The Hope Monster is Alive!
By Michela | September 3, 2008
A new website, mentioned in an earlier post, has come to life! Hopemonster.com is a quote website featuring inspirational quotes from Ilchi Lee, as well as other teachers and even visitors to the site. Anyone can register and submit a quote.
The site is meant to add a little inspiration and hope to the world. Go every day to feed on your own portion of hope.
But what does this have to do with Dahn Yoga? Besides being a site related to the founder, Ilchi Lee, it is relevant because Dahn Yoga is actually a tool from which people can find hope inside no matter what the external circumstances.
Topics: Consciousness, General | No Comments »
Dahn Yoga Exercise for Your Stomach
By Michela | September 3, 2008
Have any problems with your stomach or digestive tract? Most of us could be healthier in that part of our body, yet our digestive health can affect our overall well-being. It is also the part of our body where we store negative emotions we’ve held onto. Here is a simple Dahn Yoga exercise for your stomach meridian:
1. Lie on your back with your hands on your lower abdomen.
2. Inhale and bend your right knee 90 degrees above your hip while flexing your right foot.
3. Exhale and straighten you right leg, letting it hover above the floor. Keep you knee soft and your toes flexed.
4. Lower your right leg and repeat exercise with your left leg. Hold each position for 3 minutes in the beginning. Extend the length of time as you grow stronger.
You can also try Pressing the Palm and Intestine Exercises to improve your gastrointestinal health. Let me know how these exercises work for you.
Topics: Health, Dahn Yoga | No Comments »
TIME to Meditate
By Michela | August 25, 2008
According to a TIME Magazine article by Joel Stein called “Just Say Om” published on Sunday, Jul. 27, 2003:
Ten million American adults now say they practice some form of meditation regularly, twice as many as a decade ago. Meditation classes today are being filled by mainstream Americans who don’t own crystals, don’t subscribe to New Age magazines and don’t even reside in Los Angeles. For upwardly mobile professionals convinced that their lives are more stressful than those of the cow-milking, soapmaking, butter-churning generations that preceded them, meditation is the smart person’s bubble bath.
It’s offered in schools, hospitals, law firms, government buildings, corporate offices and prisons. There are specially marked meditation rooms in airports alongside the prayer chapels and Internet kiosks. Meditation was the subject of a course at West Point, the spring 2002 issue of the Harvard Law Review and a few too many locker-room speeches by Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
Meditation is being recommended by more and more physicians as a way to prevent, slow or at least control the pain of chronic diseases like heart conditions, AIDS, cancer and infertility. It is also being used to restore balance in the face of such psychiatric disturbances as depression, hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder (ADD). In a confluence of Eastern mysticism and Western science, doctors are embracing meditation not because they think it’s hip or cool but because scientific studies are beginning to show that it works, particularly for stress-related conditions. “For 30 years meditation research has told us that it works beautifully as an antidote to stress,” says Daniel Goleman, author of Destructive Emotions, a conversation among the Dalai Lama and a group of neuroscientists. “But what’s exciting about the new research is how meditation can train the mind and reshape the brain.” Tests using the most sophisticated imaging techniques suggest that it can actually reset the brain, changing the point at which a traffic jam, for instance, sets the blood boiling.
In 1997 University of Pennsylvania neurologist Andrew Newberg hooked up a group of Buddhist meditators to IVs containing a radioactive dye that he hoped would track blood flow in the brain, lighting up the parts that were the most active. His results showed that the brain doesn’t shut off when it meditates but rather blocks information from coming into the parietal lobe. Meanwhile, Benson took a group of highly focused Sikhs who could meditate while an fMRI machine clanked away, and he measured the blood flow in their brains. Overall blood flow was down, but in certain areas, including the limbic system (which generates emotions and memories and regulates heart rate, respiratory rate and metabolism), it was up.
At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Richard Davidson has used brain imaging to show that meditation shifts activity in the prefrontal cortex (right behind our foreheads) from the right hemisphere to the left. Davidson’s research suggests that by meditating regularly, the brain is reoriented from a stressful fight-or-flight mode to one of acceptance, a shift that increases contentment. People who have a negative disposition tend to be right-prefrontal oriented; left-prefrontals have more enthusiasms, more interests, relax more and tend to be happier, though perhaps with less real estate.
