Dahn Yoga DC Blog

Floor meditation
We live in a world of information overload—newspapers, radio, television, blogs, social networks, text messaging, relationships and family demands. It all amounts to a lot of noise and an overload for our brains, which can make it hard to hear our inner voices.

To not lose track of yourself, it’s important to create some quiet. Meditation is a great exercise for doing this.

Sara Lazar, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, states that, “the goal of [meditation] is not so much to ‘empty’ your head, but to not get caught up in random thoughts that pop into consciousness.” It is a way to forget about the “what if” and focus on what is happening right now.

According to Ilchi Lee, originator of the Brain Education System Training (BEST) and author of In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging, “the goal of all meditation is the same: to quiet the conscious mind…to still the flow of conscious thought—analysis, questioning and self-talk—and simply let the mind be.”

When you meditate, you activate other parts of your brain. You allow yourself to begin perceiving things in a different way, and you learn about life and yourself. Lee’s floor meditation exercise can help you do this.

From Ilchi Lee (Excerpted from In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging)

1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed. One foot may rest on the floor, but the other should sit on your thigh.

2. Keep your back straight. Place your hands on your knees. Hold your palms facing upward.

3. You may close your eyes or keep them open. Relax your shoulders. Keep your chin slightly lowered.

4. Open your mouth slightly and keep focusing on exhalation. Focus on the energy flow inside your body.

From Young on http://www.dahnyoga.org/

The power of yoga

Stars do it. Sports do it. Judges in the highest courts do it. Let’s do it: that yoga thing. A path to enlightenment that winds back 5,000 years, yoga has suddenly become so hot, so cool, so very this minute. It’s the exercise cum meditation for the new millennium, one that doesn’t so much pump you up as bliss you out. Yoga now straddles the coninent — from Hollywood, where $20 million-a-picture actors queue for a session with their guru du jour, to Washington, where in the gym of the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and 15 other faithfully take their class each Tuesday morning.

Everywhere else, Americans rush from their high-pressure jobs and tune in to the authoritatively mellow voice of an instructor, gently urging them to solder a union (the literal translation of the Sanskrit word yoga) between mind and body. These Type A strivers want to become Type B seekers, to lose their blues in an asana (pose), to graduate from distress to de-stress. Fifteen million Americans include some form of yoga in their fitness regimen — twice as many as did five years ago; 75% of all U.S. health clubs offer yoga classes. Many in those classes are looking not inward but behind. As supermodel Christy Turlington, a serious practitioner says “Some of my friends simply want to have a yoga butt.” But others come to the discipline in hopes of restoring their troubled bodies. Yoga makes me feel better, they say. Maybe it can cure what ails me.

The article above is from Time Magazine. I hope many people can benefit from Dahn Yoga. Thank you.

Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu,

When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too

I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin

When he smiled I realized that I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile then realized it’s worth,

A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected

Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!

Kind words produce their own image in men’s souls; and a beautiful image it is.

They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer.

They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings.

We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.

– Blaise Pascal

HOW TO STAY WELL (OR GET BETTER, IF YOU’RE NOT SO WELL TO BEGIN WITH)

1) Do things that bring you a sense of fulfillment, joy, and purpose, that validate your worth. See your life as your own creation, and strive to make it a positive one.

2) Pay close and loving attention to yourself, tuning in to your needs on all levels. Take care of yourself, nourishing, supporting, and encouraging yourself.

3) Release all negative emotions- resentment, envy, fear, sadness, anger. Express your feelings appropriately, don’t hold on to them. Forgive yourself.

4) Hold positive images and goals in your mind, pictures of what you truly want in your life. When fearful images arise, re-focus on images that evoke feelings of peace and joy.

5) Love yourself, and love everyone else. Make loving the purpose and primary expression of your life.

6) Create fun, loving, honest relationships, allowing for the expression and fulfillment of needs for intimacy and security. Try to heal any wounds in past relationships, as with old lovers, and mother and father.

