weighted, repeat process with right foot
Move slowly, giving your full attention to each step, and then the next step, and the next step, being fully present to each step.
Notice how you feel as you walk this way.
Continue this walking practice for 5 minutes

2 Second Practice: Kick Up Your Heels

Stand with both feet equally weighted and shoulder width apart
Weight your left foot
Kick up your right heel a few inches off the floor and then place this heel on the ground
Now roll the right foot flat on the ground, shifting your weight into this foot as you do so
Repeat on the other side
Notice how you feel as you walk this way
Continue this walking practice for 5 minutes

3 Third Practice: Walk from Your Belly

Stand with both feet equally weighted and shoulder width apart
Allow the crown of your head to lift up toward the sky, keeping your chin down, and your tailbone to sink down towards the earth. Focus on an imaginary line extending straight down from the crown of your head to the base of your torso, then extending down into the ground.
Place both hands over the belly button, thumbs and index fingers together forming a triangle.
Drop your attention down into this area, noticing that it expands and contracts as you breathe
This area is your body’s movement center. Imagine that a beam of light is extending out from this belly button area, lighting up a path in front of you
Now begin to walk from your belly, letting your belly lead and guide you.
Notice how you feel as you walk this way.
Continue this walking practice for 5 minutes.

Conclude your walking practice with a minute or two of quiet standing. Practice Tai Chi Walking for 30 minutes every day if you can. If 30 minutes seems too much at first, try doing two walking sessions of 15 minutes each. Enjoy your walking and look for changes in your confidence and stability!

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified EDXTM and Body Mind Psychotherapy Practitioner, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

ENERGY TAPPING FOR HEALTH

2011-07-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

“Your body has the ability to heal itself”

Andrew Weil, MD.

Our bodies have a remarkable built in bias toward healing. If we break one of our bones, we trust that it will heal. Not only will it heal, but we know that the place where the bone has broken will become its strongest part. Yet when our wound manifests as psychological instead of physical, this innate capacity to heal is often not as clear and we do not trust it in the same way.
One of the contributing factors to this breakdown of trust is that up until the last decade or so our western medical system, has considered the body and the mind to be separate and unique entities. Even if we sought help for a condition from both a “body” doctor and a “mind” doctor, the two were rarely seen as two halves of the same coin from a treatment perspective. In contrast, the eastern medical system has always considered the body and mind to be inseparable and highly interactive parts of a single energetic continuum.

Within the last 50 years an exciting marriage between Chinese medicine and western psychology has taken place. In the process, both have changed, and the result is a new array of treatment options for psychological issues that are fast moving, efficient, energetically based, and honor the body as the healing partner of the mind. Prior to this coming together, western psychology lacked a paradigm for uniting the body and mind, and relied heavily on slow acting talk therapy to heal anxiety, depression, phobias, trauma, addictions, stress, and chronic pain. Chinese medicine lacked an understanding or sophisticated awareness of individual psychology , having originated in a culture dedicated to group mindedness in which individualism was regarded as pernicious to the good of society as a whole. Energy Psychology is the child of this marriage of east and west. This new field includes a fast growing family of evidence based interventions that address a variety of psychological problems and can achieve rapid, dramatic, and lasting changes in feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.

The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP @ www.energypsych.org ) is an international nonprofit organization of licensed mental health professionals and other associates dedicated to developing and applying energy psychology methods to address a variety of psychological and physical conditions and needs. Some of the most well known Energy Psychology modalities along with their founders are listed below:

Groundbreaking work in linking acupuncture meridians to emotional states and thinking patterns by psychiatrists John Diamond, MD, David Hawkins, MD, PhD, and Leon Hammer, MD
Thought Field Therapy, originated by Roger Callahan, PhD Psychology
Tapas Acupuncture Technique originated by Tapas Fleming, LAc Acupuncturist
EDXTM (Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Modalities) originated by Fred Gallo, PhD Psychology
Body Mind Psychotherapy originated by Michael Mayer, PhD Psychology, Tai chi/Qigong Master
Emotional Freedom Technique originated by Gary Craig, Engineer

Origins of Energy Psychology

Eureka! According to the oral tradition, here is the story of the "aha" that led to the discovery of the science of acupuncture. The setting— a battlefield 5,000 years ago, give or take a century of two. The action—soldiers punctured by arrows in certain locations on their bodies were cured of diseases of long duration. As a result, ancient healers discovered a bioenergy system in the human body which flowed in predictable channels much like the rivers of the earth. We know this system today as the meridians used in acupuncture and medical qigong. Interestingly, around the same time, there is evidence of similar discoveries in other parts of the world including India, Egypt, Arabia, Brazil, African Bantu tribes, the Alaskan Eskimos, and American Indians.

The meridians compose one continuous, interconnected energetic system that flows throughout the whole body. This system is subdivided into specific meridians which are associated with different bodily organs, muscles, bones, and physical processes. On each of the meridians there are certain associated acupoints which have an enhanced ability to affect the flow of qi in that channel. Early Chinese medical practitioners observed that stimulation of these point not only affected physical functioning, but also that there was an interface between meridians and emotions. Positive emotions prevailed when the meridians were in balance (e.g. love, joy, peace, confidence, security, and trust). When the meridians were out of balance and the flow of qi (pronounced chee, meaning life energy) was disrupted, negative emotions became dominant (e.g. hatred, anger, sadness, anxiety, and fear).

In the second half of the twentieth century, another eureka! The now famous case of Mary heralded the birth of Energy Psychology as a new therapy. Mary, a patient of psychologist Roger Callahan, had a lifelong water phobia. After 18 months of treatment with Client Centered Therapy, Rational Emotive Therapy, Hypnosis, Systematic Desensitization, and other therapies, Mary still could not look at water, had difficulty taking a bath, and could not go out of the house when it was raining. In desperation, Callahan attempted to help Mary by using his newly acquired knowledge about the interconnective relationship between meridians and emotions. After his energy diagnosis indicated that it was Mary’s stomach meridian that was out of balance, he spent a few minutes tapping on the acupoint associated with this meridian on the bony orbit beneath her eyes. Within a minute or two, Mary announced that her phobia was gone. That same day Mary got in a swimming pool and splashed water on her face. 18 years later, Mary remains cured!

