Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 17

September 29, 2022

Become a Master of Time and Space to Use the Brain Operating System: The Fourth Rule

young happy business partners spending time in cafe

[Photo by LightFieldStudios via Envato Elements]

Space and time can get away from us unless we stay aware of them and use them with intention.

Do you feel like you’re always short of time? You’re always busy, but the work never gets done on time? You consistently work hard, but the results don’t meet your expectations?

In the midst of all the busyness, let me ask you: Are you conscious of space and time, or have you become a slave to them?

Our amazing brains have the ability wander to the past or the future and travel wherever we want in our imagination. Our bodies, on the other hand, are bound by time and space. Being able to use and manage time and space so that we can create what we want in the physical world is also an important ability and role of the brain. For this reason, the fourth rule of the Brain Operating System (BOS) is:

Become a master of time and space.

What’s the Brain Operating System? If we liken the physical brain—all the neurons and the connections and spaces between them—to the hardware of a computer, we could call the mind its software. Each of us has an incredible, high-performance computer inside with infinite potential and creativity.

While how the mind works has been studied by psychologists, philosophers, and others throughout much of human history, I’ve outlined five simple rules for its operating system. Following these rules lets us make the most of our mind and brain, both the conscious and unconscious parts, so we can turn thoughts into things.

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Things You Need to Master Time and Space

1. Recognize who we really are.
People generally tend to live lost in their own emotions and desires, or they become preoccupied by trivial events without being aware of space and time. That gradually leads to viewing themselves as small, weak beings and to living dominated by time and space. So the first step to mastering time and space is recognizing that our essential substance is energy, which transcends space and time, and thus is infinite and eternal.

2. Define your purpose.
Even though our essence is infinite, why are we living in this time and space? Answering this question will help us define a specific purpose and meaning in life. Having a purpose then defines our values, and our values determine our priorities.

3. Focus on your priorities.
Living without being driven by time pressure is a matter of priorities and timing more than anything else. Does what you’re doing right now serve your purpose, and does it align with your values? By establishing what we need to do based our values and constantly checking how we’re using our time, we can make sure our time serves us well. We can avoid being busy, spending our days only dealing with the most urgent tasks, wandering aimlessly without moving forward.

4. Get the timing right.
If we catch the right time and place to do something, we can do it with much less effort than if our timing is off. We can go with the flow instead of working against the current.

5. Organize your time and tasks around yourself.
If we say we’ll act when a particular thing happens or when someone else does something, ultimately we’re making ourselves dependent on outside conditions. Whatever the task is, we need to plan so that we spearhead it. Then, it will also much easier to elicit cooperation from others who need help, which helps us use time more efficiently.

6. Take care of the condition of your body and mind.
We need to be productive and creative to use our time more efficiently, but we can’t do that when our energy is depleted and our minds are filled with tangled thoughts and emotions. Our body needs energy and vitality, and our mind needs to concentrate on the work at hand. Then we’ll be able to do in a few dozen minutes what would normally take several hours. Because we’ll be dealing with things speedily with lucid judgment, creative ideas and solutions will pour out. People who’ve mastered time remember to devote some of it to self-management and self-cultivation. This gives them an unshakable centeredness and the composure to handle work efficiently with a smile and a passion for life.

Everyone’s brain always contains a BOS. The problem is that we don’t make good use of it. The brain is busy performing according to the habits it remembers instead of our intentions, and so it is not operating properly. On the other hand, if we earnestly focus on our purpose and values, in that moment, our brains overcome the power of habit to carry out our wish. If we remain true to that choice, our brains will catch the right time and place to take action and be able to manage these important resources.

Related PostsThe First Rule of Your Brain Operating System: Wake Up and Pay AttentionCreating Beyond Time and SpaceOne Important Way to Master Your TimeDeath, Life, and a New PerspectiveOne More TimeFeatured Video

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Published on September 29, 2022 00:46

September 28, 2022

[Video] The Art of Coexistence YouTube LIVE with Brain Education TV

I am grateful for the chance to speak to over 9,000 people live last night on the Brain Education TV YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy this recording of the session. It includes my recent trips around Sedona and Lake Powell, Arizona, as well as an earth meditation and flute sound healing.

