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Brain Wave Vibration / Healthy Heart — No Comments
24
Jun 10

Research Study Shows Practicing Brain Wave Vibration Has a Positive Effect on Regulating Stress

Brain Wave Vibration (BWV) is the signature moving meditation practiced at the Dahn Yoga Centers.  Most people learn it within their first few visits to a center. Developed by Ilchi Lee (founder of Dahn Yoga), BWV is an easy-to-learn and practical meditation technique to relax both mind and body through natural rhythmic movements.  BWV was recently the subject of a research study on the effects of mind-body training on stress and emotions.

The study was designed to assess the association between stress, positive and negative affect, and stress hormone levels in meditation and control groups. Overall the experiment found that people who engaged in a regular Brain Wave Vibration practice were less stressed and displayed more positive emotions. Stress factors such as depression, anger, and the manifestation of psychological symptoms in the body, were also significantly less in the meditation group than in the control group. These effects were similar to those found in experiments with other mind-body techniques.

It also found that there was more dopamine (DA) in the blood of people who engaged in Brain Wave Vibration than in healthy adults who did not. In subjects who had practiced Brain Wave Vibration for three years or more, blood dopamine levels were higher in those individuals with more positive emotional states.

Primary investigator Dr. Do-Hyung Kang from the Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Seoul National University Medical Center explained, “Now it is widely accepted that meditation has positive effects on regulating stress. This study supports similar results, but also gives us a clue that this can be by the regulation of the sympathetic nervous system [the system that generates the stress response], especially by elevation of DA level in this vibrative meditation group.”

This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of South Korea and carried out by scientists from major national research centers in South Korea, including several institutes at Seoul National University, as well as the Korea Institute of Brain Science. Sixty-seven people who regularly engaged in Brain Wave Vibration for an average of 43 months were gathered and compared to a group of 57 healthy adults. The results were published in the June 2010 issue of the international science journal, Neuroscience Letters.

Brain Wave Vibration as a mind-body training technique fit the aims of the study well. The researchers described the technique as being “designed to relax both mind and body through natural rhythmic movements. It is intended to be a simple meditation technique, a kind of moving meditation that can be used to manage stress and optimize brain health. This technique is designed to quiet the thinking mind and release emotions, particularly negative emotions, through physical movements and focus on body sensations.” To learn more about Brain Wave Vibration, you can visit www.brainwavevibration.com.

For more details about the study, visit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20546836 for the abstract and links to the full article.

How can I do Brain Wave Vibration?  (see www.brainwavevibration.com for more information)

  1. Sit in a chair with your arms resting comfortably at your sides or in front of you on a desk. When sitting in a chair, do not lean your back against the chair, but keep your back straight.
  2. Close your eyes and breathe comfortably, relaxing your body completely.
  3. Begin gently shaking your head from side to side; take three seconds to shake your head from one side to the other.
  4. Follow a rhythm that feels natural for your body. The vibration becomes stronger and deeper. Your head may also go up and down or follow the shape of an infinity symbol as you go deeper into the motion.
  5. Focus on your brain stem, located at the point where your head pivots left and right. The vibration is spreading from your neck to your whole body through your spinal cord.
  6. Repeat this movement for five minutes. Slow down your movement and focus on your lower abdomen.
  7. Inhale and exhale fully three times.

[Reference] Brain Wave Vibration, Ilchi Lee, Best Life Media

 

 

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18
Jun 10

Jane Gordon of Burke Center Stars in DahnTV

Jane Gordon, an eigth grade teacher in Washington DC public schools and part time instructor at the Burke Center is the star of  this weeks DahnTV episode!

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17
Jun 10

Two Minute Tips from Dahn Yoga: Intestine Exercises for your overall health

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14
Jun 10

The Butterfly Effect: Can Yoga Practice Help to Save the World

If a Dahn Yoga practitioner taps her dahnjon 500 times in Washington DC, does it trigger a decrease in global warming elsewhere on the planet? butterfly effect, dahn yoga, environment
It might seem like a stretch to say so, but it isn’t impossible. The concept of the Butterfly Effect is that even a seemingly small action can cause a chain of events that results in consequences on a global scale. In this sense, we could reason that every mindful Dahn Yoga practitioner could effectively initiate positive change for the Earth. This is action that begins at an individual level and could potentially result in radical healing for our planet.

In harmony with the earth

Intestine exercises, breathing postures, and dahnjon tapping are internal exercises that directly improve the health condition of the internal organs and repair the ki and energy meridian systems. The result is immediate improvement in physical and mental health. Another result is that the physical body starts to develop sensitivity to the energy body.