Topics: Consciousness, Meditation, Brain | No Comments »
Dahn Yoga Brain Wave Vibration Helping Rett Syndrome
By Michela | August 15, 2008
As Brain Wave Vibration is practiced more and more by Dahn Yoga practitioners around the world, stories about how Brain Wave Vibration has helped people in different ways keep surfacing. One particularly touching story was made into a video. A mother who practices Brain Wave Vibration used it with her daughter who has Rett syndrome, a disorder that significantly curbs development. At 19, her daughter could not sit up straight, walk, or eat without support. She would only say one word and still has to wear diapers. Watch this video to see the improvement she’s made since starting Brain Wave Vibration.
Topics: Health, Dahn Yoga, Brain Education | No Comments »
Olympiad Pictures
By Michela | August 12, 2008
I received a sneak preview of the 4th International Brain HSP Olympiad that took place today in the form of a movie of pictures. They show part of the ceremonies at the United Nations and some of the events. Let me share it with you:
Topics: Brain Education | No Comments »
Lawyer Discovers Brain Wave Vibration and Dahn Mu
By Michela | August 12, 2008
I found a blog post at idealawg written by a woman lawyer who discovered Brain Wave Vibration and Dahn Mu. She says, “I was intrigued because I often move to music in a way that is improvisational. Guess Dahn Mu comes to some people (maybe many? most?) naturally.”
In fact, if you relax enough and allow your body to move without judging it, Dahn Mu comes naturally to everybody. Both of these Dahn Yoga exercises developed by Ilchi Lee are characterized by free-form movement. Practitioners get in touch with their own inner energy and then flow with it. And as the lawyer pointed out in her post, they both help reduce stress, get creative, and gain energy.
Click here to see the example she gives of Ilchi Lee performing Dahn Mu.
And here’s another example that is slightly choreographed, but that I appreciate because it is not by a master on a stage, but by Dahn Yoga members at their center:
Have you tried Dahn Mu or Brain Wave Vibration? How did it make you feel?
Topics: Energy, Dahn Yoga | No Comments »
4th International Brain HSP Olympiad
By Michela | August 10, 2008
On August 12th, the 4th International Brain HSP Olympiad (IHSPO) will be held for one day at the United Nations in New York City.
All of the information you need about it can be found on its website: http://ibreaus.org/brainhsp/.
But here is a little blurb to give you an idea of what the events are:
The IHSPO tests competitors not for knowledge, but for functioning of neural systems and faculties. The Brain Window event tests for the ability to perceive colors without ordinary visual sensory information, through heightened sensory perception. Contestants are challenged to perceive one of three color cards that are sealed in an envelope. It is theorized that this faculty arises when the brain’s submodules are integrated in their functioning. The Speed Brain event tests for the ability to recognize and remember visual cues (colors, letters, symbols) in a fraction of a second. The HSP Gym event challenges participants to hold demanding postures for extended periods, using motor systems and balance of the two hemispheres. For Body Sense Perception, contestants use subtle body senses to identify liquids (water, juice or milk) without visual information.
Sounds pretty wild. Contestants are able to develop the level of energy sensitivity and endurance needed for these events through their Dahn Yoga practice. I think this kind of mind-body training can help us in our every day endeavours as well.
I will not be going to this event, but best of luck to everyone who is 
Topics: Energy, Dahn Yoga, Brain Education, Brain | No Comments »
Let’s Meditate!
By Michela | August 7, 2008
The goal of all meditation is the same: to quiet the conscious mind. We create and receive a nonstop stream of information
from our brains and the world around us. Taking some time to see what is beneath that buzzing of information is one of the best things we can do for our overall health.
In fact, meditation has been proven to improve longevity, help with stress management, strengthen the immune system,
assist in pain control, lift chronic fatigue, and positively affect many other mental, physical, and emotional problems.
There are many forms of meditation, but most can be divided into two main types. In one, you empty your mind and let all thought drift away without attachment. In the other, you focus on one thing and regain that focus whenever the mind wanders from it.
People chose numerous things to focus on when they meditate. You can pick what feels right for you. The most simple is your breath. Another may be an inspirational mantra. Yet another is a goal you want to achieve or a question you want to answer. You can also focus on your body, energy you feel in your body, a particular movement, or an object or person you picture in your mind.