Today Energy Psychology is used worldwide by health care professionals, others trained in this modality, as well as those who choose to treat themselves to heal a wide variety of conditions. Some of these are listed below:

Phobias and fears
Addictive behaviors (smoking, alcohol, weight loss and gambling)
Anger
Performance anxiety
Depression
Anxiety
Physical pain
Stress
Trauma

The rapid, sometimes almost instantaneous changes in emotional states brought about through Energy Psychology techniques are in more in keeping with an Einsteinian worldview and the principles of quantum physics and subatomic realities than the slow, linear progression of older treatment methods. In this new therapy approach, the transmutation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors does not have to take years on the analyst’s couch. In fact, these new therapy approaches do not rely on delving into the pain of the past, but rather focus on what is blocking wellbeing in the present moment and clearing it. Amazingly, when an energetic block goes, it seems to take everything attached to it with it, including past memories and traumas. There is some controversy over this new approach among mental health professionals, and limited data from research studies at this point. On the other hand, there is a vast grassroots group of both professionals and lay people who are using these practices to bring substantial and lasting positive change for themselves and others. For more information, there are many excellent resource books available, including Energy Tapping and Tapping for Trauma by psychologist Fred Gallo and Energy Psychology by psychologist and tai chi/qigong master Michael Mayer.

How Energy Psychology Works

From the perspective of Energy Psychology, the source of negative emotions is a disruption, sometimes called a “perturbation,” in the body’s energy system, specifically in one or more of the meridians. When a thought or a memory triggers this disruption, the result is physical, psychological, and/or emotional pain. To treat this pain using Energy Psychology techniques, you tap on key meridian points while at the same time holding in mind the unresolved problem. The tapping clears the perturbation in the meridian, releases the block in the energy system caused by the unresolved emotional issue, and restores balance to the body’s energy. Many times a longstanding issue will simply disappear after one tapping session. In other cases, layers of the problem unfold, and multiple treatments are needed. In addition to basic tapping protocols, an Energy Psychology treatment may also include activities for balancing the left and right hemispheres of the brain, muscle testing, tai chi and/or qigong practices, clearing psychological reversals (Energy Psychology’s term for self sabotaging behaviors), and the installation of a new and positive beliefs to fill the void left by the cleared negative emotional thought or memory. Once the reprocessing of the problem is complete, and the energetic blockages are cleared, one can remember or be reminded of the problem and remain calm, peaceful, and emotionally neutral.

Try It on Yourself
Tapping cannot hurt you and it may help you! The basic Energy Psychology practices are so easy and simple that they can be employed as self help tools by anyone, even children. Below is a simple tapping protocol that can be applied to any kind of problem, e.g. a situation you are worried about, a disturbing memory, a troublesome thought, a fear you have, or a negative self concept. This protocol employs a broad based approach and involves tapping on a variety of acupoints. Unlike more advanced protocols which may use only a few acupoints targeted toward a specific issue, this protocol, like “chicken soup,” is good for what ails you and may be used effectively to produce change in many types of issues.

If you try the following basic protocol and do not get the desired results, or if your symptoms actually worsen in any way, contact a professionally trained therapist for assistance. Sometimes there are many layers underneath a problem, and it may take the help of someone else to help you peel them off and receive complete relief. However, it is very unlikely that you will experience difficulties and very likely that you will experience a lessening of your symptoms and/or complete relief.

BASIC ENERGY TAPPING PROTOCOL: Tap Away Distress

1. Choose a problem to focus on. State the problem clearly and out loud to yourself.

2. Rate the level of distress you feel over this problem on a scale of 0-10, with 0 meaning no distress and 10 meaning an extremely high level of stress.

3. Tap each of the acupoints 8 or 9 times in the prescribed sequence (1-8 in the diagram below)

4. Tap the karate chop (Diagram of Hand) on the side
of the hand 7-9 times

5. Rub the sore spot (Circles on Diagram) while saying to yourself 3 times: “Even though I have this problem, I love and accept myself”

6. Rate your level of distress from 0-10

7. Repeat steps 3-6 two or three times or until your level of distress is 0-2

When you complete this process, take a quiet moment to be present inside of yourself. Briefly place your hands over your heart and focus your awareness on your breath. Imagine your breath going into and out of your heart. In a way that feels right to you, make a simple act of gratitude. Observe yourself over the next few days to see how your treatment holds. If you notice any reoccurrence of the problem, repeat the tapping sequence. Try teaching it to someone else who is experiencing distress and make note of the results!

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified EDXTM and Body Mind Psychotherapy Practitioner, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold.

THE INNER SMILE

2011-01-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

Ancient Tai Chi Meditation Practice To Improve Your Heart Health
“A Happy Heart is Good Medicine”
Proverbs 17:22

What can we do to make our hearts healthier? When asked this question, most people will think in terms of adopting a heart healthy diet, beginning an aerobic exercise program, losing weight, or perhaps taking supplements or medications. BUT…how can smiling possibly make my heart healthier?

Over the last few centuries, general knowledge about of the many amazing and diverse capacities of the heart universally recognized by ancient healing systems has almost disappeared. Modern medicine views the heart in a very limited fashion, primarily in terms of its physical function as a pump, and champions the brain as the ultimate “ruler” of body-mind functions, as well as the sole proprietor of our “human essence.”
In contrast, the ancient Chinese healing system, from which Tai Chi and Qigong were derived, attributes the ultimate ruling power in the body to what is called “the heartmind.” The heartmind consists of the five major internal organs—lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, and spleen. Within this group, the heart is the designated leader. While all of the organs rule a particular aspect of body-mind functioning, the only organ that can bring all the organs together into a state of harmony, collaboration, and connection is the heart. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine says of the heart:

The supernatural forces of summer
Create heat in the Heavens and
Fire on Earth; they create the heart and
The pulse within the body…
The red color, the tongue, and the ability to express laughter…
And the emotions of happiness and joy.

In Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chinese Medicine, the heart is the only organ of the body that is supported by four meridian channels, which are energy pathways flowing through the body much as rivers flow on the earth. Since there are only 12 meridians, the importance of the heart is immediately apparent. Some of the roles ascribed to the heart include: giving and receiving love, setting the pace for and distributing the qi to other organ systems, discerning truth from falsehood, maintaining the connection between human energies, protection from untrustworthy people, and protection from environmental dangers. When the heart is healthy, all of the aforementioned activities are flourishing and creating a sense of overall wellbeing, health, and happiness for body, mind, and spirit. If the heart is not healthy—i.e. out of balance and has too much energy or not enough—then some of the symptoms that may occur include palpitations, insomnia, lack of joy, excess emotion, inability to follow through, inflammation, hyperactivity, hostility, or outbursts of emotion. (Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine for Everyday Life, Gail Reichtein, Kodansha America, Inc, 1998.)

In the last twenty years there has been a growing interest in exploring role and function of the heart from a scientific perspective. Paul Pearsall, PhD, in his book The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of our Heart Energy, Broadway Books, 1998, validates many of the qualities of the heart as described by Chinese Medicine. He cites studies that demonstrate that the heart thinks, remembers, and regulates the immune system. He informs us that the electromagnetic field of the heart has been measured to be 5,000 times more powerful than that of the brain and that the heart actually sends more directions to the brain that the brain sends to the heart.

RolinMcCraty, PhD, in his monograph (The Coherent Heart: Heart–Brain Interactions, Psychophysiological Coherence, and the Emergence of System-Wide Order, Rollin McCraty, PhD., Mike Atkinson, Dana Tomasino, and Raymond Trevor Bradley, PhD) echoes the leadership role of the heart as he describes his research around the concept of “psychophysiological coherence.” When the heart is focused on a positive emotion such as appreciation, the heart leads the body into coherence which is characterized by harmonious collaboration, optimum physiological performance, enhanced cognitive function, and emotional wellbeing. When the heart is focused on a negative emotion such as anger or frustration, the whole body falls into a state of incoherence which is characterized by erratic, irregular rhythms, body systems that are in tension and out of sync with one another, and feelings of stress and distress on the feeling level. See the diagram below:

HOW EMOTIONS AFFECT HEART RHYTHM

In summary, a healthy heart is the key to wellbeing of body, mind, and spirit. The key to a healthy heart depends on a willingness to focus on positive emotions such as appreciation, compassion, and gratitude. To maintain such a positive inner state requires the ability to neutralize negative emotions and the judgments, rejections, and resistances that sustain them. An ancient and time tested key to adopting these positive emotions on a moment to moment basis lies in ancient Tai Chi and Qigong practice of the INNER SMILE.

INNER SMILE: Origin and Purpose
The origins of the Inner Smile go back many thousands of years to the Tai Chi and Qigong Masters of ancient China who recognized that source of sickness came from negative emotions settling in the organs. The healing Masters discovered that the practice of the Inner Smile dispersed and transformed the negative emotions, benefiting the practitioner with improved health, a happy heart, and a long life.

Inner Smile Practice: Preparation
Begin by bringing to mind an image of someone you love, or remembering a happy experience, or focusing on something that is beautiful—a landscape, a piece of music, a work of art. As you focus on these things, also focus your awareness in the area of your heart. Notice how your heart responds, waiting for the smiling energy to arise. Though everyone experiences this energy differently, it may feel like the sun coming out on a cloudy day, bringing warmth, light, and vitality to everything it touches. Ancient tradition says that when you are angry, fearful, or under stress, your organs produce a toxin that blocks the flow of energy in your whole body. However, when you smile, your organs release a honey like secretion that nourishes your whole body, and that your organs expand and grow softer. You can smile negative emotions away. You can smile pain and sickness away. See for yourself if you can feel any of these things happening as you practice your smile!

Now you are ready to begin your Inner Smile meditation. Smile in the same way you would smile at someone you love, but direct this smiling energy inside, sending it down and in, instead of out. Focus on the sensations you feel as the smile “lands” in the different areas of your body. Be curious about any response your body parts may have to being smiled at. Above all, relax and enjoy yourself!

Smile down the front line of your body to your ORGANS

Brain
Thymus Gland
Heart
Lungs
Liver
Kidneys
Spleen
Ovaries/Testes

Smile down the midline of your body to your DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

Mouth
Esophagus
Stomach
Small Intestine
Large Intestine

Smile down the back of your body to your SPINE

Pituitary
Thalamus
Pineal
Back and forth between the left and right hemispheres of brain
Midbrain
Cervical vertebra (7)
Thoracic vertebra (12)
Lumbar vertebra (5)
Sacrum
Coccyx

Smile down the entire length of your body

Feel the energy descend the whole length of your body—as a waterfall of smiles, joy, and love

Collect the smiling chi at your navel

Place your hands over your belly button and move them in a circle until it feels natural to stop

It is not necessary to complete the whole practice at one time. You can do whatever you have time to do. One of the beauties of the Inner Smile practice is that it can be practiced anywhere and anytime no matter what you are doing. Try to enjoy the Inner Smile practice as many times a day as you can. After the Dalai Lama gave a teaching, the moderator asked him “What can we give to you?” He beamed at the audience. "That is easy," he said. "Just give me your smiles. It makes me feel good when I see people smile at me. And if you smile at each other that would also be very good. So please give me your smiles.”

Your practice of the Inner Smile can be a small offering from the heart to bring peace and harmony to yourself, others, and the world around you.

CIRCLE WALKING: A Healthy Lifestyle Change for the New Year

2011-01-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

"The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. On this hoop there is a place for every species, every race, every tree and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet."
Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota

Everyone knows that walking is good for you—but in circles? When we say that we have been “running around in circles” we usually mean that we haven’t gotten a thing done! So why would anyone choose to walk in circles?

Various types and styles of circle walking are found in countries all over the world--Greece, Europe, the British Isles, the Americas, and the Middle East to name a few. In China, the most potent of all the martial arts is a circle walking practice called Bagua Zhang, meaning “Eight Trigram Palms,” and named after the eight basic energy configurations that form the basis of the 4,000 year old Book of Changes (I Ching). Bagua Zhang’s characteristic method of training is walking the circle, periodically changing directions. Practitioners walk around the edge of a circle in various low stances, face the center, and execute unique spiral force movements to defend themselves. Tradition holds that the masters of this art confused and overcame their opponents quickly by their mysterious ability to deflect any linear force directed towards them by using a circular movement that dispersed its impact and sent the confused attacker flying.