More than just the words you hear in the video, I hope the energy of it helps you reconnect to yourself and Mother Earth. I hope you feel empowered that we can all make a difference in the world’s current trajectory. The only other option is co-destruction. It’s our choice.

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Published on September 28, 2022 12:09

September 27, 2022

[Video] I Was Shocked and Concerned on My Recent Visit to Lake Powell, AZ

Lake Powell is one of my favorite places to visit in Arizona, but I hadn’t been there for several years. This past summer, I visited again, and I was shocked at how much it’s changed. Because of ongoing drought, this dam-made lake along the Colorado River is down to 29 percent capacity. Many experts say Lake Powell could disappear completely within decades.

This place, with its red canyons lapped by bold, jade water without much vegetation, feels like a sacred place. I feel close to Mother Earth when I’m there. Seeing how low and small the lake has become, I once again felt sorrow for the earth that supports us. I felt sorry and ashamed for the wounds we have inflicted on our ultimate mother.

See Lake Powell Then and Now


My trip and my call for Earth Management

I’ve been working to raise awareness of the need to care for and coexist harmoniously with the earth for almost forty years. Seeing the current condition of Lake Powell strengthened my resolve even more.

Although we can understand the need to do something about climate change, drought, pollution, and the many other afflictions of the earth intellectually, it’s difficult to have the motivation to make real changes in our lives and our societies unless this need touches our hearts. Through mindfully being in nature and through meditation, we can keep our minds and hearts open. We can empathize with Mother Earth and remain sensitive to her needs.

I think this kind of environmental sensitivity is the first step toward Earth Management. When enough people love the earth and want to care for her, then we can all look at our problems at the global level—beyond the borders of nation or ideology. It’s at that level that we can create real solutions together.

Related PostsEarth Management through Self ManagementA New Future with Earth ManagementEmpower Yourself as an Earth ManagerAt Lake PowellLake Powell: Becoming an Earth Human

 

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Published on September 27, 2022 10:42

September 22, 2022

The Earth Needs Energy Balance, Too

In balance with nature - Mindful practice of giving and receiving energy through nature. Woman practicing meditation in the lush green forest, side view

[Photo by microgen via Envato Elements]

We have a natural healing ability and sense of balance within us. They’ve been given to us from the beginning—like water and air. When we recover these qualities, we’ll succeed at taking care of our bodies and at looking after nature.

Our bodies have a natural healing ability for restoring our balance and harmony, but we can’t avoid disease if we live in ways that suppress this power. Nature also has a fantastic capacity for purifying itself.

Water Up, Fire Down energy circulation is an important part of this balancing power. It’s as necessary within ecosystems as it is within the human body. With Water Up, Fire Down, warm energy flows downward and cool energy flows upward; you could also say that fire flows down and water flows up.

Although in a natural state, rain falls to the ground, and water flows down from high places to low places, and you see that both fire and smoke rise upward, the opposite movement coexists within a healthy living organism. Think about trees. Their roots suck up the energy of water from the ground (water up). The leaves receive the energy of fire sent down by the sun (fire down). Trees produce leaves and flowers and bear fruit this way through water-fire circulation.

tree in forest with sunlight behind it

[Photo by andreiuc88 via Envato Elements]

Hot, light things rising and heavy, cold things sinking creates the cosmic order and provides stability to everything in existence. Conversely, cold things rising and hot things sinking creates change and provides dynamism. Countless possibilities are conceived and actualized through creation and change within a framework of predictable natural laws

All organisms are healthy when the energies of water and fire achieve good harmony in their bodies, and their life force weakens when this balance is broken. Just as we experience physical sickness and emotional discomfort when we have reversed water-fire flow, nature suffers when its circulation is disrupted and its balance broken, for nature is a living organism, too.

