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.

 

The Greater Purpose of Mind-Body Health: BALANCE

Being healthy from the inside to the outside is a lot of work. You need to practice. Smart resistance training for the big and small muscle groups. Cardiovascular training for 30 to 40 minutes at least 4 times a week. Efficient stretching regimens. Sitting, standing, and slow moving meditations. Good nutritional standards. Breathing fresh air. Daily challenges for the mind and spirit. Enough rest. And fostered relationships with your loved ones, friends, and neighbors.

That’s a lot of work! If we are going to spend so much time and energy doing these things, we need to make sure that our progress serves a greater purpose than simply losing weight.

I use a beautiful idea to motivate myself, which I think I heard first from one of my friends, Limor, when I was a teen. This idea might originate in the Kabbalah, an ancient, esoteric Jewish text which is said to reveal how the universe works.

The idea is simple. There are three kinds of people, or three kinds of souls, in this world. The first kind only takes. They think only of themselves. These people do the least amount of good in the world, and are the least happy in the long run. 

The second kind only gives. They are on the right track, but they ignore their own needs. This causes them to burnout, and then, over the long run, they can’t afford to give at all. They are easily depleted. They lack balance, just like the first kind.

The third type of soul is the best and most balanced one. He or she keeps learning and building themselves in order to give.

We should all strive to be the third kind of person, especially when it comes to our health. Knowing when to take time off and invest in yourself, and also knowing when to share your love and give to others, is a difficult, but important decision we all must face. A person who makes this decision wisely will do the most good in the world, because they take care of themselves, and then they take care of everyone else, and they don’t burnout.

Our goal with mind-body health is to first build our center, so that we can help others from a place of strength and wisdom. 

Recently, the Boston Globe published an article called "Five things you should know about Steve Grossman." Steve is one of my students, and he works every day to help others here in Massachusetts and all over the United States. If not for his special soul, his wife Barbara and supportive family, good nutrition, and the tailored mind-body routine, you can be sure that he would not have the energy and strength to do as much work and good as he does, at this time in his life. How else could he be on so many top business lists around the world!

Steve knows better than anyone what it means to invest in something to help it grow and do more good for people. That’s exactly what mind-body training does for the human body, mind, and spirit. That consistency and knowledge and patience leads to success.

Happy Stretching, Deep Breathing & thank you Steve Grossman!

To read the article in the Sunday 10/11/2015 issue of the Boston Globe, click the link below and press continue to see #4 & #5:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/10/09/five-things-you-should-know-about-steve-grossman/IXpVqwk38ONawPYcCbKKsI/story.html 

Mind-over-Matter: Embrace the Tree

Today we are doing a standing meditation with a lower energy center visualization. If you don't know what the lower energy center is, you can see my written blog about it here. If you want to practice the lower energy center visualization while sitting, you can do that here.

This technique will prepare you for the final exercise in the Yin half of the Mind-over-Matter Tai Chi for weight loss routine: cloud hands. Good luck!

Mind-over-Matter: Rule of 80%

Whenever you are exercising for health, it is important to remember my Rule of 80%. Use 80% effort for each technique, no more, no less.

So, if you are doing wall push-ups, don't do them until you can't even raise your arms anymore. That's 100% effort. If you get to that point at, say, 30 push-ups, then you should only be doing 20-25 push-ups during your workout.

What if you are doing stretches? The same Rule of 80% applies. Don't bend over so far while doing Vitamin H that you think your legs might buckle. That's 100%. Get to a point where you feel the stretch, but don't feel any pain, and then support your head, arms, and neck with a chair or some yoga blocks.

In fact, this Rule of 80% even applies to meditations. It's better to cut your meditation off a few minutes early, before you lose your concentration, than to just let it fizzle out on its own. So, if you can sit still and quiet for 25 minutes at most, you should meditate each day for 15-20 minutes.

If, while following the Rule of 80%, you begin to feel like this level of effort is too easy, then congratulations! You've improved your strength, or flexibility, or mental focus, and now your old 80% level is your new 70%. That means you can push a little more and go for the next step.

In terms of weight loss, the Rule of 80% effort is especially important, because it helps us avoid injuries. Many people get into the habit of thinking that if they push themselves very hard during their workout, they will lose those few extra calories that make the difference. But this is dangerous, because pushing yourself like that could result in an injury, such as a torn muscle, or a sprained ankle. If that happens, those few dozen extra calories you burned aren't going to mean much if you are stuck on the couch in a sling for the next three weeks.

Mind-over-Matter isn't all at once. It's slow and steady.

Happy Stretching!

Top 5 Tips for Meditation

In the spirit of the current Mind-over-Matter meditation for weight loss plan, this week I decided to put together my top five tips for people who want to start meditating, or want to have an easier time meditating. So, let's dive right in!

  1. Find a place with gentle noise. Many people think that it is easiest to meditate when you are in complete silence. But think about it, where in the world can you find complete silence? Unless you are the lucky owner of a soundproof room, the next best thing is to put on white noise in the background. Youtube has countless 1, 2, and 3 hour long videos of rainforest sounds, babbling brooks, peaceful flute music, and so on. Having this in the background will help your mind tune-in to a rhythm and relax.
  2. Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. I know I can't say it more than enough. But this is still one of my best tips. It closes an energetic circuit in your body, and helps you with the next tip as well.
  3. Breath only through your nose. Breathing through your nose is healthier. It filters and warms the air more than breathing through your mouth does. It also forces you to breath more slowly, since you can't inhale or exhale as much air as your can through your mouth. This lowers your heart rate, relaxes you, and helps you focus on the breath.
  4. Keep your eyes slightly open. When we are awake, it actually takes work to keep the eyes closed all the way. Let your eyelids relax to the point where they are comfortable. Some people find that closing their eyes causes them to daydream and stop meditating. Other finds that it makes them fall asleep. Do whatever allows you to keep yourself in a meditative state of mind.
  5. Sit however you like. This is a big one. So many people believe that meditation means sitting in the famous full lotus position, like those Buddha statues you see. This is not true at all. I tell most of my students to begin by sitting up on the edge of a chair (if you lean back, you might fall asleep!). Keep your back straight, and use your arms on your knees to support you, if you need it. If not, just rest them in your lap. Alternatively, you can sit on a pillow, or small block on the floor, perhaps with a wall to support your back. You can also sit on your knees, in seiza. 

And you know what? I'll throw in a bonus tip at the end: start with short meditations. Very very short. As short as you can do it, so that you are in that meditative focus for the entire time. Start with 1 minute, maybe 2. Then work your way up to 5 minutes. You shouldn't do more than 45 minutes at a time, because that can take a toll on the joints and blood flow in your legs. If you want to meditate longer than 45 minutes, make sure you take 15-20 minutes breaks in between sessions where you walk around and stretch.

Good luck!