The ancient ancestor of Bagua Zhang lies in a health-oriented practice called Eight Energy Circle Walking. The primary purpose of this practice was to achieve harmony with the circular patterns evidenced everywhere in nature. People noticed that nature was always engaged in a rhythmic and cyclic process of change, and that these changes occurred in a systematic and predictable way. In this ancient practice, people gathered to walk the circle in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions and adopted gentle postures representing eight fundamental yin-yang pairs of energies found in nature: Heaven and Earth, Wind and Thunder, Fire and Water, Mountain and Lake. The result was a health practice that facilitated a state of body-mind balance and a deep connection with oneself, the larger world of nature, and the human community.

What are the Benefits of Circle Walking?

Today people are discovering that even the most simple and basic form of circle walking can not only give the aerobic and mental health benefits of a linear walk in their neighborhood or on the treadmill, but also with regular practice may lead to following benefits:

.
How is Circle Walking Different from Walking in a Straight Line?

When I walk in a straight line, I progress from point A to point B, and there is no center point. I follow a single path, and my orientation is towards arrival at my chosen destination. I may be in a large park, or neighborhood, or city, yet I am following a single trajectory into that space. Fundamentally my movement is forward, though i may enjoy vistas to the right or left of our path. The focus of my attention must be toward the outer world, a necessity so that I do not get lost! As I step, my weight shifts from side to side maintaining an equal balance between right and left sides.
In contrast, with circle walking my primary orientation is toward a single point in the center of my circle. This center is related to all the directions. The full vista of 360 degrees and all perspectives are contained within its boundaries. I am not focused on the arrival at any particular destination, but on the journey itself and being in the present moment. The circle is also a container that holds me in a way that I can go down and in, finding my way to my own center. The focus of my attention can safely be directed toward my inner world, since there is only one pathway, and no need to fear getting lost.
Since the changing of directions from clockwise to counterclockwise is fundamental to the practice of circle walking, my forward movement progresses in a particular direction only for a season. Periodically I reverse my direction by turning inward toward the center of the circle, and move in a direction which on a linear pathway would be considered “backward”. As my path around the center continues to shift directions, the words “forward” and “backward” lose their relevance. As I step around the circle, my weight is always unequally distributed. I always have an inside pivot foot, which keeps me grounded and attached to the center, and an outside navigational foot which lightly traces the circle line. As I constantly change directions in the circle, it is like I am pouring water from side to side in my body, so that eventually by the end of the practice, I have an emerging awareness of filling a central internal container, which, like ballast, brings the two sides of my body into balance. Since ultimately all circle walking is about finding my way to the center, this central awareness helps me to connect my own inner center to the larger center of my circle. The center is the place where mystics of all the great traditions describe as the great source of happiness, peace, and joy—a place that has nothing to do with outer circumstances and is always there for us. Grandmaster Zhongxian Wu defines a shaman as one who is centered wherever he or she is. The poet Rumi, in his poem “Whatever Circles” writes:

Walk to the well.
Turn as the earth and moon turn,
Circling what they love.
Whatever circles comes from the center.

Circle walking helps us get there!

How does circle walking “work”?
From, a western perspective, why does circle walking work? While it is not possible to fully explain all the reasons why circle walking has the effects that it does, certain things are clear:

Clockwise and counterclockwise movement:
In the Tai Chi related practices of Bagua Zhang and Eight Energy Circle Walking, clockwise movement spirals and gathers energy into the center of the circle. Counterclockwise movement disperses energy out and away from the center. You can feel these differences on your own by simply trying out circle walking in these two directions. To walk counterclockwise, turn your left shoulder into the center. To walk clockwise, turn your right shoulder toward the center. Counterclockwise movement pushes the “relaxation button” and resets your whole body and energy system to wind down and relax. Clockwise movement does the opposite. When we walk in this mode, we gather and concentrate energy into the center of the circle. Our body and energy resets into the “work” or creative mode. By walking in this direction you can gather all the parts of yourself and bring them on board for a task or project or problem that may be facing you.

Balances right and left hemispheres of the brain
By alternating and reversing directions as you walk the circle, you keep changing your “lead” foot, which is the foot closest to the inside of the circle. Weighting the inside foot stimulates from the ground up that whole entire side of the body, from the organ and bone level all the way up to the brain. That side temporarily becomes dominant, and receives extra nurture, stimulation, and circulation. And of course when you change your lead foot, the same thing happens on the other side of your body. This process ensures that your more emotional, visual, sensory, and kinesthetic right brain gets as much “time” as your more verbal, mathematical, organizational, analytical left brain. Since our culture greatly favors both the left brain and the “work”mode, circle walking can bring about a true balance between these hemispheres, often waking up the sensory awareness that can bring you into the present moment; your emotional being that lets you know where you are and how comfortable you are with your life as it is at any given moment; and your spiritual nature that sees the big picture.

Strengthens the corpus collosum
The corpus collosum is the area between the two hemispheres of the brain. When there is a lot of activity in this area, information flies back and forth across the two hemispheres of the brain creating a lush, rich, field of information for you to draw from as you navigate your way through your life decisions and challenges. When there is only limited or little activity in the area, you are likely to feel stuck, and only be able to perceive selected parts of the information that is always streaming towards us from your inner and outer environment. Circle walking, with its continual directional shifting, is correlated with an increase of activity in the area of the corpus collosum. This is why circle walking activities in all cultures are often associated with “aha’s”—sudden solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems when the two hemispheres come together. It may also be associated with an increase in meaningful dreaming and bursts of creativity.

A Basic Circle Walking Practice for the New Year

The New Year brings hope for a better future and the opportunity to make changes in your life. Yet even “good” change is stressful! It doesn’t matter whether you have been laid off or received a promotion. Change of any kind puts the body into alarm mode. Before the change, there was no need to think through each and every step of your day. After the change, nothing is automatic and going through your daily routine can be like running an obstacle course in a foreign country without a map. Try this basic circle walking practice to help you to get your bearings and get off to a good start with any changes you are working on for the New Year.