Just as humans experience physical sickness and emotional discomfort when our energy is imbalanced, nature suffers when its circulation is disrupted and its balance broken, for nature is a living organism, too.
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We’re Putting Too Much Stress on the Earth

Humanity has been disrupting this balance, injuring nature in profound ways without respite. Under this onslaught, it doesn’t get a chance to heal the injuries we have inflicted upon it. The earth, like many people, is suffering burnout because of its chronic reversed water-fire circulation.

One symptom of the earth’s reversed water-fire energy flow is global warming, which shows that the planet’s harmonious temperature balance is breaking. The earth has accumulated an incredible amount of stress from global warming, including expanding desertification, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and abnormal climate events. The pain the earth is suffering because of human greed is boomeranging back to us. When climate change causes frequent extreme weather events—including wildfires, droughts, and flooding—wild animals lose their habitat and move into places where humans live or breed livestock. The potential for human viral infection increases as a result.

As more and more people lose their sense of harmony and balance because of extreme stress and materialistic lives, our species’ reversed water-fire flow is becoming more severe with time. Our reversed energy state is perfectly reflected in all areas of human life. First of all, personal relationships are shaken. If your chest and head are flooded with heat, that fire energy is bound to spread to others, unknown to you, through your attitude, words, or deeds. Consequently, a vicious cycle develops, in which people inflict wounds on each other, creating a reversed water-fire flow where people routinely steal the energy of others and have their own energy stolen. Imagine people with reversed water-fire flow, their heads hot and bellies cold, struggling for each other’s energy.

This human energy state is reflected, unaltered, in people’s attitude toward the global environment. They don’t know how to care for their planet because their own energy is unstable. They’re in pain, so they make the earth suffer, too. The results of our actions in dealing with others and the planetary environment—both of which arise out of our energy state—come back to haunt us. It is obvious that the earth’s reversed water-fire energy flow will continue intensifying if humanity doesn’t change its ways. Unless the water-fire flow of humanity is restored, the water-fire balance of the planet will disappear forever.

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If the Planet Hurts, So Do We

Just as we can live in a state of water-fire energy balance, taking care of our bodies naturally, each of us can become caretakers for the planet, ensuring that the earth has good water-fire energy flow. Such a balance cannot come from environmental policymakers alone. The actions and energy balance of all of us perpetuate this problem, so the solution also needs to come from all of us.

We can live without a country, religion, or ideology. But we cannot exist if our environment is sick, and we’re unable to breathe the air, drink the water, or eat the food it provides. When nature gets sick, humans also get sick. If the water-fire energy balance of nature is broken, preventing water and air from circulating as they should, human water-fire energy circulation can’t be adequately maintained, either. However, if we each recover our sense for achieving harmony and balance, we can also improve the planet’s health.

The natural environment is being ruined now because our will to control ourselves has weakened. When we lose our sense of balance, we search endlessly for novel and more potent stimuli to keep us endlessly entertained and distracted from our situation. We use more energy and resources, and create more waste in the process. In our present way of life, our drive for individual satisfaction creates the earth’s stress. The natural healing ability and sense of balance within us are not man-made. They’ve been given to us from the beginning of our lives—like water and air. When we recover these qualities, hidden within everyone, we will succeed at taking care of our bodies and at looking after nature.

All of the work I’ve done and the programs I’ve created have been for the purpose of helping us recover our natural healing ability and sense of achieving balance.

Editor’s Note:
Learn more from Ilchi Lee’s book, Water Up Fire Down: An Energy Principles for Creating Calmness, Clarity, and a Lifetime of Health or take classes in Ilchi Lee’s Brain Education method at Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi centers. Find a center in the United States at bodynbrain.com.

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Published on September 22, 2022 00:06

September 19, 2022

[Video] How Can We Peacefully Coexistence with Each Other?