Here are some meditations from Ilchi Lee’s Wisdom Cards deck based on the ancient Korean text, the :
- “The greatest comfort comes from within. Sit down comfortably. As you control your breath, let your mind watch your body. Tell yourself, “It’s okay.” At this moment your soul will find peace, and your body, too, will follow, finding comfort and new strength.”
- “Concentrate on your breathing. When you inhale, thank your body. When you exhale, thank Heaven. Your breathing will automatically become deeper, lighter, and more natural. Focusing solely on the breath awakens us to the fact that our bodies are connected to the infinite and empty space.”
- “Connect with Heaven and Earth with your body. Sit with your spine erect and your balance centered in your lower abdomen. With one half of your body firmly rooted to the ground, let the other half be open toward Heaven. You will feel your own holiness when you connect with Heaven and Earth as one through your body.”
Topics: Consciousness, Dahn Yoga, Brain | No Comments »
Dahn Yoga Energy Meditation
By Michela | August 7, 2008
While we are on the subject of meditation, here is a description of the energy meditation, called ji-gam in Korean, that often finishes a Dahn Yoga class. This meditation works really well for quieting your thoughts and purifying your emotions, even if you have little experience or expertise with meditation. It also helps your mind expand and makes you more sensitive to your body’s Ki energy.It helps to relax your body with stretching and/or vibration exercise beforehand.
- Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair and straighten your back.
- Place your hands on your knees, with your palms facing up, and close your eyes. Relax your body, especially your neck and shoulders. Relax your mind. Inhale deeply; let go of any remaining tension while exhaling. (Soft meditative music in the background may be helpful.)
- Raise your hands slowly to chest level, with your palms facing each other without touching. First concentrate on any sensation you may feel between your palms. At first, you may only feel the temperature of your hands.
- Now create about 2 to 4 inches of space between your hands and concentrate fully on the space. Imagine that your shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands are floating in a vacuum, weightless.
- Pull your hands apart and push them closer together again as you maintain your concentration. Notice any sensations in and around your hands. They are manifestations of your energy flow.
- When the sensation becomes more obvious, pull your hands farther apart or push them closer together.
- When you are finished, lower your hands to your knees and breathe in and out slowly and deeply 3 times.
- Rub your hands together briskly until they are warm; then gently caress your eyes, face, neck, and chest.
Topics: Meditation, Energy, Dahn Yoga, Brain | No Comments »
New Hope Website
By Michela | July 29, 2008
Ilchi Lee has been talking about hope a lot lately because he believes it’s something the world really needs right now. Anyone who has visited his official website, www.ilchi.com, has seen the many hope messages generated from his lectures and teachings. To really help bring hope to many people, a new quote website focusing on hope will be launched next month. Here is a great description I came across that tells you about it:
Coming soon!
We will soon open this new website called HopeMonster.com
Our goal is to bring more hope to the lives of many people, through short quotations that are inspiring, educational, humorous, and more.Today’s world needs help, from all of us. To resolve global and individual issues, the first thing we need is hope. Hope is the essential driving force needed to start any new project or change, and to maintain passion and power throughout the process. For positive change in our life and in the world, we need to keep generating hope.
Sometimes it’s a lot easier to choose habit, negative thoughts, or inertia than it is to choose hope and passion. That’s why we’ve invited the Hope Monster into the web space. The Hope Monster was once in despair but began to have hope when he was inspired by someone’s heartfelt message. Since then, this monster has become positive, passionate and sincere. He—we assume the monster to be a he, but we haven’t dared to confirm it yet—always wants to share hope through inspirational quotes. Also he is always hungry for new quotes and juicy tidbits to go with the main meal. He welcomes you with wide open arms to join us, by contributing your quotes to this space and sharing hope with your friends and the whole world.
The website will formally launch on August 15th. See you then!
I’m really looking forward to meeting the Hope Monster! I know I’ll enjoy this site when it’s launched.
(Note: We don’t know what Hope Monster looks like yet, but I thought this picture I found on Flickr was very cute.)
Topics: Consciousness, Dahn Yoga | No Comments »