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold. For more information about Circle Walking, or her January retreat which is based on the circle walking practice of the labyrinth (“The Practice of Happiness—A Labyrinth Retreat for the New Year” with co-leader Beverly Isley Landreth) or Three Treasures Tai Chi classes, workshops, retreats, or private sessions please see the NEWS BRIEFS, CALENDAR, or the Three Treasures ad on page???? of this issue. To contact Sandy, you can go to www.sandyseeber.com and/or www.threetreasures.org ; call 336.724.1822; or send an email to sandy@threetreasures.org

TAI CHI FOR ARTHRITIS

2010-11-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

According to the Arthritis Foundation, approximately one out of seven people in the United States have arthritis of some type. Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in the US and limits the activities of daily living for approximately seven million people. While there are over 100 varieties of arthritis, the most common is osteoarthritis, or arthritis of the bone.
The most frequent cause of this condition is simple daily wear and tear on the joints. The cartilage covering the ends of the bones breaks down and wears away. This deterioration can lead to a number of problems: exposed bones can rub against one another; fragments of bone or cartilage may break off; the joint may lose its shape and its ability to function smoothly; and bone spurs can develop on the ends of the bone. Any or all of these can lead to pain and disability. Exercise is essential for reducing the physical and emotional symptoms of arthritis, as well as for maximizing quality of life and the ability to perform the basic activities of daily living. Yet the problem for many with arthritis is finding an effective exercise they can do without causing their symptoms to worsen. There are several prescription and over the counter medications that can be effective in reducing the severity of symptoms, yet the cost and risk of side effects can be significant. For these and other reasons, many people with arthritis are looking for nonpharmacological options to control their symptoms, improve their functioning, and enhance their enjoyment of life. According to many experts, Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) may be an excellent choice.
Here is what some of the experts have to say:

How Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) Help Arthritis
The cause of arthritis according to Chinese Medicine is “blocked qi.” According to Chinese Medicine, when we are in a state of health, our qi, or life energy, is in a state of harmonious flow. Pain, illness, or even feeling out of sorts are signals that we need to steps to release, relax, and restore the natural flow of qi in our bodies. Tai Chi and Qigong have been utilized for many hundreds or thousands of years to restore the harmony, balance, and flow of qi, and thus promote health. The central focus of both practices is on balancing and moving “qi” (pronounced chee), the vital life energy present in all of nature. Qigong usually utilizes movements that are simple and short, similar to the steps of a dance. Tai Chi strings together individual movements into a unique sequence, similar to a dance, which is called a form. There are literally thousands of forms and also many styles of Tai Chi and Qigong, yet they are all based on a common set of principles. Gentle, whole-body, slow movements, breath awareness and techniques, and mental concentration characterize both practices.
Since the 1960’s when Tai Chi and Qigong were first introduced in the United States, many people have enjoyed their benefits. In a 2007 survey, The National Institute of Health’s National Centre of Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that more than 2.3 million Americans practice tai chi to:

If you would like to find out for yourself if Tai Chi can help you, try this simple Tai Chi practice described below that can have excellent benefits for people with arthritis.
SPIRAL OPEN THE JOINTS
In this practice the practitioner first opens up a connection with the “ocean of qi” inside the body, and then uses breath, movement, and intention to progressively send qi out into and through all 13 major joints of the body using a gentle circling and spiraling motion. The practice covers all the common areas of pain in people who have arthritis: the lower back, hips, knees, ankles, feet, neck, shoulders, fingers, and hands. Breathe naturally and repeat each movement 3 or more times.
Opening posture

Open the ocean of qi

Spiral the whole body

Spiral the neck in 6 directions

Spiral the shoulders

Spiral the hips

Spiral the knees

Spiral the ankles in 6 directions

Return to the ocean of qi and rivers

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Enneagram Trainer, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. She is in private practice at 112 South Spruce Street in Winston-Salem and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold. For more information about Tai Chi for Arthritis or Three Treasures Tai Chi classes, workshops, retreats, or private sessions please contact Sandy directly, call 336.724.1822 or send an email to sandy@threetreasures.org
For information about Tai Chi for Arthritis at the Shepherds Center in Winston-Salem, contact Susan Meny smeny@shepherdscenter.org. To

TAI CHI WITH HEALING WORDS

2010-10-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”--intuitively, most of us recognize that this is not true! Words can and do hurt. Yet Tai Chi masters teach that the same power or force that is used to injure an opponent can also be used for healing.
In the last twenty five years an intense interest in the healing power of words has emerged and many of these have entered the mainstream of behavioral health treatments. Some examples of practices that use words for healing include mindfulness, chanting, affirmations, neurolingistic programming (NLP) techniques, and guided imagery. A new arena of exploration lies in examining how the effectiveness of these primarily mental activities can be enhanced by combining them with body-based practices and movement. Tai Chi, a bodymind practice which originated in China, is a natural for such a partnership. An example of this kind of integrative alliance can be seen in the groundbreaking work of Michael Mayer, PhD, who developed methodology which he calls “Body Mind Healing Psychotherapy (Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy, Ancient Pathways to Modern Health, 2007) in which he combines in healing tools from psychotherapy with Qigong practices. In this book, Mayer presents case studies and describes treatment protocols which use a combination of Tai Chi and Qigong and psychotherapy techniques for resolving symptoms pertaining to a broad range of conditions including anxiety, panic, depression, and trauma as well as addictions, hypertension, and pain relief.
In this same spirit of combining “mind-oriented” modalities with “body-based” traditional Tai Chi and Qigong practices, the focus of this article is to introduce you to Tai Chi as healing art; describe how chanting/toning/primal sound, affirmations, NLP, and guided imagery are being used for healing; and introduce four “Tai Chi with Healing Words” integrative exercises you can do on your own. Each exercise is appropriate for any fitness level and does not require a prior knowledge of Tai Chi. In each case I will give the rationale for the exercise along with a description of a simple “mini-practice” you can try yourself. The beauty of these and other integrative practices is that they work on many levels at the same time. Just as surely as walking on a treadmill while watching TV splits the body and the mind, doing Tai Chi with Healing Words exercises brings about a state of teamwork between the body and mind. Every physical health problem has an emotional and psychological component, and vice versa. Just as the corpus collosum facilitates communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, these exercises create a common healing pathway for body and mind together to dissolve old patterns, lay the groundwork for new patterns, embody healthy change, and solidify relatedness to self, others, and the larger world.