7) Make a positive contribution to your community, through some form of work or service that you value and enjoy.

Make a commitment to health and well-being, and develop a belief in the possibility of total health. Develop your own healing program, drawing on the support and advice of experts without becoming enslaved to them.

9) Accept yourself and everything in your life as an opportunity for growth and learning. Be grateful. When you screw up, forgive yourself, learn what you can from the experience, and then move on.

10) KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR

~from Peace, Love, & Healing by Bernie Siegel, MD.

I promise myself…

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet.
To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature I meet.
To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, to noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

So last week I was  disappointed in myself.  I was thinking that I have been coming to Dahn Yoga classes for more than a year and I should be further along in my training.  I should be more flexible.  I should not still be getting headaches.  And on and on and on.  Then I stopped for a second and thought about where I was before Dahn.  I was stiff, emotional, and dealing with headaches almost every day.   I have changed quite a bit from those days.

I realized that I have been so busy focusing on a far off goal, that I have not taken the time to accept where I am currently.    We need to accept and enjoy each level of our development (living in the present).  These are all things we hear regularly in class, but sometimes it takes us awhile to fully accept them.

I do not tend to listen to country music.  But one day, I was having trouble finding any other station.  I heard this new song from Dolly Parton and  I really liked the words.

People always comin’ up to me and askin’
“Dolly, what’s your secret?
With all you do, your attitude
Just seems to be so good
How do you keep it?”
Well I’m not the Dalai Lama, but I’ll try
To offer up a few words of advice

Chorus:

You better get to livin’, givin’
Don’t forget to throw in a little forgivin’
And lovin’ on the way
You better get to knowin’, showin’
A little bit more concerned about where you’re goin’
Just a word unto the wise
You better get to livin’

A girlfriend came to my house
Started cryin’ on my shoulder Sunday evening
She was spinnin’ such a sad tale
I could not believe the yarn that she was weavin’
So negative the words she had to say
I said if I had a violin I’d play

I said you’d better get to livin’, givin’
Be willing and forgivin’
Cause all healing has to start with you
You better stop whining, pining
Get your dreams in line
And then just shine, design, refine
Until they come true

And you better get to livin’

Your life’s a wreck, your house is mess
And your wardrobe way outdated
All your plans just keep on falling through
Overweight and under paid, under appreciated
I’m no guru, but I’ll tell you
This I know is true

You better get to livin’, givin’
A little more thought about bein’
A little more willin’ to make a better way
Don’t sweat the small stuff
Keep your chin up
Just hang tough
And if it gets too rough
Fall on your knees and pray
And do that everyday
Then you’ll get to livin’

The day we’re born we start to die
Don’t waste one minute of this life
Get to livin’
Share your dreams and share your laughter
Make some points for the great hereafter

Better start carin’
Better start sharin’
Better start tryin’
Better start smiling
And you better get to livin’

from http://dahnyoga.net/

Jung Choong breathing is an effective way to activate the benefits of ‘Jung Choong, Ki Jang, Shin Myung’, one of the main principles of all Dahn exercise. I found these descriptions on the computer of the Dahn Center where I work and thought they were very useful:

 JUNG CHOONG: Calm your body by circulating & accumulating power in your lower body.

Benefits: healthy kidney & bladder meridian, relaxed chest, relaxed and warm organs, cool head.

KI-JANG: With calmness, circulate emotional energy healthfully and focus on your true self.

Benefits: Immune system improves, peace of mind, passion and productivity for the purpose of life

SHIN MYUNG: From your true self, choose your thinking that suits your purpose, change negative thinking habits.

Benefits: Increased independence of your health, become more effective and creative, deep satisfaction with life.

You can see the principle of Jung Choong, Ki Jang, Shin Myung encompasses body, emotions, and mind. By influencing one aspect you affect the others. So when you feel down or unsatisfied, check weather you have Jung Choong. Do you feel full and have so much energy that it naturally spills out of you? If not, you may need more Jung energy. Exercises like Jung Choong Breahing and HSP walking meditation