I get asked a lot about the difference between Buddhist and Taoist breath, so here is a vlog explaining just that. Hope this helps!
Rami's Blog
Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.
Mind-Body Workout #5: Stop Stiffness in your Upper Body
It's been a while since we released a Mind-Body workout, so here's one for all you folks who are defrosting after this long winter and preparing to go out and do some yard work soon.
Mind-Body Workout #5: Stop Stiffness in your Upper Body
Relax your Neck and Shoulders: We start with a stretch for releasing tension in your neck. Relax your muscles and your mind while doing this stretch, so that you can prepare to make the rest of the workout a real mind-body experience.
Short, Basic Motions: Now we will work our way into the joints. By doing these simple, repetitive motions in a gentle manner, you not only focus the stretch on the muscles around the joints, but also bring your mind into the stiff areas.
Turn and Twist: This motion is for your shoulders, neck, and even your spine. It's also a great mind-body exercise. Make it slow and steady and meditative!
Sweeping Tai Chi Motion: This exercise is at the end because it requires the most mobility of all the exercises. Only do this one if your joints are feeling a lot better (hopefully they are!). This motion gets all the joints in your arms and shoulders, even the the joint between your two forearms bones!
Happy stretching!
Meditation for Children Who Can't Sit Still
Some children, due to age, personality, or something else, just can't do sit-down meditations. They are always fidgeting and trying to make noise instead of stay silent!
Luckily, that is where Tai Chi and Qi Gong meditations which involve movement are especially useful. The movement focuses the child's mind, and allows them the same benefits as meditation does. Try it out!
Sexual Health: Stimulating the Ovaries
On Tuesday we talked about an exercise men can do to improve their sexual health and energy. Today, we will be discussing another exercise, this one for women, which serves the same purpose. As mentioned last week, this exercise is found in the book Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, by renowned Taoist masters and mind-body experts Mantak Chia and Maneewan Chia.
This exercise is more meditative than physical, and involves moving energy from the ovaries to the Ovarian Palace, a particularly important area of the uterus in Taoist practice. In order to focus on the correct areas for this exercise, you first need to find the ovarian palace.
Take a look at the image below. You can find the ovarian palace by placing your hands, palms down, on your lower abdomen. Your thumbs should touch right over your bellybutton. By touching your two pointer fingers together to make a triangle, you have found the location of the ovarian palace. Your ovaries should be located just beneath your ring and little fingers.
Gently rub the areas where your ovaries are with your fingers. Breath in and out through your nose and visualize the energy building up in the ovaries. They should feel warm.
With the hands in the same position, visualize the energy from the ovaries moving into the Ovarian Palace (from where your little fingers are to where your pointer fingers are).
Accompany this movement and breathing with gentle contracting and relaxing of the perineum (P-C) muscles. This is the muscle of your pelvic floor, used to control the flow of urine. It is also called the "Chi Muscle" in Taoist practice.
You should experience a delicate opening and closing of the vagina with these contractions. Use the contracting, inhaling motion to pull the energy from the Ovarian Palace to the base of the pelvis, and then on the relaxing and exhaling motion, send the energy up along the back of the spine to the top of the head. Try to visualize the energy moving, and take a look at this diagram for help:
Do this exercise once a day for five or ten minutes. Each woman experiences different sensations and builds up the energy at different speeds. Go with whatever practice most helps your energy and health.
For more energetic system overviews and exercises, read more on the blog. Or, you can read up in my Sunrise or Sunset Tai Chi books, or watch my DVDs.
Good luck!
Sexual Health: Testicle Massage
Please do not worry! There is no nudity in this video. If you are at work, or would be embarrassed by the subject matter of today's vlog, feel free to skip it.
That being said, the testicle massage is an important exercise for increasing men's sexual energy, and improving overall sexual health.
There are no easy props we could use for the female version of this exercise, so we will do a written blog about Stimulating the Ovaries this Friday, using exercises found in the book Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, by renowned Taoist masters and mind-body experts Mantak Chia and Maneewan Chia.
Introduction to the Energy Bubble
After we learn about and strengthen the energy centers, lower and upper, and learn to connect them into the energetic baton, our immune system should see the benefits. The baton is in charge of managing the functions and operations of the inner body, including the immune system. The stronger your baton is, the stronger your immune system with be.
The next step in your mind-body visualization practice is to focus on the energy that surrounds the body, which we will call the bubble. It exists about a couple inches away from our skin, all around us. It is the mechanism that interacts with and protects us from the forces around us. This bubble has two purposes: being a shield, and being a filter.
The stronger this system and bubble are, the better able it is to keep out negative energies and forces from your environment. An efficient filter will not only allow positive energies in, but it will also allow negative energies out.
Once we fine-tune the system, remove any stagnation, build up the center, create stronger flow, and upgrade our shield and filters, we are one step ahead in promoting better health. We are in a state of prevention.
Cultivating longevity requires practice of these techniques not just when you are in failing health, but also at your healthiest. This is what will lead to higher quantity, and quality of life.
More on the energetic bubble in the coming weeks!