TAI CHI AS A HEALING ART

Although Tai Chi is often thought of primarily as a martial art, its ancient roots lie in the healing arts. Often referred to as “moving meditation”, the Harvard Medical Health Publication (May 2009) says that Tai Chi may more accurately be called “moving medication” due to the long list of conditions which can improve with regular Tai Chi practice: bone density, balance, immune function, cardiovascular problems, hypertension, and respiratory conditions, to name a few. Qigong (sometimes spelled chi kung), which is the primary ancestor of Tai Chi, essentially functioned as the health care system of the people over 5,000 years ago. The practice of Qigong, unlike our current healthcare system, was less a system of compartmentalized treatments consisting of providers and patients, but more like a language through which a person learned to communicate with the elements and energies of nature both within and without in an interactive and mutual way. Everyone was a healer by simple fact of being able to connect with a universal healing system preprogrammed into a vital universe, each part of which was recognized as being alive and intelligent.
A little known fact about Tai Chi is its long association with the healing applications of sound and words. One of the earliest recorded practices of Tai Chi was the use of what was called the six healing sounds. Many masters taught that one could learn everything necessary to know by sincere dedication to the daily practice of these healing sounds. The healing sounds-- which consisted mostly of subvocal consonant and vowel combinations such as sssss, chuu, shhhh, haaa, hooo, and heee—are vibrational tones designed to resonate with the organ systems and meridian flow channels within the body. Each organ and meridian houses an intelligence, a concrete connection with the infinite source which is continually creating the visible world. To use modern terminology, the voice in our head--the constant mind chatter going on within each one of us--comes from the organs and meridians themselves, each of which has a personality which is both archetypal yet personal and unique. These personalities can express themselves both reactively (e.g. emotional states such as sadness, fear, anger, self-criticism, and anxiety) and virtuously (e.g. strength, wisdom, kindness, love and acceptance, and trust).

HEALING PRACTICES USING SOUND AND WORDS
Chanting/Toning/Nonverbal Vibration
Using sound to dissolve old patterns and generate a harmonious healing state
Maybe you never thought about it, but when you are cheering for your favorite sports team, you are chanting. Whether it is protesters in an anti-war demonstration, marines marching in cadence or monks in a monastery, chanting rituals have been part of cultures around the world. Now modern medical researchers are finding that even the simplest forms of chanting are good for your health. Chanting triggers the relaxation response, slows heartbeat, brain waves, and respiration, stimulates the production of endorphins, and even lowers blood pressure. Several studies from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation have demonstrated that 12 minutes a day of chanting 4 tones (not words) accompanied by specified movements of the fingers improved memory and brain function in patients with mild cognitive impairment after an 8 week period of time. Dr. Valerie Hunt, Professor Emeritus from UCLA, demonstrated that individuals with long term paralysis were able to initiate voluntary movements after using Continuum sound practices, Continuum being a system of using different sounds, tones and vibrations to activate the fluid system of the body (founded by Emile Conrad).

Affirmations
Using words that are precise, succinct, and specific to allow the conscious mind to set a positive direction for the unconscious mind to follow
Affirmations have been called a beginners tool to reprogram the subconscious mind. Like it or not, everyone practices affirmations every day. Whatever we say repeatedly, our subconscious mind receives as truth and acts accordingly. Affirmations are based on the Cognitive Behavioral principle that when our thoughts are more positive than negative, our feelings change, and when our feelings change, our behavior follows. Another way to look at affirmations is that they are a “sound/vibrational” version of creative visualization. The affirmative statements stimulate the formation of mental images in the mind which express and make personal the positive goals and aims we have for ourselves. The conscious mind initiates this process, and then passes the ball to the unconscious mind. The individual using affirmations takes an active directive stance toward an issue or problem.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Using words that are global universals and non-specific to access the unconscious mind and embody a desired internal state:

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming we can gain access to the broadest spectrum of the issue at hand by using artfully vague universals to access the unconscious mind. The conscious mind always has an agenda. By using open ended non-specific language and a relaxed internal state, individuals can gain access to their unique full sensory experience of an issue, rather than what they think their response should be. When combined with appropriate movement, the individual can take both an open, receptive stance (yin) to the issue or problem, and an active solution-focused (yang) approach.

Guided Imagery
Using words in the form of imagery in combination with deep breathing and relaxed but focused attention to connect with positive aspects of self, others, and the larger world
Good guided imagery functions as a form of meditation. Words become like icons, tangible, audible pointers to a hidden, intangible, but greater reality. Guided imagery uses vivid sensory words and kinesthetic imagery in order to access the neural networks in the brain that store emotional and somatic memory. The amygdala is a part of the brain that scans incoming data for emotional impact and plays a key role in facilitating communication between the body and the mind. As pointed out by Candace Pert in her seminal article, Wisdom of the Receptors: Neuropeptides, the Emotions, and BodyMind,(Advances: 1986: 3(3): 8-16) neuropeptides are the “information packets” that enable this communication, and the amygdala, along with the hypothalamus, are rich in neuropeptide receptors. Guided imagery is highly effective at reframing and re-offering experiences, stressors, and beliefs to the amygdala “to create positive physical and emotional changes in the whole mind-body system” (Belleruth Naperstek, Staying Well with Guided Imagery, 1994).

Enough said. Reading about healing can be interesting, but it is the experience of healing that moves us in the direction we want to go. Let’s begin!

TAI CHI WITH HEALING WORDS EXERCISES

GETTING READY: Silence
Turn off the TV, radio, and mp3 player. Put aside books, magazines, and cell phone. Sit or stand for 5 minutes. Observe your inner world. Notice without judgment the thoughts, images, and body sensations that come into your sphere of awareness. Settle your attention on the particular need for healing that brought you to try this practice. Choose one or more of the practices below.