The world currently faces so many problems that, if left unchecked, could lead to the destruction of life and the environment as we know it. Changing this trajectory couldn’t be done without changing our consciousness from selfishness or competition to harmonious coexistence. This consciousness begins with widening our perspective to look at the whole, which first requires recognizing that all beings and the earth are one.

I speak about this in this unseen footage from the film I produced, LOVE HEALS. This clip was filmed and edited by Krisanna Sexton.

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Published on September 19, 2022 21:56

September 15, 2022

Ilchi Lee’s Energy Ball Meditation for Abundance

woman in white shirt holding arms out

[Photo by microgen via Envato Elements]

Abundance comes to us when we follow the Tao.

I often talk about how money, fame, and prestige are not an essential part of ourselves. We leave them behind when we leave our bodies, so we shouldn’t make them the guiding principle of our lives or the core of our efforts. But they can serve a purpose. For anything we seek to accomplish in the physical world, we need funds and societal trust. What’s important is where these come from and for what purpose they’ll be used.

Money and prestige are bound to come when we live within the Right Law. The Right Law is the principles of how the Tao (道) works; the Tao is the one essential spirit, energy, and consciousness that underlies everything. So if we are in alignment with the essence and its principles, what we need will come. Even things like wealth and honor are bound to come to us, even if we don’t chase after them, once we’ve become centered in the Right Law, in the Tao.

While we can become the master of the wealth and honor that follow us, we become the slave of the wealth and honor we chase after. Then, what is the best way for all people to live with wealth and honor, money and prestige? The entire human race can live a bountiful life once they live in the Age of Right Law.

For example, Earth has enough food and water for everyone to share and live in abundance. There is a problem, though, with sharing. Enough people don’t know how to share the Earth’s abundance to the extent that is needed for all to prosper. Especially when they have fear, people seek to possess and dominate, so food that could be eaten is rotting on one side while people starve to death on the other. This is false law. We live in the Age of False Law.

How can you encounter the Right Law?

First, have an earnest heart.
What sort of heart is an earnest heart? An earnest heart seeks to accept the Right Law. It desires to create abundance for all to the extent that it moves energy, spirit, and matter.

Second, show devotion.
If we show devotion to fulfilling our earnest intentions, we develop great power, and Right Law will descend upon us and help us. This power of intention comes when we’re willing to become whatever it takes to bring our purpose to fruition.

The power of intention is a vessel for receiving the Law. That is truth. It cannot be changed. It won’t do any good to give Right Law to people without the vessel of intention to hold it; the Law would flow right through their fingers and out of their hands. If there is a hole in our intention vessel, though we receive it, the Law will flow out again.

It’s hard to receive the Law. The Law doesn’t pool and collect in one place. What can we do, then? We can develop our vessel of intention by reflecting dispassionately on ourselves, checking for holes in the vessel and plugging any we find.

The energy ball contains the Right Law.

By feeling the qi energy of our body, we can adjust our energy and consciousness. Then we can feel and become in alignment with Right Law, with the Tao.

Try this energy ball meditation to develop the qi energy of the body.

Raise your hands to chest height. Clap your hands together ten times. Then tap your fingertips together ten times.

Make an upright posture with your spine straight and your shoulders relaxed. Leave your elbows a little away from your body as your palms face each other in front of your chest with a little space between them.

woman in purple shirt in a park with hands facing each other in front of her chest

[Photo courtesy of Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi]

Close your eyes and bring your attention to your palms. Breathe comfortably as you keep feeling your palms.

Then, as you inhale, separate your palms from each other. Bring them closer together again as you exhale. Continue this in and out motion. You may feel tingling, pulsing, magnetism, pushing, and more. These are sensations of qi energy.

With time and experience, as you continue, your thoughts and emotions will quiet. Besides the qi energy of your body, you will also come to sense cosmic energy and the cosmic consciousness that goes with it. This is something you cannot know by someone telling you about it. It’s something you need to experience yourself through practice.

