In terms of training, the big buzz word in my mind is bowing. I participated in a big (for me) 21-day 1000 bows per day training recently, I seem to be writing one short article a month on it, and BEST Life Media‘s bowing book will be coming out next month. (A couple of advance copies are in the office and they are so pretty! Informative as well of course  )

Despite the fact that I am not doing 1000 a day at the moment,  I am still in love with bowing. In fact, that training made me love them more (ok, it was a love-hate relationship–I hated the anticipation of them but loved how I felt afterward). I love that I get to move my whole body and sweat a lot after sitting around all day, and I love how open, clean, and stable I feel after I do them.

One interesting side effect from doing all of those bows, at least at the time (no not a lot of pain in the knees), was that I became less patient with extraneous fluff and more blunt. I was less tolerant of any internal or external dissension about anything, possibly because I less tolerant about any dissension about getting the 1000 a day completed. I became more confident about what I want, although that didn’t help me learn how to work with others harmoniously to create it.

For those of you who are interested in the long-practiced moving meditation of bowing, here’s advice that has been given to me by various trainers, teachers, and friends:

• Relax your body, only using those muscles you need to.
• Focus on  your feet or lower abdomen (dahnjon/dahn tien) to help bring your energy down and/or stay grounded (if I don’t do this, or if I have too many extraneous thoughts, I tend to lose my balance and fall over)
• As with other meditations, don’t focus on or attach to things other than your bowing. If  you have other thoughts, see them, accept them, and then let them go. Then go back to whatever you’re focusing on during the bow (this can vary). In other words, just bow.
• Smile!
• Just take one bow at a time.
• Don’t forget to breathe. Your breathing pattern will develop a rhythm, which you can create consciously if you want.
• Bowing can be done fast or slow, while focusing on your physical body, the energy flowing inside you, or bringing in spiritual energy/light from the universe (even all of the above).

Ilchi Lee, founder of Brain Education and Dahn Yoga, performing a bow

To me, bowing is one of those all-encompassing practices that can teach you about how to live life in general. It can all come from bowing, and we can extrapolate those lessons to other situations.

Has anyone else had experience with bowing meditation? What has your experience been like?

And then you have to go back into that world. And then you have to make the dreams you’ve just discovered a reality.

That’s the trick–and that’s one of the things I think Dahn Yoga founder Ilchi Lee has been trying to teach for the past 30 years. He wants people to keep that enthusiasm and not fall into thinking, “That’s just the way the world is,” or even, “That’s just the way I am.” To do that he recommends daily practice of exercises and principles; never giving up hope; careful planning, reporting, and checking; and giving your 100%, among other things. Dahn Yoga offers a supportive community and a structure to help with the process of growing and achieving your heart’s desire.

But what about when you feel really heavy, can’t muster up any enthusiasm, don’t want to do the exercises you know will make you feel better, don’t want to talk to anyone, haven’t written a report in days, don’t know if you’ve done anything useful, and are running at 5% energy? Remember that everything you need is inside you already. Don’t blame yourself and don’t blame the system and don’t give up on your dream. Just take whatever smidgen of will you have and focus inside yourself. If you are already focusing inside, go deeper. You will always get what you need. Always. And then you can keep going.

This is the one ounce of what I’ve learned that I can offer people starting on a path of infinite personal growth through Brain Education.

As I was writing, I started to think about principles of ki energy that I’ve learned from my Dahn Yoga practice. When I started to learn them and, more importantly, actually experience them in my body, it was a real eye-opener for me. When I realized how much my thoughts and emotions were affected by energy, and that I can actually change them by changing my energy, I was so happy. Before that I had felt like my thoughts and emotions were basic parts of me that were difficult to change or control. I could control my behavior or expression of my thoughts and emotions, but not my internal experience of them–except maybe by getting away from them all through quiet alone time or reading or watching TV. I thought my issues were very real and that it took a lot of work to get through them.

But when I did ki energy exercises such as meridian stretching (do-in), vibration exercises of any kind, or especially yeondahn, my thoughts and emotions would change automatically. It felt like magic! It was like my whole perspective just shifted without my thinking about it or trying to do it. I suddenly looked at the world through different eyes–more positive, hopeful, and strong ones.