Tai Chi with Chanting: Opening the water channel of the Microcosmic Orbit
Removing blocks and circulating chi through the microcosmic orbit is a classic Tai Chi practice. The microcosmic orbit is a pathway which consists of the fire channel which moves up the spine and the water channel which descends through the central front midline of the body. The two channels meet at the roof of the mouth, with the tongue as the connector. Like the head of a serpent, the tip of the tongue is considered to be the top of the water channel that runs through the midline of the body. The following practice, which is inspired by Continuum, opens the water channel of the orbit.
Practice #1:

Tai chi with Affirmations: Invoking the wisdom of the Heart and Small Intestine meridians
In Tai Chi, each of the 12 major meridian channels which flow through the body has its own unique voice, an intelligence, that when the channel is open brings a particular positive and wise perspective to the internal awareness of the individual. Classically, qigong (movement) and neigong (mind focus) are used to clear blockages from the channel and open the chi flow that allows access to the wisdom and the internal power of the meridian. The exercise below opens the Heart and Small Intestine meridian channels.
Practice #2

Tai Chi with Neurolinguistic Programming: Spontaneous Tai Chi movement from the core
While there are literally thousands of Tai Chi forms today, originally all Tai Chi was spontaneous, a responding from the internal core of the body to embrace and become one with an element of nature or an animal. Spontaneous Tai Chi is still practiced today in much the same way. To initiate spontaneous Tai Chi, first choose an energy to merge with, focus on the internal felt sense of that energy, and using this felt sense as a guide, allow the body to be shaped by that energy into a posture or movement. The posture and/or movement then becomes a vehicle of connection with the desired energy.

Practice #3

Tai Chi with Guided Imagery: Standing like a Tree meditation with focus on the fire element
Typical to the Tai Chi way of thinking, if one wants to become more powerful, one must become more still. Standing meditation is considered to be the quickest and most effective way to cultivate and grow one’s own internal energy. The classical name for this practice is called Tree Standing, and it utilizes the imagery of the tree to guide the practice. Like the tree, the practitioner extends his or her roots deep beneath the ground towards the earth’s core and reaches upward through the crown and upper body imbibing the life-giving energy of the sun. As the standing progresses, just as trees gather life-giving energy from the earth and sky, the practitioner gathers the nourishing energies of the five elements of nature to strengthen and energize.

RETURNING TO YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE: Gratitude

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. Sandy, along with her teaching partners from Three Treasures Tai Chi, Alan Graham, Beverly Isley-Landreth, and David Harold, will present “Tai Chi with Healing Words” on August 20th at the National Qigong Association Conference at the Oak Ridge Conference Center in Minneapolis, Wisconsin. For more information about Tai Chi with Healing Words, Sandy, the National Qigong Association, and/or Three Treasures Tai Chi classes and workshops go to www.nqa.org, www.sandyseeber.com and/or www.threetreasures.org. . To contact Sandy directly, send an email to sandy@threetreasures.org.

Sandy (second from the left) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi teaching partners

MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR ORGANS: Improving your health with Tai Chi

2010-09-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

Medical research tells us that a person’s social support system may be a more important factor in their health and resiliency than their family history, diet, medications, or exercise patterns. Bert Uchino, in his book Social Support and Physical Health: Understanding the Health Consequences of Relationships, writes that not only do our relationships protect us from a multitude of mental health problems, but the absence of these relationships can increase our risk of acquiring a life-threatening illness and reduce our capacity to recover from injury, trauma, or disease.

Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine take this issue of the importance of relationships one step further by pointing out that it’s not just our “outer relationships” with family, coworkers, and friends that are important to our health, but rather primarily the “inner relationships” we have with our five major internal organs: the lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, and spleen. Since most of us follow the “squeaky wheel” principle in regard our organs—and don’t think about them unless something begins to hurt or we get a diagnosis that frightens us—how then do we begin to develop a relationship with our organs?
We begin by listening to the voices in our head! According to Chinese Medicine, these voices are the organs speaking to you. Just as each organ plays a unique and essential role in keeping the body healthy and functioning, each organ also possesses a distinctive intelligence. If you attend to your organs, they can become like good friends that can provide instant “real-time” guidance on practical every day issues ranging from whether to have cereal or eggs for breakfast, to prescribing precisely what you need to improve your “outer” relationships, or to feel centered, calm, peaceful, and energized for the tasks of your day.
If you ignore your organs you are likely to shift into whatever your own favorite “brand” of feeling distressed is. This type of distress is a “package deal” that affects your emotions, thoughts, and body experience. Emotionally, you may feel sad, or angry, guilty, fearful, or anxious. In your head you may feel overwhelmed, confused, unfocused, or stuck. Physically, you may feel tired, or conversely, like you are going to explode. Or you may get a headache, or feel pain in a vulnerable area of your body. All of these body-mind symptoms can be an indication that you are not listening to your organs.
Western scientific research ups the ante on the need to pay attention to our organs and the emotions associated with them. The results of many current studies strongly suggest that there may well be a correlation between habitual emotional patterns and specific illnesses. A 2003 study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is an example of such a study. The results indicated that young adults who scored high on measures of impatience and hostility–two hallmarks of the “type A” behavior pattern–significantly increased their long-term risk of developing high blood pressure, with the risk becoming greater as the intensity of the behaviors increased.
The practice of Tai Chi can help you to connect with, understand, and attune to your organs, listen to their messages, and break long-term emotional patterns. The first step is to get to know your organs better. The second step is to nurture your organs by “emptying” them on a regular basis of the negative emotional residue that naturally accumulates over the course of a day. The third step is to actively receive, invite, and cultivate the positive qualities that reside in your organs as a resource.

Step 1: Getting to Know Your Organs
According to Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine, each organ is associated with season of the year, a negative emotion and a virtue. The season of the year demonstrates the kind of energy held by the organ. The negative emotion illustrates what happens when the organ becomes energetically congested, rigid, or contracted. The virtue expresses the quality of the organ in its natural and balanced state, its true nature, which can never be lost, but only covered up in the way that gray clouds sometimes obscure the sun.

Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. Sandy is in private practice and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold. For more information about improving your health with Tai Chi and/or Three Treasures Tai Chi classes and workshops please see the NEWS BRIEFS in this issue or go to www.sandyseeber.com and/or www.threetreasures.org Three Treasures Tai Chi ad is located on page ??? . To contact Sandy directly, call 336.724.1822 or send an email to sandy@threetreasures.org

Sandy (second from the left) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi teaching partners

GROUNDING: How Tai Chi Reduces Anxiety and Stress

2010-08-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Biophysicist James Oschman, PhD, a leading expert and author on energy medicine, and recent guest speaker at the Natural Triad/Wake Forest Integrative Medicine Series, sums up Earthing this way: "The moment your foot touches the Earth… your physiology changes.”