Once you have a solid feeling of energy, if you bring your awareness up your arms to your chest, and over the rest of your body, you will be able to sense energy wherever you put your attention.

Feel the vibration and the magnetism in your body. Powerful energy enters your fingertips and continues to circulate in your body. Keep your lower back straight. The energy rises along your back from your tailbone up and to your chest and shoulders. You can feel the vibration throughout your body and even a growing ecstasy and sense of power.

If you feel the power spreading through your body, you can let your body flow with it. Move your whole body. Energy not only moves through your body, it enters your body. It enters through the soles of your feet, the palms of your hands, and the top of your head.

older woman in black shirt in park doing tai chi posture

[Photo courtesy of Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi]

The energy field in and around your body expands. As it grows larger, it also expands and contracts with your breath.

At this point, imagine there is a 200-pound rock on your head. You overflow with power and can easily circulate your energy as you push up that imaginary 200-pound rock. The power stretches upward from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

Now, that 200-pound power gathers in your lower abdomen, in the energy center there. Powerful strength continues to enter your body. Your whole body overflows with power. The heavier the rock on your head becomes, the greater the power in your body grows.

Now, there is a 400-pound rock on top of your head. From the soles of your feet, intense power develops in your toes, knees, hips, and lower back. Emerging right now is strength powerful enough to lift up and hold 400 pounds. Develop your strength as you do squats. Feel yourself lifting the 400-pound rock every time you straighten your legs. Sense that feeling when you alternately bend and straighten your knees.

The power continues to accumulate in your energy center in your lower abdomen, filling it, and that energy forms into an energy ball. Your abdomen becomes packed tight with energy, and your body grows hotter.

Next, put another 200 pounds on your head. Six hundred pounds now rests on your head. Even more power enters your body. Use that power. Do squats as you lift 600 pounds.

As time passes, you can feel strength great enough to lift even more than 600 pounds. Strength enters each and every one of your joints. You continue to develop power.

Now, you can feel how light your body becomes when you take away that 600-pound rock. Your body will feel like it’s flying.

young Asian man with blue shirt in park with hands on abdomen

[Photo courtesy of Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi]

Now, lower your hands and place them over your belly below your navel. Imagine the energy ball spinning clockwise in your lower abdomen, between your hips. As the energy ball spins, it will pull in energy from the earth through your feet and from the sky through your breath. It’s the energy of life. That energy will collect in your abdomen as your breathing grows deeper automatically.

Finally, finish the meditation: inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.

The energy ball drives a Tao life.

This energy ball in your abdomen holds the key to managing your physical, energetic, and spiritual selves. It is the source of life—the root of Tao in your body and the foundation for Right Law, and therefore for abundance of all sorts. You cannot commune with the Tao without it. Just as the earth turns, the energy ball spins ceaselessly, contributing to your life and your growth.

With meditation practices such as this one, you can make this energy ball strong and stable so that it’s always spinning inside you, protecting you, whether you’re awake or asleep. When you have a strong energy ball, your abdomen feels strong, grounded, and warm, and you have plenty of energy circulation.

If you are automatically conscious of the energy ball even as you walk around, you’re walking will become revitalizing. The energy ball becomes the heart of your daily life. Now, you can use the energy ball to create what you want.

Editor’s Note: For more instruction on Ilchi Lee’s energy meditation methods, visit the Brain Education TV YouTube channel or a Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi center near you.

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Published on September 15, 2022 00:12

September 8, 2022

Poem: Life Is Beautiful

[image error]

[Photo by RossHelen via Envato Elements]

All joys and sorrows of life are valuable and beautiful.

Life is beautiful.
Even if I fall, I have the will to get up and walk again
Because there’s a lava passion for life within us.
In spite of all those clumsy steps and frequent falls,
Life is so beautiful and worth living.

In the cup of life, there is both sadness and joy.
Just because you don’t like sadness, you can’t fill the cup of life with joy alone.
Against the background of life’s agony and sorrow,
Happiness and joy shine.