With continued practice, people can become increasingly aware of energy everywhere: food, nature, other people, and the general atmosphere that surrounds us. This sensitivity often results in changes of habit.

For instance, when the energy of the stomach is weakened from an excess of heat in the head, the lack of balance in the body makes it crave excessive sugar and cold beverages, for example. When these urges are occurring in millions of people, it has a certain effect on the environment. If people with the same condition strengthen their stomach’s energy through internal exercises, they become more aware of the immediate discomfort that accompanies the consumption of cold drinks and excessive sugar. As it becomes healthier, the stomach begins to demand wholesome food; practitioners can thus experience natural and spontaneous changes in diet.

To continue this example, if the demand for refrigeration and sugar were sufficiently decreased, industries would have to respond accordingly, resulting in a positive change for the environment.
The energy body feels sensations before they settle into physical reality. Sensitizing ourselves to our energy body is like getting a glimpse into the future. It may take decades for the average person to feel the effect of too much sugar on the hips and knees. But with enhanced sensory awareness, people could feel it in their 20’s. It may take a tumor on the lungs to stop a person with severe nicotine addition to quit smoking, but intense lung-meridian pain twenty years prior may provide the same incentive to quit. If people can sense some ill effect from eating food processed with unnatural chemicals in a pollutive and inhumane environment, they will choose food produced in a more healthy fashion.

dahn yoga, earth, environmentFrom an ideal to a need

It is consumers that drive the demand for products. The green movement is on the rise, but there is still a lot of room to demand more environmentally friendly products and policies. Perhaps, for the average consumer, the idea of environmentally sound choices may just be a noble ideal, but not a dire need. Dahn Yoga exercise could potentially motivate us to take actions that are more aligned with our ideals.
There is a growing number of people with an elevated consciousness who are aware of our place as stewards of the Earth and are working to create a world in which we behave accordingly. Thanks to these people and to sufficient scientific evidence, few could dismiss the idea of global warming without political consequence.
When we develop energy sensitivity, we don’t have to rely only on people whom we feel have extraordinary wisdom or higher consciousness. We will all act together in an instinctual movement for self-preservation.

Connecting with our mother

We cannot feel the subtle vibration of peace from the cosmos, or the earth, if we are numb. Unless we feel our direct connection with the Earth, we will see it only as a physical object that is separate from us, something to be used as a resource. We will feel no alarm as poorly planned urban environments threaten natural ones and our oceans and skies become polluted. We would hardly take notice until our own stomachs were hungry from lack of food, our livers bogged down with toxins from processing too many chemicals.

Author Genia Sullivan started practicing Dahn Yoga in 1999, and has been teaching since 2001. She has also worked leading Outdoor and Environmental Educational Programs with Youth.  

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10
Jun 10

Two Minute Tip from Dahn Yoga: For Tired & Heavy Legs

Do your legs get tired and heavy after a long day of walking or standing?  Try this exercise for some quick relief.

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7
Jun 10

Reach Out! BMC graduates share their passion

 

BMC graduates are 'holding up the earth'! (at the Climate Rally this Spring)

Not everyone can find the time and/or money for yoga.

Did you know that graduates of the Brain Management Consultant course (BMC: the course that teaches people how to teach Dahn Yoga and Brain Wave Vibration) are reaching their arms (and legs!) all over this faced-paced city in an effort to bring Dahn Yoga to people who may need it?

Well, I wanted more people to know what these instructors are doing, and have been doing for years.  It has inspired me and I hope it inspires others.  On that note, I gathered this brief glimpse of where some of our Dahn Yoga angels are teaching in the VA/MD/and DC metro areas.

On-going classes are being taught at no cost at the:

  • Washington Ballet (taught by Joanne Stellar)
  • Kimball Elementary School (also Joanne Stellar!)
  • Bethesda Wellness Community Center Cancer Support Group (taught by Caroline Grabner)
  • Five Virginia Public Schools (coordinated by Jane Gorden)

And, coming this summer, at the:

  • Foundation for Leadership in Youth @ American University (developed by Joanne Stellar and Rebecca Wheaton)

A few days ago Joanne shared pictures of one girl from Kimball elementary who would rarely participate and who is now one of the most flexible and curious yoga students! Caroline comments regularly that her greatest joy is teaching and sharing Dahn Yoga with others, especially at the Cancer Center.