This experience was even more dramatic after longer trainings or after healing sessions. In those situations I was able to go deeper, change more of myself and my energy, and overcome many limitations. They offered me the time, space, and help to do deeper “cleaning” of my energy than I could in  70 minutes of a regular class. It was wonderful to take some extra time to focus inside myself to give myself whatever I really needed at that time.

From my training I learned how to watch my body, mind, and emotions as a detached observer. I also learned how to feel the ki energy flowing in my body. From my observations, I noticed that as energy circulated, if it hit a part of my body that had an energy blockage, it would create a phenomenon such as a thought, emotion, or physical sensation such as shaking or pain. If I was thinking a lot, I knew it was because there was a lot of energy in my head poking around and making thoughts come out. If I was emotional, I could sense the energy that wasn’t moving in my internal organs such as my lungs, heart, stomach, and liver, which tend to store emotional energy. If I had pain at a particular acupressure point while holding a posture, I knew energy was trying to push through a blockage there. Therefore, if I didn’t want the particular phenomenon I was experiencing, I could change it with techniques to release the energy that was stuck in that part of my body. No problem.

Another energy principle I learned from my training was that energy goes to wherever your mind focuses, whether it’s inside or outside of yourself. If you are focusing on your emotions, energy is going to go there. If you focus on a person or a task, energy will go there. If you focus on your feet, energy will go there. And your feet are the farthest point on your body from  your head and internal organs. So focusing on your feet is an easy way to feel clear and calm as you’re walking.

Another helpful place to focus is what is called your dahnjon in Dahn parlance. Your dahnjon is an energy center in your lower abdomen–two inches below your navel and two inches inside your abdomen from your abdominal wall. When you focus your mind and energy in your dahnjon, it is purified–like a furnace burning up old papers you no longer need. It’s the center where you mind can go to feel “centered,” if you know what I mean. With practice, you can actually keep one part of your mind there all of the time, while the rest of your mind is focused on people and tasks. That way you can be centered throughout your day without needing to do ki energy exercises every five minutes

To be continued… It’s time for lunch.

My ongoing hwadu is how to present/explain Ilchi Lee’s philosophy and methods to the world. Why would people want to know? What are they really looking for? I know the essence, and I think it is something we all want deep inside. But we’re not always actively seeking it, or may not know it’s something we can find.

To me, the most powerful parts of Brain Education/Dahn Yoga is discovering your True Self through the Shim Sung workshop and the three rules of the Brain Operating System (B.O.S.). Together they help you uncover what you really want and then how to create it in the world. I would like to find a way to present them that goes straight to people’s hearts. Neale Donald Walsch did a pretty good job in his newest book, When Everything Changes, Change Everything. I guess I need to find a way that satisfies my own mind, especially since I write about this stuff all the time I get bored with the same old way, and especially since it doesn’t seem to be having any effect.

Today I began a daily yeon-dahn practice with a couple of friends of mine. We decided we would hold one or two postures, any ones we wanted, for 20 minutes a day. I haven’t really done yeon-dahn consistently for some time, so it felt really good. We listened to part of one of Ilchi Lee’s Tao 12 Markers lectures while we did it in the middle of the afternoon. I held sleeping tiger posture for 20 minutes, and I felt so refreshed afterward.

To top it off, this evening, during my team’s usual practice time, we did a stronger variation of Dahn Yoga Energy Breathing (Jung-choong Breathing). I sweat and burnt out a lot of heat and tension. Paradoxically, I can both feel my body more now, but I also feel like I’m floating on air. My spine feels straighter and I can sit in my desk chair more comfortably. My whole body is tingling. During the exercise, I released a lot of whatever is stuck in my tail bone. But of course, there’s more

I really love the mental and physical process of holding a posture for more than a few seconds, even if I’m just doing a deep stretch. When I do that, I really have time to pay attention to what’s going on in my body. I have a chance to practice watching without reacting and staying in my center. The practice trains my body and mind so that it’s easier to watch and stay centered even when I’m not holding a posture or there’s a million other things going on in my life. To me it’s a brilliant training tool. And I feel so solid, fulfilled, and full of energy afterward.

As they say in Korean–Ayshwanada! (please note I don’t really know the correct spelling )

Sometimes I lack motivation when I’m just sitting at my desk to take the time and bring my energy down. But tomorrow I get to teach one class at the local Dahn Yoga center while the manager is away. It’s vibration class! In preparation I’ve realized that I really have to clear my mind and my energy before then in order to give the people who come what they need. They don’t need my memories. They need my love, attention, and a clear channel of cosmic energy. It’s not about me; it’s about them.