Open your heart wide and accept every experience in life.
Don’t live in vain for any moment.
Even in moments of sorrow and pain,
Live great.

Falling down the road of life,
It’s never something to be ashamed of.
Get up and walk again.

Shout out boldly,
All joys and sorrows of life, come to me.
Whatever comes to me,
I will make everything valuable and beautiful.

A person who is truly in control of their life,
Rides over the joys and sorrows of life as if riding a wave.
Using all of them as materials, they turn their life into art.

Related PostsA Love Poem for YouPoem: The New Human LookPoem: Love for All HumanityPoem: Earth WhispersPoem of LifeFeatured Video

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Published on September 08, 2022 00:58

September 5, 2022

[Video] Expand All Your Senses with This Sage Herb Meditation

As a perennial herb with a strong and distinctive aroma and taste, sage has been used for ages for cooking, ceremony, and clearing energy.

In this video, Ilchi Lee shows you how to use it to expand your consciousness by stimulating your senses. Get inspired to turn everything around you into a meditative experience.

Related PostsThe Truth of SageSedona MessageBringing You the Wisdom of Hwangchil TreesPoem: Earth Whispers3 Things I Did to Raise My Level of Consciousness

 

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Published on September 05, 2022 14:51

September 1, 2022

Facial Reflexology to Keep Your Energy Glowing

Young woman massaging temples with fingertips.

[Photo by mariiaplosh via Envato Elements]

SUMMARYWe, ourselves, are the first line of defense for a healthy life.We can take care of our health naturally by keeping our life energy flowing.Massaging one part of our body, such as our face, can improve energy circulation in the entire body.

You’ve probably noticed that staying healthy isn’t automatic. Especially as we get older, it gets harder and harder to keep our bodies feeling good, moving well, and staying energized. We need to work at it.

There are many products and people out there to help us maintain and improve our health, but first and foremost, it’s up to us. We’re the ones that live in our bodies day after day, who understand its nuances, and who can make the adjustments needed that make a difference in our overall health.

To make those adjustments—to have healthy lifestyle habits—we need to treat ourselves as we need to treat others: with loving attention and kind respect. In our busy lives, while we’re taking care of so many things, it can be easy to neglect ourselves. By scheduling in even short bits of time throughout the day to give our bodies, minds, and energy attention, we can see our current condition clearly. Then, we can take ongoing action to improve it.

It comes down to trusting ourselves—trusting that our bodies and minds naturally have the power to become healthy and full of vitality. Our bodies and brains are so amazing! They are adapting and changing all the time, and, as part of nature, they are connected to the life energy of nature. If we keep that life energy flowing into us and circulating well within us, then health, happiness, and fullness will follow.

Keep the Energy Flowing

When life energy (qi/chi/prana) flows “well” inside us, it’s “just right.” It’s neither too hot, nor too cold. Too much doesn’t concentrate in one place, nor too little. It doesn’t get stuck anywhere either. A steady stream of energy travels along the energy channels (also called meridian channels) of the body and enters and exists through its energy points (acupressure points). We call this having balance.

Balance includes having Water Up, Fire Down energy flow: warmer energy goes down into the belly while cooler energy goes up to the head. This natural energy cycle brings physical vitality and mental clarity while helping energy to circulate throughout the body.

Using Reflexology and Acupressure

Acupressure and massage list among the simplest ways we can keep our energy flowing well regardless of our physical condition. They can be performed on ourselves and can be used to help others.

Acupressure and massage work by opening up areas of blocked energy. Just as we can loosen a knot of muscle with our fingers, we can press away a blockage of energy through the vibrations of our body and brain. Everything vibrates with energy, and we can use vibration to affect energy. Focusing our mind and physical vibrations (pressing/tapping) on an energy blockage will break up that blockage to let energy flow.

On a more systemic level, these techniques improve our health by putting us in a relaxed state. When our bodies and brains go into a “rest and digest” mode, they repair themselves and restore balance.