In our Virginia Public school system Jane Gordon is helping to launch a six-week program of yoga classes that will serve five different schools! Jane is a teacher and has been enthusiastically offering Brain Education to her students and teachers throughout the year. This fall Jane will also be hosting an Earth Citizens Festival to spread the word about the Earth Citizen’s Movement and challenge her students to consider how we share this earth and how to take responsibility for it.

The most recent outreach development happened when Joanne and I had the pleasure of meeting with Iman Tyson, the son of a Dahn Yoga member and the director of FLY, Foundation for Leadership in Youth. Iman is passionate about creating more opportunities for kids to learn about fitness, and the power it will help them experience. We are passionate about it too, and will therefore teach classes to 25 young people this summer at American University. We plan to continue the partnership in the fall, building in yoga, drumming, laughing, dancing and qi-gong into the FLY after school program.

These few short words can’t convey the efforts and determination that went into creating each of these efforts, but I hope you get a feeling of the passion these determined women have in their hearts to make a difference in their communities.

We hope that long-term and consistent training will inspire other schools and groups to integrate more exercise and mind-body dialogue into their classroom and extra-curricular programs.  If you have an idea, or some time to spare, please join us!

Rebecca Wheaton is a BMC graduate and instructor at the Bethesda Dahn Yoga Center.

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2
Jun 10

Two Minute Tips: For Before You Go Hiking

 Introducing the first Dahn Yoga Two Minute Tips!  Look out for a new one every Thursday from now on.  This week, learn a quick exercise to protect your joints before you go hiking.

 

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31
May 10

Three books from our Dahn Yoga library win Silver in the 2010 Nautilus Book Awards!

Dahn Yoga, Brain Wave Vibration BookThe Nautilus Book Awards recognize books of exceptional merit that make a literary and heartfelt contribution to spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change. The titles that won are Brain Wave Vibration, Healing Chakra, and In Full Bloom, written by Dahn Yoga founder Ilchi Lee and published by BEST Life Media based in Sedona, Arizona.

 Brain Wave Vibration is given at the center to beginner practitioners, and I encourage everyone to read it, beginner or no.  In it lies the philosophy and practical ‘how to’ of Brain Wave Vibration, including basic Dahn Yoga exercises as preparation for a deep BWV session.  I love the BWV book because when I read it, it reminds me of the importance of the vibrations I put out into the world from my thoughts, emotions, and even physical condition. It motivates me to keep practicing.

The quality of information one consumes largely determines the quality of one’s life,” said Ilchi Lee said when asked to comment about the award. “I am humbled and honored to have my work recognized by the 2010 Nautilus Book Awards.

Healing Chakra is one of the only books in the center that explains the Chun Bu Kyung, the ancient energy script that hangs in most classrooms.  The gorgeous artwork alone is reason enough to pick it up.  If you are planning or interested in the Healing Chakra workshop, this is a great book to read.

In Full Bloom was co-written by Il Chi Lee and Dr. Jessie Jones, Ph.D from the Center for Successful Aging at California State University, Fullerton.  The book presents ideas contrary to popular public belief that the brain degenerates with age, and gives tools and games to do to keep your brain in shape.  If you want to create positive information about aging, definitely pick up this read.

As the author of this short article, I’d love to steal a selfish moment to share about my two favorite books in the Dahn Yoga library.  They aren’t ones that have won any awards so far:  Dahn Yoga Basics, by the Dahn Yoga Education Team, and Mago’s Dream, by Il Chi Lee. 

Dahn Yoga Basics is a must read for any practitioner. It explains the three basic principles of energy exercise, which helps to understand the difference between a basic stretch and a meridian stretch.  Mago’s Dream will have a more specific audience, those interested in the spirituality of environmentalism.  I love Mago’s Dream because it eloquently expresses the reasons why I personally chose to practice Dahn Yoga- for healing the earth.  It speaks of getting in touch with our bodies and soul to discover oneness with the body and soul of the earth.

Whichever books are your favorite, I definitely encourage doing some balanced reading along with your Dahn Yoga practice- books from the center library and beyond.  I remember reading ‘Conversations With God’ by Neale Donald Walsh after I took Shim Sung training in 2000.  It helped me open my mind to the concepts and potential of true self.  It is also important, however, not to over-rely on reading.  I also recall a time in my practice when I realized I was looking for answers in books instead of finding them within myself.  After that, for just a while, I didn’t read any books.  Books, like everything outside of our own body and brain, are just tools to help us achieve our goal.

To order books, ask your local center or visit http://www.bestlifemedia.com

  Author Genia Sullivan started practicing Dahn Yoga in 1999 and now works for the Dahn Yoga Media Team.

 

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