Given the pace of our modern lifestyle with its focus on speed, mobility, and achievement, most of us spend at least part of our waking day worrying about something—the economy, a family member, a health issue, or how we are going to find enough hours in our day to complete the endless list of tasks awaiting our attention.
And-- as if feeling stressed and worried were not enough!--these feelings are often accompanied by other troublesome symptoms such as tight muscles, irritability, upset stomach, headaches, difficulty concentrating, shortness of breath, forgetfulness, anticipating the worst, feeling tired, and difficulty sleeping. Symptoms of prolonged stress and anxiety actually often mimic disease symptoms. It has been estimated that 85% of doctor visits are at least partially stress related.
So what causes anxiety and what can we do about it? A typical western view is that anxiety is caused by stress and upsetting events in our lives. Many people take medications to reduce the discomforts caused by anxiety. Tai Chi and Chinese Medicine offer a different view of the cause of anxiety. From this perspective, anxiety is caused by being cut off from the earth. Like many indigenous cultures, the people of ancient China recognized the healing power of the earth. They noticed that when seeds were dropped into the ground, new life began to grow. They noticed that when garbage or refuse was buried in the ground, it was absorbed, cleansed, and transformed by the earth, turning it into useful and fertile soil. They paid particular attention to trees and observed that trees seem to live much longer than humans. They believed that it was the deep roots of the trees that protected them from harm, by offering them endurance, stability, strength, and nurture. Some of the earliest practices of Tai Chi and Qigong emerged as people imitated the trees and initiated practices through which they, like the trees, could benefit from the amazing healing qualities of the earth.
Interestingly, modern science is currently rediscovering and validating some of the healing properties of the earth, and is also offering some insight into how these work (Earthing, 2010, Oschman, Ober, Sinatra, Zucker). Remember in the old days before cable TV how electrical interference would cause “snow” to occasionally show up on our TV screens? We don’t get this anymore because cable TV signals are grounded into the earth and this grounding provides electrical stability as well as protection from errant electrical charges. Dr James L. Oschman, author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, points out that not just electronics, but we ourselves are made up of collections of dynamic electrical circuits. Our heart, brain, nervous system, muscles, and immune system work like electrical subsystems which constantly transmit and receive energy in the course of the many thousands of biochemical reactions needed to successfully carry out their functions within our bodies. He believes that our biological systems need the stabilization and protection of being grounded in the earth and that many modern health problems are attributable to our disconnection from this energy.
In electrical engineering, electrical circuits need to be grounded in the earth for several reasons: providing safety from dangerous voltage, limiting the buildup of static electricity, and serving as a constant reference point against which other potentials can be measured. Given our current understanding of thoughts and emotions as biochemical, electrical, and energetic events, it is quite easy to see how grounding in the earth could be helpful to someone suffering from anxiety or stress in some of the following ways: providing safety from perceived dangers; preventing buildup of frenetic and panicky thoughts; and a offering a stable and secure constant point of reference.
Tai Chi is an ancient way of connecting with the energy of the earth and chi, the life force that enlivens all of nature. The practice of Tai Chi reduces anxiety and stress by giving us a way to direct our own life force energy, or chi, and restore our earth connection. When we feel anxious and stressed, the energy rises up through the body into the head. Unconsciously, we actually tighten our muscles pull the soles of our feet up and away from the ground. That is why we are more prone to getting a headache or having digestive problems when we are anxious or stressed. One of the first things you might learn in a Tai Chi class is how to “root” your energy into the ground. To reduce some of your anxiety and stress, follow the sequence below and use these Tai Chi practices to root your energy in the earth, stand like a tree!
Use your Mind to Direct your Chi
There is a saying in Tai Chi: “Where the mind goes, chi follows.” The first step in grounding is simpler than you might think. Just use your mind to direct your attention/awareness/chi down through your feet to the ground.
Relax the Feet
Rotate the ankle of one of your feet while at the same time pressing the ball of your foot firmly into the ground 8 or 9 times clockwise, then counterclockwise. Stop and place your awareness in your foot. Notice sensation, temperature, movement or stillness. Compare it to the other foot. Repeat on the other side.

Open the Bubbling Well
The bubbling well is the first acupuncture point on the kidney meridian and is located on the bottom of the foot, in the center, just behind the ball of the foot. Traditionally this point is viewed as the major access point where the energy of the earth connects with the energy of the human body. Use your mind to imagine that this point is opening. Use an image to help you, such as picturing in your mind a fresh mountain spring bubbling up from the earth and filling your body with flowing energy and vitality.
Root into the Earth
Shift your weight slowly from foot to foot. Focus your attention on the weighted foot. With your mind imagine roots growing down into the ground, roots as deep as you are tall. Repeat this process as you shift your weight to the other foot. Keep seeing the roots go deeper and deeper, allowing the circumference of the roots to expand and spread out into the ground.
Stand Like a Tree
Envision yourself as your favorite kind of tree. Feel the crown of your head lift up as your tailbone sinks down towards the ground. Relax your knees and shoulders. Focus on allowing your breath to deepen as you breathe in and out of the bottom and back of your lungs. With each breath feel the chi in the earth flow upwards into the bottoms of your feet, and then up through the legs into the belly. With each outbreath release any tension in your body, allowing it to flow down into the ground.
Finishing Your Practice
Place both of your hands over your belly button and move them around in a circle 3 or 4 times, then repeat in the opposite direction.
Sandy Seeber is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, and Associate Healing Dao Instructor. Sandy is in private practice and teaches Tai Chi and Qigong (Chi Kung) with Three Treasures Tai Chi partners Alan Graham, Beverly Isley Landreth, and David Harold. For more information about improving your health with Tai Chi and/or Three Treasures Tai Chi classes and workshops please contact Sandy directly, call 336.724.1822 or send an email to sandy@threetreasures.org

Sandy (second from the left) with her Three Treasures Tai Chi teaching partners