Massage also keeps our blood and lymph flowing. This helps our body get the nutrients it needs and remove toxins. It also helps prevent puffiness or fluid build-up.

Because specific areas of our body also relate to other areas, including internal organs, we don’t need to massage our entire body to make a difference in our health. Focusing our effort on one part of the body can open the energy channels and points in the rest of it.

Focusing on the Face

While specific energy channels and energy points are related to specific areas of the body, there are also some parts of the body on which the entire body is mapped. Working on those parts is known as reflexology. You may have heard of reflexology of the feet, hands, and even ears; I’d like to introduce you to reflexology of the face.

Besides improving energy flow, massaging the face helps head tension and pain. It also improves the look and feel of your skin.

Take a look at how the rest of the body maps onto the planes of the face.

facial reflexology areas

[Illustration from Home Healing Massage: Hwal-gong for Everyday Wellness by the Institute of Human Technology]

When massaging the face, we can focus on areas associated with parts of the body where we already know we have issues. We can also target specific acupressure points such as these:

acupressure points and meridian channels on the face and head

[Illustration from Home Healing Massage: Hwal-gong for Everyday Wellness by the Institute of Human Technology]

Massage Techniques

Imbalances in the body can show up as energy blockages before they are recognizable as illness. We can discover these imbalances ourselves, since they can be felt as pain or tension in acupressure points. Pain or tension means energy is blocked there. As we press along our face with the pads of our fingers, we can give more time and attention to these tender areas to release the energy blockage.

Our faces can easily be relaxed, but it’s important to work delicately and carefully. Press gently around the face, especially with the pads of the thumbs. For an even gentler, smoother touch, we can use a massage/facial oil or a facial cream.

While you don’t necessarily need to massage the parts of your face in a specific order, you can try out the sequence below:

Rub your hands until they’re hot, then smooth them down your face downward from hairline to chin several times.Then, with the pads of your fingers, push the facial muscles up from the chin to the hairline above the forehead.Overlap your thumbs and slide them from side to side on your forehead.Apply each thumb to the temples (taeyang points), and apply gradual pressure there.Then press gently from temples to the center of the forehead and then back.Continue along the eyebrows, applying gradual and lingering pressure.Then around the eye socket from the inner to outer corners.Down the sides of the nose.Apply gradual pressure to the depression beneath the nose (in-joong point).Then press along the cheekbones to the two small dips on the lower edges of the cheekbones (ha-gwan and gwan-ryo points).Then continue pressing to the dip between the jaws and the ears (hyup-cha points) and exert gradual pressure there.Finally press the deep depression behind the earlobes (yeah-poong points).Rubbing your hands once more, cover your eyes with your palms while taking three full breaths. Then smooth your hands down your face.

Usually, a person’s first physical response to discomfort is a frown. On the other hand, relaxing the face can elevate our mood and relax the entire body. Pressing and stretching the face works well. Yet, the most effective way to relax the face is to smile and laugh. With a laugh, we can begin to restore balance and health to our body and mind.

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Published on September 01, 2022 00:21

August 29, 2022

[Video] Eating Mindfully and Playfully

You may have heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” I would add to that, “You are how you eat.” How much and what kinds of food we put into our bodies directly influences their physical make-up. It determines their size and whether they have the building materials to do what they need to do. Regardless of what we eat, however, if we eat it with stress, our bodies won’t be able to use it well. And if we eat without paying attention, we may end up eating more than we need to.

Instead, I recommend fully giving our attention to our food as we eat. In fact, we can make eating into a time for meditation. Try this Mind Eating Meditation whenever you eat:

Even if you meditate while you eat, eating doesn’t have to be serious. I play with my food. Sometimes, I put together unique flavors, and other times, I challenge myself to use utensils with my non-dominant hand. Try out these fun food combinations I made, or even make your own:

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Published on August 29, 2022 19:45