Funny how I’m more motivated to change my energy to help other people than I am to do it just for myself. Of course, since we’re all connected, having bright, clear, positive energy, even while sitting at my desk, matters. Then I can help anchor that energy on earth. But it is still more motivating when someone is right in front of you and needs it.

That’s why I think the Dahn Yoga centers as such a blessing–not just for the members who benefit from them, but for the instructors. I learned so much from Dahn Yoga workshops, but it’s all meaningless if you can’t apply it in the real world. The centers gave me a place to apply the principles and methods that I learned. I was always impressed by people who applied them in other situations as well, like today’s Brain Management Consultants are doing. I know people who are teaching their families, friends, and coworkers. They are really keeping it real.

What a relief it was! My head cleared, my sinuses felt more empty (even though they hadn’t been bothering me), and I felt happier and more relaxed. I could move forward with confidence and think of an idea. I hope everyone else likes it!

Brain Wave Vibration is so simple. I was just shaking my body, especially my head, neck, and shoulders, and following my own rhythm. But if I hadn’t learned it at a Dahn Yoga Center when I taught there, I would have never thought of doing it when I needed to clear my head, refocus, and relax. Sometimes the greatest ideas are so obvious, and yet someone still needs to point them out.

Thank you Ilchi Lee for creating Brain Wave Vibration and sharing its potential.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. But since this is my own personal blog,  I can state my opinion. I admit that my opinion is limited by my experience so far, so it may change as I go along, and I retain that as my prerogative.

So I’ve decided to keep a running list of these just to make myself feel better. You can take them as  you want. This is my “I make no apologies” blog

1. On the MyTaiChiLife blog, Mike Ferruggia writes, “people will throw money to the winds to buy into this alleged garbage. $8,500 for a weekend seminar?” in reference to a Dahn Yoga workshop. I’m guessing he got this from some of the news stories or blogs. I have never heard of a Dahn Yoga workshop for $8,500. Some longer workshops, anywhere from 5 -10 days, can be around $5,500, at least back when I worked in a Dahn Yoga Center. The only course I know of with that exact price tag is the Tao Holistic Healing Program, which is not run by Dahn Yoga but by Tao Fellowship. Like Dahn Yoga, Tao Fellowship and this program are based on Korean Tao principles. I actually took the program as a volunteer staff member a couple of years ago. While as such I did not pay $8,500, I can tell you that in my opinion it was worth every penny. It was 10 days of hard work and a taste of heaven where I could just focus on myself and my own development with the help of devoted and caring people.
2. Along the same lines, this ultrabrown blog quotes this from Rolling Stone: “(Rollingstone) Korean Dahn yoga cult: For $8.5K, you get to punch yourself and holler ‘I am stupid!’ Leader Ilchi Lee accused of sexual abuse, financial scams.” The part that most annoys me about this one is the phrase, “I am stupid,” because I have never heard that in any training that I’ve taken personally and because a main theme of most of the training is to remove anything that keeps you from truly believing in your unlimited potential.

To be continued as needed…

I made this blog for all of the little things I felt like saying but didn’t have anywhere else to write. That’s it’s only theme. I expect its topics will be random.

I work as an editor for a small publishing company in Sedona, Arizona called BEST Life Media, and do some online public relations work for Ilchi Lee, our main author. Since that’s what I do everyday, I’ll expect you’ll hear more about that. It might even be interesting considering all of the media hoopla that is surrounding him right now.

Sometimes I get tired of the hoopla, because it hinders the real message I am trying to share and have been empowered by Ilchi Lee’s teachings to share it:  We are all love, we are all one, we are pure spirits at our core, we are all precious, and we are all ok because of it (regardless of what it looks like on the outside). I think Ilchi Lee would throw in that we all have unlimited potential because of this.

He is a very practical proponent of the “New Thought” and “Human Potential” movements, and I have always admired his mix of the practical and spiritual. But I think that has caused some confusion, because not everyone is used to having the two mixed together.

Anyway, I don’t want to ramble on in one post. I’ll try to keep one main idea to each post, regardless of when I post them.

Have a great day!

Michela